An Interrogation

Struggling to meet the piercing eyes of Bazel for a moment, indignation and anger rose up from within her depths as he regained her pride and arrogance from before.

"Why should I tell you? I doubt you can even comprehend it with your puny perspective, so why should I waste my time? You are basically asking me to teach a cat how to pilot a jet, it's just a waste of my time.

Although I will admit that you" said Zaira, pointing with her chin towards Neto as her hands were still cuffed,"surprised me somewhat. To be able to fight a member of the branch family to a standstill despite being a commoner...I would not mind putting in a good word for you and those other men to my family if you let me go, perhaps we would even take you in. Such fine specimen are hard to come by, I am sure a new branch family could be created thus increasing our influence."

Neto put on a look as if he were seriously considering the offer, eventually asking, "But we just killed a bunch of people that were under your family's wing. Wouldn't I just be walking to my doom then?"

Zaira scoffed in response, "Please, do not use your own commoner standards for my family. What you killed were just scraps, while the two bodyguards were a bit more valuable but still were expendable in the end. In fact, the entire mafia or whatever they call themselves is just the lowest rung attached to the branch families. Even if they all dropped dead tomorrow it would only be a minor inconvenience at worst."

Chuckling to himself Neto pulled out a notepad and began recording all the information he had just gotten for free, leaving Zaire to freeze in shock as she realized that she had been played.

Huffing in anger she spat, "Damn tricksters, is pulling the wool over the eyes of an innocent young lady like me a sick perversion of yours? Scum." She then proceeded to not speak another word, apparently fully intent on not revealing any more information on accident.

Meanwhile Bazel was parsing all the information combined with his own experiences, trying to piece together this impossible puzzle.

"There is a clear hierarchy, at the top seems to be Zaira's family, some kind of nobility. Under them is at least one branch family but perhaps multiple and under them are the "commoner" organizations that I know to be organizations based in the criminal underworld. This sounds like the plot of a B movie, but whatever the hell I just walked into is something dangerous. Any family that is able to somehow produce peak human specimen like the bodyguards from before clearly represent a dire threat to anyone in their crosshairs."

Coming to this conclusion he realized that he was now directly in front of said crosshairs but more importantly so was Lily.

Snapping his head towards Neto who had just finished writing he quickly said, "Lily could be in danger and I do not think the few men there would be enough of a deterrent if those men from before decided to pay them a visit."

Realization clearly dawning on his face Neto pulled out his phone and dialed a number, talking in spanish that Bazel could not understand he gave what sounded like a few orders and then hung up the phone.

"All the resources at my disposal are currently on the field and are unable to be moved, both my sergeants and their men are busy with clean up and the few who I could move are nowhere near enough to make a difference" began Neto slowly at first, but quickly sped up when he saw the ugly look on Bazel's face, "Hold on amigo, that is just my public forces. The men that you saw before will be heading out and I also called in the rest who are currently manning my properties. Twenty four hardened jodidos who could fight towards hell and back, all converging on your happy little home to escort an angel to the department."

Remembering the astonishing combat prowess of such men Bazel settled down reassured, especially hearing that there would be double their number.

"Jodido?" asked Bazel, a little curious about the terminology.

With a sly smile Neto replied, "Just some slang that means they are kickass, although I wouldn't repeat the word near children."

"I do not plan on it" replied Bazel as he leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes for a moment, intending to rest until they had arrived.

---

Walking through the southern central department, an impressive three story redbrick building that was the center for the entire south side of the town's police activities, were Bazel and Zaire.

Being led by Neto in the front they walked through the departments holding cells, full of various dregs of society who clapped and jeered at Zaire as she passed them by, they eventually reached what looked like a high security interrogation room.

Entering the room they saw a metal table and chairs, all bolted into the ground, in the center of a stone colored room that had a large one way window/mirror on one wall.

Neto went to sit her down and lock her cuffs to the table, but she jumped back with astonishing speed and snarled, "Do not touch me with your smelly hands, I would rather die than be subjected to such torture."

"Miss McGrath you have to let me or another officer secure you, if you will not let me do it I will have to call in more men to hold you down. Now that would not be very pleasant now would it?"

Having her back against the wall like a caged animal, her pupils dilated slightly and her muscles tensed...looking like she was about to fight to the death over a seemingly trivial thing.

The shadows next to her moved slightly, or rather it was just the silhouette of Bazel, who placed a hand on her shoulder once more to stop her lurch forward in what he assumed was some kind of attempt to bite Neto.

"Enough, it should not be a problem if I do it...correct?" asked Bazel in a neutral tone.

Zaire wrinkled her nose slightly before nodding silently, allowing herself to be led by Bazel to the table and her handcuffs brought up and over to her frontside and secured to the metal table.

Seeing the fiery lass calm down Neto shook his head while walking out, leaving behind the words, "You have two hours to talk to her, ask any questions you want. After that I won't be able to pull the rug over the eyes of the other captains, especially when they all are debriefed on how valuable this girl is."

Thanking his departing friend, Bazel took his seat across the person who started this entire mess: Zaire McGrath.

Looking her over carefully, he wondered how such a cute girl was capable of such ignorance and downright insanity. A small part of him wanted to know how the hell she was raised, but the rest simply wanted to know the full depth of her sins so that an appropriate punishment could be dished out.

Squirming slightly in her seat, uncomfortable by being peered at by such discerning eyes so intensely for such a length of time, Zaire felt the need to speak up.

"What? Am I so stunning that you forgot your manners and are unable to break your eyes away from me? I understand, it is not often that you see a woman like me but please stop staring at me so. Quite frankly, it's disgusting."

Of course the moment she opened her mouth her cute and innocent look faded away at the speed of light, which elicited a small chuckle from Bazel.

"Still your ego. Your outside characteristics are of little importance, what I am interested in right now is what is inside. Specifically, what within you caused you to harass and bully an innocent girl. Making her life a living hell and eventually even using a criminal organization tied to some all powerful noble house to kidnap her. I understand that a lot of it has to do with your twisted world view, but how does my little sister have mud blood? Is that perhaps the main reason as to why you were so against her, the fact that she is somehow inferior to you in some other way than just being a 'commoner'?"

Zaire clicker her tongue in annoyance, breaking away from the penetrating glare of Bazel, and muttered, "Damn what is with that look of yours..."

In response Bazel simply reached across the table, his cold fury reaching a new peak, and grabbed Zaire's chin and forced her to look his way.

"Look at me when I am talking, and answer me. Now!" demanded Bazel, unconsciously applying an extreme amount of pressure onto his grip.

Her eyes watering from the pain Zaire tried to wrench her head away, to no avail, and eventually she gave in with a whimper, "O-okay, okay I will explain."