QUESTIONING

Miranda walked out of DL dragging Brandon on the floor with a stern face still in her Jen Blue disguise. Glenn and I were speechless from witnessing Miranda's work. It was the manipulation that really managed to make us startled.

"Here he is," Miranda said pointing at him.

We looked at her without saying a word.

"Oh c'mon I've been trained to do this. Now can you two cowards help me pull him up onto the chair?"Miranda said pulling up a chair.

Glenn and I proceeded to place Brandon on the chair. He was heavier than I imagined. I was impressed that Miranda could even drag his body down there. We got some locks to hold down his arms just in case he woke up and got aggressive, we also tied his legs and blindfolded him.

After doing all of that, he looked like we were holding him captive. We were, it was just odd thinking of ourselves as kidnappers.

"When is he going to wake up?"Glenn asked, looking at him with pity.

"It was meant to last for about thirty minutes from the time of injection. It's been about ten minutes so we have time before we begin the questioning."She said cracking her knuckles like a villain.

"So this all happened so fast. Can I ask what made you suspect him in the first place?"I asked

"When Glenn was making his speech last night I noticed that he was wearing a smartwatch….."Miranda said pausing when Brandon shifted a little.

She walked over to him and held his arm up and started to pinch him to see if there would be a slight reaction but Brandon did not move a single bit. She looked at him with a questioning face moving around him as if there was something a miss.

"He should not be able to move."She said looking at him," Maybe I should poke his eye…"

I caught her hand before she could pierce him in the eye with her tiny finger.

"Maybe we should do something less cruel,"I said

"I have a good idea," Glenn said.

"Oh, at least Glenn is more.."

"The fingertips have many touch receptors so we can place his finger in a bath of boiling metal and then burning water and then we rapidly cool them with ice, while we....."

The images of what Glenn was describing were crossing my mind and it was horrendous. Physiological I could feel the pain and the more he talked the worse it sounded. It was as if they studied torture. As I was mortified by Glenn's idea I heard a sudden sigh from Brandon.

"Fine, you got me."Brandon sighed.

"How long has he been--" Miranda signaled me to keep quiet and went to the small room located on the X-floor where we kept all types of gadgets and prototypes of devices we worked on.

She walked in with the make-shift lie detector that she made from looking at the blueprints of already available lie detectors. The only difference with the one she had was that it could detect more than just normal bodily responses like pressure and sweating on the palms. It went a step forward to record the sound and check the sound waves. A pattern in which the waves wavered or were slightly off could be a good indicator if someone was lying or not. She also added another function, whereby any time someone transmits pain to the recipient. I would never be caught at that end of the crazy device that she made.

She set him up to the lie detector making sure everything was well connected.

"Is this like those fake lie detectors that they use in videos? I see so many people use them for entertainment."Brandon said trying to make us converse with him.

My eyes looked at him with pity. I was curious about why Miranda was taking such harsh measures to interrogate him. It made me wonder what she saw last night that could possibly push her to this level.

"If you think it is a fake then why don't you just think of lying to me," Miranda said when she finished setting everything up.

"What should I lie about?"He asked, smiling with his usual happy presence.

"What's your name?"She asked.

"Brandon Kelly."He said smiling.

"Brandon Kelly who?"She asked, smirking.

"Umm….ahh" He said jumping from the pain, "Are y'all crazy that thing can fry my brains out he said squirming in his chair," I didn't even lie to you--"

"But you hesitated, that is enough to make you get electrocuted."She said with an evil smile on her face.

Glenn looked at the lie detector as if she was impressed. In my eyes, we managed to like a bunch of criminals who kidnapped their suspects and torture them into telling the truth. That was what was happening at that moment but coupled with Glenn and Miranda's innocent faces it was as if that was their daily lives. Glenn was usually the voice of reason in these situations but then he was more interested in the lie detector. There was definitely something he knew that I did not know.

"Now, we can begin. Cy, you had a question to ask him."Miranda said.

"Are you supposed to say my name out like that when we are literally holding a captive like this?"I asked her instead

"Brandon is smart he knows all of our voices so no need to worry."She said

"Okay," I said hesitating.

I looked at Brandon's innocent face. It was a surprise to see that he was cool, calm, and collected. Most people in these situations would be freaking out or will show some struggle. It was weird.

"Okay, how long have you been --but wait does he still need to be blindfolded?"I asked Miranda on the side.

"Yes."She whispered."Could you speed it up please?"

"Okay, how long have you been--why do I have to ask the questions?"I asked, going back to Miranda on the side.

"Oh good, lord!"She exclaimed."Let me take care of this."She said, rolling her eyes and heading over to Brandon.

She looked at him first, examining him before she could strategically map out her questions.

"I know that I got it in your vein, how come you woke up earlier."

"I am strong."He said slowly thinking of his response.

"I might need more in-depth answers than that."She said placing her foot near the side table as if it was a bad cop movie. She must have been waiting a long time to play an investigator role. That could be a reason or she was placing her leg in an easy position to dramatically kick him if he did something she did not approve of.

"Well, my body is built differently, I have a good resistance to some drugs and that's why your drug did affect me but I woke up when you were roping my legs together."

"So you chose to keep quiet and listen in to our plans when you were awake. That's smart."Glenn said in his own world of thinking.

Miranda paused and looked at him checking with her lie detector to make sure that he was not lying. She also studied him every single second tracing her eyes up and down to see any shift that would indicate that he was lying. She looked at us and nodded with approval. That meant that even though he knows who we were he couldn't tell where he was. That was my main concern. If he knew how to get to X-floor then it would be a problem.

���Let's recount the events of last night then. I noticed that you followed Cy to the bathroom after he entered then you kept an eye on him and Glenn the whole night. Then right before he passed out from the alcohol I saw you pass him several times. After that, you just disappeared and came back after seeing that Cyrus was okay. All that coupled with the audacity to sit next to us as if nothing had happened. Could you explain the suspicious behavior?"Miranda said leaving me astonished.

I could barely keep up with the events of the night and there was Miranda keeping track of every single thing that was taking place. I was excited that maybe Brandon was XR but all of this sounded too suspicious for that. Brandon remained silent.

"And every time something happened you would look at your smartwatch. When I checked it was a special type of watch and I spotted the microphone and tiny camera which were most likely on the whole night. Who are you?"She asked

"You two are good. "He said, smirking,��� I am Brandon Kelly, the last name shall not be said and I just kept watching."He said.

"Who sent you?"Miranda said with a tough tone.

Brandon sighed and paused.

"You guys should relax, it's not the Executive who sent me."

"Then who!"Miranda said, now going close to his face.

He smiled once again, which made Miranda angrier.

"Samantha Berry."He said smiling, "A friend of Cy."He said.

Glenn and Miranda looked at me curiously. I looked at them and then Brandon. I wondered what that lunatic wanted from me.

"But Samantha is part of the Executive," I said.

"Well, the orders she gave to me were not from the Executive."Brandon said, "If you are kind to me then I will pass on the message to you guys."

"Cy?"Miranda asked, looking at me.

Glenn placed his hand on my shoulder and looked at me with a serious gaze.

"Is this Samantha Berry to be trusted?"He asked.

I paused and remembered my days back in the Cell in the Executive. Those terrible hard days.

"Let's just say she is not someone who you want to be an enemy of."I said shakily.

"So what is it, do you want me to pass on the message or will you just keep me in here asking me questions that lead to nowhere as people are losing their lives outside of this country."

"You little--" Miranda said.

"Yes i would like to know what that lady wants to tell me, but under my conditions,"I said curiosity eating me alive.