Chapter 4
"Bullshit. Complete and utter bullshit," Shego snarled, as the van doors were opened by a team of heavily armed guards.
"Shego, I am well aware of your opinion on the situation," Kim groaned, hauling her out of the vehicle and into the parking garage of the Internal Security building. "You've been yelling about it for three hours."
"That's because it is without a doubt the most complete and thoroughly utter bullshit I have ever head in my life. I didn't kill him." Shego actually looked scared; there were signs of panic in her eyes. "Come on, Pumpkin, you know I wouldn't kill anyone."
"I beg to differ." Kim did not believe her; Shego was probably just afraid of winding up in a Chinese prison. From the Global Justice reports Kim had read, they seemed to be brutal places.
"Hello, plasma powers?" Shego lit up her hands briefly and waved them in Kim's face. The guards raised their weapons, but the medic motioned that it was unnecessary. "I can melt titanium; Do you really think you'd be standing her if I wanted you dead? I can shoot a rifle; do you really think you'd be alive right now if I was the type to go for murder, especially considering you take the exact same route to school every day?"
"You put me in death traps. You collapsed buildings on me. You've thrown me off flying vehicles. Shego, if I was having a very good day and you were being extra nice, you might have convinced me that you were just getting carried away, but there is no way I'm going to buy that you never tried to kill me."
The two women held an intense staring contest, as if a duel of wills would prove who was right. The guards fidgeted nervously as they held their position around the pair, with no one daring to interrupt them. It was going to be a long day.
The glaring contest continued in the interrogation room. Shego and Kim sat around a corner of the table while Major Li took position opposite of Shego and began to take files out of the manila case folder.
""I take it, from the tension in this room, that you know why you are here?" Li asked.
"Princess was kind enough to tell me on the way over," Shego glared. "So how does this work? Do you read me the charges, arrange a rigged trial, and throw me in a laogai for the next twenty years?"
"I'm afraid you're about thirty years too late for that." Li ignored the attempt to rile him and handed her a small document. "You will be detained until your trial, likely three months from now, which will be supervised by Global Justice in order to ensure that things are handled properly."
"So that's why I'm with the leash?" Shego waved the hand cuffed to Kim's in the air, leaving no doubt as to what the term referred to. "Figured you'd get in some cruel and unusual punishment before GJ arrived on the scene?"
"Miss Possible is actually here to keep an eye on you as an official Global Justice observer, until a secure holding cell is assembled to house you, which should be sometime tomorrow. Now, shall we get started?"
Shego drummed her fingers against the table, evidently plotting how to use the information to her advantage. Kim did not like the smile that crept on up her face.
"Officer," Shego announced sweetly, "I need to go to the bathroom."
Shego returned from the bathroom with an incredibly smug look on her face, while Kim was blushing so hard that she was in actual danger of bursting into flames. Major Li figured that he did not want to know what transpired and decided to mind his own business.
"Just to be clear, the charges against you are that you broke into a research facility, stole a PLA battle suit prototype, murdered a researcher, and broke into his house to steal project data. There's also... a parking violation?" Li flipped through his papers in disbelief. "For occupying a fire lane?"
"And I'm sure that's simply unforgivable," Shego added.
"Shego, do you take anything seriously?" Kim snapped, irritated by the woman's flippant attitude towards murder charges. "Because if you don't, this would be a really good time to start!"
"Well excuse me, Princess, but I find this whole thing stupid beyond belief." Shego leaned back in her chair and started counting off on her fingers. "One: If I had snuck into steal something, no one would have noticed. I'm that good; Two: it's not my MO to go killing people; Three: You know I was staying with him, so why would I even need to break into his house?"
She stared at the other two defiantly. "Got an answer to those points, anyone?"
"Innocent or not, that's really not my call." Li deflected her logic like an experienced bureaucrat. "We're just here to hold onto you until the trial starts, so I suggest you save it for the judge."
"Balls," Shego grumbled, sinking down into her chair as Li went back to reading from the case file.