Chapter 24 - Interrogations
"London!" Rose shouted, Jack woke up startled to a canteen full of confused and scared 10-year olds, "We're on protocol 5. Last names only," Rose said, Jack nodded and gathered up his duvet. He followed Rose into the holding cells area, he stashed his duvet under a table and followed them in to speak with Bruce Norris. They'd separated the CHERUBs carefully to maximise their chances of success, Zara was on her own in the first cell, Kerry and Lauren were in the cell next door. James and Kyle were given their own cells, as were Kazakov and Ewart, Dave and Bruce's cell was at the end of the first corridor, their cell door had been left open intentionally. The view from the cell was used tactically, Bruce and Dave would be staring at one of MI9's highest security prisoners, brought in especially from Darkmere prison. "Like my friend Boys?" Rose asked them, Bruce and Dave looked up at the large intimidating man, "killed 32 people with his bare hands in an hour, sent to a maximum security prison where he murdered 7 prison guards, they found him eating the bodies." The boys looked scared, they had taken down terrorist organisations, faced killers, but staring at a mass murderer scared them, "you go back on our deal, you'll get to know him well, we'll put you in the cell next to him at Darkmere." Rose said. They began walking Bruce and Dave to interview rooms, "London!" Stark shouted from the other end of the corridor, Jack turned around, Rose continued walking with the CHERUBS, Jack doubled back and went towards Stark. "Boss?" he said to Stark, "I think these two should meet our friend." He said smiling as he pointed at James and Kyle's cells. Jack smiled and swiped his ID card opening the door.
"Hello again boys" Jack said smiling, "I want to show you one of the prisoners that live in Darkmere, the place you had blue prints for" Stark grabbed the two boys by the handcuffs and pressed them against the glass cage opposite Bruce and Dave's cell, "Chaz Wallerstein, mass murderer, he committed almost half of those murders in prison, want to know what got him transferred to Darkmere?" Jack asked Kyle and James, they didn't seem bothered staring into the murders cell, "He ate a prison guard" Jack noticed that Kyle and James didn't show any visible signs of fear, but Jack could hear their heartrates rising slightly, Jack motioned for the boys to go back to their cells, Stark slammed the door shut, "Well that worked" Stark said, Jack shook his head, "Let's take Zara to Wallerstein" They repeated the process again with Zara Asker, and again there was no response, "Let me think, something has to rattle them" Jack said as Zara's cell door closed, "Let's go see what the girls have"
They walked to the observation room, there they could see both interrogation rooms and tune in to either one, in one room, Rose and Frank sat with Bruce Norris, whilst Carrie and Stella were sat with Dave Moss. They listened into the first room, "So that's it?" Bruce asked, Frank nodded, "I'll type up your statement, all you need to do is sign it." Bruce nodded, Frank and Rose left the room and came into the observation room, and nodded to Jack and Stark, Frank held up a video tape and left the room. Jack and Stark were going to listen into the other room, but Bruce banged on the glass, "Hey! Is anyone there?" he shouted; Jack entered the room. "what?" Jack asked, "I helped you, can you help me?" Bruce asked, "We have helped you, you get immunity" Jack said getting ready to leave the room, "No, I want to speak to someone high up" Bruce protested, "You want more than immunity?" Jack asked, Bruce nodded slowly, Jack knocked on the glass and Stark entered the room, "Get me the Boss?" Jack asked, Stark nodded. Jack sat opposite Bruce, he put his feet on the table, it was late in the day, he wasn't feeling the effects of the dark moon as much now because the day was almost over, he could feel the moon slowly coming back, and with every hour closer to midnight, he felt stronger. Jack studied Bruce, he could tell he was nervous, but Jack didn't want to say anything, he wanted Bruce to be the one to speak, Jack wondered what he wanted. He kept staring at Bruce, deliberately trying to make him uncomfortable, Stark returned soon after he left with the Head of MI9, "Feet London" Jack sighed and took his feet off the table, she sat down next to Jack, "so Mr Norris, you wanted someone high up, I run this organisation, there is no one higher than me" Bruce nodded and sat forwards, "I want you to help me" "We've already given you immunity" The Head of MI9 reiterated, Bruce nodded, "I've given you what you want on this case, I'll give you anything else you want on CHERUB, but I want you to help me get out of CHERUB." The Head of MI9 nodded, "And then what?" She asked, "CHERUB pays you for missions and it goes into a trust fund, I want that money, I want to keep my name, after you age out of CHERUB, they make you change your name for security reasons, and I want a good foster family, I don't want to go to any children's home" Bruce said. "Why not just resign?" Jack asked, "You don't get it, you can't just resign, they say you can, but they'll kick you to the curb with nothing, put you in a children's home, my mate Keiron, he wanted out, they gave him nothing, dumped him and all his belongings outside a children's home." Jack and the Head of MI9 went out of the room to talk, "you think its something we can do?" he asked her, she paused for a moment, "I'll speak to social services, we should be able to find him a family far away from campus" she headed back into the room, "London?" she asked, "I'll be back" Jack said as he left the room. He headed for Stark's office where his laptop was, on his way he passed back through the corridor with the CHERUB agents, he smiled and opened one of the hatches on a cell door, he looked through the gap, "Oh boys," He said smiling, James and Kyle came to the door, "Someone's just flipped on you, you better get used to Mr Wallerstein, you're going to be neighbours" Jack laughed and slammed the hatch shut, he ran through the canteen and grabbed his laptop before running back to Bruce./
"Well, dark moon isn't affecting you anymore" The Head of MI9 laughed as Jack shut the door and sat down, "the closer it gets to tomorrow, the better I feel" Bruce looked confused, Jack smiled and turned to his boss who simply nodded, "Oh that's right, you don't remember me, here maybe this will help" Jack went into the corridor and transformed, he jumped onto the table, Bruce jumped back slightly and ended up falling out of his chair, "You, you, you were with that woman? You arrested me?" Jack jumped off the table and was human again before he hit the floor, "Yes, that was me Mr Norris, but no one will ever believe you." Jack picked up his laptop which he had placed on the chair, he disabled the secure server so Bruce couldn't access the MI9 database or server, he spun it around to face Bruce, "We can speak to people, get you what you want, but we want full access to your database." Bruce nodded and started typing, he swung the laptop back around, "there" he said, the CHERUB system was up and running on Jack's laptop, on an open word document, Bruce had written his access codes and passwords, which would allow them access whenever they wanted, at least, for as long as Bruce was still an agent. The Head of MI9 seemed impressed, "Agent London, go and get one of the social workers" Jack nodded, she turned to Bruce, "Thank you" she said.