31
Jasmine remained silent with an extreme level of disinterest on her face. It didn't matter to Rey how she felt. There would be no exchange of forgiveness or a miraculous change of heart.
"I'm going to be transparent with you," he continued. "Your life, at this moment, has no value. What you provide will determine whether or not you spend your life here as a captive or a corpse. Corporal Vasher believes you have some information about your continued existence. I'm inclined to agree with him. Answer our questions and possibly you'll be spared; but if one syllable of what you say isn't true, the consequences will be more than just your life. Do you understand?"
Jasmine blinked twice, slow and deliberate. She brought her hands up from underneath the table and clapped slowly, her bound hands opening and closing like a clam. "Bravo, sir. Riveting. For a moment, I was enthralled." She chuckled. "First Vasher and now you. It's like your different people now."
Damon's arms unfolded from his chest and dropped to his side, his body tense by reflex. He expected Rey to erupt, to change into the man he'd seen in combat. But this was a different type of battlefield, he understood, and the rules weren't the same.
Rey dismissed the condescension with a toothless smile. "You're not afraid to die. That's fine. I've become numb to the idea myself. Occupational hazard, right? But there's always something to keep us motivated."
He shifted in his seat to reach into his pocket, retrieving his handheld. With a few swipes and taps at the screen, he turned the device around for Jasmine to see and watched the color drain from her face.
Astrid viewed the screen from her angle, seeing a young boy sitting in front of his living block, arms resting on his knees as he was seemingly looking at something in the distance. Rey pulled the device back before she could see more.
"There are dozens of kids around here, and to be honest, they're not very interesting. But this kid, he's extremely interesting. Most notably, who he chooses to associate with. He's listed here as Eric Lee, but you know that's not who he is, right?"
Damon hadn't noticed Jasmine being so uncomfortable. The once unbreakable woman was looked as if someone had dropped a nuke in her lap.
"He was tricky to identify. DEV had to comb through thousands of databases, but we got a hit. Ken Lang. Until now, I must say that you've done an impeccable job keeping him off the record. For his protection, I'm sure. Life can be dangerous when you have an insurgent as your older sister."
Jasmine leaned forward with her hands on the table, clenched into tight fists. "If you even try to--"
"Don't even!" Rey cut off. "To think you have the leverage to threaten us is so misguided it's funny. Daniel Weems, Lynn Rodriguez, Anthony Berg, and Casey Simms. Those are the lives of my people you helped murder, one that you directly killed. Their blood is on your hands, along with the civilian's lives caught in the middle."
"And you brought it on yourself, " Jasmine fired back. "After years of waiting for your precious UNSC saviors, we came to you with a sensible proposition: send a scout team to another camp and see if they could help us. But no, you in your ignorant faith in your people and cowardice rejected the idea completely. And for what, because you didn't want to take risks? We're in a damn war with aliens and you can't take risks? You paid the price. Everyone now sees your incompetence as a leader and in shame, they'll die because they didn't have the resolve to do what we tried to do."
"And that's the difference between us and you. It's classic rebel banter. There is nothing justified in what you did."
"You act like because you're UNSC that you're one of the good guys. You're not. Some of the atrocities you've committed in the name of peace far exceed anything I've done. The bombings, the raids, the prison camps."
Rey shook his head with his eyes closed, pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration. "I'm not getting into this theology with you. Tell me how you survived, otherwise I'm bringing the boy in here with us. To know you're alive will be a shock to his system, but to truly never see you again... that's another pain altogether."
Jasmine straightened up, removing her bound hands from the table and placing them in her lap. She stole a look at Astrid and Damon, the two of them focused so tightly on her that it made her skin itch.
"Killing me in front of him won't give you what you want," she said.
Rey laughed, a sound so foreign that he almost didn't recognize where it originated. "You've got it backwards. I won't kill you, because if you don't tell me what happened after your exile, I'll paint your face with your brother's grey matter."
Damon and Astrid's heads snapped in unison toward Rey. The words slapped them like an embittered spouse, backpedaling their thoughts to see how it arrived at the strike.
Jasmine was initially silent, taking the words in stride it seemed. She ultimately looked unfazed, wearing an expression of agitation over fear or shock. "Am I supposed to be crying for my brother's life, begging you not to do this? Get real, Rey. There isn't enough strength in your stomach for a threat like that."
"DEV," Rey called up. He kept his eyes on Jasmine as the A.I. chirped in his earpiece. "Give Briggs the green light. No audience. I want a direct feed."
Damon couldn't hear the reply from DEV, but the message was over his head. Briggs? He was a security officer, private sector from what Damon could remember. The man wasn't even on the roster as an active serviceman for raids. What was Rey using him for?
It didn't take long for Damon's questions to be answered. A grainy video feed appeared from a small projector that Rey set on the table. It was a bodycam, bouncing through the living blocks with occasional feedback and choppy audio. A digital tag OPR. N. BRIGGS was set in the corner of the screen.
Briggs approached one of the blocks, pounding his hard knuckles on the outer metal shell.
Jasmine sat up. "What is this?!"
Rey didn't respond.
The bodycam continued. A tarp screeched across a rod to expose the interior of the block. There was a woman inside, middle-aged with dark hair cut low enough to ready for enlistment. She looked confused, looking up at the man standing in her doorway. There was a boy behind her, the same recognized from Rey's device.
"Yes, can I help you?" asked the woman.
Briggs's voice came through, deep and raspy. "Inspection, ma'am. All minor children need to be health screened. I need the boy and he'll be returned soon. We have to rule out possible carriers."
The woman reached back, touching the boy's shoulder with her other hand over her chest. "I'm his guardian, sir. All he has. I can bring him to the clinic."
"Screenings are done outside the clinic in the surrounding offices for safety. We can't risk further infections. You have to stay here. I'll have him back within the hour."
"We prefer to stay together," the woman insisted. "I can follow all the necessary precautions."
The cam shifted with Briggs extending his right arm, palm up. "I'm just following orders from medical, ma'am. I've got a dozen more kids to do this with. The sooner I can take him, the sooner I can bring him back."
The woman turned around and began talking to the boy, her words too low for the audio to capture. She put both her hands on the boy's face, kissing him on the forehead before turning to face Briggs. "I expect him back soon."
Jasmine felt paralyzed, her eyes glued to the projection that followed every motion that she was powerless to stop. She watched the woman step aside, her hand guiding Andrew outside. He didn't look afraid, but she knew it was the only mask she told him never to remove.
"Let's make this quick, kid." Briggs tossed the boy a mask. "Put that on and keep it on until I say otherwise. We good?"
The boy nodded and did what he was told.
"What are you doing, Ken?" Jasmine whispered to herself.
She watched as the 12-year-old boy was led through the camp and she couldn't help but notice that the route this Briggs was taking wasn't leading to the clinic. It was somewhere in A Building she'd never visited herself.
Briggs faced a closed-door, opening it after swiping a card through the red panel. It flashed green and the door slid open. Overhead lights winked on. There was nothing in the room medical-related, only a small bed in the corner that was nearly made.
"Inside, please."
The boy peered inside the room, hesitant to move. Jasmine's heart skipped a beat as she watched him being shoved inside and Briggs closing the door behind him.
"Hey, I didn't do anything!" the boy cried out. "I'm not sick."
Briggs grabbed the boy by the collar and shoved him on the bed. "You and I are about to play a game, kid. Win, lose, or draw, it's not up to you to decide. We'll just see how long you last."
A baton was pulled up in front of the camera and a button was pressed on the handle. Blue sparks shimmered up the length of the baton before it was used to prod the boy.
He jolted off the bed with a scream, immediately bursting into tears.
"Ken!" Jasmine nearly erupted from her seat, the chair's legs creaking at the case. "What the hell are you doing?!"
"Tell me what I want to know and this stops," Rey demanded.
The boy was struck again as he tried to avoid them, his small body being thrown into convulsions. He cried loudly, begging for Briggs to stop with his head covered. Urine soaked his pants and his crying grew louder.
Jasmine slammed her fists on the table, her eyes shimmering with suspended tears. "STOP THIS! He's just a kid."
"I'll up the voltage on each hit and put that boy in a friggin' coma if you don't talk," Rey barked.
Damon burst forward, leaning his body halfway between Rey and Jasmine. "Captain, this is insane! This ain't right."
"Get back on the wall and stand down, Corporal!" Rey pointed to where Damon had been and swiped his arm off the table. He shot Astrid a don't-even-think-about-it glare and returned his attention to Jasmine who was beyond engaged.
Her face was flushed red, the tears eventually breaking free to roll down her cheeks; but there was no sadness in her eyes, only rage, and pain.
Astrid was stone, watching the scene unfold in silence. The boy's screams and failing attempts to escape were nearly unbearable to listen to. Briggs didn't use restraint, prodding the child like he was stubborn cattle. She wanted to break, to intervene as Damon tried, but this was the game, and whether she liked it or not, she was one of the players on the team. But even the opposing team needed to be shown mercy at some point when the outcome was decided long ago.
"The welfare of your brother is in your hands," Astrid spoke, feeling Damon's head whip in her peripheral. She couldn't look back at him. You had to play the game.
"I'll kill every last one of you!" Jasmine's voice boomed at the height of her rage, the veins protruded from her neck. "I swear to God almighty."
Rey took out his sidearm and slammed it on the table, just beyond her reach. "Then do it. Grab the gun and put us down, but you better make sure you don't miss. Ken will be a frozen body outside that fence before you get to him."
Jasmine squeezed her hands into fists, cringing as Ken begged for Briggs to stop. It was then she heard him call out her name that caused something inside of her shattered. How much had he been broken to call out for someone he thought was dead? She couldn't take it, couldn't bear it.
"I know how to get off Titan!" Jasmine blurted out.
Rey froze in his place, silent. Damon and Astrid appeared stunned, the words from Jasmine so foreign it might as well be another language.
"Say again?" questioned Rey.
Jasmine exhaled, her head low and voice without energy or motivation. "I know how we can get off this moon. Just please... stop this and let him go."
Rey looked over at Astrid and she answered with a subtle nod. "DEV, shut it down. Tell Briggs to dispatch an aid from medical to evaluate the boy. Get food and water. The boy stays confined to the room. He doesn't return to the blocks. Ever."
DEV replied with an acknowledgment light and killed the direct feed.
Rey pulled out the chair from the table, returning his sidearm to the holster before sitting down. "So...start from the beginning."