Chapter 6: A matter of trust
San Francisco, California, USA
USMC Anti Megalosaurus Command West Coast Reaction Base
April 7th, 2019, 6:00 PM
Suspicion, paranoia, animosity, those are the best words to describe Jason's meeting with Richard. Not only does the Major constantly gives off deathly glares to the programmer, without a word, the flame in his eyes and the strains on his facial skin tell Jason that he was not going to have a day without being intruded upon. And this moment is just part of the deal. Jason sat on a stool in an interrogation room, in front of him was a standard metal table with a glass of ice cold water on it. First he was called by the Major to his office, just to know that he was under some form of house arrest order.
And the stinger in all of this? Jason doesn't even have the right to enquire the reason behind the house arrest order other than a simple 'Major Glasgow's personal investigation" shtick. The metal door in front of Jason opened but the person entering wasn't Richard as Brody would have expected, instead, it was a man in business suit and a tie. A brown haired American, he was Caucasian, whose eye were as dark as the night, Thomas Maddison as he introduces himself to Brody.
"I don't think we've met." He said with sarcasm on his face. "In fact, we've never did, face to face that is. I'm the guy from Raven PMC, who helps get you employed as Emilia's assistance and intern." Jason scoffed and rolled his eyes, disinterested by the notion of meeting his so called, "Savior". "And what did I do to deserve this pleasure of a treatment?" He huffed, showing his cocky, tough guy side to the business executive. Of course this was just an act that was poorly choreographed at best. Maddison shot down Jason's Maskirovka with a cold blooded glare as cold as steel itself.
"Tell me Mr. Brody...Was there any difficulties with...tampering with the programming of the Mecha units?" Maddison casually inquired, this led Jason to took a more defensive stance, steeling his nerve in preparation for the upcoming assault. "Tampering? What are you talking about? The ATHENA unit is our most advanced unit yet, no one can just simply hack into the Mecha unit's core system and insert mal-wares just the fun of it."
Maddison sighed, knowing that Brody was in a mix of both deliberate stalling and naivety, the young programmer's intention of outlasting the Major and the executive was pretty clear. But how long can this charade last? "Jason, I'm not asking you about the lulz a hacker in his garage can do and damages he can make just for amusement. I'm talking about the sabotaging of company's property and the damages it can inflict on your own employment." Thomas phrased his words with a careful measure of convincing power and with it, Jason was forced to leap and bound around the issue with some more beating around the bushes tactics.
"How the hell do I know anything about sabotaging that thing? Sure I was tasked with programming it and testing its information warfare defensive capabilities as well the offensive counterparts. But I have no intention of risking my own skin or anybody's else just because I'm bored. In fact, I might as well just sink myself in with some Playboy magazines."
Brody let out a rather embarrassing secret but he was shameless in the process, for there are more pressing matters at the moment, such as try not to lose your head. "You look rather thirsty Brody, why don't you take a sip? A dry throat is a worthless throat." Maddison gave the glass of water to Brody, offering the drink of cold water, which Jason took with some apprehension, smelling the and tasting the liquid with care and much to his dismay, it was laced with truth serum and he just ingested a bit of it. His mind was falling back and forth, his focus was slipping and he couldn't muster the strength to offer long, meaningful resistance to Maddison's interrogation. Thomas then promptly slapped a folder of document made for select few individuals with power, it was Jason's debriefing after his rescue by the US. Navy.
"I know that you wouldn't tamper with the unit. But what do you say with this? After all, there was a reason why the Navy's 10th Fleet was demanding your employment." Jason panned his eyes down and squinted them once he took notice at the writing of the folder. He swallowed his breath and breath with the vigor of a sleepwalker, unable to stay sober in the face of adversity. "How the hell...should I...know? I tried to...debug the damned thing. But it's just keep back firing on me..." Maddison stared Jason in the eye, expecting an answer that the programmer might know, considering the fact that he had spent time with the ATHENA unit in Japan for the past months before being transferred to the US. "Wanna know a secret?" Jason asked, sounding a little more sober than before.
"What is it?" Thomas snapped his recorder on, trying to document the most important piece of information the programmer has to offer yet. "The answer you seek...is...Ghost...in the...shell..." His curiosity was shattered in an instance, of all the things he could have learned, he was given the theory that the Americans Conservatives would frown on at an instance. "You gotta be kidding me, right? You know it's just a hoax by the Japanese to prevent the weapon adoption." Maddison continued, trying to force Jason into conceding the real answer. "Screw you. It's effing real man, I mean like, it's an observable fact that it's the Mecha unit's own action. And she's ain't telling you." Maddison knew that this interrogation was a bust, not only did he get nothing out of Jason to write home about, but he also receive the same answer he would get from a Japanese expert by this point.
For the past two days, the Japanese government has been making radical moves, lighting fast, some would say well planned and rehearse for years in handling the disclosure of their MechaGodzilla's self awareness, its sentient, now called his sentient. The most bombastic of all the bombshells was the Minister of Justice in Japan declaring Kiryu a Japanese citizen with full rights and amenities. "Get out of here you little coastal rat!" Maddison frowned and begrudgingly threw Jason out of the interrogation room and let the programmer wobbling back to his place, still under the effects of the truth serum.
Major Glasgow has been watching from the comfort of the one way glass window, feeling his investigation has been impeded yet again, frustrated, he demanded the business executive into the observation room for personal chit chat. Once he has entered the observation room, Major Glasgow grabbed him by the neck of his shirt and slam him into the wall, much to the shock of anyone present in the room. "You told me this nerd would know a thing or two about what happened on Monster Island, didn't you?" Glasgow growled almost like an animal himself, his anger and frustration was pouring out like the volcano Mt. Vesuvius when it engulfed Pompey. "Yes I did." Maddison remarked with a dull tone before forcing Richard to let him down. "And I also know that he is hiding the answer from us. Whatever he is saying right now is bound to be a lie. A news spin that the Japanese taught him before being brought back to the States."
"But why would they do that?" Richard asked, he wasn't convinced at all that Maddison was being a genuine man. After all, Jason did ingest a good dose of the truth serum, enough for any man to speak the truth and only the truth without offering an ounce of resistance. "Obviously, the Japanese don't want us to figure out how to redesign their stuff and make it a viable weapon on the market. Diplomatically speaking, it would be an unbearable shame on the Japanese for coming up with the design for the most powerful weapon ever known to man beside the Atomic Bombs that we used against them." Richard thought this one over with a more level headed approach.
To him, the explanation does have its merit, the Japanese wouldn't want their design of a powerful anti Kaiju weapon to become an accessible commodity on the market and fell into the hands of less than savory figures such as tin pot dictators. However, this explanation didn't cover the main point of the interrogation, which to Richard was a smoke and mirror distraction by Raven PMC executives. "I don't think you really care to know why I called him here, do you?" Thomas couldn't careless about Richard's question, instead, he whipped out a cigarette and light himself a smoke. "No, why should I? Your mother is dead, your father is still in depression and is lashing out his anger management issue at Congress. And here you are trying to find out all the clues and some of them are right in front of you. You just don't want to admit it, and that's all your problem at the moment." Maddison blew the dust of his cigarette over to Glasgow, showing his disinterest in the Major's affair.
The business executive then show himself out of the Major's presence, Richard knew that Maddison was hiding something, he needed to know and most of all, he can't rely on anyone of his Marines to do this for him, he must have an alternative, unconventional channel of assistance. This executive was trying to deflect him away from the truth, there are numerous glaring faults with the two mecha units at Richard's command. But what he was briefed on by Raven PMC is inadequate at best and fatal at worst. The reports he received about the first one underlined some of the flaws he must expect from the MFS unit design.