9. Back to the Past
That decade spent in Raven Rock was in Elaine's life perhaps the most difficult. The first month was the worst. She was tense, almost paranoid, especially when her way was crossed by soldiers. She was always afraid that someone would recognize her, that she's not Lisa McGee, Edgar Lenson's girlfriend.
The fact that she worked with Whitley on the Eyebot-project also worsened the situation, however she was the one who asked for it and urged it. She wanted to see Sweet-E no matter what.
She didn't have to wait long to hug each other with Whitley, however on that day the two Eyebots weren't present in the lab.
He told her that he had no choice, he was ordered to hand over Sweet-E and ED-E to an independent group of scientists. They wanted to search the two drones for eventual concealed information.
Two hours later a soldier returned the Eyebots to the lab. Elaine could hardly restrain herself. She would have liked to hug and kiss her colorful, little owl, but this would have been too obvious.
In addition, since everywhere were placed cameras, she couldn't even speak frankly with her friend and colleague, fearing that they would've been caught this way.
Five days passed, and one evening somebody knocked on Elaine's door, just shortly after bedtime. As she opened the door dreamily, she saw two soldiers. They ordered the woman to follow them. They didn't even allow her to dress properly, she was forced to follow them in her nightgown and with slippers.
She had a very bad presentiment despite that they were referring to her as Lisa McGee.
They escorted her to an interrogation room, which looked just like the one back in Tainted Cave. Even the lava lamp was almost the same. The only exception was that this time Elaine was not tied to the chair.
One hour passed in tense before the door finally opened, and when Elaine turned around, to see who's coming, she saw Lieutenant Autumn entering the room.
He came with a thick folder in his hand, and as he walked beside her, he touched her hand softly, encouraging Elaine. But in fact he helped the woman to remember the events back from the base Tainted Cave. If I had to be honest, her nose recalled firstly that one bad memory when she firstly met Autumn's hand… That was maybe the most painful meeting with a person in Elaine's life, so that she completely terrified by the man's touch is mostly understandable.
Autumn finally put down the folder on the table and sat down against Elaine. That was the moment when Elaine finally noticed how much his hair went gray. Now his appearance matched even better his name. His hair almost lost totally its brown shade, and his eyebrows were white as well.
He sat with military rigor, looking at the girl with a serious expression. It seemed like the man vis-à-vis with Elaine isn't the same with the one who entered the room.
As the interrogation began, firstly she met the routin questions, but after these, Elaine finally learned why they got her there. It turned out that Dr. Elaine Ronin was accused of the attack of the military base Tainted Cave, but then came the real shock, when Lieutenant Autumn asked for description of the so called culprit.
Elaine couldn't believe her ear. The man, who was at her interrogation back in the other base, and hit her head in the table now asked her to describe Dr. Elaine Ronin. She just couldn't believe this…
She even thought that the officer knows indeed her true identity, but before he reveals the truth, he plays with her like a yaoi guai with a molerat.
But Autumn's expression was different. Though trying to conceal his real thoughts, he was unable to maintain the poker face, which should be maintained by an interrogator in a similar case.
He asked her father to interrogate Lisa McGee, because he wanted to see her again. He did not understand why he's acting this way, but now he simply didn't find his place, he felt that he'll go crazy if he couldn't meet the girl.
Elaine couldn't help herself but to wonder what he wants from her. Autumn's expression was strongly reassuring, not as in the other case, when the other officer at Tainted Cave almost stabbed her with his eyes.
In the end she pushed her luck, when she decided to give a description of the person. It also came to her mind that exists the possibility that in those moments Whitley might be interrogated as well. She knew that he was the one who described her as Lisa, so she trusted him that now he'll identify the real Lisa as Dr. Elaine Ronin.
As she finished the portraiture, and Autumn did as well with the noticing, he stood up and left the room, with the paper in his hand.
Long minutes passed by, what seemed like hours. The back of her nightgown almost covered completely with sweat when the door finally opened. She couldn't turn around, the only thing she did was to listen to the approaching footsteps. Autumn came back and sit down, face to face with Elaine. He stared at her with a serious expression.
They sat side by side for a long time without saying even one word.
Elaine felt her heart beating in her throat, when suddenly somebody knocked on the door. Shivering in fear she almost heard the knocking sound as gunshots. She shuddered, but in the moment when Autumn called in the person standing outside, a soldier came in, and next to him came a man with a suitcase. Autumn then looked at Elaine's eyes.
"According to the current legislation of our country, Lisa McGee, you have the right to call for a lawyer. If you don't live with this right, you'll get one from the state".
Elaine couldn't respond to this. She was too tired and too frightened. The lieutenant then announced that the man with the suitcase is an appointed lawyer.
The man went closer, and after shaking hands with the still stunned woman, he sat down beside her and pulled out of his suitcase a bunch of paper.
He was a young, entrant lawyer, but what she didn't know was, that the man was an ambitious, a little aspiring but talented young man from the sorties and from the government of America…
After the lawyer took the papers, he looked straight in Autumn's eyes, then he said that.
"Have you informed my client of what she's accused of?"
"We are not accusing her of anything". The lieutenant replied, and Elaine slowly felt that she's sinking into the chair in her fear.
"How much did you tell her about the investigation?"
"The questioning is taking place right now. If I'm correct, Inspector General Priscilla asked you to take on her case. As I told you, we are not accusing the lady with anything by now".
"Did you tell her anything about the diagnosis of Eyebot Duraframe Subject C?"
"What are you talking about? What do you want with Sweet-E?"
"Do you tell her the facts aligned in the case files or you'll give me five minutes with my client to inform her about her situation in which she is?"
Autumn stood up, and when he walked past them, he said: "Five minutes…"
"I never heard about something like this before. If it's not enough that you've dragged her away from her room at the middle of the night, but you aren't even telling her the truth!"
"You'll get five minutes!" Said Autumn turned slightly back from the door. "You can tell her everything you know!"
"Oh, what a tenderness!" responded the lawyer, then looked at the soldiers, but didn't say anything until the door was closed behind them."
Elaine couldn't be so patient knowing nothing about her favorite little gadget:
"Tell me, please, what do you know about Sweet-E?"
"Miss McGee, Eyebot Duraframe Subject: C got you into a very serious problem. As you've been told, both test subjects, Eyebot Duraframe Subject: C, and respectively Subject E were taken away five days ago. An independent group had to scans them for any suspicious data. They didn't find anything worthwhile at the Eyebot's hard disc, whose name can be shortened to ED-E, but the other one, fondled Sweet-E abbreviated a surprise. It gave a total different personal description of Dr. Elaine Ronin, then the other one, strangely it portrayed the traitor to be a woman just like yourself, miss McGee. In order to clarify the situation, they called in Dr. Samuel Whitley and Paul Grand for an interview.
Paul Grand's name didn't ring a bell for Elaine. She couldn't understand how can that mysterious stranger be of use at the investigation. How can he identify her, or save her, but she had no intention to tell the lawyer about this. Although he still had some surprises for her.
"Miss McGee, I'm totally dealing with the situation here, as if you knew everything about the matter, but as it seems, you were not acquainted about anything. Do you know what Elaine Ronin has to do with this case?"
"I think, they're looking for Dr. Ronin… I heard that she probably survived. At least where I work this rumor is circulating…"
"What was your relationship with the aforementioned scientist?"
"She… was my superior. We worked in the same lab".
"On the base Tainted Cave, am I right?"
"That's right".
"The current investigations show that Dr. Elaine Ronin is the responsible of the attack on the base. Now I think, you understand why the situation is so delicate for you".
On Elaine's back the nightgown did not get wet for the first time, but as the things evolved, it happened not for the last time.
Recuperating from the shock, Elaine asked from her lawyer what he suggests for her to do. With this simultaneously opened the door. The lawyer's proposal was to stay as calm as possible and answer honestly the questions. But if she feels that the question is too pushful or is focused on a sensitive point she can keep silent, nobody can force something on her that is untrue or even obstructive.
After the man finished his sentence, a female voice greeted them then a tall, black haired woman came in front of them.
"I'm Chief Inspector Agnes Priscilla. I'm leading the investigation of the tragedy occurred in the base Tainted Cave. Miss McGee I would like to ask you to tell me everything you remember from the last day on the base".
Elaine took a deep breath and looked at her lawyer for the last time then began to talk. She made her speech very cautious, and at the part, where she spoke of Edgar, her "lover" about getting killed in front of her, she even sniffed a little just to make her story more credible. The Inspector when didn't look at Elaine's face, wrote notes.
There were also other questions what Elaine tried to answer satisfactorily. She was still waiting for a certain question, but this question miraculously did not came at all…
She thought that at a certain point she had to talk about her robot's "mistake", but this topic was not raised during her interrogation.
Finally, after the officer collected her documents on the desk, the lawyer asked her whatever they should stay or his client can go freely. Superintendent Priscilla released Elaine, but on the condition that she could not leave Raven Rock until the end of the investigation.
Although she was free to go, Elaine couldn't sleep a minute that night at all. She was sleepless and woke up after half an hour of sleep.
She went to work, although she felt that she has no power at all. She wanted to talk with her colleague, Whitley. There were one or two details that were not clear at all. For example, who this Paul Grand can be at all.
By the time she reached the lab, her colleague was already inside. He was working on ED-E's sensing sensors. Apparently he, like Elaine didn't sleep too much last night.
At the voice of Elaine's footsteps, Whitley turned to the door. Thus, the small bags under his eyes were even more visible.
Observing this, Elaine said: "I see, you had such a relaxing night as I had".
"If you has slept, you're even luckier then me!"
"Where's Sweet-E?"
"Read this!"
Whitley gave her a piece of paper. It contained a command that included Sweet-E for an indefinite period and all the documents belonging to the project.
"W-What will we do now?" Elaine asked, feeling her head getting dizzy.
"We have no reason to fear" Whitley responded, without making eyecontact with her, instead turning back, to work. "Truth always comes out".
Elaine understood what Whitley was suggesting with his words, but her heart was still in fear. What if the truth will be really revealed? What if the soldiers will come in and will pull her straight to the execution squad? So then the truth will be revealed, or she will be killed by the information on her beloved Sweet-E's hardware or not to forget to mention her own inattention.