Chapter 14
Blake punched the table, the man who he and his team, alongside the two Federation women, captured wasn't talking. Nothing, not who he is, where he's from or what he's doing here on the island. The man in question, a black-haired man with a mustache, stared blankly, withdrawn from the interrogation as a whole.
"I want to know who you are and who your working for." Blake said his anger rising as the silent man in front of him continued to say nothing, further irking the Colonel of the Association. Blake took out the map they found in the bunker and placed it on the table pointing to the various places marked on the map. "What are you looking for? Why mark these areas? Why is Homedale marked as a problem?"
The man said nothing. Blake glared at the man and for a second it seemed like the silent mans eyes shimmered if not for just a moment. Fear, anxiety, whatever was going through the mans mind was something all together if it made him be this silent. Blake took the pictures of the students, the ones marked with check marks.
"What do these checkmarks mean? Why target the students? What are you even targeting them for?" Nothing. Absolute silence. One last picture. The one with Miho Nishizumi alongside the note that was attached to it. "Why is Ms. Nishizumi a working progress? What does that mean?"
The man stared at the pictures still silent as when he was shooting arrows at them yesterday. Blake grinned his teeth at this. He needed something, anything to tell Mr. Backer, to tell the students, to let the world know someone was targeting the children, and this silence was not helping his case.
A knock from outside the interrogation room caused Blake to sigh, gather up all the evidence and leave the room. outside the interrogation room was a hallway filled with seven of his Association men, standing guard outside the door.
"Whats the plan Colonel?" Asked on of his men.
"Ice him. Give him plenty of water but no food, not even a bathroom visit. Sweat him until he's ready to make a deal or we find something we can use against him." Blake ordered. The man nodded and Blake walked down the hallway towards another door. He opened it and found inside Faun was seated at a computer typing away, mostly chatting with their representative back home in the states. While the rules stated they couldn't contact anyone off the island, the fact that someone was targeting the children warranted a response and letting the Association back home aware of the interference.
Commander Akari and her second Chika sat at a table next to his Captain and turned to him when he walked in.
"Any luck?" Akari asked to which Blake shook his head.
"Its as if he's mute. He's not saying anything, either through speech or body language. Hell I'm surprised he hasn't asked for a lawyer." Blake said getting one heartful laugh out of Faun. "Tell me something good Faun."
"As luck would have it my source at the Tankery Archives in Denver has sent me quite an interesting piece of information." Faun said as he pressed a key on the keyboard and the printer, seated on a table next to the computer, began printing a page. Once the page was done Faun took it and handed it to Blake so he could read it. "Guys name is Pierre Dawson, French National who moved to America when he was three. His father was Foreign Legion, and his mother works as a French language teacher. Guy had trouble getting a steady job after high school, but he found his way working freelance, I'll let you take a guess at what work that was. The kicker however is where he went to high school. He's an alumni of Vermont Tankery Academy."
Fauns words caused Blake to hold his breath as he read over the whole page of information. Sure enough this guy was a member of the infamous Vermont Tankery team lead by a notorious individual that Blake didn't even want to think the name of.
"Why is he here?" Blake asked, his voice low and dangerous.
"I don't know. Record has it that he was living in New Hampshire with his fiancé who, by the way, is pregnant with their first." Faun said.
"What about his freelance work?" Chika asked. "I don't know American economics, but wouldn't it be hard to support a child on that kind of work?"
"Turns out he stopped doing that work last year. Got a job at a Nature Conservation. Does a pretty good job as far as I found, thing is he was reported missing by his fiancé a few months back, around the same time the yearlong match was announced." Faun said.
"Could we use this to get him to help us?" Akari asked.
"Doubtful. We don't know the relationship he has with his work place, but his Fiancé is worried him. Could use that to get something, but the main problem is that he's Vermont." Faun said causing confusion to show on Chika's face.
"Why is that so bad?" She asked before it was Akari who answered.
"I remember, a decade ago, that there was some uproar about a school that used dangerous and controversial methods of cheating to win their Tankery matches. Is Vermont this school?" Akari asked. Blake nodded solemnly. Vermont was a stain on the Association, with the malpractice, the cheating, even the way they handled Association Bureaucracy isolated the school as a whole.
"Vermont Tankery Academy was once the most die hard Tankery fanatic school in America, with Montana Tankery Academy being second only to them. They had a long history of loss before a man named Anderson took control. Keep in mind this was back in the sixties, then Andersons son, Anderson the second, did the sport in the eighties. Then, Anderson the Third, by far the most ruthless of the family, proved he didn't care about the rules and wanted to play Tankery as he thought it should be played. As if it was war. He utilized modified munitions, wiretapping technology, hell he once used some science project a classmate of his made to electrify his opponents radio waves, shocked every single one who had a radio on their head." Blake explained the complicated and arduous history of the school. Faun nodded silently, subconsciously placing his head over his right ear. He could still feel the electricity sometimes.
"Was he arrested?" Chika asked shocked at the story.
"No. Technically he claimed all tactics were meant to damage the tanks not the crew, though we know that's not true. Anderson pleaded a deal in the end, Vermont would scrap their Tankery programs in exchange for partial amnesty." Blake said before Faun spoke up.
"Its Vermont's fault groups like the Anti-Armor Corporation exist. Protesting High Schoolers playing the sport and even trying to get the whole High School league shut down."
"There are only four states in America that don't play Tankery. Hawaii, Alaska, Florida, and Vermont. The first two simply because they don't have enough interested people for proper in state brackets, Florida was banned because they are crazy and took much inspiration from Vermont, and now you know why Vermont is straight up banned." Blake said.
"Then lets use what we can and get some information out of this guy." Akari said. "You know this stuff best Abernathy, you can get him to break. Use what you have and what you know. It will work."
Blake let out a breath and nodded his head. Anderson was a notoriously feared man, surely Pierre would have feared him to. Blake already knew what to use to get Pierre to talk, and now was better than never.
When Blake returned to the interrogation room he saw Pierre hadn't moved an inch. Still sat there silently and staring at the table. Blake took the seat across from him and sat down, taking out the paper Faun printed out and placing it on the table.
"Here's the deal Pierre, Anderson is still in the states, you either give me the information I want, or I call your old Commander and tell him you failed." Pierres shot up, his eyes widened with terror, his breathing quickened and was raspy. Sweat started beating down his face, and Blake swore he heard the man's teeth chattering.
"The Commander doesn't suffer traitors." Pierre said tears starting to fall down his face as he looked down again. "I'll get a better reeducation as a failure then a traitor."
"But will Sandra?" Again Pierres face shot up, even more fear in his eyes. "Will your child?"
Blake was playing with fire. He hated using the mans family against him, but Anderson was such a man who gave no damns about the consequences of actions that he always doubled down.
"He'll hurt them." Pierre said almost pleadingly asking Blake to help them.
"I've already sent word that Anderson is involved, he's being watched, your wife is under surveillance, please Pierre help me stop him. You know me right? You know how my reputation, my prestige within the Association. Give me everything you know, and I'll get Anderson with so much he wont even be able to breath without it being monitored." Blake said. Pierre looked down again, tears freely falling now. One last push.
"You turned your life around, you found a woman, have a child coming. Don't help me just for me. Do it for them." Blake said putting a picture of Pierres pregnant wife on the table. Pierre grabbed the picture and cried more, but he kissed the picture and nodded to Blake. "How'd this start?"
"Anderson came to me personally. Said he was getting revenge. Needed me and my old crew, that we were the only ones who he found. He spoke like he did back in school, commanding authority in his voice, his glare of judgement, his mere presence felt like metal was weighing me down. All of a sudden I was that scared little freshman again. I snapped back into an obedient soldier. One of Andersons obedient Dogs of War. He sent me the information on where to go and when I met up with the old crew and we found a boat with a tank stored on it. the boat brought us here to the island and we were supposed to cause havoc. Make the students hate one another." Pierre said.
"What was the end game?" Blake asked.
"Anderson was furious when the Association stripped Vermont of its Tankery Programs. The plan was to have the Federation win the match, make American Tankery dismantled all throughout the country. The only was to do that was to sabotage things and get the students riled up."
Blake brought out the pictures of the students and the map again and pointed to them.
"What does any of this mean?"
"The map was places we could use as hideouts or areas where we could store things we needed for our mission. The pictures were originally set up on a wall, like a mission board, we needed to target the students and make sure they went all out every single time at each other."
"Why is Homedale a problem? Why is Miho Nishizumi a working progress?" Blake asked.
"Homedale became a ceasefire zone. The Japanese and American students there are working together and just stopped fighting. That wasn't supposed to happen, so we needed to find a way to ge them fighting again, but he didn't figure anything out. Miho Nishizumi was not accepting anger like the rest. She is to mindful of people's humanity to succumb to such anger and hate, at least like this. She worries more then anything else, and we needed to find a way to get her to want to fight the Americans. We couldn't figure anything out for her either. She's an incredibly strong-willed young woman." Pierre explained.
"Who is it Anderson has a grudge against personally?" Blake asked.
"The association as a whole, specifically Mr. Baker. He wants to ruin the old man's reputation using the match." Pierre said.
"Where's the rest of your crew?" Blake asked.
"In hiding. I was supposed to torch the sight you found but you four got there before I did. I had to silence you, or else Anderson would have-" Pierre didn't finish, couldn't more likely. Blake sighed before standing and nodding to the man.
"Thank you Pierre, we'll stop Anderson and you'll be back home in no time."
"Anderson is impossible to beat, he's cunning and smart, even more so then when he was in high school. What can you do?" Pierre asked worriedly. Blake paused for a moment before looking back with a glint of his old high school adrenaline in his eye.
"You forget Pierre, Andersons last Tankery Match, during the National tournament. It was my school, under my leadership, that decisively beat him to a pulp. I've beaten him once, and I'll beat him again."