Hard to Hate You // Michael Langdon

Part III - Interview

He smirks again as he sits at Venable's desk. "Why did you take Venable's gun?" he asks, motioning for me to sit in the chair across from her desk.

I narrow my eyes as I slowly take a seat. "How the fuck do you know about that?"

He chuckles. "Answer my question."

"No, you answer mine," I insist. He stares at me, a curious look on his face. "What, do you read minds or something?" I ask sarcastically.

He laughs dryly. "In fact, I do."

"Really?" I scoff, not believing him at all. "What am I thinking right now?"

"Well, that is the issue. I can't read yours."

"Then how do you know about the gun?" I press.

"I can sense its presence in your pocket. I don't need to read your mind to know where you got it." He leans forward on the desk, making it seem like he's trying to search my soul. "Now, I can read everyone else's mind, but not yours. Why?"

I roll my eyes. "Okay, I'll play along. Do you really think I would know why?"

He sits silently like he's waiting to suddenly break through a barrier and make his way into my thoughts. "You know, I can't read minds. You're going to have to answer verbally," I say sarcastically.

He smiles and stands up. "You don't seem to be afraid of me. Everyone else is."

"Oh, you're wrong. I'm scared of you. There's something about you that's very off-putting; I just don't care. I don't know why I survived when the rest of the world died; I should've died with them. I think that the truth is that I'm just sitting around here, waiting until I die and join them. Go ahead and tell me, how will it be? Will Venable kill me for making a move on her? Or will you? Or will one of the other survivors finally decide they've had enough of me?"

"Why did you make a move on Venable?" he asks. "I could read her mind to tell that you had never kissed her before."

I scoff as I lean back.  "I just wanted to spice things up a bit.  I also may have needed to distract her so she wouldn't go looking and see that I stole her gun," I shrug.

"So you used seduction to your advantage?"

"Yes, just like you attempted to do with your little 'caressing my cheek' thing earlier."

He narrows his eyes at me slightly.  "You see, Langdon, unlike the other desperate inhabitants of this miserable outpost, I know what you're doing.  You're using everyone's loneliness and desperation to be loved against them."

He stares at me, his expression unreadable, then stands up and walks around the desk. He sits on the desk and looks down at me. "Tell me the worst thing you've ever done."

"Oh, there's many," I scoff. He continues to stare. "Why do you want to know this?" I ask defensively as I cross my arms. "This doesn't seem like a proper way to be deciding who's going to repopulate the earth... Of course, unless you're not looking to repopulate the earth in a traditional way," I inquire, hoping to get him off-track so he'll forget about what he just asked me.

"What do you mean by that?" he asks, taking the bait, as he leans forward.

"I get the feeling that you're not here to put society back together," I say, standing up. "There's something dark about you. You don't seem like the hero type."

He smirks as he watches me walk around the chair and lean against its back. "You're correct," he encourages. "Go on."

I sigh, deciding to finally voice my theory that I've been piecing together over the last few days.  "So why even create a Sanctuary? You could've just made each Outpost like the Sanctuary. Why interview us? You already have our information on file, and that would be a lot quicker."

"Why do you think?" he asks amusedly.

 I lean forward even more against the chair. "You don't want everybody from the Outposts to repopulate the earth. You needed the rich people to pay for the Sanctuary, but you don't want their genes to be the ones that recreate the world. So, you create Outposts and tell them that they'll survive if they give you the money, then you spend the money to build the Sanctuary and these temporary Outposts."

I begin to circle him, turning the tables. "But that's not all. I have the feeling that these other Outposts weren't actually overrun; you just went through and killed everyone that you didn't think was fit for the Sanctuary, and that's what you're planning on doing to this Outpost. Evie is already dead, and we all know that Gallant was acting hella suspicious after that. However, he only killed her after she reported him for having sex with a mysterious man dressed in black. And this man dressed in black shows up after your interview with him. She would've never reported him if she didn't think it would get her a leg up in the competition for the Sanctuary. It's almost as if...you pit him against his grandmother."

I glance over at him and he nods, an amused look on his face. 

I continue, "Anyways, after you kill off the rich people, that's when the people with perfect DNA come in. We have something special in our DNA that has to do with repopulating the earth, so that's the reason why we're here," I finish.

He smirks and stands up, then walks over in front of me. "I must say, you are quite clever. And you're very good at evading my questions."

I roll my eyes as he backs away.  "Now what? Do you kill me because I know too much?" I ask casually as he walks to the door and motions for me to follow.

"No," he replies, opening the door for me to leave. "I am nowhere near done with you."