Turncoat: Turncoat Trilogy Book 1

Chapter 3.2

I wiped the tears from my cheeks. "Someone could have hacked the officer's scanner," I said. "It wouldn't be a hard hack, could preprogrammed into a wireless device. Sent over with a specific tag code in mind, the code would register as corrupt only on the scanner." Slowly, the responses Vicki gave me entered my mind.

The captain showed me the video from the rear mounted camera on the officer's car. If he hadn't been focused on me, the officer would have seen Nick coming up behind him. The video stopped as I got dragged out of sight. "Who was that man?" Becker asked.

"Resistance," I sniffled.

"Where did he take you?"

"Underground, in one of the tunnels, it was really cold," I said.

"What did he want?" Becker asked.

"Um, he, uh, they wanted me to hack into a server or something," I said.

"They? How many were there?"

"Eight, ten, I don't know, I had a blind fold on a majority of the time," I said. "They all sounded male and they slapped me around a lot. I was so scared."

"Which server?"

"The, um, political prisoner servers, they were looking for a few of their friends from one of the camps," I said. "I told them I didn't have access. Those are secure servers, only authorized Dead Heads and their hackers have access to them. I'm a mechanic; I don't have access to servers other than the blueprints on the 'bots I work on. They threatened to kill me if I didn't do what they asked. Please find them."

"If they threatened to kill you, why are you telling me so readily?" Becker asked.

"Because, sir, you scare me more than they do," I said.

For a moment, I think he smiled and then he reached out to brush the bangs hidding the cut on my head. His fingers felt rough on my skin, scraping it and making it itch. His touch sent tingles across my skin, like it wanted to get away. "Did they beat you?"

I nodded, mostly to get his hand off my head. "A few times, sir," I said. "Mostly on my ribs." I had bruises where the officer kicked me and where he slammed me against the car. The cuffs had chaffed my wrists until they were red and puffy. Police brutality that would work out in my favor, hopefully.

"How did you escape?"

"Huh?" I asked.

"There were eight or ten of them you said, they beat you a few times, how did you escape?" Becker asked. He crossed his arms over his chest.

"I got free of the cuffs once and tried to run but they caught me. Beat me, that's when I got the cut on my forehead. They hit me with a rifle, put a tamper on my legs and left me with a single guard. He was kind of an idiot. I told him I had to go to the bathroom but because of the tamper I couldn't move my lower body. So, he took it off. I kneed him pretty hard in the face and took off running. Lost them in the tunnels, took me two hours to get home."

Becker stood up once more and walked over to the window. I don't know what he was looking at but I felt my heart start to beat rapidly. "I'm done with you," he said.

"You're dismissed, sergeant," the commandant said.

I stood hastily, nearly knocking the chair over. I snapped off a salute and nodded. "Yes, sir," I said. I forced myself to walk out of the office and down the stairs with a collected composure. Every step away from the office brought a panicked breath to my lips. Bordering on hysteria, I forced my feet to continue walking. It's amazing how bionics react the same as real legs when you're petrified. The shaky steps, the urge to just collapse into a sobbing ball where you stand, the inability to move, it's all there.