Edesse 1. Alagan

9 - Torseck

The President got on a treadmill. He had been running for ten minutes when Torseck's big, swollen face in turn imposed itself on the holographer.

- "Cursed be these terrorists !", Torseck began.

- "Well, good evening to you too, Torseck !"

Moss hated rudeness. He continued, while slowing down his pace:

- "Was the hunt good?"

- "We were too late. We couldn't capture any of them alive. They knew exactly what they were doing."

- "They must have prescients", Moss commented out loud, barely out of breath from the exercise.

- "That's for sure. We need to act quickly."

- "And about our reserves of coleine, where do we stand now ?" asked the President.

-" Our stocks are getting poorer every day."

He had responded with his conviction as CEO of Agrogen. Torseck held multiple mandates. In addition to his position as Prime Minister of the Government and Commander of the Armed Forces, he was also at the head of the world's largest agro-food industry. As such, he was a member of the Chamber of the Fifteen Global Corporations that controlled the C5. Rich, he owned several towers in his name, including the one where Moss lived. His position as CEO gave him a power that, in his opinion, allowed him a certain freedom of tone with the President of the C5, which Moss had to live with.

Torseck was interrupted by two patrollers who brought him a prisoner. Moss watched the projection passively while accelerating the pace again. The black man, about thirty-five years old, was wearing the grey dress of the Rebellion. The two soldiers held him securely tied, arms behind his back.

- "We got one alive. What do we do with him, Commander?"

Torseck approached.

- "Is he a palatin? He examined him more closely and then thought out loud: it would surprise me, he seems too old to me! I mean, you never know. What did the prescients say?"

-" They didn't foresee anything", said one of the patrollers.

- "Get him to talk with the coleine serum! I want to know who prepared this operation and how they were informed!"

After this, one of the patrollers elbowed the prisoner in the jaw, sending two of his incisors waltzing. Blood flowed abundantly from the prisoner's gums, who, hardened, supported Torseck's gaze. At night, the two ivory beads came out  impertinent from the black face.

-" Well, you call me back when it's over, Torseck !", Moss intervened before interrupting the communication.

Close to the sniffer robot factory, the military guards took the detainee to the interrogation room. There was always one in the C5 facilities. Torseck joined them just as they had just finished injecting a white syrupy liquid into their hostage's arm. The syringe may have been small, but it had a very unpleasant pungent sulphurous smell. Soon, the man, blinded by the light, only distinguished silhouettes bent over him. The faces became blurred, distorted and the voices came to him from afar. Two slaps sent him spinning while a flood of hateful emotions twisted his entrails.

- "What's the matter?" Torseck cautiously observed in front of the prisoner's exorbitant eyes." I asked you to make him talk, not to dumb him down! He looks like a retarded gorilla! "The man was about to stagger when one of the guards slipped a chair under his buttocks. Torseck took over the interrogation.

- "The coleine serum will quietly take over what you use as your brain and in a few seconds, you will be all mine. There's no need to fight it. This version of the serum has been extensively tested. No one can resist it, not even the palatins. Well, the difference is that they survive it."

- "Why?"- the man had trouble talking -" why, would I talk to you since I'm going to die?"

One of the guards, a massive man with black skin too, stared at him and then hit him.

- "Ah, you fool! Aren't you listening to me? "

Torseck had started to use the familiar form. 

-" You're going to tell me everything of your own free will. See, no need for violence. Just a little patience."

Then he addressed his guard and shook his head with a disapproving sign while tapping his tongue, in rhythm, on his teeth:

-" Te.. Te.. Te.. Agent Mashaishak, contain your impulses. Please take care of our prisoner."

The faulty officer squeezed his heels and lowered his neck :

- "Commander, yes, Commander."

The prisoner's head became heavy. A violent gag surprised him and a viscous vomit landed at Torseck's feet. The latter's face tightened under the cold anger effect that invaded him. All his muscles, until then constrained in a necessary patience, contracted one by one. He approached with disgust his whipping boy and grabbed the curly hair from him.

- "Who prepared this operation?" he articulated from the top of his terrifying icy voice.

- "Seo - ras", unintentionally dropped the prisoner before collapsing with his chair on the floor.

The two soldiers rushed to relocate him. Blood flowed from his nostrils and the man lost consciousness.

- "Commander", he's bleeding out.

The hostage swung back to the ground. Dead.

- "Which one of you two dosed the serum? He succumbed to the overdose far too quickly, you poor morons!"

A heavy silence dragged on and then Agent Kouriline, a tall blond man with a pale complexion, stepped forward. His black armor made him even duller. Torseck took out of his pocket a small square connector. He pressed on the metal piece to make a needle protrude from it and applied it to his agent's init.

- "A stay in the Mid-Zone will teach you rigor... or not..."

His guard's body fell in turn to the ground as his mind projected into the black hole of the matrix.

- "Clean it up," he said to the other patroller. Then he walked out.