The door to the interrogation room opened easily after Karen had entered the safety code and she got greeted by the rather bored look of her suspect.
Its voice dripped with sarcasm while it inspected her with its grey eyes.
"Ah… great. Another pencil nudger. Now, where's my lawyer?"
Karen took a brief breath before continuing towards the desk.
Her chair creaked when she pulled it back to sit on it, while she kept her eyes constantly on the creature in front of her. She turned on the microphone for the records after putting down the container and evidence before she glanced over to the video camera that had a green light showing its activity.
The Demon tapped the desk with each finger from her right hand in a semirhythmic fashion, while it played with its left on the closing mechanism.
If not for those suppressing handcuffs that rattled with each motion, that thing would've been easily able to kill her right now.
"I'm also still waiting for my coffee. You could have at least show that level of decency, even if you don't respect my right for a legal representative."
Karen swallowed the fear that the creature evoked in her and opened the file she had from Bianca.
It showed a basic amount of informations, everything just like with any normal human. Perhaps the right place to start the interrogation.
"Your name is Tatjana Sorokin, born in Russia in nineteen eighty-three and immigrated to Germany in two thousand one. Is that correct?"
A bored glance moved to meet with her own curious look, accompanied by the occasional shaking of its chains.
"Yup, and I'm sure you already checked my address, birth certificate, and fingerprints, too. So, could we just skip this tittle-tattle and jump forward to the part where you tell me what's it you're accusing me of?"
She assessed the creature once more from top to bottom. Its disguise looked nowhere near the supposed age of near forty, more like a young woman that crossed the age of twenty-five.
"With all due respect, you don't look like thirty-seven. Besides the fact that there were no fingerprints in our records and the building under your address was empty."
An amused chuckle escaped its lips, which formed to a smirk that seemed slightly relieved.
"Hahaha… so you keep me here because I look forbidden good for my age? Tsk… I feel flattered, sweetheart, but you aren't my type. I'm fishing on the other side of the river."
With the wink followed a kiss that the creature blew towards her, which carried a somewhat chemical smell with it. Was that perfume?
"Besides, your documents should have already told you. I'm taken. And what can I for your inability to find the right address?"
Karen ignored its seductive gestures and the jokes to concentrate instead on a picture from a body camera in the files. It showed the Demon with the evidentiary cylinder under its arm, while it tried to flee through a half melted wall.
"We found the right address, and you know exactly why you're here. We have recordings of your escape attempt and valid reasons to suspect your real identity as a Demon."
She turned the file around and showed it to the bored creature, who continued to play with the handcuffs.
"What you have is a recording of a woman fleeing from several armed, unidentified troops that stormed her workplace while she inspected the contents of freight containers she's responsible for."
It frowned before resuming to tip against its lower lip, as if in thoughts.
"I do not know what you mean by 'Demon', but the poor construction of a wall that melts upon contact with water from the fire extinguishing system is certainly not something you can blame me for."
Karen grit with her teeth at the sly comment, which left no weak point open. There was no direct evidence of her using magic besides Sebastian's hunch. A fact the Demon visibility enjoyed rubbing under her nose.
"I'd like to talk with my lawyer now. Or would you be so kind to finally let me leave?"
Her options for further questions ran dry, with the Demon already admitting to the possession of the container and probably just dodging anything regarding its content.
She had no clue, and the creature had a constant mask of boredom and sarcasm on its face, which left her with nothing to work with.
And there she hoped to relieve Sebastian of his… inhumane task.
Which reminded her of something.
The only time that it had shown any emotion besides boredom was during the question of its address.
What could the relief mean she showed for a moment?
Karen browsed back through the file to the basic information, the rattling sound from the bored Demon still in the background.
"You know, I don't have the entire day time. Some people have an actual life out there. Could you hurry up?"
She reprimanded herself. The Demon had even mentioned that it had a relationship. Although it was just a fake identity, it must be. Maybe the humans in its life were still a suitable target to aim for.
"What is it that's so urgent? Or maybe I should say who? We weren't able to locate your husband or son. Doesn't that worry you?"
For just a moment, it seemed like there was actually worry I its demeanor, and what was earlier boredom switched to genuine attention towards her.
"I don't know what you want to insinuate. Why would an unconstitutional police raid at my workplace have anything to do with my family? Neither my company nor I am responsible for the content of our freight containers. That's entirely under disclosure. Had you just brought a court order, we would have given you everything we have on the company that hired us to ship them."
Had she really hit a sore spot? Karen struggled to believe a Demon would actually care for the family of her human coverage.
"Yet you were in possession of this disclosed freight, and even burned some of the documents, which triggered the earlier mentioned extinguishing system. That doesn't add up."
Her thoughts got interrupted as the creature slammed her hands on the table in front of her, startling Karen with the sudden sound.
"FUCK! I wouldn't even have been there, had it not been for Jerry's horribly fucking idea to eat cheap sushi yesterday. He was the one supposed to inspect if the freight was intact. The lazy bastard probably doesn't even have a food poisoning! And the fire! I was just trying to light a cigarette when your buddies blew up the doors."
She watched as the Demon took a more defensive position, putting its hands together and rubbing nervously on the handcuffs.
Karen saw her chance to increase the pressure, concentrating on the informations they had of its relatives.
"Either way, your husband didn't show up at his workplace, and your son missed out on school. Don't you think that's kinda suspicious after we caught you last night?"
The grey eyes that crossed with her own were now filled with a clear animosity. A look that caused a cold shudder to run down her spine.
A discomfort that didn't go unnoticed, as the Demon in front of her smiled while continuing to toy with its handcuffs, now visibly less nervous.
"Why wouldn't they hide after I got kidnapped by a secret government organization without warrant or any legal basis to do so. They probably checked in at a random hotel, after they got the messages you surely found on my phone."
Maybe it was because she had shown her own weakness, since it felt like she slowly lost the control she had in the conversation.
Her eyes wandered through the texts that the technical support had found in the Demon's mobile device, in search of more information on its family. Yet she found only more contradictions to former statements.
"You said earlier that you couldn't identify the special task force and fled because of that. Yet your texts are too specific for that. What is it now? And why didn't you yield as soon as you noticed and wrote your text messages?"
Karen watched as the creature propped its head on its hands, while showing an amused expression, with chains still rattling in the background.
"Well… that's a good question. Hm…"
A few seconds of relative peace passed, only interrupted by the sound of metal on metal, as the Demon contemplated.
She already feared to have hit a dead end in her interrogation when the rattling stopped and the room filled for a moment with complete silence.
"Let's say, hypothetically, I knew what you were searching for. What kind of protection could you give someone who spills sensitive informations?"
The Demon looked at her with a newfound grin on its face, both eyes partially covered by the dark brown hair that hung low from its hunched position.
Something was off, the sudden change back to the mask it wore earlier, yet her goal seemed so close now.
"I'm sure we can figure something out. It would obviously depend on the informations you can provide to us, but some easement for your sentence is surely possible."
Its hand moved to its face to signal genuine contemplation, yet its statue betrayed an unsettling confidence.
"Oh… that sounds nice. But I'm sorry, one of your swimming prisons is not quite what I had in mind."
A click reached her ears and reminded her of the absence of any other background noise.
"Allow me to ask you a rather personal question, Karen."
Before Karen could ask herself from where the Demon had her name, appeared a voice in her head that didn't belong to herself.
'Do you fear my kind?'
Karen felt a dread fill her limbs at the realization and tried to move, scream for help or grab for her weapon.
Yet all she could do was to listen as the question echoed in her mind with a terrifying intensity.
Both handcuffs fell off as the Demon stood up, each one partially melted at the closing mechanism.
The smug grin on its face added another cold shudder to her frightening situation.
"I guess I can take that as a yes."
She felt stupid for not noticing sooner how the creature had just bought itself time, only playing with her for its amusement.
A swift movement with its left arm send some kind of projectile towards the door, followed by a sizzling sound and a heavy chemical smell that reminded her of earlier.
It took its time to inspect the container on the table before it shrugged and disregarded it.
"Hm… obviously locked. Well, anyway. You will serve as an excellent hostage."
The creature threw the desk between them aside, ripping out the screws that fixated it to the ground with no effort.
Seeing the inclosing Demon filled Karen's mind with panic, yet all her limbs stuck in place and refused to listen to her inner pleas.
She tried to fight, to force herself to move, but it only filled her head with a pain that felt like it would split it apart at any moment.
Yet all of her struggles intensified once more when the harsh grip of the Creature pulled on her shoulder.