The elevator arrived near the top of the tower, and the guards led Aster past a series of swanky offices and conference rooms, with Darius pacing ahead of them. She’d never been up to this part of the building before; this was where the actual business operations of the company took place: accounting, sales, client relations, and so on. Presumably, this was also where they took suspicious employees to be questioned.
The closer they got to their destination, the faster Aster’s heart raced. In fact, her apprehension was turning to palpable fear. But why should she feel afraid? After all, she was innocent – mostly. She hadn’t stolen or sabotaged anything, and she hadn’t passed on any sensitive information to J.E. Co.’s competitors or to anyone else. She hadn’t actually done anything to violate her employment contract, let alone the law; so this ought to be a breeze.
Finally, after passing through a security door, they arrived at an interrogation room. It was a windowless chamber with a single chair in the centre, a neuroimaging scanner on a robotic arm suspended overhead. It was oddly spacious for an interrogation room, with one whole corner given over to a monitoring booth with a bank of holographic screens where her neural activity could be monitored.
“Have a seat, Dr Thorn.” Chairman Darius ordered her, and she did as instructed.
The chair was more comfortable than it looked – probably to make the subject lower their guard – but as soon as Aster settled into the chair and gripped the armrests, the restraints closed around her wrists and ankles, securing her to the seat. Aster breathed and relaxed; she had things to hide, but nothing illegal. As long as she stayed calm, she would be fine.
The neuroimaging scanner descended from the ceiling and settled into place around her head, illuminating her head with a soft blue light as it activated. Over at the monitoring booth, Aster could see a mirror-image of her neural activity on the holographic screens; that was probably a design oversight on the part of the engineers, since the subject wasn’t supposed to be able to monitor their own progress.
The two guards left the room, leaving Aster alone with the chairman and a technician.
“Let’s begin, shall we?” said the chairman, stepping into the booth with the technician.
Aster gulped, but kept a straight face. Normally, a trained interrogator was required to conduct a neuroimaging-assisted questioning. So why was the chairman going to do it himself? Was he really that paranoid?
“Is your name Aster Thorn?” the chairman asked.
“Yes.” Aster replied calmly.
“Are you a licensed pilot?”
“No.”
“Are you married?”
“Yes.”
“Have you ever met the Masterminds?”
“No.”
“Do you have children?”
“Yes.”
“Are you hiding anything?”
“No.”
The serene blue readout displaying Aster’s neural activity flashed a tepid yellow as her brain caught up with her mouth. Darius exchanged a glance with the technician while Aster pursed her lips and tried to stay calm.
She had blurted out ‘no’ without thinking, then remembered the decoy data chip still in her coat pocket. The readout would show various shades of four colours depending on how truthful her statements were based on her brain activity. Blue was truthful, yellow was mildly untruthful or evasive, orange was substantially untruthful, and red was a blatant lie. A numerical score would be more accurate, but the colour coding was more visually intuitive.
“How do you know Jezebel Thorn?” Darius demanded.
“Uh…sir?” the technician said haltingly.
“What?” Darius snapped irritably.
“In order to provide unambiguous results, the system requires unambiguous yes/no questions.” the technician was visibly nervous about interrupting him, but managed to hold her composure under the chairman’s withering stare.
Darius nodded and turned back to Aster.
“Do you know Jezebel Thorn?” he asked, this time in a calmer voice.
“Yes.” Aster replied.
“Have you ever met Jezebel Thorn?”
“Yes, I have.”
“Have you met Jezebel Thorn recently?”
“Yes.” Aster said honestly.
“Are you on friendly terms with Jezebel Thorn?”
Aster looked her employer dead in the eye.
“Yes.”
The holographic readout flashed bright red. Darius exchanged another look with the technician before looking back at Aster with a suspicious scowl.
“She’s my mother-in-law.” Aster explained innocently; the readout stayed blue.
Darius’s scowl softened ever so slightly, almost sympathetically.
“Let’s continue then. Have you ever handed over sensitive company information to an unauthorised person or entity, or facilitated the disclosure of sensitive company information to an unauthorised person or entity?”
“No.” Aster said truthfully. If the chairman were a trained interrogator, he would have known to ask the two questions separately, but no matter.
“Have you ever attempted to sabotage this company’s products or research?”
“No.”
“Have you ever conspired to smuggle data or components out of this building?”
“No.” Aster replied more or less truthfully.
The readout registered a faint yellow blip.
“Have you ever smuggled data or components out of this building?” Darius asked, his suspicion rekindled by the yellow blip.
“No.” Aster answered.
“Have you ever used your personal override code to access restricted areas?”
“Yes.”
“Did you use your personal override code yesterday?”
“Yes.” Aster replied.
No point in lying about that.
“Have you used it more than once since yesterday morning?”
“No.” Aster answered, registering blue on the readout.
Darius didn’t follow up with another question. Instead, he exchanged yet another look of suspicion with the supervising technician, making Aster nervous. Had she slipped up? Were they testing her in some other way? Or did they know something she didn’t?
“Have you used your personal override code more than once since yesterday morning?” Darius repeated in a more aggressive tone.
“No, I have not.” Aster replied again, her own suspicions now piqued.
“Have you ever disclosed your personal override code to anyone?”
“Never.”
The readout remained blue, and there was another exchange of suspicious glances.
“Have you ever used your personal override code to access another employee’s office?” Darius asked, his eyes narrowed to leery pinpricks.
“Yes.” Aster confessed, nervous about how much trouble she might already be in.
“Was it Dr Lawrence Kane’s office?”
“Yes.”
Aster’s pulse was starting to race faster than it should. Her personal override code was a prerogative of her position and seniority, and using it didn’t violate any company rules. So why this line of questioning?
“Did you have an accomplice?”
“What?” Aster asked, nonplussed by the question.
“Don’t pretend to be stupid!” Darius snapped, “Did you have an accomplice?”
“An accomplice to what?!” Aster snapped back.
“ANSWER THE FLEEKING QUESTION!” Darius bellowed, red-faced.
“No! No I did not, and do not, have an accomplice!” Aster shouted back.
The readout fizzled to grey before returning to its normal blue colour.
“That was inconclusive, sir.” The technician said nervously.
“What the fleek do you mean ‘inconclusive’?” Darius demanded.
“Subjecting her to undue stress or anger muddles the readings and makes it difficult to determine whether she’s telling the truth or not.” The technician explained.
Perhaps they should have swapped roles.
“I did not, and do not have an accomplice.” Aster intoned.