31. Chapter 11
Chapter 11
Angela was in an interrogation room. Again. This time, though, it was more than her and Dr. Phillips. Ae-cha and Zoric were there, sitting across the table from each other like adversaries. Which, she thought to herself, they were.
The interrogation room was chilly and the breeze from the air conditioner raised the hairs on her arms. The chemical smell of the industrial cleaners combined with the smell of dried sweat, and the musk of the lizard people. Angela had never considered what it would mean for her sense of smell to become more sensitive but she wasn't entirely certain she liked it.
She was sitting in the uncomfortable metal chair she'd become accustomed to. Dr. Phillips chair was also metal but it had a pad for the seat. A couple benches had been brought in for Ae-cha and Zoric instead of more metal folding chairs and they both looked more comfortable than they had in the conference room.
"Alright," Dr. Phillips started. "We're going to begin with some basic questions to establish how this is going to work."
"Why not just jump straight into it?" Angela asked. She tried to keep the bitter tone out of her voice but Zoric sent a gentle surge of comfort across their Bond. It was the closest they were going to get to a hug in that room and she appreciated it. "That's what everybody else has done."
"Because we've never worked together before," Ae-cha answered. "Because that is what I prefer as well."
"And you've seen how well that works," Zoric said. Angela could feel his anger but couldn't see the incident that had caused it. He'd buried the memory of it and she would have to ask him to explain later.
"It works fine after an incident," Ae-cha threw back at him.
"We have different definitions of 'fine'," Zoric threw back.
"Which is why I will be leading the interrogation," Dr. Phillips put in, her voice sharp. "There are obviously some strong emotions from everyone involved but the sooner we get at the heart of what's going on, the sooner we can search for the truth."
That's an odd turn of phrase, Angela thought.
I do not believe her search for truth is genuine, Zoric responded to her.
I think she's already decided I'm guilty and is looking for ways to prove it, she thought to him.
It was getting easier to talk to Zoric with her mind, and something about it nagged at her. Like she wasn't learning a new skill but remembering an old one.
"Truth is always a good thing to search for," Ae-cha said, her voice cold. "But we should not forget the importance of facts, as well."
"They're the same thing," Dr. Phillips protested.
"We shall see," Ae-cha said cryptically.
I don't know what she expects to see, but I'm not sure I like either of their attitudes, Angela sent and Zoric nodded.
"What do you need to get started?" he asked, drawing the discussion away from the disagreement. "I've never seen this done in person."
"Normally, I'd ask to be alone with Private McBride in a dark room so there were fewer distractions."
Angela felt Zoric stiffen next to her and she reached out for his hand to soothe him. His fingers closed over hers as they slid across the soft scales on his hands and it felt like an anchor in a sea of uncertainty.
"That is not possible," Dr. Phillips stated.
"And possibly counterproductive for our purposes here," Ae-cha agreed, though her eyes flashed at the interruption from the human psychiatrist. "Instead, I'm going to ask Angela to relax and look into my eyes while Dr. Phillips asks her first question."
Ae-cha held out a clawed hand to Angela, who stared at it for a long moment before she slid her free hand into it. Zoric's hand tightened around hers and she found herself comparing how their skin felt.
Zoric's was rougher, with more definition to the delicate scales on his palm, his claws trimmed short and filed until they were a smooth pressure against her skin. Ae-cha's skin was smoother, closer to a snake than a lizard, and her claws were sharp and poised to pierce through the back of Angela's hand.
Their eyes weren't the same, either. Zoric's looked almost human, even though his face was definitely not. Ae-cha's face had a more human shape to it but her eyes were a solid green, though Angela couldn't remember if they'd always been that color.
With every breath, Angela felt herself sinking further into Ae-cha's green eyes.
Dr. Phillips voice came from so far away, Angela had to strain to hear the first question.
"What is your full name?" she asked.
"Angela Edith McBride."
"What was your mother's name?"
"Sarah Lillian McBride."
"What was your father's name?"
Angela struggled with the answer. It was a basic question and she was certain she'd written it on her official paperwork but she was having trouble grasping the words before they slipped away from her.
"Gabriel," she said, after a battle with her brain to dredge up the information and her mouth to speak it.
Tell us his full name, Ae-cha demanded. Her voice surrounded Angela's consciousness, her presence looming over her like a shadowy monster and Angela recoiled.
It's none of their business, the voice in the back of her head hissed. He doesn't matter, anyway.
"Angela," Dr. Phillips pressed. "What is your father's full name?"
"I don't know!" Angela cried out, and yanked herself away from Ae-cha.
At some point during the interrogation, her eyes had closed, and she blinked hard to bring the room around her back into focus. Ae-cha's presence in her mind felt foul and Angela was struck with the sudden urge to scrub every inch of her skin, even as she knew she'd never get rid of the feeling of violation.
Zoric reached out for her and she clung to him. His gentle reassurance through their Bond felt like a breeze to blow off the storm clouds that were hovering over her.
When she looked up, she could see the disapproval on Ae-cha's face and the speculation on Dr. Phillips.
"Were your parents unmarried?" Dr. Phillips asked, looking down at the file. "Previous sources indicated that your father was an active part of your childhood."
Angela shook her head, struggling to pull together what she remembered about her father. He was tall, but all of her memories of him were from the perspective of a child, so she didn't think she could actually judge that. Dirty blonde hair and mustache, a constant five o'clock shadow, and kind, gray eyes.
"My mother never married," Angela said, struggling to pull the words together. "My father lived with us for a long time, and I know mama loved him. I never understood what he did but he had to leave a lot, and he'd come home as often as possible, until he didn't. Mama was sad, and I missed him, but I'd always known we didn't get to keep him."
"How did you know?"
"He wasn't ours to keep. He'd been borrowed from another holler to make Mama happy."
"What do you mean 'borrowed'?" Ae-cha asked.
Angela struggled to answer. It wasn't something they talked about and how did she even begin to explain?
"He didn't belong to us. He wasn't…family."
"But he was your father?" Dr. Phillips pressed.
"He was. But he wasn't a McBride. He was a Hauser. So, he came to be with my mother, but he eventually had to go back."
"Are you a Hauser, as well as a McBride?" Ae-cha asked.
Angela shook her head. "I could have been just a Hauser, and if I was, he would have stayed until they'd had a McBride. Part of the deal was that there would be a McBride child from their union. That I was also a girl made everything easier, I think."
"How did they know you were a McBride and not a Hauser?" Dr. Phillips asked.
"There was a test," Angela said.
"What kind of test?" Ae-cha asked, her voice suspicious.
She didn't know. Instead of panic at the realization that she couldn't remember the test, there was a sense of calm. As though it was just a normal part of losing early memories. "I don't know," she answered. "I was so young when it happened, I don't know if I ever could have remembered it."
"Was your father's name Gabriel Hauser?" Dr. Phillips asked.
"No," Angela said. She knew that answer. Her line was unique for holding the family name. Many of the families had changed names throughout the years but hers never had as long as anyone could remember. And memories ran for generations in the hollers.
"I'm fascinated that your father was loaned to your mother to create a child. And there was a contract involved but not a marriage," Ae-cha said. There was a subtle hint of a question beneath her statement but Angela didn't feel compelled to answer it until she asked it directly.
"Do you have any siblings?" Dr. Phillips asked. "Or cousins?"
"No siblings," Angela said. "Lots of cousins, though. Mama's siblings married into other lines and the town."
"Why didn't your mother marry?" Ae-cha asked.
Angela shrugged. "She didn't have to and I don't think she would have wanted anybody else but my father."
"Who arranged the contract between your parents?" Ae-cha was leaning towards her across the table and Angela could feel herself being caught in her eyes.
Panic began to rise in Angela's breast as she tried to capture the thought that her family belonged to someone. Zoric reached out through their Bond and calmed her before her breath seized in her lungs.
Ae-cha recognized her reaction and began to pursue the line of inquiry. "Did the person who arranged the contract ever hurt you?"
Immediately, memories of a warm and loving presence filled her. Shadows over the side of the mountain that filled her with joy combined with a certainty that, whatever happened, she was safe. Warm naps in the sun, hot chocolate in front of the fire, and worried voices settled by a calm presence when she was sick.
He'd never hurt you, the voice in the back of her head said.
"No," she said. "We were precious to him."
Unease at her memories filled Zoric and spilled across their bond. She reached out to discover what was causing it and found his own memories shut tight against her.
"Do you know why you were precious to him?" Ae-cha asked, and Angela could hear the tension in her voice.
"We were family," Angela explained. "He'd been watching over us for years. Mama worried sometimes that he was alone too much and invited him to everything."
"Did he tell you to join the armed forces?" Ae-cha asked. "Were you trained from birth to become a Marine?"
It was an odd question, to Angela's mind, that she would be encouraged to be a Marine.
"I fought for the ability to leave the mountain and become a Marine," she explained. "I was my mother's only daughter and the next keeper of the McBride line. Everybody wanted me to stay home but I wanted to see the world before I was confined to the holler for the rest of my life."
"Why were you allowed to leave?" Zoric asked, dread filled his voice and leaked along their Bond. Angela still didn't understand why.
"A quorum was called," Angela explained. "The elders and the keepers negotiated my freedom for a few years in the Marines. And there were arrangements. I don't know what, except that I got a ride to all the testing and to the bus for boot camp."
She tried to remember the ride to the testing station and couldn't. The feel of the upholstery under her thighs was as vivid as if it had been yesterday, so was her view through the window, and stepping out of the car. But she couldn't remember what kind of car it was, who was driving, or why she'd been so sad to look back and say goodbye.
Dr. Phillips cleared her throat. "Did you ever tell anybody when and where you were deployed?"
Angela shook her head. "I wrote to Mama when I was allowed to but I never told her anything about dates, places, or times. Just that I was doing well and some of what I was learning when it wasn't classified. I didn't even tell her about being part of the diplomatic guard for the Orvax."
"Why not?" Dr. Phillips asked. "That wasn't a classified assignment."
With a shrug of her shoulders, Angela turned to look at the human psychiatrist. "It didn't occur to me that she would be interested. And I wasn't going to be in the service much longer anyway."
"According to your service records, you were more than a year out from being able to file your separation paperwork. And up for at least one more promotion," Dr. Phillips said. "How soon were you planning to leave?"
"I wasn't planning to leave," Angela explained, even as she could feel the alarm from Zoric. "I just knew I wasn't going to be there much longer. There were other plans for me and-"
Zoric's tail tightened around her ankle and she took in a shocked breath.
"You stopped breathing," he told her when she looked up at him in confusion.
"Why did you think there were other plans for you?" Ae-cha asked. "Did your mother tell you?"
"No," Angela said, her brow furrowing in confusion. "I just knew."
"Who made these other plans for you?" Dr. Phillips asked.
Angela's lungs seized and she fought the panic that came with the lack of breath. Zoric's hand on the back of her neck sent chills up and down her spine just before his mouth crashed down on hers to force air back into her lungs.
Moments later, she could feel Ae-cha's presence sifting through her memories and what felt like a hook being released from her subconscious. Her brain stung like she'd been snapped by a rubberband and the intrusive presence of the female Chelion was gone as well.
She took a deep breath and felt Zoric's lips soften on hers for a long moment before he pulled away. When she opened her eyes, her chest burned with every breath and her gaze caught on the shift in Zoric's face. It was still him, the green scales still shifted with every movement, but his mouth and nose had reformed to more human shapes.
"What happened?" Dr. Phillips asked.
"We found one of the triggers," Ae-cha said. "And it was ugly."