Galatea 2 - Chapter 24

CHAPTER 24: INVESTIGATION THREE

A singular bulb dangling from the middle of the room exploded with light, though Vanessa did not react. Her eyes remained dead ahead, as they had in her cell, and as they had for the last eleven hours or so.

The only noise permeating the room was a rhythmic drumming of meaty fingers, emanating from the increasingly impatient General L’Enfant. Unlike many of the more reserved men in this complex who could go days without prisoners breaking, the General was eager to get to the bottom of Vanessa’s silence.

Truth be told, so was the man in black, though he was far better at hiding it. Vanessa’s powers, if Brian was telling the truth, could have horrifying consequences for not only the status quo of his government, but for the status quo for humanity as a whole. This mere college student with a major in fashion could have every single man in this compound by the balls if she wanted to. So why didn’t she? Just what exactly was her plan?

Being an offshore compound, governmental jurisdiction over what counted as “torture” or a “war crime” could not reach here. Nevertheless, Vanessa’s uncooperative nature wasn’t challenged, as her body appeared impervious to various drastic methods of information gathering.

Their first attempt, rather predictably, was an attempt to waterboard Vanessa. She cooperated fully as they lay her down on a table, smothered her mouth, and then eventually her entire face with cloth, simulating her drowning by dumping buckets upon buckets of water atop her face. She didn’t squirm once, remaining perfectly still as a group of men shouted and pestered her, demanding her to talk. After twenty minutes, they finally pulled the towel off of her face, only to find that she had fallen asleep. Their methods were so ineffectual, even her makeup hadn’t been smeared—to their surprise, it wasn’t makeup at all. Her face was simply that perfect.

Moving on to forms the United States actually did recognize as torture, they attempted to forcefully drag Vanessa to the sleep deprivation chamber. Vanessa, not to be dragged anywhere, chose instead to walk there, even though she was supposed to be disoriented by the labyrinthian halls of the complex and have no clue where to go.

Sitting cross-legged in the middle of the room, audio technicians blasted frequent obnoxious noise into the space, ensuring that it was at least within the 120dB range and followed no particular pattern that she could ease into. Despite their best efforts, Vanessa found herself nodding off into sleep yet again, completely unphased by the concert-levels of noise periodically blasting her eardrums. Hours passed before the men finally caved, shutting off the noise and retrieving Vanessa from containment.

But the soldiers were in for a rude awakening when, periodically and seemingly at random, the piercing sounds of the room started back up again. The order of the compound was thrown into chaos as the guards attempted to locate the source of the sound, at first blaming the audio technicians before running maintenance checks on every speaker. Though no one could truly prove it, the true culprit was Vanessa’s normally calm and silent exhales from her breathing, which would occasionally crank up to eleven and provide a perfect mimicry of the high-decibel screeches that permeated the room previously. All from a mere hum which barely rippled her perfect lips. A taste of their own medicine. Wasting extra time with soundproofing their ears, they finally managed to escort the irksome woman to one last trial, confident that this would be the one to break her.

They dumped her into a messy pit—though, more accurately, she dumped herself in—where a starved Bengal Tiger resided. The massive cat growled, not appreciating a stranger entering its domain and also desiring a quick and easy meal, which a thin, lean woman like Vanessa appeared to be.

After two minutes of relative silence, guards checked the pit. What they saw was shocking, but what else could they have expected?

Snuggling together in tranquility, Vanessa and the Bengal Tiger were wrapped around one another, the Tiger purring softly on her lap while Vanessa scritched the fur below its chin. That had been the most Vanessa had moved or emoted all day, a pleasant smile stretching across her perfect face as she combed through its patterned fur with her fingers.

Unfortunately, Vanessa and her new furry friend were forced to separate as she was whisked back to the interrogation room once more, this time, the man in black had a new approach that he hoped would yield more productive results.

“Alright Vanessa, let’s start off with an easy question… one that will surely perk you up and tell us what you want to hear,” the suited man said, rummaging through a list of scenarios. “If we let you return to your old life, with no questions asked, then will you at least speak up about your involvement with Giles and the virus?”

No response.

The man sighed. “...We’ll even throw in the Bengal Tiger if you want.”

Still no response.

“Answer the fucking question, or I’ll turn your pretty little face into a portrait!” the General interjected, growing increasingly impatient by the second. He had heard of her effortless effectiveness against their methods of torture and was furious.

Vanessa smiled as L’Enfant kept ripping into her. It didn’t even matter anymore. They had already lost. That last empty threat had been the final proof Vanessa needed to confirm what she already knew: Her powers were still growing, and now mortals' minds would be little challenge to her. If she could make a ferocious tiger into a docile kitty with an errant thought, the minds of man would prove little different.

L’Enfant shouted into the brick wall that was Vanessa, then with the man in black as he tried to subdue his associate into speaking more calmly, as well as inquiring what exactly he meant by calling her a “portrait.” Meanwhile, Vanessa was lost within her own mind. Now that they had turned on each other, she could have some time to herself to think. If the best the military had to offer in terms of torture had no effect on her, then there would be nothing to stop her from doing whatever she wanted short of total nuclear annihilation.

But then there were the three others who she knew were trapped in here with her. Giles could rot in hell for all she cared. Hopefully, they’d invent some new torture device specifically for him that would actually be effective. As for Brian… Well, he was a fun time. Fun to mess with, and with a decently impressive bod. Now that she didn’t have to pretend to be in a relationship with Kevin, he seemed like half a decent option. Plus, he probably knew a good amount about Giles’ tech, meaning if she was craving even more power, it wouldn’t be too hard for him to help her achieve that.

Then came the inevitable question of Audrey. Vanessa didn’t want to think about Audrey. She was… there. They had been best friends at some point but that ship had sailed. She wasn’t worth considering anymore.

Eventually, the bickering subsided between the two men, and Vanessa was reluctantly forced to acknowledge their existences once more. “Look, let’s just bring in Giles then. Let’s face it, we’re not getting any more information out of her!” L’Enfant bemoaned. For the first time today, the General had uttered a salient point.

With that, Vanessa was dragged back to her cell. A successful interview, all without uttering a single word.

***

Back into her cell, Vanessa continued her dance with the rare windows of privacy she was afforded. After an hour of patiently waiting, twitching only when she was absolutely sure she was allowed to, everything was finally in place, all the dust and miscellaneous scraps exactly where they needed to be, all that remained was to wait for the exact right time. Then, all the puzzle pieces could fall into place and Vanessa would be a free woman once more.

Fifteen more minutes. That's all she needed.