Chapter Text
The metal cuffs are cold and heavy around my wrists.
This is more dramatic than I was expecting.
I always wondered what it would feel like to get arrested. To be read my rights, charged with a crime, and ride in a police car down to the police station.
I thought I prepared myself adequately enough for it. Never expected them to handcuff me to the table like some violent criminal when my crime was anything but.
The entire room was designed to make someone feel uneasy. The bright lights beating down on my head, the dull gray walls, the mirror that wasn’t really a mirror, the cold metal table I was cuffed to, and the hard chair I sat on…everything carefully designed to make people crack under pressure.
I relax my shoulders and wrists while keeping my gaze forward.
‘When you are being interrogated, you must always appear calm.’
My breath catches for a moment. His voice in my head appeared with its unwanted advice. I could almost imagine him, standing there watching me from the corner of the room.
No. He’s not here. You’re not there anymore.
I shift my attention towards the door at the far end of the room. They were making me wait. Another ploy to make me uncomfortable. To get me to spill all my little secrets.
Little do they know.
I wasn’t dangerous.
Liar.
I just…happened upon things I wasn’t supposed to find.
Lies.
Maybe I just happened to gain access to one of the FBI’s most protected databases by pure coincidence.
Like they’re going to believe that pathetic excuse.
A creaking sound snaps me out of my thoughts. The door swings open and two people in suits stand just outside it. I observe both of them as they walk into the room.
The first was a roughly six foot tall man with brown hair, dark chocolate-colored eyes, and sporting a dark gray suit with a red tie. He stands at the opposite end of the table with a neutral expression on his face, but his ramrod straight posture and the intense way he studied me told me a different story.
‘Remember to relax your posture Thea. Showing anxiety is a sign of weakness, and they’ll pounce on you fast.’
I force my muscles to relax and shove his voice out of my head as I watch the second person enter the room.
She’s a woman, little more than five and a half feet tall, brown hair, steel-gray eyes that looked like storm clouds, and wearing a dark blue suit. She joins the other man at the far end of the table with a a serious, no-nonsense expression on her face as her eyes scanned me with great intensity.
Everything about these two screams power and control.
I keep my face placid and carefully neutral, suppressing any reaction to their watchful gazes. They don’t speak for a long moment, letting the silence fill the space - yet another manipulation tactic.
They both look familiar. Very familiar.
I mentally review the list of profiles I memorized from the database when it hits me: FBI Director Tanner Briggs and FBI Special Agent Veronica Sterling.
They arrived much faster than I thought they would.
I had been arrested earlier this morning, and now both the Director of the FBI himself and one of his top agents stand in front of me a few hours later. Clearly, my actions made the FBI uneasy.
Just as I had planned.
Director Briggs breaks the long silence at last. “Thea Carter. I’m sure you know exactly why you are here.”
Let the interrogation begin.