Chapter 31: Debriefing
Nero and Gabriel locked eyes. Nero was long used to his friends' devilish red eyes, so he was not perturbed by them. Instead, what he looked for in them was some kind of answer. But all he saw was confusion.
WIth no answer from his intel expert, Nero quickly thought of reasons why the police could be looking for him. He considered for a moment it could have to do with the two policemen who rescued him from those soldiers, but that was not likely. In that case, chances were it might have something to do with the AAB attack.
Without a definite answer, he decided that the only way to know for certain was to go and find out for himself. He had not done anything that required him to be wary of the authorities, yet, so there was no reason for concern.
Just in case, however, he typed in his father's phone number from memory, but did not hit the dial button. He slid the tiny black phone in his sleeve and got up.
Outside his room, his three roommates were sitting in silence, as if waiting for something to happen. Well, besides Anthony, who he had met before, at least he was making a strong impression on the rest.
He flashed them a smile before heading out. Two officers, wearing brown long coats, were standing in the hall waiting for them. The coats as well as their hats were wet. Nero had not realised it was raining outside - the sound insulation in his room was pretty good, apparently.
The two men, who were easily above 1.8 metres (6 feet) in height, had brooding expressions, which was not a good sign. The moment Nero stepped out, they locked onto him, and inspected him with their eyes.
He was not sensitive enough to aether fluctuations yet to detect such things, but he was fairly certain that they had used some kind of card on him as well. What were they trying to check?
"Are you Nero Grant?" asked one with a growing stubble. It had clearly been a couple of days since he shaved.
"That's me."
"Why have you been avoiding the authorities?" he asked aggressively as he walked right up to Nero. "Are you connected to the attack on AAB?"
"Why am I- what? No, I have no connection to the attack!" Nero stated clearly and directly. He also subtly hit the dial button on his phone, calling his father. Why was he running into so much trouble lately?
"And I have 'not' been avoiding anyone. In fact, I was dropped off at the dorm yesterday by a couple of police officers. One of them was named Albert. You can check the dorm security cameras, or ask around among the police if you want."
The stubbled man clicked his teeth in irritation, as if he was disappointed with Nero's answer.
"Excuse my friend," said the other officer, who honestly did not look much better. At least he'd shaved more recently than his partner.
"He hasn't slept in a while, so he's a little grumpy. What he meant to say was, why did you leave the hospital without giving a statement? As someone involved in a terrorist event, you need to be debriefed about what you experienced."
Ah, they were playing him with the good cop, bad cop routine. Honestly speaking, it would not be so easy to detect for anyone else as they would be too rattled by the accusation against him and the officer's aggression to think calmly. Unfortunately, such things did not work on him.
But there was no reason to let them know that. Now that he knew what their purpose was, Nero just needed to answer the questions as honestly as possible. Unless they were specifically targeting him, the situation should resolve itself.
"How was I supposed to know I had to be debriefed? No one told me. I had just synchronised and I had to do a few chores and get back to my hostel before dark. It was already pretty late so I was in a rush. I didn't think there was any issue because no one stopped me."
The two officers made eye contact briefly, though they exchanged no words.
"So, can you tell me what you experienced? If you want, we can head somewhere more private."
"No, this is fine," Nero said, before he began to give a detailed account of what happened that morning. He even mentioned being tasked with delivering the deck case, though he left out the conversation he heard in the auditorium, as well as attacking the terrorists briefly before reaching the auditorium.
He was not worried about being found out for leaving things out, because it was perfectly natural not to remember things in intense situations. He made it seem like the only reason he had been able to traverse those halls was because of the darkness card he'd received.
"That sounds like Gregor," the police officer with the stubble said, and the other nodded. He made notes of everything Nero had said in a small notepad.
"Alright, there doesn't seem to be an issue. If there's anything else, we'll come find you here. Just keep in mind that we'll corroborate your story with others."
"That's not an issue. Did you say the name of the Herald who gave me the darkness card is Gregor? Is he alright? Did he survive? I didn't really get an opportunity to meet him after everything was over."
"We believe he used a Feign Death card to put himself in an artificial coma to prevent his injuries from getting worse. But he's still in a coma, so we're not sure. Once he wakes up, we will interview him as well."
"Did... did you get all the terrorists?" Nero asked, a hint of fear coming out of his voice. "Do you know if there are any more of them?"
The two officers exchanged another glance, before the one with the clean shave said, "that's confidential. But don't worry, we have everything in hand."
Afterwards they left after once again reminding him that they'd know where to find him if he had lied to them. Nero did not respond to the subtle threat, and waited for them to leave before bringing the phone out of his sleeve.
"Old man, why didn't you tell me I needed to be debriefed?" he demanded.
"Hey, hey, the little bird has left the nest. It's time you deal with things on your own. Weren't you looking forward to being independent?"
Nero clicked his teeth. So his dad was just being petty.
"But setting that aside, I'm glad you called. I have some good news, and I was trying to reach you but your phone wasn't connecting. Your mother is responding well to her treatment. In a couple months, if everything goes well, she should be fully recovered. But to make sure her treatment isn't interrupted, they're taking her to Lorilem. So she's not going to be around for a while."
"That's great! What about you, are you going to accompany her?"
"No, I have some other stuff going on. I'll send you a letter when I can. Stay in school, and try to stay out of trouble."