Audition is the Unfiltered story I wrote a while back. I’ve decided that, horrible people or not, I could send it out as a short story, see if somebody will buy it. I spent most of the day adding the scene I’ve been meaning to add to it. Here’s a bit of it.
The interrogation process was strange.
There were four interrogators, one of whom sat next to the seccy (Norm decided he needed to remind himself that the pathetic figure in the gurney was actually a wanted terrorist), with the other three sitting behind. All of them wore full face masks, too. Madole shrugged when Baker pointed that out. “It’s not about personalities,” she told him, and would not comment further.
The questioning itself was even weirder. Baker and the others weren’t actually in the room itself, and there was no sound in the feed. The three interrogators still didn’t actually talk; instead, they huddled among themselves, silently writing on a piece of paper, making edits and additions until they apparently liked the result. Then they handed the paper to the fourth interrogator, who did speak aloud. After a moment, the seccy would mumble a response, which the interrogator would write down — and hand back to the other three. They would read it, put their heads together, and start scribbling another question.
That confused Ashelyn. “Why are they doing that? Can’t they hear the answers?”
Madole shook her head. “No. They have earplugs.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s not about personalities,” Madole replied, eyes on the screen. Ashelyn looked at Norm, who shrugged. She rolled her eyes, but didn’t push the point further.