Somewhere in Ozipol
There was a knock on the windowless office door, a woman with scrubs and a bloody surgical mask hanging off her neck opened the door, "He's awake."
Ieter, sitting at a desk with just a flickering CRT monitor and piles of papers, tossed a folder on the climbing pile of aged paper, "Good. I couldn't stand to read any more Bureau of Security et cetera incident reports. I might as well get that intern to burn it all."
"Right well, I'm just in medical..."
Ieter stood up and interrupted her, "You're not just one thing Doctor, you became STIA, when you're STIA, you become anything we say you are."
The woman in scrubbed tilted her head down, "Right comrade."
"Show me to our new guest."
Ieter followed the woman down a confusing set of concrete floored hallways, their boots heard echoing all the way up ventilation shafts. It was a strange building to be in, under, whatever, because it was so dead quiet. The doctor pulled a badge from her scrubs, entering an 8 number code on a keypad next to a gray door, and pressing the badge against it to make the door click open. She opened the door and let Ieter walk in first.
A single light illuminated a surgical table at the center where a man was strapped down and had a bandaged throat. He managed a weak and breathless, "W-Where, am I?" in broken Ozian.
Ieter laughed, responding back to him like a grade school instructor teaching Ozian as a foreign language, "Ozipol, Sir Fletcher." She switched to Megatrine Inglish, "You were declared dead for awhile Mr. Fletcher. Unfortunately for you, Ozia's brightest trauma surgeons were on standby. Also unfortunately, you weren't dead long enough for brain damage to be a possibility. So now, the last things you'll remember Fletcher, could be me."
"W-What am I doing in Ozipol? How did I get here?" He switched back to his native language.
"I dragged you here, and how you got here Fletcher is a whole other story. As I understand it Fletcher you've never been to Ozia, how do you like your stay at Divine Ozia so far?"
He played along with sarcasm, "Swimmingly"
"Funny you should say that!" The doctor in scrubs wrapped a piece of cloth over his face and another woman in scrubs started pouring water over his mouth. After a moment of pouring they stopped and removed the clothing. Ieter continued, "This is child's play compared to what else we might do. I know this weather isn't what you usually experience in the Order. I can get out Gaea's Jacket and we can discuss things more when you catch your breath again."
His eyes dilated, skin whitened, "No, no, not that. I don't know what I did to you people. I'm sorry. I never meant to disrespect Gaea, God bless her, I mean Gaea bless her, I mean Gaea be holy." He teared up, "Anything but the jacket! Not that, never that. I'll talk, I'll talk. I never did anything to the Ozia-... People's Government, I swear! Just anything but the jacket!"
Ieter lowered her head closer to the washed out face of the man, "How will I know you'll be truthful Mr. Fletcher. You are a man who makes business in lies are you not? Do you have anything to offer? You have kids don't you? Little Barry and Ashley." She looked at her watch, "They should be in bed by now, no? Their grandmother, your mother, reading the Durlothic Tales to them, well not the real ones. You bought them the modern revised version. It doesn't even include anything about The Three Crystalisks because it's so inappropriate for children."
"H-How do you know that?"
Ieter grasped his bandaged throat, applying pressure to his new wounds, blood dribbling out of the sides from the sutures starting to tear, "I know everything about you Fletcher! Maybe next Celebration Day, I'll wear red, and I'll go visit your children. I will tell them that I'm there to take them, not give presents! Are your children naughty Fletcher? Are they? Because their father sure as hell is, and as they say in Megatrine, the apple doesn't fall far from the fucking tree. If you don't tell me what I need to know Fletcher, I'll call my monster to get your boy. All I have to say is Monster, come get the boy. Come get innocent Barry. Then will you talk? Will you talk then Fletcher? Or will I have to call monster to get the girl too? I hope you are honest with me as a drunken fool Fletcher, or I'll rob even more. More and more, until there's nobody to speak about anyone you've ever cared about ever again. Do you want me to make them disappear? Vanish without anyone knowing? You might be rich Fletcher, but you're not that rich. So do you understand the fucking cost of dishonesty now Fletcher? Are we crystal fucking clear?"
Just as the blood from his broken sutures dripped from the bandage and onto her hands so did from his eyes, it was uncontrollable. "Y-yes."
"Yes what? Who are you speaking to? I'll give you a hint, it starts with the color of your blood on my hand"
"Y-yes, Red Robber."
Ieter's tone shifted back to her soft voice, "Fletcher, what were you doing accessing that Megatrine satellite? You've made us cause a lot of trouble forcing it onto a crash course. But take your time, because I have all day. Don't think that I won't know if you're lying either, because I'm just dotting i's and crossing t's."
