Chamelea
Chapter 1
6.11.2061
INTERROGATION ROOM 6
DETAINEE 14834475739
Appearance and identifiable markings: Caucasian, dark blond hair, dark blue eyes, distinctive dimples, angular jaws, slight overbite, lean, muscular build
(01:38) The detainee arrives at the interrogation booth. His hands are cuffed and linked to the table. AGT R and AGT H are the interrogators. A DoD deputy and DOC L (BSCT) are present. AGT H states the time to the recorder.
(02:09) AGT H: State your name.
(02:12) DET: Chamelea. Or Leon. Either one works. You can call me Leon.
(02:19) AGT H: Your real name?
Detainee shifts and looks mildly uncomfortable.
(02:24) DET: Roderick Stahl. But if you want to find anything about me, you’ll use Chameleon.
(02:31) AGT H: It’s just for the record, Roderick. You are aware of why we’re here?
Detainee nods.
(02:38) AGT H: I’m going to be asking you questions now, you’ll answer them. You can ask for a lawyer at any point. Is that clear?
(02:46) DET: Yes. I've sat in on a few of these myself, I know how this works.
(02:52) AGT H: Let’s start at the beginning. How did you join the agency?
Detainee shifts in the chair and crosses his fingers.
(02:54) DET: I was forcibly recruited. She found me. She told me they’d been looking for me. (raises his thumbs) There were certain… stipulations, but we made an agreement. I’d been on my own for a… long time, but it was beneficial for the both of us. You know how it is.
(03:15) AGT H: For the tape; by "her", the detainee means [REDACTED]. How did she find you?
Detainee shrugs, taps his fingers on the table.
(03:20) DET: Sent an email. Showed up.
(03:24) AGT H: [REDACTED] showed up? Why you?
Detainee squints his eyes.
(03:35) DET: I thought you already knew of my specific skillset.
(03:41) AGT H: Enlighten us, if you will. For the cameras.
(03:46) DET: I do... undercover work. Deepcover.
(03:52) AGT H: What kind of undercover?
Detainee smiles.
(03:59) DET: Well, that is what I'm here to tell you about.
(04:04) AGT H: We appreciate you being forthcoming, Roderick, we really do. But we'd like to take our time. Just state the general nature of your... undercover work and especially [REDACTED]'s interest in you.
(04:18) DET: (shrugs) I'm good with disguises. As a skill it makes me useful. Couldn't tell you how she found me, though. I was no one, always good enough to be no one, but… she did.
(00) AGT H: So, she knew you had a reputation as a skilled undercover agent, which is why she pursued you.
(00) DET: Pursued me… yes. Reputation… no. But out of nowhere, she came.
(04:31) AGT H: Hmm. We’ve been wondering how, too. We ran your fingerprints. Facial data. Nothing in the system. In fact, there was nothing of you, anywhere. Whatever there may have been before, it’s all gone. Like you don't exist. (pause) Did she do that for you? Erase your past crimes?
(04:48) DET: Crimes? (taps fingers)
(04:53) AGT R: We're not here to persecute you about your past. Just tell us clearly.
(05:00) DET: I haven't done any crimes.
(05:04) AGT H: Impersonating is a crime.
(05:08) DET: Haven't done any of that. I mean. Well, I might have impersonated an officer sometimes. Never impersonated another person, though. I don't do that. But technically, I didn't have any crimes to erase. Why would you think that?
(05:23) AGT H: AIGO is a criminal organisation. Our understanding is that they recruited criminals with– special skillsets, as you said.
(05:34) DET: (smiles) You'd think that, wouldn't you?
(05:39) AGT H: Think what?
Detainee shifts and looks away. Amused.
(05:43) DET: They scouted. Not from prisons though. (pause) I've never been to a prison. No, wait. I forgot, three times. Been to a prison three times. Those were on purpose. Plus this time. If you put me there.
(06:03) AGT H: As I said, we appreciate you being cooperative. That depends on how much you can help us.
(06:11) DET: (smiles) That's what I'm here for. Here to help.
(000) AGT H: Good. Help us then. Let’s backtrack a bit.
AGT H opens a file.
(06:17) AGT H: What did you do for them? How did you work?
(06:24) DET: Oh, I did everything. They always had something cooking, and I was always working – one shortage you didn’t have to worry about. Many times, I had multiple cases at the same time. Always work for someone who can be anyone.
(06:38) AGT H: What do you mean by anyone?
Detainee shrugs.
(06:45) DET: Anyone white.
(06:49) AGT H: So you mean corporate espionage? Businessmen, male escorts? Give us examples.
Detainee slowly shakes his head.
(06:58) DET: Anyone. Whenever, however needed. A businessman, millionaire, worker. Homeless, escort, girlfriend, boyfriend. Husband, wife, mistress, whore, addict, officer, janitor, bartender, student, teacher, anything. (pauses) Right now, I’m an ex-agent of Agency for Improving Global Order.
Detainee leans back. AGT H looks to DOC L. DOC L writes on a notepad and nods.
(07:30) AGT H: What about the agency?
(000) DET: What about it?
(000) AGT H: Tell us about it.
(000) DET: I really don’t know much.
(000) AGT H: Anything. Where was it? How did you get in?
(000) DET: You already know where it is, don’t you?
(000) AGT H: You said you know how this works. C’mon, Roderick. As a sign of good faith.
(000) DET: Fine. [REDACTED]. I don’t know how the others got in. I had a special pass made. Took a little persuasion to make it happen. (laughs) I had a habit of showing up as a new person every day. Safer for me, see, no info attached, nothing constant. And it drove them mad, which was a bonus.
(07:51) AGT R: So you didn’t want to work for them? You weren’t loyal to them?
(07:57) DET: I mean… it’s an eat or be eaten world. Survival. I’ve been surviving for a long time. They were just another way for that.
(08:03) AGT H: What did they give you in exchange?
(08:06) DET: Nothing. (taps fingers) As I said, there were stipulations, I didn’t exactly get a choice.
(08:10) AGT H: Blackmail? What did they hold you on?
Detainee glances at DoD deputy.
(08:16) DET: Do I have to say it?
(08:19) AGT R: No, not right now.
AGT H nods at the blackened window. The projector is switched on and a picture is reflected on the opposite wall. In the picture is the victim Victor Manco. Detainee looks at the picture slowly, no reaction.
(000) AGT H: Tell us about him.
(000) DET: You’re making me do all the work here.
(000) AGT H: You said you know how this works. We’d like to hear things from your point of view.
Detainee shifts in his chair.
(000) DET: Victor Manco. One of my cases. Well, one of them for me, the case for AIGO. (pause)
(000) AGT H: You knew Manco beforehand?
(000) DET: Who didn’t? Bastard was everywhere.
(08:55) AGT H: Did AIGO usually go after businessmen?
(09:01) DET: (sucks air in through his mouth) Businessman… that’s a nice word for him.
(09:04) AGT R: This is a criminal investigation, Mr. Stahl. Manco’s not the one on trial.
Detainee leans back and rattles his cuffs by trying to raise his hand (forgets that he’s cuffed). Pause.
(09:10) AGT H: Fine, did AIGO usually go after – men like him? Why were they interested in him?
(09:14) DET: Why? (laughs) (pause) You screwing with me?
(05:14) AGT H: I mean specifically.
(05:17) DET: Well, he’s the reason we’re in this mess. I would list the usual suspects.
(000) AGT R: What mess?
(000) DET: (chuckles) What mess? What mess, he asks. What are you, fifty-forty years old? (leans more heavily forward on the table) Fifty years old and you ask, what mess?
(000) AGT H: How old are you, Roderick?
Detainee leans back.
(000) DET: However old you want me to be.
(000) AGT H: Let’s not go that route, it’s a simple question. How old?
(000) DET: Twenty-seven.
(000) AGT H: Twenty-seven, thank you. Wow. Not even thirty and already an established agent in one of the biggest undercover agencies in the country.
Detainee raises his eyebrows.
(000) AGT H: I was thirty when I got my first job here. And you’re right, unlike my colleague, I’m still too young to remember the past. That’s what you meant, right? The mess, life since the tsunamis?
Detainee waits. AGT H’s tone changes to sterner.
(000) AGT H: You seem to feel very strongly about Manco.
(000) DET: (interrupts) And you don’t.
(000) AGT H: Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but. You seem like a very passionate man. We know AIGO has eco-anarchist leanings, but Manco is just one man, however much he is to... blame. (pause) Whose idea was it to murder him? Hers or yours?
(000) DET: (chuckles) So this how you conduct a criminal investigation? Pick the first connected person, pin it on them? I thought this was about AIGO. You have no idea, how big AIGO is.
Detainee leans forward.
(000) DET: You want the names of all the senators who wanted Manco dead? I’ll give you the names. Manco was just one case for me. I’ve got plenty that I’ve hated just as much.
(000) AGT H: Are you implying that you’ve killed other people like Manco?
(000) DET: (tilts his head) I don’t recall saying anything about killing him.
AGT H shifts.
(06:37) AGT H: Fine. Let’s start at the beginning again. Manco was the case for AIGO. How did they tell you about him?
(06:42) DET: I always knew he was on their radar. She introduced me into the operation slowly. I did other assignments first, then half a year later she sat me down and gave me a file about it.
(06:57) AGT H: What was in the file?
(06:59) DET: Just intel about him. She wanted me to find a way to him. Profile him, study him, see where we could get to him, who could get to him.
(07:11) AGT H: And did you?
(07:12) DET: (chuckles) Yes. Through multiple people. None of them lead to anything, always just someone working under him. Walls after walls after walls. I started to think that a sex worker would be our best bet. You can’t distance call a sex worker. Or, you could, I’ve done that too, but…
(07:29) AGT H: So you were to meet him through an escort service?
(07:31) DET: No, no. That didn’t work out either. In the end he bought me, from my aunt.
(07:36) AGT H: Bought you…
Detainee leans his elbows on the table and lowers closer.
(07:41) DET: (smiles) Yes, bought me, Mercy Wilders, from my aunt.
DOC L writes on his notepad.
(07:47) AGT H: Mercy, that was your alias?
(000) DET: You can call it that, if it makes it easier.
(000) AGT H: How did Manco find Mercy?
(07:49) DET: I don’t know. You’d have to ask that from the Com-Intel guys. I just created the life.
(07:56) AGT H: And Mercy was a sex worker?
(07:58) DET: No, no. She was just bought. My aunt made the deal. Mercy thought she was going to marry Manco.
(08:08) AGT H: And you’re saying… that you were Mercy?
(08:13) DET: Yeah. You can probably still find some pictures if you look: try @yourwildmercy.
(08:22) AGT H: We’ll look into it. You were supposed to seduce Manco? And senators were involved in this plan?
(000) DET: Not in the plan, much, no. Monetarily, mostly. Far behind it.
(000) AGT H: And their names?
(000) DET: Oh, I’ll get to them. You said you wanted to take your time. I’d like to take my time, too. This is a long story.
AGT H means to answer, but a voice from the intercom says pictures are ready. AGT H nods and gestures to the agents behind the window. The picture of Manco changes to a picture of an attractive female. Approximately in her twenties, tan Caucasian, long, wavy light blonde hair, big grey eyes, filled lips, extremely curvy.
(000) DET: Nice to look at, isn’t she?
(000) AGT H: Mr. Stahl, you said you would be helpful.
(000) DET: I am.
(000) AGT R: That is a picture of a twenty year old girl.
(000) DET: Have a little imagination. I said that I’m good at what I do.
(000) AGT H: You expect us to believe that you’re in the picture?
(000) DET: Well, not me. (smiles)
(000) AGT H: Are you or are you not claiming that you are in the picture?
Detainee leans his elbows on the table.
(000) DET: That (glances and points at the picture) is Mercy. I was Mercy, for most of the weeks before my arrest. I am in the picture.
(000) AGT R: Bullshit.
Detainee leans back.
(000) DET: If you can’t believe me, then we’re not getting very far with this.
AGT H and R share a look.
(000) AGT H: Let’s say, for the sake of continuing this conversation, that we believe you. We have time. How about you start from the beginning, properly this time, tell everything like it happened.
Detainee crosses his fingers.
(000) DET: That’s all I’ve wanted.
Detainee smiles.
INTERROGATION ROOM 6
DETAINEE 14834475739
Appearance and identifiable markings: Caucasian, dark blond hair, dark blue eyes, distinctive dimples, angular jaws, slight overbite, lean, muscular build
(01:38) The detainee arrives at the interrogation booth. His hands are cuffed and linked to the table. AGT R and AGT H are the interrogators. A DoD deputy and DOC L (BSCT) are present. AGT H states the time to the recorder.
(02:09) AGT H: State your name.
(02:12) DET: Chamelea. Or Leon. Either one works. You can call me Leon.
(02:19) AGT H: Your real name?
Detainee shifts and looks mildly uncomfortable.
(02:24) DET: Roderick Stahl. But if you want to find anything about me, you’ll use Chameleon.
(02:31) AGT H: It’s just for the record, Roderick. You are aware of why we’re here?
Detainee nods.
(02:38) AGT H: I’m going to be asking you questions now, you’ll answer them. You can ask for a lawyer at any point. Is that clear?
(02:46) DET: Yes. I've sat in on a few of these myself, I know how this works.
(02:52) AGT H: Let’s start at the beginning. How did you join the agency?
Detainee shifts in the chair and crosses his fingers.
(02:54) DET: I was forcibly recruited. She found me. She told me they’d been looking for me. (raises his thumbs) There were certain… stipulations, but we made an agreement. I’d been on my own for a… long time, but it was beneficial for the both of us. You know how it is.
(03:15) AGT H: For the tape; by "her", the detainee means [REDACTED]. How did she find you?
Detainee shrugs, taps his fingers on the table.
(03:20) DET: Sent an email. Showed up.
(03:24) AGT H: [REDACTED] showed up? Why you?
Detainee squints his eyes.
(03:35) DET: I thought you already knew of my specific skillset.
(03:41) AGT H: Enlighten us, if you will. For the cameras.
(03:46) DET: I do... undercover work. Deepcover.
(03:52) AGT H: What kind of undercover?
Detainee smiles.
(03:59) DET: Well, that is what I'm here to tell you about.
(04:04) AGT H: We appreciate you being forthcoming, Roderick, we really do. But we'd like to take our time. Just state the general nature of your... undercover work and especially [REDACTED]'s interest in you.
(04:18) DET: (shrugs) I'm good with disguises. As a skill it makes me useful. Couldn't tell you how she found me, though. I was no one, always good enough to be no one, but… she did.
(00) AGT H: So, she knew you had a reputation as a skilled undercover agent, which is why she pursued you.
(00) DET: Pursued me… yes. Reputation… no. But out of nowhere, she came.
(04:31) AGT H: Hmm. We’ve been wondering how, too. We ran your fingerprints. Facial data. Nothing in the system. In fact, there was nothing of you, anywhere. Whatever there may have been before, it’s all gone. Like you don't exist. (pause) Did she do that for you? Erase your past crimes?
(04:48) DET: Crimes? (taps fingers)
(04:53) AGT R: We're not here to persecute you about your past. Just tell us clearly.
(05:00) DET: I haven't done any crimes.
(05:04) AGT H: Impersonating is a crime.
(05:08) DET: Haven't done any of that. I mean. Well, I might have impersonated an officer sometimes. Never impersonated another person, though. I don't do that. But technically, I didn't have any crimes to erase. Why would you think that?
(05:23) AGT H: AIGO is a criminal organisation. Our understanding is that they recruited criminals with– special skillsets, as you said.
(05:34) DET: (smiles) You'd think that, wouldn't you?
(05:39) AGT H: Think what?
Detainee shifts and looks away. Amused.
(05:43) DET: They scouted. Not from prisons though. (pause) I've never been to a prison. No, wait. I forgot, three times. Been to a prison three times. Those were on purpose. Plus this time. If you put me there.
(06:03) AGT H: As I said, we appreciate you being cooperative. That depends on how much you can help us.
(06:11) DET: (smiles) That's what I'm here for. Here to help.
(000) AGT H: Good. Help us then. Let’s backtrack a bit.
AGT H opens a file.
(06:17) AGT H: What did you do for them? How did you work?
(06:24) DET: Oh, I did everything. They always had something cooking, and I was always working – one shortage you didn’t have to worry about. Many times, I had multiple cases at the same time. Always work for someone who can be anyone.
(06:38) AGT H: What do you mean by anyone?
Detainee shrugs.
(06:45) DET: Anyone white.
(06:49) AGT H: So you mean corporate espionage? Businessmen, male escorts? Give us examples.
Detainee slowly shakes his head.
(06:58) DET: Anyone. Whenever, however needed. A businessman, millionaire, worker. Homeless, escort, girlfriend, boyfriend. Husband, wife, mistress, whore, addict, officer, janitor, bartender, student, teacher, anything. (pauses) Right now, I’m an ex-agent of Agency for Improving Global Order.
Detainee leans back. AGT H looks to DOC L. DOC L writes on a notepad and nods.
(07:30) AGT H: What about the agency?
(000) DET: What about it?
(000) AGT H: Tell us about it.
(000) DET: I really don’t know much.
(000) AGT H: Anything. Where was it? How did you get in?
(000) DET: You already know where it is, don’t you?
(000) AGT H: You said you know how this works. C’mon, Roderick. As a sign of good faith.
(000) DET: Fine. [REDACTED]. I don’t know how the others got in. I had a special pass made. Took a little persuasion to make it happen. (laughs) I had a habit of showing up as a new person every day. Safer for me, see, no info attached, nothing constant. And it drove them mad, which was a bonus.
(07:51) AGT R: So you didn’t want to work for them? You weren’t loyal to them?
(07:57) DET: I mean… it’s an eat or be eaten world. Survival. I’ve been surviving for a long time. They were just another way for that.
(08:03) AGT H: What did they give you in exchange?
(08:06) DET: Nothing. (taps fingers) As I said, there were stipulations, I didn’t exactly get a choice.
(08:10) AGT H: Blackmail? What did they hold you on?
Detainee glances at DoD deputy.
(08:16) DET: Do I have to say it?
(08:19) AGT R: No, not right now.
AGT H nods at the blackened window. The projector is switched on and a picture is reflected on the opposite wall. In the picture is the victim Victor Manco. Detainee looks at the picture slowly, no reaction.
(000) AGT H: Tell us about him.
(000) DET: You’re making me do all the work here.
(000) AGT H: You said you know how this works. We’d like to hear things from your point of view.
Detainee shifts in his chair.
(000) DET: Victor Manco. One of my cases. Well, one of them for me, the case for AIGO. (pause)
(000) AGT H: You knew Manco beforehand?
(000) DET: Who didn’t? Bastard was everywhere.
(08:55) AGT H: Did AIGO usually go after businessmen?
(09:01) DET: (sucks air in through his mouth) Businessman… that’s a nice word for him.
(09:04) AGT R: This is a criminal investigation, Mr. Stahl. Manco’s not the one on trial.
Detainee leans back and rattles his cuffs by trying to raise his hand (forgets that he’s cuffed). Pause.
(09:10) AGT H: Fine, did AIGO usually go after – men like him? Why were they interested in him?
(09:14) DET: Why? (laughs) (pause) You screwing with me?
(05:14) AGT H: I mean specifically.
(05:17) DET: Well, he’s the reason we’re in this mess. I would list the usual suspects.
(000) AGT R: What mess?
(000) DET: (chuckles) What mess? What mess, he asks. What are you, fifty-forty years old? (leans more heavily forward on the table) Fifty years old and you ask, what mess?
(000) AGT H: How old are you, Roderick?
Detainee leans back.
(000) DET: However old you want me to be.
(000) AGT H: Let’s not go that route, it’s a simple question. How old?
(000) DET: Twenty-seven.
(000) AGT H: Twenty-seven, thank you. Wow. Not even thirty and already an established agent in one of the biggest undercover agencies in the country.
Detainee raises his eyebrows.
(000) AGT H: I was thirty when I got my first job here. And you’re right, unlike my colleague, I’m still too young to remember the past. That’s what you meant, right? The mess, life since the tsunamis?
Detainee waits. AGT H’s tone changes to sterner.
(000) AGT H: You seem to feel very strongly about Manco.
(000) DET: (interrupts) And you don’t.
(000) AGT H: Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but. You seem like a very passionate man. We know AIGO has eco-anarchist leanings, but Manco is just one man, however much he is to... blame. (pause) Whose idea was it to murder him? Hers or yours?
(000) DET: (chuckles) So this how you conduct a criminal investigation? Pick the first connected person, pin it on them? I thought this was about AIGO. You have no idea, how big AIGO is.
Detainee leans forward.
(000) DET: You want the names of all the senators who wanted Manco dead? I’ll give you the names. Manco was just one case for me. I’ve got plenty that I’ve hated just as much.
(000) AGT H: Are you implying that you’ve killed other people like Manco?
(000) DET: (tilts his head) I don’t recall saying anything about killing him.
AGT H shifts.
(06:37) AGT H: Fine. Let’s start at the beginning again. Manco was the case for AIGO. How did they tell you about him?
(06:42) DET: I always knew he was on their radar. She introduced me into the operation slowly. I did other assignments first, then half a year later she sat me down and gave me a file about it.
(06:57) AGT H: What was in the file?
(06:59) DET: Just intel about him. She wanted me to find a way to him. Profile him, study him, see where we could get to him, who could get to him.
(07:11) AGT H: And did you?
(07:12) DET: (chuckles) Yes. Through multiple people. None of them lead to anything, always just someone working under him. Walls after walls after walls. I started to think that a sex worker would be our best bet. You can’t distance call a sex worker. Or, you could, I’ve done that too, but…
(07:29) AGT H: So you were to meet him through an escort service?
(07:31) DET: No, no. That didn’t work out either. In the end he bought me, from my aunt.
(07:36) AGT H: Bought you…
Detainee leans his elbows on the table and lowers closer.
(07:41) DET: (smiles) Yes, bought me, Mercy Wilders, from my aunt.
DOC L writes on his notepad.
(07:47) AGT H: Mercy, that was your alias?
(000) DET: You can call it that, if it makes it easier.
(000) AGT H: How did Manco find Mercy?
(07:49) DET: I don’t know. You’d have to ask that from the Com-Intel guys. I just created the life.
(07:56) AGT H: And Mercy was a sex worker?
(07:58) DET: No, no. She was just bought. My aunt made the deal. Mercy thought she was going to marry Manco.
(08:08) AGT H: And you’re saying… that you were Mercy?
(08:13) DET: Yeah. You can probably still find some pictures if you look: try @yourwildmercy.
(08:22) AGT H: We’ll look into it. You were supposed to seduce Manco? And senators were involved in this plan?
(000) DET: Not in the plan, much, no. Monetarily, mostly. Far behind it.
(000) AGT H: And their names?
(000) DET: Oh, I’ll get to them. You said you wanted to take your time. I’d like to take my time, too. This is a long story.
AGT H means to answer, but a voice from the intercom says pictures are ready. AGT H nods and gestures to the agents behind the window. The picture of Manco changes to a picture of an attractive female. Approximately in her twenties, tan Caucasian, long, wavy light blonde hair, big grey eyes, filled lips, extremely curvy.
(000) DET: Nice to look at, isn’t she?
(000) AGT H: Mr. Stahl, you said you would be helpful.
(000) DET: I am.
(000) AGT R: That is a picture of a twenty year old girl.
(000) DET: Have a little imagination. I said that I’m good at what I do.
(000) AGT H: You expect us to believe that you’re in the picture?
(000) DET: Well, not me. (smiles)
(000) AGT H: Are you or are you not claiming that you are in the picture?
Detainee leans his elbows on the table.
(000) DET: That (glances and points at the picture) is Mercy. I was Mercy, for most of the weeks before my arrest. I am in the picture.
(000) AGT R: Bullshit.
Detainee leans back.
(000) DET: If you can’t believe me, then we’re not getting very far with this.
AGT H and R share a look.
(000) AGT H: Let’s say, for the sake of continuing this conversation, that we believe you. We have time. How about you start from the beginning, properly this time, tell everything like it happened.
Detainee crosses his fingers.
(000) DET: That’s all I’ve wanted.
Detainee smiles.