The Last Interview
The Last Interview
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Xanadu story universe |
Detective Charles Brown was not in a good mood. For the last week, the Orlando police department had been dealing with the aftermath of Xanadu. That meant he had been talking to a lot of traumatized and shocked people, and dealing with people who would normally be called wack-jobs. Not only that, but the media was having a field day, and the police department was at the center of reporters criticisms. One reporter blamed the police for everything. They claimed that if there had been more security at the convention, they would have somehow been able to stop the event. The detective shook his head. Hell, that wasn’t even as crazy as some of the things he’d seen. So far, he had seen everything from a real life Barney the Dinosaur to a pair of Zombies. (One of whom he had shot. The other one had surrendered.) Today he had to interview a suspect. He had seen a lot of strange people. But this guy…
Thomas Greenwall, aged seventeen, had gone to the convention with his friend Julius Romberg. Julius was now dead. And Greenwall was completely insane. The detective sat on the other side of the table from him. He was an intimidating site. He was wearing an olive drab parka, with a furry collar and a fur hat. He was enormous, about two hundred pounds, with a giant black beard. And until a week ago he had been called a weak nerd. The detective figured he should see just how crazy this guy was. He signaled to the one way mirror, where an officer was sitting with a camera. Then he asked the first question.
“Let’s start out simple.” He paused. “What is your name?”
The man looked up. He started speaking, the Russian accent making his words almost incomprehensible. “My name is now Yuri Comradeov, but I have been told it was one Thomas Greenwall.”
The detective knew that already. And now for the silly question, the one he had been asking for the past week. “For the record…” He rolled his eyes. “What reason do you attribute to the change of your name?”
The large man looked very amused. “Comrade! What a stupid question! Xandu of course! It changed me from weak American schoolboy to strong Soviet Soldier!”
The detective was finding this guy’s personality annoying. “Obviously. It’s just procedure…”
The Russian responded fiercely. “Silly American procedure. Surely you will take up arms and overthrow your imperialist masters when the revolution comes!”
Yup. The guy was really crazy. “Uhhhhh……” He looked at the mirror and mouthed “Oh My God” to the man behind it. “Probably not…”
Yuri shook his head. “Oh…. I am sorry comrade detective. Though my mental change is not as severe as many sometimes I slip into states of…”
“Stereotypical crazy soviet soldier?” provided the interviewer. Yuri shook his head yes. “Da. Sort of like duel personality. But I am still little bit like Yuri even now. He is always a little like me. I still speak with accent. He still knows English.”
“Which is important to this case.” Yuri, or rather Thomas, had just confirmed something that Brown had suspected. He was dealing with a true duel personality. He decided to get down to the important questions. “Were you present on the roof of the Central Orlando banking building on the night of November…” He cleared his throat. The date wasn’t important. They all knew it already. “…at eight o’clock PM?”
Yuri pounded the table. “Da Comrade! I pursue the man who wanted to destroy Soviet Russia…” he shook his head “er… Orlando with giant laser array.” Thomas seemed to have regained control.
Brown was pleased. He had opportunity and motive. Now he just needed means and some background information on exactly how this had all come to pass. And then he would be done with the commie. “Alright. Let’s back this up a bit. How did you end up involved with the man known as Julius Romberg?”
A very un-Russian tear appeared in the corner of the Russian’s eye. For just a second, the old Thomas, completely free of Yuri could be seen. “He was my best friend….”
For the first time during the interview, Detective Charles Brown, thirteen year veteran of the Orlando police department, was moved. He felt bad for the kid. He sighed. “I know this is hard. But we need to close this investigation. It happened off the grounds of the convention center. People want to know how the two of you got out. Not that the quarantine is actually worth shit. But hey! Bureaucracy marches o-“ He stopped when he remembered the camera. He was already on thin ice for the whole shooting the zombie thing, and his superiors definitely didn’t want to see a rant against their clumsy handling of the situation.
Thomas looked at him and spoke quietly. (Quite a feat really.) “I know comrade…I used to do cheesy Russian impression for fun. Now it is permanent….”
The detective slumped over in his chair. “A story I’ve heard a few thousand times in the last week.”
Suddenly,the sadness in Thomas’s eyes was replaced by the fierceness of Yuri. “But we do not suffer! We still serve mother Russia!” Detective brown actually managed a small smile.
“Obviously. The parka, hat, beard and, oh yeah the Kalashnikov really let us know what you dressed up as.”
The fierceness disappeared once again, Thomas’s sadness reappearing in his eyes. He sighed. “I expect you to give back Vladimir when we are done.”
Brown nodded tiredly. “Of course we’ll give it back to you. It is technically Hero Paraphernalia, and is therefore yours, as long as the government issues you the proper permit and Sands clears you as “Sane”
Anger appeared in the man’s eyes; as if Yuri wanted to prove he was anything but sane. He leapt to his feet. “I am perfectly sane! I serve Proletariat with honor and strength! I do not waver in duty!”
The man may have been intimidating, but he was really starting to piss the detective off. Angrily, he berated him. “Okay then. Why did someone have to tell you your old name? The rest of your memories seem to be intact.”
Thomas sat down as he regained control. He looked very tired. “I know comrade. It is odd, da? But it is irrelevant to interview. Let us get this over with. This is very painful for me.”
“Of Course….” Brown said softly. The Detective felt like a piece of crap. He couldn’t imagine what it must be like to have to share his body with someone else, let alone someone who was probably clinically insane. He motioned for Thomas to continue.
“You know of day it started. Xanadu. It was good day comrade. I came to Florida with my friend and comrade, Julius Romberg. He was dressed up as crazy soviet scientist, like from old movie. He even had cheesy lab coat. I was Yuri Comeradov, crazy Soviet soldier….” He jumped out of his seat with a harsh scraping sound as Yuri interjected. “WHO WILL DIE TO PROTECT THE MOTHERLAND!” He dropped himself back into his chair, looking worn out. “I must say sorry for that transgression. Let me continue. I was dressed up like soviet soldier; with fake AK-47 I named Vladimir. It is a good name for gun, Da? Rom brought….giant laser. It was secret project, and he claimed it had enough power to rival nuclear device. We were laughing, having good time. We were not there to win contest. Leave that to furries, da? We just wanted to have good time admiring costumes of others. So we spent all morning walking round and having fun. Then change happened.”
Brown shook his head. The next question seemed so silly. More Bureaucracy. He rolled his eyes.“Alright, I will have to ask for a clarification. The change you are referring to is the Xanadu Event, correct?”
Yuri seized control of the soldier long enough for another of his outbursts. “Da Comrade! The capitalist pigs were defeated by Soviet might!” A fire and determination had appeared in his eyes. It seemed that when Thomas had to think about something difficult or they were talking about something that frustrated him, Yuri was able to gain control. But Yuri was uncooperative, and more then a little angry. In order to finish this, the detective needed to talk to Thomas.
“Thomas!”
The man shook his head. “I am sorry. I remembered everything from old life. But not name. In the chaos, we ran out of convention center through main entrance. It was chaos. Romberg….was cackling wildly. He ran at police with giant laser. I ran after him. They did not want to be shot, so we got through…. I think one may have wet pants.”
Brown smiled a bit.“Hmmm….that may explain why no one owned up to you guys getting through…I’ll have to follow that up.” He made a note of it on his notepad. Follow up guys who peed pants. Only think there are 100.
Thomas continued. “He ran. I chased. He…threw a knockout bomb at me. I collapsed.”
The detective nodded. They had found several of the bombs on Romberg’s body. “Yup. The “Plot Device Knockout Gas”. We have multiple versions of it. It knocks people out until the throwers next major move is one minute from completion.”
Thomas nodded. “Da. So when I wake up, I am on top of giant building. It is filthy monument to capitalism.” He spat. Apparently something Thomas had gotten from Yuri was an instinctive hatred of capitalism. “I am sorry. My friend… he is aiming giant laser at convention center He says it will destroy world! Something about filthy capitalist technology… So….I…I pushed him. Him and laser. It broke. So did he…” Thomas burst into tears and leaned his head down on the table. The detective felt horrible for the guy. He’d done some hard things in the last week, but he hadn’t killed his best friend. He was about to stand up to comfort him when the soldier looked up. His tears had stopped. There was a fire in his eyes that rivaled everything that he had seen before. Yuri was back.
“Weak American Schoolboy! I pushed the traitor off the building! I am proud!” He was ashamed of Thomas. Which was crazy when you considered that they shared a body. Maybe he could comfort Thomas. Make it a little harder for Yuri to take control.
“Yeah. That’s what I thought. Your family wants you to be committed… Look. You needed to destroy the laser. Mr.Romberg was holding the laser. With all the other crazy shit going on, your actions are quite minor, and are going to be classified as “self defense.” This is never going to court. The more important issue is something like this happening again. You are sure that Mr.Romberg didn’t have any other bits of technology with him, other then what we found on him?” Thomas’ sadness replaced Yuri’s passion. He looked like he was about to faint, but he had control.
“Nothing else…”
Then this interview was over. And none to soon either. The detective had something he needed to do. He gestured to the one way mirror. “Alright. Get this man back to his hotel room. The car’s out front.” A police officer entered the room. Presumably, he had been the one who had been watching the interview. He escorted Thomas/Yuri out of the room, which allowed Brown to see just how they had him trussed up. He had handcuffs and manacles on. Apparently he had attacked the man who had arrested him. The arresting officer had suffered a broken nose, six broken ribs and a concussion. They weren’t taking any more chances with the Soviet.
Detective Charles Brown had a mission. It would likely get him fired, if not arrested, but it was important. The government had recently taken an interest in collecting all the weapons and other bits of technology that had appeared at the convention. They had yet to collect any weapons of mass destruction. He didn’t want to think of what would happen if they did. The United States had a history of being irresponsible with its weapons though. That is why, immediately after the interview, he found himself walking to the evidence room. The room wasn’t much to look at. It was a small storage area, with a desk in front and lockers in the back. All of the intact technology had already been taken by the government, but they had yet to collect the pieces of the laser. Only one officer was guarding the room. After all, all the working technology and things from Xanadu was already gone. And all the actual evidence had been cleared out. The officer guarding the room was sitting at the desk, looking down and reading a Stephen King book (“The Tommyknockers”.) He lazily looked up when the detective entered the room. “Whadyawant? I’m in the middle of a good chapter…” He stopped when the he saw the intruding detective’s service pistol pointed at his head. Although he had his finger off the trigger (he didn’t actually want to shoot the guy) his intentions were clear. “I want the pieces of the laser. Get them.”
The guard slowly nodded. “Okay, okay, just stay calm man…” He opened up one of the lockers behind him. While he took his time entering the combination, he thought about how he could reach the panic button. It turned out not to matter. When he got the locker open, he gave the laser pieces to the detective who placed them on the floor. Though most of the pieces were broken, some looked dangerously intact.
He warned the guard. “Stand back.” He opened fire on the pieces. When he was done, there was nothing left larger then a paper clip. Anything that had resembled a circuit board or a crystal was gone. When it was over, he sighed with relief. There were some fix-its (mostly Scottys and McKays) from the convention who could literally reassemble anything that looked mechanical or electrical. He was sure the government would have found one willing to reassemble the laser.
The last thing the detective did as an officer of the law was to safe his weapon, remove his badge, and set both on the ground in the midst of the debris. When several cops came by to check on the shooting, they found Detective Charles Brown standing with his hands up amidst the remains of the laser. The guard was pointing his gun at him.
Charles Brown was arrested for destruction of evidence, along with several gun safety violations, and kicked off the force with complete loss of pension. His bail was set at fifty thousand dollars. All of his possessions weren’t even worth enough to put up on bond. The day before he was to go to trial, a week after being arrested, Charles Brown got a visitor. He had already refused legal representation (he hated lawyers), he had no family, and all of his friends were police officers. None of them had come to see there friend, whom they thought had gone crazy.
The visitor’s name was John Johnson. He claimed to work for the government. He was wearing a dark suit and dark sunglasses. Standard mysterious government official stuff.
“You destroyed what could very well have been a strategic asset to the defense of the United States of America. Normally, you would be locked up for the longest amount of time the law allows for. But under these circumstances, we need all the help we can get. You have an excellent record. Up until Xanadu that is. You shot one of the victims. Granted, it was in defense of four others, and as such you were not brought up on charges. However, a week later you destroyed the remains of a super powerful weapon, which at the time was classified as evidence.”
For the first time since the interview had began, the former detective spoke up. “My god. A teenager died because of that weapon. And his best friend was the one to kill him. In this entire mess, where thousands of lives have been destroyed, I just wanted to keep it from hurting anyone else. For Christ’s sake, it had enough power to destroy Orlando. In the hands of a government I don’t trust. Look at the damn quarantine! If you guys had gotten here earlier, we might have a few less problems with people escaping.” He stopped realizing that he had been ranting about what he thought of the government…to a very mysterious government agent. The agent had remained cool the throughout rant though. He removed his sunglasses.
“Mr. Brown, I am not here to threaten you. Or even to try to make you feel guilty. The truth is, we had our eye on you as soon as you shot the zombie. It proved that you were willing to separate the Xanadu victims from what they were, and what they are now. It showed us that you could be useful.”
“Useful? For what?” Brown was intrigued.
“We are severely understaffed at the moment, and need all the help we can get. We have been recruiting from everywhere we can think of. The FBI, the CIA, NSA, NRO, local police forces, hell, even people who went to Xanadu as government agents. The country is barely holding on. For the last two weeks, the economy has been sluggish, infrastructure is suffering and escapees have been creating havoc. What we are doing is trying to return the country to working order. That means catching escapees and checking up on those who have been released. What I am offering you is the chance to avoid a few years in jail, and giving you a useful, much needed job. You will be a government employee, just like you were. You will make the same amount you did as a detective. You’ll get to travel, and even chase criminals. Your number one priority will be to uphold the law. Any questions?”
“Yeah…Why do you still want me? I did destroy that laser…”
“No you didn’t. You destroyed laser components. We had already taken the main focusing crystal. We can construct our own laser with it.”
Brown was shocked. He’d lost his job in order to destroy junk? At first he was shocked. And then he was angry. “You…you… bastards! That’s just what we need. Another arms race! Who can steal the best shit from Xanadu! As soon as the government announces that they have such a powerful device…” The agent cut him off.
“They won’t. I said we could construct a new laser, not that we would. The crystal is currently being held in a vault in the deepest depths of a nuclear bunker in the desert. No-one is going to steal it, and no-one is going to see it for a long time. So how about it? You want the job? If you don’t, I’ll leave you to your trial.”
One week later, Agent Charles Brown found himself in the Hotel of the Orlando Convention center. He had just received word that a Xanadu victim he had a particular interest in had been classified as a “minor threat to self and others.” They were releasing Thomas Greenwall.
The large Russian had changed since the Agent had last seen him. He was no longer wearing his parka, and his hat was absent. He has changed into normal jeans and a (very large) polo shirt. But now he has carrying an AK-47. Apparently, he had been issued a special automatic weapons permit. The government had no interest in confiscating one more Kalashnikov. The large man spotted Brown before Brown spotted him.
“Comrade detective! What are you doing here?”
“I’m not a detective anymore. I work for the Feds now.” He smiled. Despite the accent (and the offhand “comrade”) it was definitely Thomas talking to him.
“Ah! That would be why you know I am leaving. Why did you come to see me?”
“I wanted to see how you were doing. And since you are still a “minor threat”, I’ve been assigned to your case.”
“Da, that makes sense. If you want to know, I have much better control of Yuri. He has not taken control in more than week.” He smiled. It was the first time the agent had seen a smile on the soldier’s face. “You know, government try to get me to work for them. I accept offer, but they say that because I sound like Russian, my loyalty cannot be trusted.”
“That’s too bad. So what are your plans for the future? Do you have some sort of job lined up?”
“Da. Private security firm. Yuri does not like because they work for money, but he does not have strength he used to. I have had age legally changed to twenty one, so all permits and the like work. My family does not talk to me still…” He looked sad…but there was a fire the back of his eyes. Yuri was still there. Despite the fact that they despised each other, they also relied on each other.
Brown was satisfied. “Alright then. I’ll see you in a month. I’m your, well, I guess you could say “case worker.”
Thomas gave a slight smile. He seemed to be coming out of his funk. “Goodbye comrade. I will see you in month. But now I have to catch bus. First I must do luggage check with Vladimir. So I can not be late.”
“Goodbye Thomas.”
Thomas walked past the Agent, in the direction of the staircase.
That was when Brown remembered something. “Wait! Thomas! I need to know something important!”
The large man stopped and turned around. “What comrade detect- Sorry, comrade agent?”
“Who pushed Julius off the building? You or Yuri? You both took credit for it.”
The soldier looked conflicted for a second. Afraid that an angry Yuri might rise to the surface, Brown put his hand on his pistol. But nothing came of it. Yuri was proud of the murder and had nothing more to say on the subject.
“We both pushed him.” Yuri and Thomas turned around and walked down the stairs.
