Once the police officers that had captured Maria arrived at the station with her in tow, she was led into a small room that re-minded her of the office cubicles at DanariTek. Only the color scheme here was more vibrant. More uplifting, in a way. The male officer pushed her down onto the interrogation chair – he did his best to be gentle with his motions, though – and he and the other officer left her to her own devices, mumbling some-thing at the doorway that she didn’t quite catch.

Then another officer entered and took a seat on the other side of the desk. Male, young, gentle eyes, strong jaw lined with slightly overgrown stubble. He looked at Maria quickly and then turned his gaze to something else – probably Maria’s ID file – exhaling through his nose audibly as he looked it over.

“So…” he began with a sharpness that almost startled Maria. Still not making direct eye contact. “Maria Crahan. 33 years old, tech and safety consultant at DanariTek, no known criminal record until now.” Now he turned his gaze to her, crossing his arms over the desk and leaning in before asking: “Care to explain what you were intending to do at a government facility?”

“I was planning to investigate,” Maria confessed imme-diately. They already caught me, might as well be honest.

“Investigate what?”

Suddenly, the officer’s voice sounded oddly familiar. But Maria decided to ignore it for now. “My father’s death. He was killed in prison the day he was supposed to walk out. I was planning on going to the cabin to see if there’d be any clues there.”

“If there were any clues, I can assure you they’ve been cleaned up by now. So you weren’t gonna get anywhere.” He looked at her a little more intensely, but Maria stood her ground. “Anyway, how did you find the location of the cabin?”

“Dark Net.”

The officer nodded. Maria wasn’t quite sure what to make of the gesture. “Hm. Planning to infiltrate a government facility and perusing the Dark Net… Those two together are enough to put you in jail for a year.”

“I’m just trying to find out who murdered my dad, okay?”

“Can’t just leave it to the force, can you?”

“No, because I have a personal stake in this. He was my world next to my husband. I—”

Maria paused, mouth open. She lifted a finger. Now she placed the officer’s voice. “You were the one who called me. Told me he was killed.”

“Did I?”

“Yeah. Yoshiro Busujima. Remember?”

Evidently, the memory came to the officer in the same moment. “Oh,” he breathed, turning his gaze elsewhere. “Right. Yeah, that was me.”

“Devin, right?”

“That’s Officer Nichols, if you don’t mind.” Uh-huh. So we’re not on a first-name basis anymore. Okay.

“Well, Officer Nichols,” Maria began teasingly, “was it you who also leaked the location of the cabin?”

“That’s a pretty serious accusation to make, Miss Crahan.” Devin’s eyebrows motioned quickly towards a corner in the ceiling, alerting Maria to the existence of a security camera. That told her enough.

She nodded in acknowledgement. “You’re right. Sorry.” Don’t worry, I won’t rat you out.

“Well,” Devin continued in a much more official tone of voice, “if you can promise not to repeat this infraction, I guess I can let you get away with a warning. But I’m gonna need you to keep your word, because the next time will land you in jail.”

“I promise it won’t happen again.”

Devin grabbed some sort of handheld apparatus and swung it across Maria’s face. The machine pondered for a moment, then beeped cheerfully as a green LED light blinked on it. Lie detector? “Alright, you’re good to go,” Devin said. “Thank you for your time.”

“Thank you, officer,” Maria replied as she stood up and left the room.

The other male officer entered as soon as she did. “Meet me in my office,” Maria heard him growl to Devin menacingly.