ORLOP-LEVEL
“…When will the fantasy end? When will the heaven begin?…”
Basement, unmarked location, Guantanamo Bay Naval Base
9 Nov 2019, ~1300
…
..
.
briiiiiiing, bruuuumb.
The custom elevator ding sounds as its doors split open.
Patina flips the light switch outside the elevator and between the emergency exit staircase,
“Glad y’all are here. It’s creepy down here alone with him.”
An immense cafeteria/control lounge room is made available for Gunny, Darvok, and Alexa.
Practically everything is stainless steel. Fridge in the corner.
Simple cabinets. Plastic plates and utensils. A trash bin.
It’s no frills and generically grey with a comfy looking couch in front of a coffee table with a keyboard and several active monitors.
Darvok orders Alexa to make herself familiar with the kitchen inventory and to stand by.
Patina explains, “Pretty straight forward. This space is the lounge, Bathroom is that corner room over there, and right after these double doors will be the holding and observation space.”
She leads them through it.
There’s a large dimly lit hallway with running one way windows from left to right, and red lights at the extreme ends.
Some drawers and desks line the walls here and there.
In front of the windows are a row of different well-lit cells with one door in front of each.
The team goes from left to right, getting familiar with the cells.
Cell 1 is small and medical related. Cell 2 is padded and slightly larger, equipped with a faucet, a 2 inch drain hole on the ground as a toilet, a half dozen towels, and 2 small plastic buckets.
Cell 3 is a large interrogation room with a bolted-down stainless steel table in the middle and a few plastic fold-away chairs. On a small corner table, there’s two clay jars. One has a mix of roses, turnips, and sunflowers. Right next to is a small vine looking plant. Gunny shakes his head to himself.
Cell 4 is the exact same as Cell 2, except there’s a mint and a bottle of water on top of the towels. Cell 5 is also medical related and it has Waldo strapped down to a patient bed.
The green heart monitor goes:
Beep beep. Beep beep.
Blood pressure reads:
SBS: 105
MAP: 75
Patina goes into the cell, injects the IV line with a drug, and comes back out.
“He should be coming down from cloud city in 20 minutes.”
She works with Gunny on a covert earpiece.
Puts an inductive loop under his collar.
Checks the equipment, steps to the side and whispers into her mic.
>>>Mic check one two Gunny, how copy<<<
<<<loud and clear, all systems good, over out>>>
Satisfied, she goes over the game plan.
“First things first Gunny, he absolutely can’t know Darvok is here or that he exists.
I’ll probably have to introduce myself at some point, but today’s not going to be the day. Make sure of that.
Also, my name down here is Nurse, first name R, middle name N. That’s it.
We want to know anything and everything, but of course, these things take time so don’t feel pressured.
It’s everyone’s first day here big guy, you’re not alone.
you got anything for me?”
Gunny shakes his head, no.
“Just get him to talk about himself.
Given the drug effects, I’m confident he’s gonna wanna be chatty.
Don’t hit him, we don’t want his blood anywhere.
Don’t risk killing him in any way, we need him alive.
Don’t get close. Don’t drop your guard, he’s not your friend.”
Gunny nods, ears on full alert, minding his breathing and focusing on his parameters.
“If he won’t eat, we have a force-feed kit in cell 1.
If he won’t cooperate, just call it a day and get out.
The PPE suits and restraints are in cell 1; keep yourself safe.
Anything goes down, knockout gas will fill the room and we’ll get you out.
Any questions, we clear?”
Gunny smiles, “Clearer than a Monday morning on a Tuesday 96”
Patina doesn’t bother trying to make sense of that.
“Good. Now. Move him from his bed to cell 4.
Just drop him in there and take over.”
Patina then straight faced looks around and asks Gunny in a lower voice:
“So how you going to do this.
You going to be; in the cell with him, or right outside the locked door looking at him?
Or maybe, right outside the cell and talking to him with your back turned like some kind of disturbing faceless messenger?
Maybe act like a prisoner in one of the rooms on either side and get to know him as the cell mate next door?”
“Nurse. please. I got this, I’m a big boy now, just watch and learn.”
“Right, go do what feels natural big guy”
She taps him twice with her palms on his chest.
“Go save some lives hero.”
Darvok gives him a mechanical extended pinky and thumb wave, his perma-smirk always there throwing everything off,
“you got this motivator. Ain’t no thang but a chicken wang.”
As he opens the door to cell 5 with a plastic suit on,
Gunny doesn’t feel like he’s got this at all.
He’s never had the responsibility of getting a criminal to talk.
His main day to day used to be bullying the prisoners and occasionally smack them around and get away with it.
If he got lucky, he’d be with a team that fed them rooster-meat sandwiches. It felt good to have low-lives do whatever you want.
Secretly, he was hoping Nurse would be giving him a step by step play, or Darvok would be directly helping, like, good cop or bad cop or something.
Gunny thinks to himself, knowing a whisper would be picked up by cameras, “Here goes nothing.”
Gunny removes the tubes in any way that made sense to him.
He took one hand out of the bed straps, then zip-tied it to the other.
Did the same with the feet.
Picked him up relatively easily.
Moved him to cell 4.
stepped outside the door.
takes his PPE off. waits.
and waits.
Leans up against the wall.
Twiddles his thumbs.
and waits.
4 minutes later, Waldo wakes up.
Lying down sideways on the floor with a hospital gown on and a butt-crack view, he rolls over.
Coughs.
Uselessly trying to vomit, but only releasing a little bit of foamy mucus.
Coughs some more.
Looks to be having a hard time moving and focusing.
Concrete refreshingly cold underneath him.
Having an impossible time sitting up against the cell wall.
Notices a wide towering shadow by the door.
Is slowly coming into better focus.
“Urgh.”
He coughs some more.
Clears his throat multiple times.
Does little hums that come out like growls.
The blurriness is fading out more, getting better vision.
A body-builder in Marine fatigues at the door, no hair.
Staring at him.
They stare at each other.
Gunny locks right on to him with unblinking eye contact, thinking of establishing dominance by not being the one who looks the other way first.
Something he learned at some point when he was training his Rottweilers.
Waldo is frequently blinking and slowly looks all around his area, while gaining better control of his neck.
From the wash labels sewn to the towels, to the hinges installed on the 6 inch plexi-glass doors.
The back and front camera, and the circulation vent.
Picking all the details he can from the padded room.
Satisfied, He locks his gaze on gunny.
Somehow looking down on him, seeing right through him.
Gunny checks his watch as a save and takes the initiative.
“Gonna talk to you like a man. You think you can handle that?”
“Son, who are you, and what do you want from me?
I don’t do tit-for-tat with liars, so mind what you say next, eh m8?”
“Fair enough. What’s your name.”
“It’s unacceptable to ask for something without giving something up first.
Like, I’ve been calling you Milgram’s asshole for the last 2 minutes.
What’ve you been calling me?
Gunny stays silent. Pauses. Thinks.
>>>It’s okay Marine, not everything is top secret<<<
“Pleased to meet you Waldo, I’m Gunny.”
Waldo smirks…
“Cassandro. You’re invited to call me Cassandro, Gunny.
“Where do you come from?”
Cassandro rolls his eyes, annoyed.
“planet earth”
“No, I mean, do you know where you were born?
“Planet earth. Big rock, third from the sun.”
“No, I mean, country? I mean, I’m from the United-States-of-America, it’s like, the land of freedom and opportunity, and you’re from.”
“Ah, I see what you’re asking.
You’d like to know which wonga plantation I’m from.
Earliest place I remember, it doesn’t exist anymore. The owners split different ways.
Maybe you’re familiar with Yugoslavia…”
Cassandro scratches his chin with difficulty, “…what barn did you get pulled from devil-dog?”
>>>You’re doing great. Keep him talking. He’s reciprocating, keep giving and taking<<<
Gunny answers proudly, and smiles politely, “Virginia.”
“Good for you. I’m thirsty. Don’t mind me, going to help myself with some h2o over here.”
Cassandro moves on the floor a little drunkardly, still under the effects of sedatives and 3 days of atrophy.
Struggles a bit to get the water bottle a few feet away.
Opens it easily. Drinks.
Says “ahhhhh” at the end.
Taking a stab at it, Gunny moves in on that cue, “Does Cassandro mean anything, as a name?”
Cassandro moves back to the wall and stretches, careful to not cause more pain to himself.
“Thanks for the water.
Look, I’m guessing the animals from the Virginia plantation taught you that forcing guests into cages makes them entitled to answers.
Problem is though, I’m no one’s employee, and I’m hungry.
I can’t take care of myself right now. Are you able to help me with that or not?”
Gunny’s feels more in charge having Cassandro admit he depends on him for food,
“Tell you what. You work with me, answer just a few more questions, and I can hook you up with a primo sandwich.
You fk with me though, I’ll feed you through a nose-tube. That’s fair, right? Capisce?”
Cassandro takes a deep breath, touches his face lightly, then looks at his hands, testing the mechanics of his 8 fingers.
“We can do this the facile way, or the difficile way, jabronis.
I’m here by choice so;
I don’t have to speak. I knocked the first domino over years ago.
I don’t have to wait out to see how this movie ends, I’ve already seen it.
I can die in peace.”
Cassandro shifts in his padded wall and bare concrete floor chair.
“I’d like my clothes, my glasses, my wristlet, and my yellow emotional support animal.
Oh, and of course, I’mma need my dck back also.
Bring everything with my food.
You have an hour.”
>>>Go with the flow. ask him what he would like to eat<<<
Alright tough guy. Cassandro. Whatever. What is it you’d like to eat?”
“My diet is if I didn’t make it my damn self, I don’t trust it.
So until I can grow, hunt, and cook my own food again, I’m going to need to see where it comes from.
For now, just get me any fruit, and any vegetable from the landscape.”
He coughs,
“After that, don’t come back without a live fish, Banana rat, or an iguana.”
“Dude, you’re crazy if you think–“
“I’m beyond boredom, torture, and death. Are you?”
>>>It’s okay. Tell him you’ll be right back<<<
“Fk, all right. You’re twisting my arm here princess. What else you want, a side of fries with all that?”
“Since you insist gunny, I’d like a bidi, or better yet, some bud. They light up out there in Virginia?
Does that particular plantation have freedom?”
“…It’s illegal for Marines to–“
–“You’re mixing up different plantations with different leash lengths there son.
Lots of double speak and mixing of topics over there, am I wrong?”
Gunny nods, irked, “…smoking is illegal in Virginia.”
“Looks like freedom for you means strangers telling you what you can’t do. Contradictions are frustrating. No wonder so many devil-dogs chew off their leash.”
“Wait what btch, what did you–“
Gunny puffed up, pointed at him with his angry sausage finger, and–
–“I said that questions don’t keep my body alive Gunny.
Unfortunately, I’m still waiting for that chow. Why are you still here?”
Gunny is losing it and doesn’t know what to say.
He wants to open the door and start kicking his insubordinate guts in until he prawns and cries his little eyes out, like he’s done with countless other prisoners before him that pissed him off.
He feels like he has to say something and regain some kind of control and–
–“Thanks for reminding me. Leave your watch. I’m going to need a way to time you.”
Gunny hesitates. Looks at his wrist. It’s a gift, he’s treated it like a trophy ever since she–.
>>>It’s okay hun. I know it means something to you, but you mean so much more to me than that watch right now.
It’s just for a moment. Do it and get out ASAP, ok handsome? We can afford to let him win this battle, but not the war<<<
Gunny opens the plexi-glass door, puts the watch at the entrance, as far away from him as possible, and rushes out before Cassandro can say anything else.
Outside in the observation hallway, he breathes heavy and is careful to not slam the door behind him.
Patina lets him know it’s alright, to have a seat. She’ll fetch the things, plenty of time to do it.
“Go ahead and watch him crawl for that watch. He’s pathetic. You did great dear.”
Darvok lets her take Alexa with her for help while he stays behind with Gunny.
“Yeaaaaah Gun-nay, way to hang in there. That guy’s fkn vicious!
And watching you handle those gusfraba moments, that was peak. Telling you man, I got goosebumps.”
Darvok pats his own chest, “I, also, have had to keep my cool and not choke a btch for the greater good, so, way to commit there killer, Rah!?”
Gunny smiles and throws back a “Rah”.
They both watch Cassandro struggle to move in a crawl to secure the watch.
Gunny grits his teeth, “He’s checking the time and date, getting his bearings… …and timing us.”
Darvok joins him. “That’s the least of it Gunny. Him asking for a bidi wasn’t random, good luck finding any out here in the western hemisphere.
Much easier to find some Gan-ja! So What’s up, you ever light up before Gunny?”
“Ehrm, no, Marines don’t–“
–“Welp, the good news is that you’re technically detached from the Marines and under our sphere, and we insist that you get a little familiar.
You don’t have to light up with him, but you wanna be ready in case he hits you with that smoke. You still with us all the way?”
Gunny nods, “yeah, you know it. It’s go big or die alone.”
Darvok gives him a funny look, “Way I see it, if we can get this guy drunk or high even better. He’s been talking so far, we wanna keep that momentum.”
Darvok is pleased with the progress, he didn’t think they would get anything from day one.
Concerned, Gunny challenges, “Where does it end?”
“We expect him to keep asking. The more he gives, the more he’s going to want to ask from us.
As long as he’s kept tied down, unarmed, and within shooting distance, we’ll be fine.”
“What if the bracelet or the Pokémon has some kind of transmitter or something.”
Shrugging, Darvok eases Gunny’s concerns, “Aunt Jemimah herself already cleared the giga-pet and the whole facility is wrapped under faraday cages.
I hear what you’re saying though, if anybody can recycle a pikachu and turn it into a voltorb and blow us all to bits, it’s that freak.
To mitigate risk, I have Alexa watching his every move and I get alerts if something doesn’t look right.
Personally, I know there’s more to these fkn bracelets, but I’m not a fkn psychic. Best way to find out is through him.”
Gunny doesn’t say anything. He’s watching Cassandro stretch, it looks like he’ll be standing soon.
“Come on champ, there’re sodas in the lounge for us.”
Patina returns with Alexa from the elevators.
Khutulun and Nana-Ooman come soon after from the stairway.
They’re carrying a few clay pots with a mix of fruits and vegetables plants in ’em.
Additionally, one pot has lamb’s bread and another carries purple punch.
They brought grow lights, a sugar cane, and a live banana-rat.
As well as a broom. Mop. and a bag of powdered soap.
Darvok is happy to see them, knowing full well they don’t really like him and are one of the few beings capable of killing him if it weren’t for Patina.
“Aunt Jemimah, Mulan-Khan, long time no see ladies! Did ya miss me?”
They smile politely and bow slightly.
Patina clicks the elevator button–
briiiiiiing, bruuuumb.
–and holds it open for them.
Patina smiles at Darvok, “Today’s not the day ladies, someday maybe.”
They bow to Patina and take the elevator back to their routines.
Gunny doesn’t understand, he sees all the stuff. Even a knife.
“Even a knife!?”
Patina shrugs and tries to calm the Gunny, “He made it clear he’s independent, and part of being independent is handling a kitchen knife.
And I don’t know about you, but I’m not factoring into my daily schedule suicide watch.
All I have in this world is my time and my energy, and I don’t waste it for nobody.
If he’s going to off himself, better he show some grace now and save me the trouble.
Also, did you want to cook and clean for him, cuz that’s where he’s going if you missed that part?”
Gunny’s still not satisfied.
“He could potentially stab us with it and–“
“If Darvok and I weren’t confident in the containment and management of our subjects, we wouldn’t do this.
The knock-out gas and tie down’s are there to be used. You okay Gunny?”
Gunny nods, yes Nurse, and notes Alexa holding Cassandro’s clothes and other materials in one bag, and the banana-rat in another.
He makes a face.
Darvok points at his watch hanging off on his center left belt-loop, “10 minutes left”, and hands over the 6-cross bracelet and a book to Gunny.
Gunny reads the title, “The White Donkey, by Terminal Lance?
…Huh, never read it before.”
Darvok winks at him, “Should keep his brain there entertained and focused on something that is not us, while we figure some things out.
I’m also impressed with your work here today. I got your copy upstairs Brohan.”
Gunny nods, stoically appreciative.
Patina interrupts, feeling a bit of that time pressure, “Alright motivators, Fk it, it’s gas time”
She goes to the monitor and clicks a few buttons.
From the camera view, you can see Cassandro’s chamber fill with gas. He notices and doesn’t resist.
He puts the watch in the front door and limps to the back side of his cell.
A few minutes later, with the gas cleared,
Alexa zip ties Cassandro’s knocked out body by the hands and feet.
Wearing a gas mask, Gunny picks up his watch and moves in the things.
Darvok and Patina are discussing quietly with each other in the lobby.
“You catch that Milgram line?”
Patina nods, “What’s Wonga?”
“You know how, before paper and crypto, the plebs used to be paid with salt? Hence, you get, Salary?”
“uh-huh”
“Coal is wonga, wonga means wealth.”
“hm”
She bites her nail. “Where or when do we cut the line. I’m open to suggestions”
Darvok tries to answer and lowers his voice,
“If he starts taking the time to look up nuance, that’s about the time to…
..you know what. Tell you the truth, I don’t know. We’re also exposed to him.
We’re lab-rats also…”
…She whispers, “sht… you’re right.”
She looks at the monitor, at Cassandro’s limp body.
“Right then, let the games begin”.
^^^^^^^^