Looking for Monsters
Back in District 13, 300 feet below the surface of the earth.
The room was very small, and the little square table in the middle took up half the room. On one side was myself, Marcus, diligently going through the checklist of questions. Opposite me was the woman District 13 had saved at great expense and danger from the Capitol secret service. She was tall and blue-eyed with matching blue hair. Her documents said she was forty-three; she looked thirty-five and was trying hard to look twenty. Silbia Lure hair was all matted down now, and she was extremely tired.
I hated the whole process; I knew Silbia Lure hated it, but it was likely the only time she would have to go through it. I'd done it dozens of times.
Interviewing people is a complicated process. People lie all the time, and for so many different reasons; the only thing you can be sure of is you are not hearing the whole truth. With the Capitol you also have to take in account that they might even believe something totally false. The Capitol sometimes sets up people, and other times even brainwashes them. But the one interview which stuck with me the most was the recording they showed us during training, where the person just blew up killing all the people in the room. The Capitol found a way to get bombs into people without their even knowing!
Silbia Lure had all the looks of the real thing. We found records of a Silbia Lure working for Doctor Lucus, and the pictures matched her face. No devices were found in her or signs of recent operations. She was middle-aged, but trying desperately to look younger. She alternated between being scared and annoyed with our interview. So far we had asked her the same questions at least three dozen times over three days and found no notable contradictions.
"So let's go over again why you think the Capitols secret service is looking for you."
"I am so tired of all this shit," Silbia whined. "We've covered all this so many times."
"We are getting near the end of the process," I lied. "Just answer the question."
Silbia sighed. "I got an alarm call from the lab that they had a break-in while I was on vacation in the mountains. The alarm went to my phone. I could see them . . . I could see the Peacekeepers grabbing all research assistants, animals, and equipment."
"Then what?"
She leaned back and tried to comfort herself by rubbing her legs with her hands. She was obviously still very scared. "I started getting calls from friends saying that Doctor Lucus was dead, and everyone from the lab was being arrested."
"Why do you think this was happening?"
"There is only one good reason I could think of: he broke protocol and implanted a device in a person. The Capitol barely allowed us to do animal research," she said with wide eyes that could indicate either anger or overacting.
I could feel my anger building just thinking of those people's carelessness. "Why would the good doctor recreate a creature so dangerous? No one, I mean no one, has even tried to do it for hundreds of years."
"He wasn't trying to create anything—he wanted to save people's lives! The device could save hundreds of lives every year. I've seen it bring back subjects with 30% brain function loss!"
I attacked her again to see her response. "And you were completely ignorant of history, of what happened last time!"
"The device he made was only derived from those technologies—that is all. There were no signs of any unnatural abilities in any of the test subjects. There is no reason to believe anything like that can happen again!" she cried with just the right amount of anger; either she was really good or she was telling the truth.
"And these test subjects were what?"
"Monkeys."
How could they be so careless? I thought. "Did it never occur to you that it might be different in a human?"
"I'm saying we are the experts—we have studied it a lot longer than you, and we don't believe there is any real danger!"
"And if you are wrong, where would we find the patient with the implant?"
"I told you: I wasn't there. I was on vacation. I don't know who they put the device into."
"That part of the story I never bought. You may not have been there, but you think you know who it is."
Silbia's head slumped down and she spoke to the table, "I don't know anything, but Peeta Mellark . . . well, how else could anyone have survived something like that?"
I put a note on today's report: Recommend the immediate assassination of Peeta Mellark.
I lied again, "Just one more question, if you are wrong. If the device does recreate a Banshee, what should we do?"
She waited a long time; the look in her eyes told me she didn't believe my lie about it almost being over, and she wished me dead. "Well, in that case, you will be in deep shit! You won't last five seconds against him if he really is a Banshee. Right now I wish we were wrong, but we weren't, and you'll end up killing an innocent young man because of your stupid fears."
ns 15.158.61.23da2
