Chapter 61: Dead Rangers Tell No Tale

Once matters concerning the healing pod were handled, the three of them moved into a consultation room elsewhere in the hospital.

Morning light shone through the exterior windows and spilled across pale walls, polished flooring and several decorative plants placed along the corners.

The air was properly ventilated compared to the cramped treatment room he woke up in which made breathing easier.

The room’s environment felt warm and welcoming, but Rhos found it incredibly difficult to relax.

He sat on one side of the chairs arranged around a small table, dressed in simple clothes the hospital staff provided him. Sherlock Tedd occupied the chair opposite him while Kay Loki stood several steps behind him, leaning casually against a wall with her arms folded around her small chest.

They spent a bit of time talking in this room, continuously interrogating Rhos.

Tedd never raised his voice or did anything to deliberately make him feel uncomfortable. He asked simple questions, listened carefully to the answers and wrote something inside the small notebook resting on his knee.

He rarely challenged an answer directly, whenever Rhos finished talking, Tedd would glance at what he had written before moving on to another question.

This interrogation stretched on for an hour till Tedd closed the notebook. Rhos resisted the urge to relax because he knew this wasn’t over.

Proving him right, the agent rested both hands over the cover of his notebook and regarded him with those calm grey eyes of his.

"I appreciate your patience, Mr Red Deer. I realize you’ve only recently regained consciousness, so sitting through an hour of this must be unpleasant. There is one portion I’d like to revisit before we move forward, however. Please recount what happened three months ago from the beginning one more time. Don’t concern yourself with repeating information you’ve already given me. I’d prefer to hear it in your own words"

’Again?’

Rhos kept the irritation off his face. He knew what was happening here.

He already told them more than once what happened, yet they were still asking. That meant Tedd wasn’t asking because he needed the information, rather, he wanted to see whether he would tell it the same way again without inconsistencies.

In that case, Rhos allowed his shoulders to sink and took several seconds before answering.

He didn’t want to stretch it. Hesitating over something he’d supposedly lived through would be suspicious, but answering every question immediately would be just as unnatural.

Someone recounting a traumatic experience should need moments to gather himself.

So he gave the government agent exactly that.

"We hadn’t met the weekly hunting quota. The regulated territory we’d been assigned was practically empty, and the scouts weren’t finding enough animals to make up the difference, so Keeper Taru decided we needed to move farther out. He led us beyond the boundary into territory we weren’t supposed to enter without authorization. We hadn’t been out there very long before we encountered a...a Wrath."

Rhos rubbed his thumb against his palm.

"The thing appeared out of nowhere and everything went to hell instantly. It was huge, wolf-like with horns and multiple eyes. With its ability to manipulate blood, we didn’t stand a chance..."

He let out a heavy breath.

"Keeper Taru tried organizing a defense, but... it didn’t matter. It was too strong. I managed to escape with a com–"

That word got stuck in his throat. He was about to say comrade, but the person he was referring to made something unpleasant twist in his stomach.

"A woman from the Division survived the initial attack with me. We escaped into the forest and spent some time trying to find our way back while the Wrath kept following us. Eventually, we encountered Keeper Taru. Our entire Division was wiped out leaving only the three of us as the only survivors"

Rhos swallowed.

"But even with the three of us, I believed we had a chance as long as Keeper Taru was with us. He was our Keeper. He was a Beta Class Ranger, so if anyone could get us home, it should’ve been him"

That part nearly made Rhos laugh. But he contained himself and to acted as though remembering Taru’s death bothered him.

"The Wrath caught up with us and we were forced to engage it. But we couldn’t beat it. Keeper Taru stayed behind and gave his life so we could escape"

Another lie wrapped around a piece of truth.

Taru had certainly given his life. He just hadn’t done so voluntarily.

The dead were incredibly useful during interrogations because they couldn’t contradict anything you say.

Knowing how these things usually went, Rhos was careful not to speak badly about Taru.

He hated the man’s guts. That had not changed just because he was dead now.

The bastard had abandoned his Division, tried to sacrifice Rhos’s life and attempted to force Nimra to kill him.

Rhos could have spent the hour explaining exactly why Taru deserved what happened to him. But doing that during an interrogation would be incredibly idiotic!

If investigators were questioning a suspect related to a crime like murder, announcing that you had a vendetta against the deceased would hand them a motive on a silver platter.

Innocence didn’t matter when someone willingly placed themselves at the center of suspicion.

So in his story, Keeper Taru had become a hero.

A brave Keeper who sacrificed himself so his subordinates could escape

Rhos hoped the bastard appreciated the promotion wherever hell he was burning in.

He kept his expression appropriately distant as he continued.

"The two of us kept running afterward, but somewhere along the way we got separated. Everything after that is... difficult to remember clearly. I was injured, exhausted and terrified. The next thing I remember properly is waking up back inside Elderwood, somewhere around the eastern lower ring"

Sweat trickled down his temples.

"I couldn’t believe I was alive. I still don’t understand how I made it back. I-, I should have reported immediately but I panicked. Every time I thought about going back to the Corps, all I could think about was that thing tearing everyone apart."

He dropped his head as he adjusted his voice to sound frightened.

"I didn’t want to go outside again. I know abandoning my position wasn’t honorable, but I was terrified, I couldn’t do it anymore. I thought maybe I could disappear into the lower ring, find ordinary work and start living like a normal person again"

Rhos forced a small, bitter laugh.

"Didn’t exactly work out, considering I got stabbed through the heart"