Project Jade Serenity [Supers/Technothriller]

[Icelander]

No amount of deception would have allowed Taylor to hide the way his face lost all colour with shock. Not that he tries to conceal his reaction, beyond looking away while he fights to recover his composure enough to speak. With tears in his eyes, he looks at Agent Richardson and addresses him in a voice raw with emotion.

Taylor: “She say that?”
Wong: “Look at me, Prisoner Taylor. And answer my goddamned question or so help me God, I’ll forget every objection I thought I had to Onyx Rain’s approach to civil rights.”
Taylor [dazed]: “I’m sorry, ma’am, what was the question?”
Wong: “You said that you ‘came to your senses’ before anything more happened between you and Ms. Bell? What, precisely, happened and what ‘more’ could have happened if you hadn’t ‘come to your senses’?”
Taylor: “I… uh, we done kissed. I guess you could say… we made out, I suppose. An’ then we stopped. Ain’t nothing more happened.”
Wong: “Who stopped your ‘making out’? Did Ms. Bell indicate that she was uncomfortable with what you were doing?”
Taylor: “No. I don’t… she never said nothin’ like that. We both decided, together, like, that in light of the circumstances an’ all, it wasn’t appropriate for us to… you know.”
Wong: “No, Prisoner Taylor. I don’t know. That is why you must answer, clearly, concisely and truthfully, not give me mealy-mouthed non-answers disguised as shyness about anything even resembling sexual matters. Please, as if anyone buys that Gomer Pyle act!”
Taylor: “I’mma real sorry, ma’am. I ain’t acting an’ I’m doin’ the best I can to answer.”
Wong: “No, damn it! You’re laughing at me behind those sly, savage [fornicating] Scots-Irish killer eyes, exaggerating your ‘just a dumb Good Ole Boy’ drawl and trying to act so stupid that we give up on getting anything from you!”

Taylor is still deflated and stunned by the accusation levelled at him, barely aware of his surroundings as he sits slumped in the chair opposite to the two agents. Adeline Wong slapped the table at beginning of her rant and now raises her hand to point a finger in Taylor’s face.

Wong: “Just drop the act. You kissed her against her will, she objected and before you actually managed to rape her, something made you stop. Come on, sexual assault is better than rape, if you just start telling the truth.”
Taylor: “She really say that’s what happened?”
Wong: “I’m asking you, Goddamn it!”
Taylor: “No. That ain’t what happened, ma’am. I’d never do that to Lynnie. To anybody. I’m ashamed that anything happened an’ it sure as heck shouldn’t have, but it was never against her will.”
Wong: “Oh, really? How do you know that, because she didn’t fight back hard enough?”
Taylor: “No!”
Wong: “Then how? Did she participate in any way? Did she initiate any sexual contact or ask for you to touch her in a sexual manner?”
Taylor: “Ma’am, I understand you got a job to do, but it ain’t easy for me to discuss this. I done tole you we kissed. I guess you got a right to ask if’n that mean we both kiss each other an’ it does. Okay, ma’am. I done kissed her and she… well, I reckon you understand what I’m getting at.”
Wong: “So you initiated sexual contact?”
Taylor: “I… uh, I reckon it was my responsibility, sure. Sherilyn is the one who’s vulnerable here an’ I recognise I never should have let her see I have feelings for her. An’ maybe she felt obligated or somethin’. I hope not, I, uh, sure thought she was kissin’ me ‘cause she wanted to kiss me, but I reckon if she’s saying now she didn’t want to, I musta been wrong.”
Wong: “After Ms. Bell informed you that she was not interested in sexual activity with you, did you continue to pressure her about it?”
Taylor: “No. I… well, she never did tell me anything like that. Like I said, we came to our senses an’ decided we’d jes’ be friends.”
Wong: “Was that your idea or hers?”
Taylor: “I honestly don’t see how it matters. I ain’t done nothing since then but try to be her friend, as best I know how.”
Wong: “I’ll decide what matters. It was her idea, wasn’t it?”
Taylor: “We both agreed. We talked, about our past an’ stuff an’ we agreed that it was best for us right now to jes’ be friends. If’n she wants y’all to know more about our conversation, I expect she tole you.”
Wong: “So you admit that her recounting of events is accurate?”
Taylor: “You ain’t tole me what she said. All I can tell you is that I never did nothin’ to hurt her or anythin’ but what I thought she wanted me to do. If’n I was wrong, I’mma sorrier than I ever can say… I never want to hurt her...”

Taylor’s voice breaks. Agent Richardson, who has been observing the interplay in silence while reading something on a tablet, addresses him quietly.

Richardson: “As you can imagine, son, Ms. Bell wasn’t entirely coherent in her account. She’s been through a lot. We just need you to tell us what you can, to help us make sense of everything. Let’s skip over what happened between you, exactly, or who said what to whom. Just help me narrow down time and location, please. When you kissed, where did that take place?”
Taylor: “Uh, the barracks. Guards’ barracks, mess hall. Maybe fifteen minutes before eleven, I reckon.”
Richardson: “And the conversation between you where you decided to just be friends took place when and where?”
Taylor: “Immediately subsequent, sir, but we done went to the foyer to have us some privacy.”
Richardson: “I see. Did anyone see or hear you?”
Taylor: “Doc Anderson, he come in jes’… when we’d stopped kissin’. I don’t reckon he heard our conversation, he stayed in the mess hall, on account of us wantin’ privacy, like I said.”
Richardson: “Thank you, Chase. Now, this is important. Can you tell us if anything happened between you after this that Ms. Bell may have experienced as pressure to pursue a sexual relationship with you?”
Taylor: “I… uh, I cain’t think of nothing, sir. I done my best to jes’ be friendly. There was them rats an’ people shootin’ at us an’ I don’t think she was best pleased when I had to give her orders about room-clearin’, but I never did nothin’ romantic or anythin’ like that.”
Richardson: “Did you touch her in any way after that conversation?”
Taylor: “I, uh, I pushed her against a wall once.”
Richardson: “Why did you do that?”
Taylor: “We were talkin’, uh, arguin’ you might say, an’ I thought done heard somethin’.”
Richardson: “Had you?”
Taylor: “Yeah, guards talkin’. We needed to be real silent, real quick an’ I didn’t feel I had time to explain jes’ then.”
Richardson: “So the push was done in a tactical situation, to try to avoid attracting attention?”
Taylor: “More or less, sir. If’n I’d had more time, maybe I’d have found another way, but that’s what I did.”
Richardson: “You said you were arguing. About what?”
Taylor: “The guards we’d just subdued, in that hallway, mostly. We had us a disagreement about how to move around an’ how deal with guards. It ain’t important. Everyone gets edgy when nervous an’ she weren’t trained to handle any of this, but she did real fine.”
Richardson: “And that push was the full extent of your contact after you decided to be just friends?”
Taylor: “I reckon there might could have been some other touches. In them tunnels under the asylum, we gave signals by touchin’. I wasn’t holding hands with her an’ I mostly gave Dr. Anderson signals, but I suppose I could have tapped her arm a few times.”
Richardson: “But nothing beyond that?”
Taylor: “That’s all the times I kin recall touchin’ her after we decided to be friends.”
Richardson: “Any sexual comments, suggestive gestures or other interaction that she might have experienced as unwelcome sexual advances?”
Taylor: “No, sir, I never done nothin’ like that.”
Richardson: “You didn’t do anything like that. Did Ms. Bell do anything that could be interpreted as sexual advances after your conversation?”
Taylor: “I reckon you’re gonna have to ask her that, sir.”
Richardson: “The problem is, Chase, when there are only two witnesses and one party won’t give answers to certain questions, people tend to believe the other party. I can tell that this accusation really bothers you. Are you sure you don’t feel able to talk about things in more detail, even if they are embarrassing, if it means a better chance of setting the record straight?”
Taylor: “I might could talk to Sherilyn, if’n y’all kin allow me. If’n she say it’s all right, I’ll tell you anythin’ you wanna know.”


At that, Special Agent Gerald Richardson stands up and gathers up his things.

Richardson: “I’m sure you know we can’t do that. I’ve got another interview, Agent Wong will finish up here.”
Taylor: “Please, sir, kin you tell her that if’n she feels scared or don’t trust those she’s with, if’n they gonna take her anywhere she don’t wanna go, jes’ cry out to me. I’ll hear her an’ come runnin’. An’ make sure she don’t do nothin’ rash. She don’t mean to be no trouble to y’all, it’s only that she ain’t got no reason to trust nobody.”
Richardson: “Except you, is that it?”
Taylor: “No, sir. I left her in here an’ I ain’t ever gonna make up for that. I done promised to be her friend an’ take care of her any way I could, but I know I got to earn her trust first.”
Richardson: “Agent Wong thinks you’re acting. Me, I’m starting to think that if you are, you’re a damn sight better than that blond, dino-wrangling Pratt fellow my daughters like. And if you aren’t, hell, son, this is the sort of thing that ought to tell it’s time to quit a girl, not try to win her back.”
Taylor: “I ain’t gonna do nothin’ she don’t want me to. I jes’ want her to be safe an’ happy. There’s no harm in carin’ for a person.”
Richardson: “At your age, son, you ought to have learned better. Nothing that hurts more.”