Ask Vaarvel to accompany you in the interrogation

Vaarvel had a point. {if Psychology Skill = 1}You had always proven yourself a competent judge of criminal intent and character, but still...{endif} Her ability to read people, trick them, and even lead their behaviors was on another level. Beyond that, she had proven herself without a strict moral code several times in the past... she'd have no problems doing what it takes to get an answer out of Adder Adjutant. It only made sense to pick her.

"Good, Ciao. I'll join you in there shortly. Warm her up for me," your agent encouraged you, looking pleased with your response. Of course, she almost always looked sort of smug and pleased, so in reality, her masked face had barely changed at all. With a quick farewell to Goodbye, Vaarvel stood up and coolly exited the room. You saw your boss wipe her forehead with her handkerchief, showing she was glad that Vaarvel was gone.

Au Revoir continued to wear her smile, but she lowered her eyebrows as well. "I hope you know what you're doing, friend." Her voice clearly conveyed what you already knew: you may have just sealed yourself in with two unpredictable opponents, not just one.

The big blonde may have a point, but here, you needed the very best interrogation techniques. You simply couldn't afford to leave Vaarvel out of it.

Finally, the time had come: you arrived first to the interrogation room, finding Adder Adjutant waiting for you there with her hands together, handcuffed to the table in front of you. The interrogation room was a sterile gray color with no features apart from cameras recording in either corner and long, glass windows on either side, obviously advertising the intent to allow observers. You wouldn't be able to get away with a single bit of funny business; it felt as though all of CEDIT was watching this moment. Even Vaarvel would have a hard time pulling off a trick in these conditions.

The sour, Asian woman across from you regarded you with narrow eyes and a tight frown. In the place of her usual uniform, she wore a gray prisoner's garb, high-necked and mostly featureless apart from a row of buttons down the chest. Her features really were pretty boyish-- perfect for deceiving others as to her gender while under the guise of the leader of Adder. You took a certain satisfaction in having her here in front of you, deprived of that persona and as just an ordinary woman... if one highly talented in leading terrorists and practicing martial arts.

"Finally, you've come. You're here to have me spill my secrets, no doubt. I'm the highest value target you could have ever conceived of giving your hands on." She spoke the words evenly, sounding somehow in control of the situation despite the circumstances.

You knew too many women like this now to be thrown off your game by a terrorist who was merely well-spoken. You nodded, then took the seat across from her, straight-backed and official in your suit and tie. It was a blessed relief to be in a situation like this... so often, you found yourself doing insane field work or odd, sexual interrogations at the behest of your boss. Finally, this was a chance to just handle it properly, like an agent of CEDIT.

"The only problem is that I don't intend to answer a single one of your questions," the woman continued, staring blankly at you with her lips in a tight frown. "You're still beneath me."

You told the Adjutant she may be misunderstanding something. Torture was not something you could condone, but CEDIT technology had its ways of extracting answers, just as it had its ways of extracting her from the Palm of Royalty. You told her she should stop being so damn cocky and offer you some tips willingly, if she wanted her accommodations to remain comfortable and with a standard degree of privacy.

"It's hilarious how you still think you have so much time," the woman spoke, tilting her eyebrows up with a clownish smile you'd never seen before. It looked both out of place on her dour face and somehow eerie. "Is anyone else joining us today? Or have they already, in one of the other rooms?"

You didn't want to give in to her tricks, but she did have a point: it might benefit you to learn a thing or two before Vaarvel joined the two of you. You leaned your elbows on the table and crossed your hands, then asked: she already knew who was coming, didn't she? How much did she know about Vaarvel?

"More than you, I imagine. She and I have been dancing this tango since before you had the clearance to know the Goodbye Girls were real," the woman answered evenly, keeping that odd smile. "When did you join CEDIT? I wonder if I was Adder Adjutant back then, or if I was still called Snakeskin..."

Her answer was cryptic, but also encouraging. She seemed to have opened up, although you felt suspect of the validity of her answers. You weren't going to answer her questions. Instead, you asked her another: How had she allowed herself to get captured during that mission? It seemed almost too easy... Adder Adjutant had made some rookie mistakes that didn't seem befitting of the world's greatest terrorist.

"Hm? Aren't the Goodbye Girls the world's greatest agents? Are you surprised that they apprehended the world's greatest terrorist?" Adder Adjutant actually laughed this time. "That woman... Vanessa Pillay. She'll be here any moment now. When she arrives, I'd say your time is up."

Oddly, you'd just received the most reliable lead on Vaarvel's true name you'd ever collected without even trying to research it. You asked her why she was offering you so much on Vaarvel.

"... A grudge, I suppose. I've been bested by her. I always have been. Maybe I wanted to give you something over her, here, at the end," the woman shrugged. "This is, after all, the end. She and I have... such a long history. To think it terminates here... I thought I was a more valuable piece than all of that. In the end, even the most important terrorist in the world dances in the palm of the Goodbye Girls it seems, waiting for their leader to close her fist."

You corrected the Adjutant: Vaarvel wasn't the leader, only the founder.

Her eyes widened, for just a moment, then narrowed. She smirked, looking more her usual self. "Now that is funny!" Just then, Vaarvel entered the room carrying a folder, which you suspected came from her personal archive. This would probably help guide her questions towards the Adjutant. "That's my queue."

The events that played out next... made no sense. The Adjutant effortlessly stood to her feet, raising her hands with the palms upward and wearing a sinister smile. The chains trailed beneath her wrists, dragging on the table; they'd been cut at some point and weren't truly holding her in place at all. Vaarvel still had her back turned, in the process of shutting the door. Before you could stand to your feet and before Vaarvel could process the situation, the woman leaped across the table for leverage, tackling Vaarvel to the ground and sending files flying everywhere. You'd never seen Vaarvel set upon in this way; in moments, her head was being beaten up and down against the floor, held roughly in the Asian woman's strong grip. You imagined she was probably thankful for her protective mask, in situations like this.

You stood up to run help your fellow agent, while wondering if anyone in the side rooms was mobilizing themselves. As you reached Adder Adjutant, you knelt down to grab her waist and drive her off. You were caught off guard when she lifted her legs from her pinned opponent and mule-kicked you in the gut, sending you reeling and falling into the chair you'd just risen from.

"My old nemesis... have you lost a step?" the attacker questioned, pressing Vaarvel's face down into the floor hard enough to crack her mask across one eye.

"And have you lost your mind? You won't survive a confrontation like this," Vaarvel reminded her, while struggling to stand up from the floor. Both of the women had similar muscle tones and training... it seemed the jump on Vaarvel was too much to overcome. You found yourself wishing you'd asked Au Revoir to join you as well.

Still, Vaarvel's words shocked you. This was a two-on-one situation. There was no chance that the two of you could fail to beat Adder Adjutant together and do it nonlethally at that. Why would-?

As if in answer to your question, the door flipped open and two agents, clad in combat armor and carrying service pistols, walked in. Vaarvel yelled at them to hold their fire, but it was no use. You thought you saw Adder Adjutant begin laughing, deep from her belly, as she stood to her feet. In the next moment, bullets unloaded from those pistols, ripping through her unprotected body. One or two and she might have made it to the medics, but the agents were either bloodthirsty or frightened; they fired again and again, until the woman was completely, conclusively, killed.

Growling with frustration, you approached the doorway and grabbed one of the agents by the neck of his uniform. They'd blown it! This was the chance of the lifetime to interrogate one of the most important targets ever apprehended by CEDIT! Both of them would be losing their badges over this, if not facing imprisonment!

"... Sir! With all due respect. This was an unforeseen incident involving a hostile captive. We couldn't afford to lose the Goodbye Girls in a situation like this. We did what we had to do."

Vaarvel, shaking in an unusual level of disarray with her mask half-broken from her face and her arms trembling, nonetheless smirked up at them. "Don't fuck around. This was the chance to dispense justice to Adder Adjutant, who killed your comrades, before CEDIT had the chance to lock them up somewhere you'd never reach them." The agent grit his teeth and dropped his gun dangerously; it was clear Vaarvel's hunch was right on the mark. There was no telling what kind of discipline the two agents would face for this. "I should have accounted for this and made sure no outsiders were anywhere near this room before we began, Ciao... This was my failing," she huffed, holding one hand to her bleeding forehead. You could hardly hold it against her, in such a situation...

The face of Adder Adjutant seemed oddly at peace, as though a great weight had been lifted. You recognized that almost clownish smile, now frozen on her disturbingly symmetrical face. Did she think Vaarvel had been killed, in the end? Was it just a weight off, no longer fearing the next day of CEDIT persecution? Adder Adjutant had taken her ambitions to the grave with her... It was impossible to know her true motivations. You shouted in frustration, sitting at the table where you'd intended to run the interrogation and beating one fist onto it uselessly, while the two agents watched silently and Vaarvel rose to her feet.