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Chapter 5 : Recording the Results

Jana felt safer inside the APC, but she still trembled slightly knowing that there was a near riot outside. She had little time to think about that though, as she soon found herself inside the prisoner holding area. The small cage like cell was on the side of the APC, and a kind of bench was built into the vehicle's side opposite the cell.The officer had removed the muzzle from Jana's head before she locked her inside the cell. She ordered Jana to turn around and put her hands near the small rectangular hatch in the cell's door. Jana complied and smiled faintly when the handcuffs she had been placed in were removed. She rubbed her wrists once they were off.

Trisha sat down on the bench opposite the cell that Jana was in and got out her notebook and a pen from one of her larger pouches on her utility belt. She would have preferred to have used her police issue tablet computer, but she was in the field and she needed to interview the detainee while her memories were still fresh. She would have to do it the old fashioned way.

"You are in the interview cell. We don't want to cause you any undue stress. We need to ask you some questions, while the memories are fresh in your mind. I am Warrant Officer Trisha Hendrikse. Can you tell me your name?"

Jana sighed. "Jana. Jana de la Rey."

Trisha quickly wrote down the Jana's name and continued to ask more and more questions as the APC drove away from the potential riot and towards one of the larger police stations in Johannesburg. Most of the questions were simple, and on their own would seem quite insignificant, but when all the answers Jana gave had been recorded, verified and cross referenced, they would give a complete picture of who she was. Trisha soon had a wealth of information about Jana, her relatives, where she was from, her home address, and most importantlya detailed account of her kidnapping, a description of the kidnappers, and what had happened inside the auditorium. Trisha couldn't help but think that one of the kidnappers sounded like one of their regular 'customers'.

Soon after the informal interview was completed the APC arrived at the police station. It was a fairly large police station, with detention facility inside. After Jana's hands had been cuffed behind her back again, the police officers took her inside the station. Trisha could not help but chuckle as they entered the station. _'It will be interesting to see how the Major Carter reacts to having a Hyena as a 'customer''._Trisha took Jana past the reception area and through a restricted access door to the holding cells. She was put into one of the cells, one that was a little larger than the one she had been in on the APC. It was sparsely furnished, and compared to the armour plated cell that she had been in it almost seemed nice. But the barred door, the sand proof walls, the perforated plasteel window, and the dim lighting were a little unsettling. Jana was once again ordered to put her hands near the cell door's hatch so she couldbe uncuffed. She complied without any complaints.

Jana was half expecting the area outside her cell to be crowded with every officer in the station, all eager to get a look at the 'the freak'. To her surprise, only three officers came in. One was a female Siamese, with blue and black fur, and a distinctive mask around her eyes, cheeks, snouts, and ears. Although her uniform hid most of her fur, Jana knew that she would have blue fur on her body, black fur on her forearms, hands, calves, feet, and tail. There was another female officer. She was an Oriental. She had a similar build to the Siamese, but she had short flat grey fur. The other officer was a male Mau. He looked high ranking, and was similar in build to the Oriental, but with larger ears and sharper features.His short fur was flat black. Jana though he was very handsome.

The Mau took a few moments to overcome his surprise, shock, and awe. He cleared his throat and introduced himself. "I am Major William Carter. We need to conduct a formal interview, and we need to verify who you are. This might take a while, as biometrics in your case will beless than useful. Once we have confirmed your identity and figured out what led to all of this we will see about releasing you into the care of the appropriate authorities. We don't know if have the authority to hold...a non person for want of a better word. I apologize for using such a term, but-"

Jana's ears flattened when she was referred to as a 'non person'. "How about you call me a Hyena? Or a hybrid? I was a Wolf, and I doubt that they removed all of my Wolf genes."

William avoided making direct eye contact. "I did not mean to offend you. And I apologize for not making eye contact. I don't know if you will see direct eye contact as a challenge or threat."

Jana was moved by this admission. He may have called her a 'non person', but he was also making an effort to accommodate any new instincts she might have. She didn't know if eye contact would be an issue, but it was the thought that counted. "Thanks."

William then explained that ConstableLauren Simelane, the Siamese, and Sergeant NicoleNkosi, the Oriental, were going to conduct the formal interview. He explained that this was standard procedure, and that it would be a little while before the interview started. There was paperwork which needed to be done first. This sounded reasonable to Jana, who was content to wait. What she didn't know was that the interrogators were there, not to be introduced to Jana, but to observe Jana and to try and figure out the best tactics to use against her in the interrogation.

The three officers left Jana. While William went to his office for some reason or another, Lauren and Nicole went to speak to Warrant Officer Trisha Hendrikse who was waiting outside the holding area. She was busy transcribing her notes into a tablet computer. The two interrogators waited while she finished typing up her notes. Once they had copies of the notes on their data sticks the two interrogators went to the computer labs, and logged into computers that were next to one another. They carefully read the notes that Trisha had provided them with, and compared the notes to the documents which they were able to get from the civil registry. They accessed the civil registry via the police network. It allowed them to get access to more information, and it meant they didn't have to wait for it.

Lauren was the first to speak. "She is probably who she says she is."

Nicole agreed. "That's probably a safe conclusion."

Nicole then wondered "do you think we could get Trisha to look at the missing persons reports to see if the story the detainee has given matches anything we have?"

"I don't see why not. I'll go ask her." replied Lauren as she stood up and left the room.

While her colleague was gone, Nicole reread the notes given to her by Trisha several times. She committed as much as she could to memory so she would know if the detainee's story changed while she was interrogating her. And if her memory failed, there would be the notes she would be making during the interrogation.

Lauren soon returned. "Trisha can't go through the missing person's files at the moment, but I found someone else who can. And Trisha is going to help when she has finished doing what she needs to do."

Nicole nodded "It shouldn't take them that long to see if any reports match the statement given by the detainee. She was very specific about the time, date, and location of her alleged abduction. That will narrow it down considerably."

The two felines turned their thoughts, and their conversation, to how they would conduct the interrogation. It was decided by Nicole, the more experienced of the two interrogators, that it would not be wise to be in the same cell as Jana while interviewing her. They would conduct the interview from the adjacent cell. They would avoid calling it an interrogation. Instead, it would be referred to as a formal interview. Lauren brought up the possibility that Jana may have done something illegal, most likely unintentionally, during her escape from the GeneTech conference. Nicole agreed, and suggested that if Jana began withholding information at any point during the interrogation they would start using the 'file and dossier' interrogation technique, along with the suggestion that they already knew everything.

"How will we convince her that we know everything?" thought Lauren out loud.

Nicole smiled. "Simple. We will say that we have other witnesses who saw what happened, and that they have given their statements."

Lauren nodded. 'That would work' she thought.

They discussed their plan for the interrogation further. Nicole would lead the interrogation, and Lauren would be the supporting interrogator.They would also set up a video camera on a tripod to record the interrogation, and they would have a variety of documents on hand in case the 'file and dossier' technique needed to be used. Lauren was wondering how the files would be of any use to them as most of them were just copies of Jana's civil records. Then she realized that Jana would not really be able to see the notes through the perforated plasteel plate that separated her cell from the one that they would be in.

Nicole was satisfied with their plans. She asked Lauren if she had any questions before they start the 'formal interview'. After a moment, Lauren asked "How will we refer to her? She doesn't like being called a 'non-person' if you recall."

"Good point" replied Nicole. "We should refer to her as a person, which is what she is as far as I am concerned. She isn't an animal. And we can't afford to offend her. We might lose rapport with her, which is the worst case scenario for an interrogation. You can't interrogate someone who doesn't speak to you."

Jana lay down on the cell's bed and got comfortable while waiting for the formal interview to start. Jana sat up when she heard the officers approaching outside the restricted access door outside and next to her cell. Jana patiently waited for the door to open. She was a little surprised by what the two feline officers were carrying. The Siamese was carrying two chairs stacked on top of one another, and the Oriental was carrying an expensive lookingvideo camera and a tripod. They entered the cell next to the one Jana was in. Jana turned around on the bed to face the officers. She sat with her legs crossed and tried to watch what the officers were doing in the cell next to the one she was in. The plasteel plate that separated the two cells had thousands of circular holes in it, but it was not really easy to see what was going on behind it.

The Oriental set up the camera, and the Siamese set the chairs down and moved them so that one was on each side of the camera. The officers sat down and got out their notebooks and pens. Nicole said in a clear voice a number of boring administrative things like who was being interviewed, who the interviewing officer were, their ranks and numbers, the time, date, and other things that Jana didn't take any notice of.Then the interview started. It was more or less like the one she had with Warrant Officer Hendrikse. It was a long series of simple questions, and many seemed to ask the same thing in a slightly different way. It was getting on Jana's nerves answering the same questions over and over again, but she knew that it was to make sure that her version of events stated consistent. Eventually Jana had to give a detailed account of her kidnapping, which caused her more emotional stress than it had with Officer Henderikse for some reason.

The interview ended rather abruptly after that. Lauren was concerned about Jana's mental state. Having to relive the kidnapping for a second time was clearly getting to Jana. She moved out of the cell and around to the front of Jana's cell. She spoke quietly to Jana, trying to reassure her. She suggested that they could get a counsellor for her to speak to, but Jana declined - for now anyway. She agreed to see a counsellor if things didn't improve, but she wanted to try and 'work things out for herself' first. Lauren was a little concerned, but she had no choice but to respect Jana's decision. She felt better when Jana agreed to the idea of seeing a doctor to determine what had been done to her.Of course, Lauren would need to talk to Major Carter before organizing anything, but it was something she felt they really needed to do.