INTERROGATION OF SUBJECT ‘ORION’, FURTHER ‘O’

AUTOMATED PROCEDURAL TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO RECORDING

PRELIMINARIES

LEADING INTERROGATOR: RYAN SILAS, FURTHER ‘RS’

__TH OF ____, XXXX

RS: Starting the interrogation of suspect, code-name ‘Orion’, given name unknown. Interrogation lead by Ryan Silas. Starting sample for voice recognition of subject, now.

O: Good morning to you, too.

RS: End of sample. Come on Orion, it’s protocol. Good morning.

O: Slept well?

RS: Can’t complain. You?

O: I could do with a flat-screen.

RS: All right, moving on. Let’s start with personal information. Your name?

O: Orion.

RS: Real name?

O: Define real.

RS: Official name.

O: Not listed.

RS: You’re not going to make this easy, are you. Everyone is listed.

O: If you grow up as the child of law-abiding citizens, sure. If you grow up like I did, then no.

RS: Given name, then. Pretending I believe you about the listing.

O: I’m pretty sure you won’t believe me anyway.

RS: So am I. Humour me.

O: Sixty-two.

RS: What’s that?

O: My name.

RS: Cut it out. When we made our deal, you agreed to full cooperation.

O: Told you you wouldn’t believe it. I’m willing to tell you the whole story, but you’ll have to humour me, too. Wait until you’ve heard the whole thing, then make your decision. All right?

RS: Why am I agreeing to this?

O: Because I’m charming.

RS: Can’t do too much damage, I guess. All right. The full story?

O: Full, only slightly edited, and without too much embellishment.

RS: Without bending the truth?

O: To the best of my abilities.

RS: Orion.

O: Okay! Truth, full truth, nothing but the truth. Happy?

RS: A bit. You said, quote, if you grow up like I did. How did you grow up?

O: I don’t remember too much of the first few years, being a toddler and all. I ended up as part of a project created by Max Rivers. How exactly doesn’t matter.

RS: Meaning you don’t want to talk about it.

O: Yeah, but it also doesn’t matter. Nobody is interested in the criminal history of an eight year old. Plus I doubt any witness statements would be useful any more. So let’s just say it doesn’t matter.

RS: All right. You ended up with Max Rivers. What kind of project was it?

O: Child-killer training facility.

RS: Excuse me?

O: Not as in killing children, but as in children killing.

RS: Yeah, that’s not what confused me.

O: Max thought that if he trained them young, his pet killers might be better at their jobs, more loyal, that kind of stuff. If you grow up totally dependant on one person, it’s hard to even think about defecting.

RS: I have no idea what to put down about your childhood. We have the options of trauma, orphan, criminal background, and many more. You check almost all of the boxes.

O: Yay, I’m special.

RS: Yeah. Okay. What about Sixty-two?

O: I was the sixty-second kid to enter the program. So they called me that.

RS: Damn.

O: Nah, damn is not a number. But if it was, I vote it should be between twelve and thirteen. Eleven, twelve, damn, thirteen.

RS: Sigh.

O: Did you just say sigh?

RS: The voice recognition software isn’t good with non-words, and I wanted my exasperation to go on record.

O: You’re a funny guy when you’re not trying to hunt me down.

RS: Thanks. But I’m not calling you by a number. How did you end up with the name Orion?

O: Ran away when I was old enough. I knew normal people didn’t go by a number for a name, so I searched for inspiration. Saw an exhibit at a planetarium, saw the constellation of Orion, and thought why not.

RS: What about your birthday?

O: Seventh of January.

RS: And how old are you?

O: Approximately twenty-something.

RS: You know your date of birth but not your age?

O: I picked my date of birth.

RS: How? And why?

O: You’re getting exasperated again.

RS: Answer the damned questions, Orion.

O: Which one?

RS: Either one.

O: The constellation is visible through most of winter, so January felt like a good bet. Also, the exhibit said it has seven stars with known planets, so I thought the seventh of January was as good as any other day.

RS: Do you know your actual date of birth?

O: No.

RS: And your age?

O: I joined the project at somewhere between six and nine. It’s difficult to pinpoint age when malnutrition might have hindered your growth. I ran away when I was between seventeen and twenty. That was five years ago, so I am now approximately twenty-something.

RS: As you’ve said already. I’ll just put down your exact words, then. Age: approximately twenty-something. My superiors are going to be happy.

O: You have superiors?

RS: Yeah. This isn’t my police force, I have to answer to people.

O: Huh. Never thought about that.

RS: Moving on. I’m guessing you can’t tell me about your family history?

O: Know nothing about it.

RS: No listed name, no date of birth, no family records. Anything else you want to add?

O: Nope.

RS: You’ve been here for two days. Were you going to tell me about your bi-weekly medication, or were you planning to suffer in silence?

O: How the fuck

RS: Sit down. I’m good at my job, that’s how. You remember the apartment downtown?

O: Aw man. I knew we should have burned the dumpsters as soon as we heard you coming.

RS: When did you get your last dose?

O: I don’t need it.

RS: Orion.

RS: The silent treatment doesn’t work on me. We’re staying here until you’ve told me.

O: Gods you’re annoying. Fine. Tuesday.

RS: That’s five days.

O: I know, I can count, thank you very much. I was a bit busy.

RS: I’ll put down your medication, and I’ll get you some. Anything else I should know?

O: No.

RS: Orion.

O: I said no.

RS: If you have any allergies and you don’t tell me

O: Then it’ll be my own fault if something happens. Can you please put me in a cell now? I’d love to avoid having this conversation.

RS: Might as well. Concluding preliminary records.

END OF AUTOMATED TRANSCRIPT

MANUAL NOTES CAN BE FOUND IN THE ARCHIVES AS AN ANNOTATION

ORIGINAL AUDIO FILE OF THE SESSION AVAILABLE FOR REVIEW