Interrogation

[Black Philip]

Reserved for EO

Jake sipped fresh blood from a wine glass, and then placed it on his mahogany desk. It\'s remarkable that Jake found space to place any other items, as his desk was currently covered in papers, pens, files, and an assortment of other crap. Tonight, Jake was working. Even with two vampire Oligarchs the work load was enormous. Everyone wanted permission to have a pet, permission to sire, permission to declare such and such place as their haven. Jake, being a Ventrue, took the time to review every case in detail. For example, when it came to permission to take a pet, Jake often examined the mental state of the vampire in question. If for a moment, Jake thought the vampire would kill, mutilate or otherwise damage the human, Jake would deny the request. This sort of detail when it came to going through each file often left Jake tired and annoyed.

He was certainly annoyed tonight...

Now that Jake had taken his sip of blood, he returned to reading over the file that was just in front of his nose. It was a standard request. The vampire was a female Toreador who wanted to make her male pet into her child. She\'d written a lovely letter, and even impressed a rose. After refereeing to her Oligarchy profile, Jake found no need to deny her, and approved her request. To Jake it was just another night at work.

At this moment, one of Jake\'s vampire attendants knocked on the door of the office. After Jake bellowed a loud, "Come in David," the vampire entered the office and shut the door.

"So," Jake began."Did you deliver the message as I told you to?"

"Yes Oligarch McCloud," David replied. David was a young vampire, and often found himself terrified when around Jake. Jake liked this irrational fear, and always made sure to be stern around him. It was a silly, little way for Jake to have some extra fun.

"And," Jake asked. "Did he agree to come by, or not?"

"He didn\'t say Sir," David replied, looking terrified.

"Very well David, you may go," Jake said. With that Jake lowered his head and began working again. David excused himself from the room as fast as he could. Once David was gone, Jake cracked a laugh.

Poor David. Maybe I should let him know I\'m not going to kill him if he makes a mistake? No, he\'ll do better if he thinks I might.

Despite the comic nature of the exchange, Jake was upset. He wanted to know for sure whether Vomas\'s little pet Samuel was coming tonight. Jake returned to his work, but was distracted by the thought of what might be going on around him. Jake had noticed Vomas have tons of meetings with an Oligarchy employee named Samuel. Samuel was a cute, often unassuming fellow, whom Jake had put in the same category as David. Then the meetings began.

Jake watched as Samuel began picking other people from all around to join him in the library. There, Samuel had begun calmly giving orders to groups of other Oligarchy aids and even a few faces Jake didn\'t recognize. All of this had to do with Vomas, and Jake wanted to know why. What was being planned? Who was planing it? Would Jake be told later? Or was this a plan to replace Jake with Samuel? Jake had refrained from asking Vomas directly, because to do so, would give Vomas a large upper hand. It would prove Jake cared. Then Vomas would be in control, and Jake\'s power would evaporate.

The Ventrue had also considered asking Kerr, but this for almost the same reasons was not an option. If there really was some sort of mutiny going on, Kerr would most certainly know about it. Jake had only one option. He had to crack Samuel. With that in mind Jake had sent David to give Samuel a letter which read:

Dear Samuel,
   
       Please do me the honor of joining me in my office around 2 or 3 A.M for a drink and some brief conversation. I do hope you\'ll be able to make it. I know that your terribly busy these days in the library. I\'m sure your people will cary on without you for an hour or so. If you can\'t make it, please send a reply through an aid of your own. Otherwise I\'ll see you between 2 and 3.

Your Friend
Jacob McCloud, Oligarch.

After about an hour more of work, Jake still hadn\'t heard Samuel wasn\'t coming, so he packed up his files, arranged his papers and cleared off his desk. He placed a bottle of fresh blood on the table, and placed two, clean wine glasses next to it. He then opened his Itunes and put on "Swan Lake." He turned the volume to a dull, low level and then picked up his copy of "Cats Cradle." There he read, and awaited his guest.

[Existentially Odd]

Samuel had been highly troubled to receive a summons from Oligarch McCloud, especially such a formal one.  The only thing he\'d done that he could think would be marginally inappropriate - that an oligarch needed to see him over - would be his meeting quite a few nights back with Gene... and that thought had his throat just about clogged with worry.  He\'d quite rudely refused to meet Orias at a later date, he could imagine such an intimidating (and much older) vampire coming to his place of work to complain about his manners and have him set straight.

Perhaps Orias was insisting that Samuel give him details about the time he\'d spent with his mortal lover; the vampire had seemed, on the one hand, to be extremely interested in that (and quite rightly so), but on the other he\'d also seemed perfectly happy being told that he and Gene had just talked.  Well, they had.  But it had been almost a week and it was possible that Orias had got more details out of Gene by now, that Gene had confessed that Samuel had hit on him a few times... and now he was here to have his revenge!

Trepidation just about froze him, but he knew he couldn\'t refuse a thinly veiled threat from one of the men that governed his fate as much as he did Orias\'.  Re-reading the note for the fifteenth time, Samuel had no idea where Oligarch McCloud thought he would get an aide from, but he supposed the three staff members he\'d employed to work on his project with him might have impressed the man as his aides.  In fact, now he thought about it, the last time he\'d seen Oligarch McCloud he\'d been in the library talking with Sable about the scanning of a particularly old document when another two researchers from downstairs had come to ask him about some bank account information he\'d discovered on one of the oligarchy\'s people of interest a while back and then one of his other scanners had come up to report that he was receiving an error from the system about the disc being too full and...

Well, that had been on particularly busy night and he\'d noticed in the middle of it all that the other oligarch had been standing in the doorway, observing.  If he knew that Jake wanted to see him about that, he\'d have simply laughed it off.  Instead, he believed he was being called to task over an incident he\'d really not intended to happen and he was scared.  He anticipated that, when he arrived at Jake\'s office, he would find Orias sitting in there waiting for him, staring at him with those intense, soul-searing eyes of his, demanding to know why he\'d tried to kiss his very drunk boyfriend with a bleeding tongue.

Oh, God.

At two on the dot, Samuel turned up to the appropriate office (casting longing looks towards Vomas\' door, wishing he could help him somehow) and stammered out to Oligarch McCloud\'s assistant that he was expected.  Given the go-ahead, he knocked on the door, looking down at his feet and wondering if he should\'ve changed into something a little more formal than his cream chinos, brown Colorado lace-ups and brown polo shirt.  He looked neat, respectable, his shirt was tucked in and although it fit his fairly muscular body snugly, it wasn\'t tight... still, he probably should\'ve gone and got into a suit or something.  He\'d just not wanted to turn up looking already dressed for his funeral.

When he was invited in, he would be immensely relieved to find just the oligarch in his office and would obediently sit wherever he was told to sit, accepting the offer of the glass of blood without concentrating on why it was being done.  He would no doubt lament that slip, soon enough.

[Black Philip]

"See the cat," said Newt. "See the cradle?"

Jake\'s concentration was broken by a firm yet crisp knock on his office door. Jake sensed that on the other end was Samuel. Jake put down the book, remembering to mark his place before closing it. He checked his hair in a small mirror that sat on his desk and saw that it looked just fine and dandy. It was up in a little short fohawk. This was a style Jake had returned to several times over the last ten years or so, and it was one that only increased his youthful appearance.

He was dressed in a nice green polo shirt that he\'d bought himself, and a nice pair of blue jeans. Jake knew how young he looked, and always dressed to fit the role. Dressing like Vomas, in a suit and dress shirt, would have made people think Jake was either going to prom or graduation. At least this way he looked normal, as normal as a vampire can look.

"Come in," Jake said loudly. He knew he needed to have an intercom installed, but hated the sound of a voice over a speaker.

With that Samuel entered the room, and much to Jake\'s approval closed the door behind him.

"Good evening Samuel," Jake said nicely. " Would you please sit in front of me here, and pour you and me a glass of blood."

Jake pointed to the chair, and indicated the bottle of blood as he spoke. Swan Lake was still playing in the background, faintly. After Samuel had poured himself and Jake glasses of blood, Jake took a sip of his. Jake considered cutting right to the chase. Although he didn\'t know the man\'s feelings, Jake guessed Samuel was feeling very nervous. After all, he\'d been summoned on short notice to see an Oligarch. That would make most anyone in the city at least a little nervous.

Yet, Jake was also taking this as an opportunity to get to know Samuel. If nothing else, the man was cute and shy. If this turned out to be nothing, there was always other ways to spend the evening. Jake decided a mix of business and pleasure was the best approach.

"How are you," Jake asked with sincerity. He really did want to know.

[Existentially Odd]

Samuel was, in fact, doing his very best to keep it together and not lose his head at that very moment - but it wasn\'t something he was about to reveal to his oligarch.  From being yelled at to enter the modestly-sized office (was it possible Jake was hard of hearing?  Samuel would never have thought it so but his voice had certainly been raised like one of them was... and it wasn\'t him!), to being asked to pour blood like a servant, he was completely off-kilter.
 
Now the oligarch was being nice?  Samuel wasn\'t having a bar of it.  He wanted to know what was going on and he wanted to know now - he wouldn\'t be able to relax until he knew.
 
"F-fine," he answered, pausing in order to gather himself before he spoke again, doing his best to put thoughts of Orias (which automatically undermined his calm) out of his head so that he could continue speaking as smoothly as possible.  Holding his blood in both hands upon his lap, he shifted position so that his back was straighter, took a calming sip and then looked at his superior.  "May I ask why I\'m h-here?" he enquired, relieved that his mental tricks were working and that he could focus on what he was saying, rather than how badly.

[Black Philip]

Jake found Samuel more nervous than he\'d first anticipated. Was it something he\'d said? Was it the invitation itself? Jake didn\'t want Samuel to shit his pants before he had a chance to interrogate him. From the stuttering, Jake decided it would be best to ease the other\'s tensions before moving on.

"Samuel, am I making you nervous?" Jake asked. "There really is no reason to stutter. I simply want to have a conversation with you."

Jake thought that perhaps this would be easier than he thought. If Samuel was so easily shakable, then Jake could simply turn on the pressure and get what he wanted. However, Jake was not a cruel vampire, and didn\'t have a reputation at the Oligarchy for being a tyrant. It would be a shame to start that train of thought now, especially if Jake found nothing going on with Vomas.

Jake looked to his wine glass and raised it up.

"Come have a drink with me Samuel," Jake said. With that Jake waited for Samuel to drink before doing so himself.

[Existentially Odd]

What the vampire was making him was angry more than nervous, and Samuel glowered down at his blood, taking his second drink on demand - but this time it was sullenly, rather than voluntarily.  How dare the asshole tell him there was no need to stutter!  He could hardly help it!
 
Deciding that if the other vampire was too ignorant to understand a speech impediment when he met one, he was likely too ignorant to understand what his defense with being with Gene was didn\'t make him feel any better about this meeting at all.  Setting his jaw, he embraced the anger in him, allowing it to empower him to answer smoothly and get to the point.  Again.
 
"A conversation for what purpose?"  He deliberately refrained from tacking on a term of reverence such as \'sir\', because even though he instinctively wanted to say it, he was of the opinion such a rude man didn\'t deserve his respect.

[Black Philip]

Jake was floored. Samuel seemed to be growing more hostile by the moment. What on earth had Jake done? He offered the man blood. He\'d said "please" when he\'d asked him to pour it. He\'d tried to assure him that there was no need to be nervous, only to find it irritated him. Jake couldn\'t just come out and demand to know what he and Vomas were doing. Such an action looked childlike, and desperate.

"Perhaps you should tell me why you think I\'ve summoned you and I\'ll tell you if you are correct," Jake suggested. "I simply want to get to know you better. I know you\'re a researcher for the Oligarchy, and I try my best go get to know all the employees who work here.  

Did Samuel think he was in some kind of trouble? Had he done something that would warrant the attention of an Oligarch? The plot had thickened. If Samuel was about to admit to something criminal, than perhaps Jake had a bargaining chip to make him talk about his plans with Vomas.

[Existentially Odd]

Samuel was simply confused.  Had he just been told to tell the oligarch why he thought he was in the office in one breath, and then Jake gave the answer himself in the next?  Truthfully, he hadn\'t ever had much to do with this Oligarch - he\'d run some research for him in the past, sure, but had always encountered aides or assistants upon delivery time, not the man himself, as far as he could recall - but he was pretty sure he\'d have noticed a lunatic running about the place.  He seemed a bit loony but... surely someone that cracked wouldn\'t be put in charge of

not charge, he\'s only in co-charge.  Thankfully, Vomas is also in control
really in control compared to this situation

all the vampires in the city?  Therefore it was most likely a ruse, another ploy to keep him guessing? Samuel hated mind games and could only hazard a guess as to what purpose they were serving right now.

"So I\'m... next on y-your list?" Samuel asked warily, doubting that Oligarch McCloud sent such sweet letters of invitation to the entire Oligarchy staff roster, one by one, just to get to know them.  No, he obviously wanted to know more about Sam... and, specifically, who he\'d been hanging out with.  There was no way he\'d divulge the information, though, not without prompting.

"W-What would you like to kn-know?" he added, his voice calm in tone, even though his stutter rocked it a little.  He raised his eyebrows enquiringly, then combed the fingers of his left hand through his hair instinctively, his nerves trying to take a hold of him once more.  He also told himself to push Gene out of his thoughts altogether and to think of nothing... locking his mental self away would not only stop the oligarch penetrating his thoughts without him noticing (for who knew how much mental skill he had?), but also keep him calm enough to communicate coherently.

He desperately needed that to happen.

[Black Philip]

As Jake listend closer, he heard that the stutter was constant. Samuel wasn\'t nervous, he simply had a speech impediment. Jake suddenly felt very bad. He\'d called it out as pure nerves, never realizing that the issue went deeper. Before they moved further, Jake was determined to set his transgression right.  

"Samuel I\'m very sorry, " Jake said. "I just heard your stutter enough to realize that you have a speech problem. I do apologize for calling attention to it earlier. I meant nothing but to assure you there was no need to stress. I feel very foolish for not noticing. I hope you can try and forgive me?"

Jake knew that total forgiveness was not going to happen in one reply. Still, he had to try to make up for being such a fool.

"After you\'ve spoken on the issue, and possibly yelled at me a little, I will tell you why I\'ve summoned you here," Jake assured. The vampire was being partially truthful. He would divulge some, but not all of what he was looking for.

[Existentially Odd]

In one fell swoop, Samuel lost his anger and was forced, instead, to embrace embarrassment.  He flushed bright red with it, the blood he\'d consumed - on top of a few glasses at the beginning of the night in his quarters - racing to his face to advertise the fact that he couldn\'t quite believe the other vampire had directly referenced his speech impediment.  At least he\'d apologised but... subtlety seemed lost on the man.

"I-it\'s oh-oh-ohkay," he told Jake shyly, dipping his head in order to take another gulp of blood (all the better to colour his cheeks with) and avoid saying anything more on the matter.  He didn\'t want to talk about it - he\'d certainly never yell about it! - he just wanted to know what was going on, why he was here, and how much trouble he\'d get into.  Discussing lifelong afflictions was not on the cards!

"Please, s-sir, why am I here?"  His tone was pleading now, for he\'d been promised an answer if only he accepted Jake\'s apology and he was desperate to know.  His raw honesty - thankfully - kept his stutter fairly well under control, too.

[Black Philip]

Jake still felt rather bad, but considering Samuel had dipped his head, Jake theorized he\'d embarrassed him. This was not going well, and Jake knew it. The only thing he could think to do was to give Samuel what he wanted.

"Very well," Jake began. "I\'ve noticed things going on lately with you and other members of the Oligarchy. I simply want to know a little about what your doing in the library."

He\'d refrained from mentioning Vomas by name just in case there were other people involved. Jake was leaving it open.

[Existentially Odd]

Samuel merely blinked at the oligarch, completely thrown by being told that he\'d had it completely wrong.  He wasn\'t in trouble?  Orias really wasn\'t behind this meeting, waiting to have him hung for acting lewdly towards his boyfriend?  He could relax?

"The library?" he repeated dumbly, his mind too full of relief and re-calculating that he wasn\'t really paying attention to what he was saying.  "Just cataloguing everything, w-why?"

[Black Philip]

Jake listened to Samuel\'s reply with interest. Jake was not a foolish vampire, even if at times he was impulsive. Samuel seemed to calm down after Jake had told him what he wanted out of him, but almost too much. Was Samuel hiding something? Jake decided finding out was a good thing, so he sat forward in his chair and placed his hands on his desk. He took a stern, but not unfriendly expression.

"Why did you think I\'d summoned you?" Jake asked. His tone was formal, but not heavy.

[Existentially Odd]

Samuel\'s eyebrows lifted and he suddenly had that feeling of being hunted again.  Probably because a man who was in a far greater position of authority than him had just leaned forward on his desk and was giving him that look.

"Uh, I thought I was in trouble for s-some r-reason," he hedged, telling the truth but not going into specifics.  He deliberately kept his expression passive, his blue eyes rounded to convey his respect for the situation and his concern that it was all very serious.

[Black Philip]

"Really?" Jake replied. He also kept his expression neutral. Jake had begun to suspect that Samuel had put himself in some kind of hot water. This Jake could exploit to get his own information. He had to get Samuel to talk. But how?

Jake leaned back to take off some of the pressure. He sat for a moment, thinking.

Did he kill someone?

No, that\'s preposterous.

"Samuel, I\'m your oligarch," Jake pointed out. "If you are in some kind of trouble, you should tell me. Depending on what it is I may be able to help."

Jake did his best to look honest. He beat his real prerogative deep down into his soul.