Jack was sitting on a metal chair, hands cuffed behind him, staring at a mirror. After being photographed and fingerprinted, the FIS agents had placed him in what looked like an interrogation room, complete with a large one-way mirror filling one wall.
He'd been sitting there for half an hour and would have already gotten bored, except his parallel self was having an interesting conversation with his Gefen clone, learning about his rights and confirming that Federation code 18 dash1030 was the computer fraud and abuse law.
Soul space Madison was scouring her laptop, trying to figure out who might have filed charges against her. She claimed she had been careful to only hack companies with bug bounty programs and had made sure she didn't exceed the limits defined. And because of the soul bond, Jack could tell that she genuinely believed what she claimed. So at worst, this was all because of a mistake on her part. At best, someone had filed charges against the wrong person.
In the interrogation room, Jack closed his eyes and waited. There was nothing else he could do until someone came and talked to him. He lost track of time and fell asleep, but was eventually startled awake by the sound of the door opening.
The younger of the two agents that had arrested him and driven him to FIS building walked in carrying a thick folder, a binder, and a white mug with FIS printed on it in large black letters. The agent pulled out the chair that sat across the table from Jack, set down the folder and mug, then sat. After sitting, the agent carefully arranged folder, binder, and mug. Making sure that everything was square.
As the agent fussed with the items in front of him, Jack couldn't help but think that the scene in front of him seemed familiar somehow. He couldn't place where, but something was telling him this was all a performance. Curious, he created a snapshot that covered just the room, then created a simulation, minus the agent and the handcuffs on his wrists.
His parallel self entered the simulation, grabbed the folder, and opened it, finding that it was the kind where you punched two holes into the top of each piece of paper, then attached them to the inside of the folder with flexible metal leaves. The folder had four attachment points, inside the front and back cover and one on either side of a single internal divider.
The first few pieces of paper anchored to the inside of the front cover contained information about himself. But as he read, he found it was a detailed, if dry, history of his life up to that point. However, when he got to the sixth page, he found gibberish. It was just a bunch of "lorum ipsum" nonsense. He checked and found that, except for those first five pages, everything else, hundreds of pages, were filled with "lorum ipsum" nonsense with an occasional random picture or table of random numbers.
He couldn't remember if it was a T.V. show or something he'd read on the internet, but he was certain this folder, stuffed with nonsense, was intended to convince Jack that they knew everything about him and he should stop wasting their time and confess.
The FIS didn't have anything on him. They probably suspected him of something related to Madison and hoped he would crack. But, jokes on them, he was innocent.
He'd seen the famous video, "Don't talk to the police." But he just couldn't help himself.
"Nice prop," he said with a chuckle.
"What?" asked the agent, puzzled.
Jack just shook his head and smiled.
The agent scowled, then turned partway around, like he was going to look behind himself at the one-way mirror, before turning back to face Jack. He took a deep breath, released it, then opened his binder and grabbed a pen.
"When did you first become aware of Miss Kavanagh's criminal activity?" asked the agent.
Jack ignored the question. "My lawyer has advised me not to speak without counsel present. I have a right to representation. I demand you allow me to contact my lawyer."
"You? Have a lawyer?" the agent scoffed.
"Yes. I demand you allow me to contact my lawyer. As is my right."
The agent huffed, then asked, "When did you first become aware of miss Kavanagh's criminal activity?"
"I demand you allow me to contact my lawyer. As is my right," replied Jack firmly.
"Why did you help Miss Kavanagh destroy Cascade Marketing's data?"
Jack had never even heard of Cascade Marketing let along done anything to them. And the agent must have noticed Jack's look of puzzlement on hearing the name, because his look of stern confidence wavered.
Jack wanted to tell the agent that he'd never heard of Cascade Marketing, but instead said, "I demand you allow me to contact my lawyer. As is my right."
The agent asked another question and Jack again requested a lawyer. After the fifth or sixth question, he just replied with a simple, "Lawyer."
The agent grew more frustrated, and Jack grew bored.
After yet another asinine question, Jack replied, "Lawyer," with such utter disdain that the agent smacked the table and stood. But before the agent could do or say anything else, a voice spoke over a speaker.
"Jackson! Enough!"
The agent flinched. Then, with a growl, gathered up his binder, folder, and mug and stalked towards the interrogation room door. After leaving, Jack only had to wait a few minutes before the older agent entered the room, holding an old flip phone.
The older man opened the flip phone and asked, "What's your lawyer's number?"
Jack gave him Henry's number, then watched as the older man dialed the number and set the phone down on the table in front of Jack.
The phone connected and over the low quality phone speaker they heard, "Henry Tanner, attorney at law, with whom do I have the pleasure of speaking?"
"Henry, just listen," Jack warned. "I am in an FIS interrogation room along with an FIS agent."
"Understood," replied Henry solemnly. "Which office?"
Jack looked at the agent, who answered, "Stetle."
"Charges?" asked Henry.
"Federal code 18 dash 1030, and aiding and abetting the same," replied the agent.
"Understood. I'll be there in a few hours." Then he hung up.
The agent looked at Jack, showing some surprise.
"What? " asked Jack. "Didn't expect me to actually have a lawyer?"
The older agent didn't reply, just closed the flip phone and walked towards the door.
After the agent left, Jack realized his ass was getting sore, and since he wasn't chained to the chair, stood up carefully and walked slowly around the room. His arms were still cuffed behind him, so he had to be careful not to lose his balance.
While he walked, his parallel self checked with Madison to see how she was holding up. As soon as he walked into Madison's office in his soul space, she began speaking.
"I can't believe those cascade asshats would try and renege on-"
"Stop!" Jack said.
"What?!"
"Don't tell me anything about Cascade Marketing. The only reason I even know that name is because one of the agents asked me about them. If you tell me anything about them, I will not be able to honestly said 'I don't know'."
"Oh, shit. Sorry. You're right."
"I talked to Henry. I'll see him in a few hours. Once I meet him, I'll be able to get a lawyer over to you. So, just hang in there."
"Oh, good. That's a relief. They just keep asking these stupid questions. But I'm doing like you said, demanding my right to a lawyer."
He could tell that this was beyond stressful for her, so he walked over and gave her a hug. She wrapped her arms around him and squeezed like she was drowning and he was a life preserver. After a while, her shaking subsided, and she pulled back.
"Thanks, I needed that." Then she huffed and said, "Your Gefen clone explained what I can expect over the next few days, but he isn't much help with the case. Apparently, he's not very familiar with computer security laws. Anyway, I need to get back to looking through my logs. I still haven't figured out what I could have done that would allow them to file charges."
"Okay, let me know if you need anything."
"Can I get more hugs?" she asked hopefully.
"Did you forget?" he asked. "I forgave you. You don't need permission for hugs."
"Oh!" she exclaimed. "I forgot. Hey, does that mean we can-"
"Part of me want's to say yes, but I think that would be distracting for our physical selves. Very distracting. So, I think it would be best if we waited."
Her shoulder slumped. "Right. Yes. I guess that makes sense." Then she perked up, "But hugs are okay?"
"Yes, whenever you need one."
"Great."
Then she returned to her desk and went back to peering at one of the six monitors she had mounted on her desk.
He needed something to distract himself with while he waited for Henry to arrive, so he went into his lab. He'd been running tiny simulations, just big enough to hold a test tube, where he would watch common chemical reactions in slow motion. It was absolutely fascinating.