The Earth After Rebirth

"I thought you said you patted them down for cameras?" Boyd's voice was gruff and crazed.

"Uh, we- we certainly did sir." Williams had done this job for over two decades now, he wouldn't have done the rookie mistake of leaving them unsearched.

"Then what you're telling is that our cameras have been hacked?"

"That...that doesn't seem to be the case either commander."

"Then what the hell are you saying?" He turned to him, Williams looked away unable to look his commander in the eye. He didn't know too, he didn't know how they were doing this.

"If it's not our cameras, then wouldn't you say you've failed?"

Williams sighed lightly and stilled his heart, looking at his commander's crazed eyes. He couldn't believe how far he was willing to go for this even though he'd already told him this was live.

He didn't seem happy at all by it, instead, Williams had made him even angrier. If he didn't diffuse the situation, Williams didn't think he would get out of that room unscathed.

Williams had two of his hands in front of him as if he was trying to calm down a wild animal, showing it that he came in peace and wouldn't hurt it.

"Commander Boyd, every single citizen of Sanctauri is watching this, live." He put much emphasis on his words, he surprised even himself by not stuttering.

For the first time since his junior entered the room, Boyd's eyes seemed to shift from what they were, his body slumped a little bit while the words spoken by Williams rang in his ears over and over.

The realisation hit him all at once, he was no longer the confident commander from a minute ago. The point of all his work was to do it in the shadows now the cat was out of the bag.

"Wh-how, how is that possible Williams? If it's not our cameras then, then its obviously theirs, where?" His voice was no longer certain.

"Sir, I don't know but I promise we made sure they had nothing on them when they came in here."

Boyd started laughing, he couldn't believe this was the end of everything. He just didn't want to accept it, he was already thinking of ways to spin the tale and get the masses be on their side, that was the only way.

'That's right, we've had a few close calls before. We managed to get rid of them, I'm sure we will find a solution to this too.' A thin smile appeared from his lips, he didn't need to say anything before a group of people showed up.

"Commander Boyd," the receptionist called out from outside the door. "The lawyers of those two gentlemen are here."

These news didn't help him with the new feeling that was quickly rising to the surface. He didn't recognise it because he'd never felt it before but it was nothing other than panic and anxiety of the situation he found himself in.

"Tell them we will be right up." He answered finally several seconds of awkward silence with only Sekani and Jesús breathing heavily due to what they had been through.
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There was a soft knock on the door again, "Uh, sir, they're right here."

"What the hell do you mean? Nobody is allowed down here?"

"They're, I couldn't, sir, I'm sorry."

The door opened, Commander Boyd was met with their secretary, two very well known lawyers in their country and the families of the two men being tortured in that chamber. Kiro had came with his mum and their butler Wilfred, Isla came with her oldest brother.

Kiro didn't even attempt to hide that he was furious, he pushed his way into the room, he'd seen the video so he was going to untie his father from the ceiling.

There was a hand on his shoulder, Boyd couldn't let him get to his prisoners. Yes the world knew about the unconventional ways they conducted some investigations.

"You're getting in the way of the investigation, that is illegal by law." Boyd tried to tip the scales on his side with the mess that it already was.

Kiro turned slightly, "get your dirty hand off me before I break it."

Commander Boyd wasn't the type of person to get frightened very easily but there was something in the tone and the eyes that made him believe the boy in front of him, besides that the room was getting a bit crowded with Wilfred also in there ensuring Jesús was alright.

Feeling intimidated, Boyd let go of Kiro and gestured for Williams to follow him into the hall. The hall was at least dimly lit so they could see and it was surprisingly bigger and longer, unlike the rooms they used for interrogation.

"Dad, gods dad! Look at the mess you've made, I thought you said you could take care of everything and that I wouldn't need to worry?" He asked lowering him down slowly to the ground.

The moment he got into the room, President Scott was given an order to turn off the live feeds and so he did, it was why he was confident in saying what he was saying.

"I did though, didn't I? I found the slaves and got them to safety." He whispered back.

"Really? Tell that to your wife!" He corked his head behind, Sekani didn't need to look to know just how furious his wife would be at him.

"Yeah, it was pretty dumb of me to get caught like that."

"That's okay, Nikolai told me it was his fault that you guys went back anyway. Trying to protect him..."

"Do you reckon your mum will be lenient if I told him you're responsible for the other incident that brought Hiro's dead body home?"

"Don't you dare! I swear if you tell her that, I'll never trust you again!" His heart was starting to beat violently against his chest, he didn't need this right now, they needed to prepare.

Sekani laughed, "relax I'm just making conversation."

"You better be!"

On the other side, Wilfred was helping up Jesús to the hall back to his kids. They hugged him tightly when he got out of the small room, they'd watched the live video and were glad he was alive.