Surprisingly, he encountered very little push back from the tribunal regarding Phil’s actions, or how he’d been paired with his first few partners – Aisling, Laurel and Niko – and the tribunal kept things moving along quickly, even glossing over his relocation from the condo in San Jose to the mansion up in New Eden, although there were a number of repeated questions about how much he knew about the DuoHalo virus, when he knew it and who had told him, focusing on what both Phil (who was one the lead medical personnel responding to the DuoHalo epidemic) and his former flatmate Eric (who was a contractor working for a research and development arm of the CIA) had told him.
Andy knew that both Phil and Eric were trusting him with information that maybe he wasn’t cleared to know, so Andy stuck to his guns and presented a fairly blank picture of how much information he’d picked up along the way. He relayed that while his understanding of how big the epidemic was grew a little faster and bit more in-depth than others, he’d trusted in Phil and Eric not to tell him anything he wasn’t cleared to know, or, more accurately, to only tell him things that weren’t prohibited from knowing, since the amount of information was changing so fast, that it was nearly impossible to keep up with what was going on in all fronts.
There were a few times over the course of the first few hours that he felt like maybe Phil had told Andy more than he should’ve, but each time he’d seen the tribunal’s faces scrunch up in annoyance, Andy had asked if what Phil had told him was classified, and each time he was told that it wasn’t, although that they’d been urging more discretion when it came to dissemination of such information. Each time Andy had responded that he hadn’t told anyone outside of his Team (the term being used to describe the new family unit that had resulted from the DuoHalo virus and the Quaranteam serum used to counter it) and that he did not believe Phil was being careless with the knowledge. Eventually, he figured out that was why they were getting annoyed with him – there was nothing illegal about what Phil had done, nor what Andy had done; it just wasn’t how they wanted it done.
Once Andy’s story moved past talking about his arrival in the new manor, as soon as Covington entered his story, a whole new tension filled the air, with each of the three suddenly paying much more attention to their notes, asking far more questions than they had been previously.
Despite their constant barrage of interruptions, Andy did his best to relay the tale of how Niko had informed him that some women were being assigned to men in a method that did not fall in accordance with the protocols they were supposed to be. Basically, Covington and some of his friends had gone out of their way to buy the ability to circumvent the systems designed to pair up women with men they would find acceptable, putting the man’s demand up as ‘nonnegotiable,’ and just giving a woman to a man who requested them, something Niko had told him she found reprehensible, something which he’d agreed with.
At that point in the story, Niko had offered to fill in some gaps, only to be scolded by the General, being told that she would get a chance to tell her version of the story privately, and for the time being she should remain quiet. Niko had fallen silent in response.
Andy then detailed how Niko had worked to get Andy an invitation to the private poker game that Arthur Covington had been holding for a month or two, where men were urged to put up women assigned to them that had not been imprinted yet as stakes for the game, with the winner being able to choose whatever women he wanted from the stakes and then allowing the rest to be chosen by those further down in order of elimination from the poker game.
“Didn’t you feel any shame at all, Mr. Rook,” Rep. Engle asked him, “in using these women like they were property instead of people?”
“Absolutely, Representative Engle. In fact, if you interview the women who were already my partners at that time, you will find that they will all detail for you how much guilt I had about my actions, how uncomfortable I was with them, but that I made a decision to do what I needed to for the greater good, and to protect the friends of my partner, 2nd Lieutenant Redwolf,” Andy sighed. “I had seen first hand what kind of a cruel man Covington was to his partners, going so far as to refuse to let them even speak to other people in public. And even then, I didn’t truly understand how deep the man’s depravity went. It wasn’t until after the game itself I would learn how dark that hole is.”
“And the women you had to enter as stakes, Mr. Rook?” the General asked him.
“One of them, Sheridan Smith, I didn’t know at the time, and I made a point to choose to bring her back into the house, especially since she’d selected me during the process legitimately.”
“And the other?”
Andy shook his head with a dark little chuckle. “The other I would’ve sent back to the base to be paired with someone else had I not entered the game. Her name is Erin Donegal, and she and I had a relationship about a decade ago that ended… badly. I was not interested in rekindling the relationship in any way, shape or form, and to do so would’ve actively been detrimental to not only my mental health, but the mental health of everyone in my Team.”
“And where did Miss Donegal end up?”
“She was chosen by Mister Watkins, which I will admit relieved me somewhat.”
“Why is that?” Senator Giancola asked.
“Of the other people who were at the poker game, I found Mister Watkins to be the most reasonable and scrupulous, although I suppose I should append that by stating that the most reasonable of pit vipers remains a snake,” he chuckled. “Nathaniel seemed like the best worst option, although I have come to find that he was engaged in the poker game for similar reasons to my own.”
“And that was?”
“He was mostly trying to keep tabs on what Covington was up to, although I don’t know that that fully excuses his behavior. Mister Watkins has repeatedly informed me that he would have preferred to have less partners than he did, but that the government insisted he get up to a number that would reasonably guarantee his immunity to DuoHalo, a situation I could empathize with.”
“Based on others we’ve interviewed before you, you did quite well for yourself at that poker game, Mister Rook,” the General said.
Andy shrugged a little. “What can I say? Despite their astute powers of business, it turns out they’re all pretty shitty poker players. And I suspect Covington kept holding the game at his home because he was using an unscrupulous dealer, guaranteeing he would generally end up on top.”
“And that would be the late Veronica DeLaCruz?” Representative Engle asked.
“Yes.” Andy paused, as did the others, and since no one else wanted to voice the speculation, he decided to give it air. “There’s been some talk that Covington had her killed because of how poorly the game night went for him, but I can’t speak to that personally. I’m certain I know less on that front than you do. That is what the New Daughters of the Revolution are claiming, however.”
“Please list the women that you added to your Team as a result of that night’s poker game.”
“I went in to rescue Dr. Charlotte Varma and her daughter Asha, both of whom left the Covington mansion with me, but I agreed with Charlotte that no person should be forced to share a sexual partner with their parent. Charlotte said that she would have chosen Dr. Marcos, given the opportunity, and Phil was open to the option, so she was paired with him, and Asha remained with me. I was also paired with Piper Brown before leaving Covington Manor, something I was extremely apprehensive about, considering her mental state at that particular moment, but it has seemed to work out well enough for us in the long run.”
“How would you describe her mental state when you first encountered Miss Brown?”
Andy frowned, his fingers curling uncomfortably at the memory of it. “Feral? Out of her mind? Covington had kept her in the in-between state of getting the Quaranteam serum and being imprinted for nearly a week, and Piper had regressed to something bestial and primitive. When she finally came to her senses a few days after being imprinted, I told her that if she wanted to leave, as soon as we could find a medical way for her to do that, I would aid her in taking that path. She has, since then, insisted she very much wants to remain a part of the family, and we are engaged to be married.”
“Is that a bit of Stockholm Syndrome there I detect, Mister Rook?” Rep. Engle asked.
“I don’t think so, but you’re more than welcome to interview Piper, so that you can ascertain her motives for yourselves. I’m certainly not a medical professional capable of making that sort of judgment call.”
“Who else joined your family as a result of that poker game, Mister Rook?”
“Sarah Washington, Emily Stevens and Hannah Nakamura.”
“And how would you describe their opinions on joining your family?” the General asked him.
“Enthusiastic? Eager? Sarah had a bit of a crush on me before the pandemic. I think that’s relatively easily verified. Also, Emily and Sarah were in a relationship prior to all of this, so joining the family made Sarah happy, which made Emily happy. Hannah just wanted safety but wasn’t particularly enthusiastic about whom she’d been assigned to initially, as it had been under false pretenses.”
“Oh?” Senator Giancola asked. “Elaborate, please.”
“She’d been invited to join the Watkins family, but had assumed that the invitation had come from Nathaniel, which it had, but it turned out that the invitation was on behalf of Nathaniel’s 18-year-old son Benjamin. Hannah would not have accepted had she known that, and when presented with the option of being paired with Benny Watkins or myself, she chose to be paired with me instead.”
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