The killer detective

10 - Canteen

After walking behind the two of them, who were happily chatting about different topics, I finally got to the canteen. They usually didn't have such good food there, as it wasn't used by the highest people of the whole establishment. They had their own, which was in the main glassy building. They basically didn't have to walk a couple of kilometers just to get to their food. And the food there was as if it was made in a four-star hotel at least. No wonder all the main building guys were so beefed up... If I was eating such good food and didn't want to get fat, I would work out like hell to burn those calories! But for us, this was the only viable free option, which was there when we were hungry. And since I didn't get paid and my duties in the military were suspended, I was happy to fill my awfully empty stomach with anything. Even with the awful cafeteria food here.

Back in school, the food was similar and we didn't really have a choice. We had to keep eating the tasteless food since we weren't given any points. The system was taking care of us by giving us free housing, free education, food, clothes... So we couldn't really complain about anything. But the moment we were allowed to keep coins and earn coins doing part-time jobs, we started going to restaurants and ordering food. That was the time all of us gained weight. I giggled. I had just remembered how the sergeant, who was in charge of our group, got mad when she got to know we had gained weight during our monthly routine checkups.

Well, anything was definitely better than this awful food. I grabbed my tray, put the silverware on it, and went to pick the food. Isaac and Basil were still talking in front of me, while I was picking what to eat. Something edible, please. Please have something edible today! I was looking at the displayed food. There wasn't anything that would actually catch my attention. So, in the end, I just took something, which looked like potatoes and some kind of meat. It was hardly recognizable. I also picked some vegetable salad and a brownie. Salads and desserts were the only edible things, which actually tasted like something. If I could pick only those two without any complaints from the personnel working in the kitchens, I would grab that opportunity and run!

I got to the end of the food pickup, where Isaac and Basil were getting themselves probably Fanta or Sprite and coffee as it was quite late in the afternoon. I didn't like any of those.

"Green tea for me," I told one of the staffs and a cup of green tea was soon in front of me. If I had to pay for this distasteful meal even a single point, I wouldn't come here. I wouldn't even drink water here. As long as I was wearing my uniform, I didn't have to pay anything and I was happy with it. I wouldn't feed this food even to the rats. Bet they wouldn't like it, either!

Isaac and Basil weren't waiting for me to grab my tray and pick a table, they already picked one and kept talking about some sort of car engines or whatever. Nothing I would ever be interested in. While they were talking, Basil was already stuffing his face and Isaac took the chance to stare at me. I had to sit with them. The moment I would decide to sit somewhere else, Isaac would pick me up with the chair and sit me at their table, while Basil would bring the food tray. I sighed. I just wanted to eat my meal in peace!

The moment I sat down next to Basil, Isaac shoved a bowl of something, which looked like soup, on my tray. I stared down at the bowl with some sort of milky-yellow liquid. It didn't even smell like anything! I gulped. I never ate soups here when I got the chance after the commanding officers had stopped making sure we gulped every single crumb down our throats. Soups were always the worst.

"Eat," Isaac gave me an order. That was it. Nothing else. He nearly even spilled the soup and made a mess. The only thing he tells me is to eat? He can't be serious. Why do I have to eat this s**t? It's like canal water! At least that one would taste like something. This one doesn't even taste like water! It tastes like nothing in the mouth... Do they even cook it? I bet they have these big bags of protein powder for soups and they dunk it in the water, heat it up, and serve it. There is no way anyone could cook something this bad.  I looked at Isaac, giving him a look, which said that I would kill him at any given moment or opportunity.

"Just eat. I won't ask anything." Isaac was still staring down at me. His voice mellowed out, but he still kept staring!

"But I didn't do anything." I countered and took a spoon in my hand. I stared at the soup. I hope the spoon won't melt the moment I put it in. What if it contains chemicals? Acid?

"Eat." I didn't stand a chance against Isaac's decision to feed me this bowl of liquid disgust. I took a deep breath. I seriously don't want to eat this! I held my breath and started eating the soup. Basil was still busy stuffing his mouth. Isaac slowly dug in his plate while keeping an eye on me the whole time. It was awkward. Uncomfortable. And the soup tasted like nothing. As if I was eating air in liquid form. The only sounds that could be heard from our table were Basil's pig-style eating sounds. We didn't talk.

I finally finished the soup and took a turn for the salad, which made me feel like I was actually eating something with taste. I had decided to leave the brownie with tea towards the complete end of my meal. At least something edible in this place. I bet they made the brownie out of boxed brownie mix but still... At least it was edible.

When I was taking my last bite of brownie and slowly drinking my tea, Isaac cleared his throat. He looked at Basil, who was drinking coffee. Basil put the paper cup down on the tray loudly.

"They went through all my stuff without my consent, locked me in an interrogation room with this seriously ugly lower-ranking guy and he was supposed to slam out any information out of me. But there was no way I was going to say anything. Cause nothing happened." Basil blurted out, as Isaac was staring at him with an intense look in his eyes. Sometimes Isaac's eyes talked instead of him. Pick that up. Eat that. Go there. How dare you say that?! Speak! This time it was the last one. Basil was supposed to talk before Isaac had said anything. So he was, his eyes were even running between me and Isaac, switching faces to stare at while spitting out the story. Good thing he wasn't spitting the food around as well! That would have been a complete disaster.

"They questioned me quite well, to be honest. Nothing weird. Just routine things. It felt like they had some sort of a questionnaire prepared for writing routine questioning logs. Their questions didn't ask much about the incident. It was as if they knew it wasn't me nor Basil. They made up their minds it had to be you for some reason. As your direct commanding officer at the mission, I knew what you were doing at any point in time. I knew about your location and so on. I even told them that you didn't have any access to the computers anyways as you didn't need it. According to the rule of necessary knowledge, you didn't need any computer access for the mission. It was only Basil, who did. You didn't even lay one finger on the keyboard. Plus you didn't have the passwords to get into the system. I seriously don't get what they are playing at. There has to be some kind of a misunderstanding with the higher-ups. It's impossible to make this type of mistake..."

"No misunderstanding or mistake, Isaac." I finished my tea and looked at Isaac.

"What do you mean?" Basil pushed his glasses higher up on his nose and leaned closer to me, as did Isaac. I lowered my voice.

"Looks like someone tried to frame me. And it was pretty well-planned." I sighed and looked into my empty plates. I had the worst of luck this year apparently. Or maybe just today. I had hoped it was only today.

"The thing is, why would they even try to frame you? You mean basically nothing to the whole establishment. Even your job is meant to keep things going well according to the rules. You don't get hired by the completely rich people... I have no idea why they would want to do that." Basil was talking again. He had a point. I was nobody to the system. I wasn't the best as it had been only two years since I started working after finishing the whole school and training. I was 25 and only starting to fend off for myself. I meant nothing to anyone. I was completely useless for anything but my work.

"Usually it is easier to frame people, who aren't the big shots. It's logical. You frame someone, who is basically nobody, an average person, make them look like they have a motive to do it and that's all that needs to be done for others to make things up. But what I don't understand is why they picked exactly this mission. I went on a couple of them already and there used to be quite a few problems with things. Some stuff got missing from other teammates and the system and Register had nothing against it. Now nothing basically happens, the item goes missing HERE, not in that sandpit, and they pin it down on me. And I wonder where exactly I'd get the skills to be able to heck the system. I'm happy if I can just open a browser and find google." I answered him. Basil took a deep breath, looking like he wanted to quickly mumble something, but Isaac raised his left arm in front of his face to make sure he wasn't speaking anymore as Isaac wanted to say something: "So, what happened then?"

"I went to a really weird interrogation room... Not sure if you've ever been there. It felt like there was nothing around, just concrete, not enough lights. It was pretty cold inside as well... Eh, but anyways. I got out with a suspension until this whole thing is cleared. I also have to show up in Meiko's office with an iced Americano during the weekend. And will have to do that every week. This is seriously annoying. Not only am I wronged, but I also have to do extra things as well. If I find that fucktard, I'll make sure they get what they deserve. But before that, I will make sure they turn into mashed potatoes. I bet they would at least taste like something compared to the food here!" I slammed my fist into the table and the dishes made clinking sounds. The food gave me the energy to finally be mad.