The Interview

I woke up alone in an unfamiliar room. Where was I? My hands began an inventory of belongings and quickly located an unfamiliar item: a voice recorder. I pressed play. 

“Congratulations, you have been selected for an interview! There are a number of candidates in this building and each of you must attempt to escape without being captured by the others. You may use anything that you find along the way, however, seriously injuring other candidates will not be tolerated. Beside you is a metal ring. If you would like to proceed with your interview, please snap this around your neck so we can track your movements and monitor physiological activity. You may ‘capture’ other candidates by pushing the button on the back of their ring and taking them out of the challenge. If you would like to leave the interview at any time, you may push this button on your ring. Good luck!” The cheery voice stopped abruptly.

A buzz of excitement ran through me; I hadn’t dared to hope that they would consider someone like me for a position, yet here I was in an interview. I suppose I had been a little enigmatic in parts of the application; perhaps they didn’t know about my condition. The rebellious part of me smiled at this, but I knew I had done well on their online problem solving and aptitude tests; I had earned my spot here. And afterwards–well, I shouldn’t get ahead of myself. 

I shook off these contemplations and found the metal ring. After familiarizing myself with the button at the back, I snapped the monitor around my neck, unwittingly setting the challenge in motion. A sudden grinding sound had me up on my feet and I rushed past the sliding prison bars that threatened to trap me in the room. The bars clicked shut just as I skidded into the hallway, panting. Whew, that would have been an unlucky start! 

I was so caught up in relief that I almost didn’t hear the swish of fabric behind me. Another candidate! I ducked and spun around, narrowly avoiding some sort of net. 

“You- you’re a girl,” my attacker seemed taken aback. That’s what he was surprised about? 

“Sure am,” I used this moment to step into him and kiss his bearded lips, reaching my arms up around his neck to click the button at the back. Alright, perhaps a little unconventional, but it worked! 

The same cheery voice spoke from the man’s collar, “You have been captured!” and I could sense the shock and outrage from the man almost as strong as the taste of tobacco on my lips. There was a small click and he went limp, slumping down onto the ground.

Now it was my turn to be shocked; what the hell had just happened? I bent down cautiously to check his pulse; he was still alive, just unconscious. The collar must have injected him with some sort of Propofol-type drug. Well they certainly weren’t messing around in this interview, I thought, feeling my own pulse beating like a drum. 

I picked up the net and checked the man for any other useful items. Nothing. This was beginning to remind me of The Hunger Games, and I tried to channel my inner Katniss. Time to get a move on and focus. 

I hugged the walls and crept along the hallway, covering enough ground to confirm that this building was an abandoned prison. My fingers brushed names carved into the walls and I wondered who these people had been, what they did to end up here. There must be multiple exits; I’d have to hurry if I wanted to be the first to find one. As I edged around a corner, I ran into another candidate slumped on the ground and froze, wondering if the captor was still nearby. How many people were in here with me? 

I heard a grunt, followed by what sounded like someone kicking a door, and a mumbled “aargh, come on”. I dropped to the ground next to the captive and did my best to look unconscious. Were some exits locked? That would change things. 

The frustrated candidate was coming back down the corridor but stopped in front of the spot where I lay, inhaling sharply, “Now where did this little lassie come from?”

I swung my legs, hard, catching his ankles and sending him sprawling. I heard the air go out of his lungs and I fumbled for the button at the back of his collar, pushing it as he rolled and tried to pull me with him. A couple more seconds and he may have had me, but his arms relaxed, and his grip loosened as the mystery drug entered his body. I pushed him off me, morbidly searching his body for anything useful. A flashlight and a bit of rope were the fruits of my labour and I pocketed them before heading to investigate my theory about the locked exits. 

The raised paint on the door read “Courtyard B”, and despite my best efforts, the door didn’t budge. Great, how many sealed exits were in this place? I decided my best bet was to get away from the cell blocks and try to find the guard quarters or kitchen area, and I ventured up and down a few dead ends before feeling good about the direction I was headed. I was both comforted and anxious about the lack of other candidates I had run into; had everyone else escaped already, or was I just getting lucky?

This question was answered when I found myself in what I assumed to be the guard quarters. I could feel the heat coming in from windows closer to ground level now, but before I could examine further, someone had thrown a bag over my head and was pulling me down. One of my hands reached up to protect the button at the back of my neck and the other grabbed for the attacker’s hands. Was I allowed to fight? What was the line between serious and non-serious injuries? I didn’t want to blow my chances on some sort of technicality, so rather than the instinctive right hook that I had ready, I pulled the candidate over with me, somersaulting together and then neatly separating myself from him. I ran blindly, my hand tracing the wall until I reached an entrance to a new room and slammed the door behind me. With my back pressed against the door, I listened for sounds of pursuit. Silence. Another count to 10 and still nothing. Maybe they were waiting for me to come back out, an ambush ready. 

Well, hopefully I didn't have to go back out that door. I slowly stepped away, not fully trusting it to stay closed, and began warily exploring. This was the breaker room! I couldn’t believe my luck as I began methodically shutting off the power to the whole prison. I wasn’t at a disadvantage any longer; the other candidates were on my playing field now.

 As an afterthought I pulled the bag off my head and smiled. Suddenly I wasn’t the only blind candidate in this interview.

With my renewed sense of confidence, I stepped back out into the room to meet my attacker. To my surprise, the body was lying limp on the ground. When we rolled, the button must have been pressed between our body weight and the floor; that was a neat trick I’d have to remember. Although, why hadn’t I heard the recorded voice saying they had been captured? I pulled the thick bag over my head again and experimentally banged the wall with the flashlight; it cut out noise! Fascinating. 

Making a mental note of where I had come from, I continued to search the guard quarters, staying cautious whenever I felt the heat from the windows and walking boldly in areas that I deemed were in darkness for everyone else. I captured another candidate by pushing him against the wall in a temporary choke hold; just long enough to thrust the button against the wall and for the injection to happen. As I continued to make my way through the prison, I found two more sealed exits before it hit me; the recording had told us to escape, not just exit. They had probably sealed all the doors for the duration of the interview! Escape routes would back in the cell blocks, not the guard quarters.

I did my best to hurry back to the cells, hoping I wasn’t the last one to figure this out. As I approached my starting point, I heard the soft patter of footsteps coming towards me and halted, ready. 

The candidate seemed to have no idea I was there and would have walked right into me had I let them. Instead, I shone my flashlight into what I hoped was their eyes, causing them to shriek and bend to cover their face. I leaned in and pushed their button, then heard movement behind me. The light must have given me away! 

Someone grabbed me in a bear hug and lifted me up, calling, “Hey, I’ve got another one, get over here!”

To my dismay, I heard an answering voice, “Where are you, James? I can’t see shit.”

They were working together. Why hadn’t I thought of that? I squirmed and replayed the instructions in my head; there hadn’t been any rules about having to do it alone. You may use anything that you find along the way. Arguably these two had found each other. If I could join forces with them we could search the cells much faster…

“Wait, wait, I can be useful if you’ll let me go!”

My captor snorted and adjusted his grip, “Did ya hear that Kyle, she thinks she’ll be useful.”

Kyle was still stumbling around in the dark, clearly struggling, “Oh yeah? That flashlight would be pretty useful.”

“We don’t need her to be conscious for that.”

Ok, I had given this guy a chance to play nice. I lifted my legs, kicking the wall and sending us both backwards. James stumbled, then released me in order to save himself as he fell. I arched back, trying to push his metal ring into the ground, but he was too strong. He grabbed my arm as I tried to stand, pulling me back down, but I twisted and his hand grazed my shoulder rather than the button at the back of my neck. Groaning and sweating, I was scarcely able to protect myself, let alone try to capture him. I wriggled free again as he tried to maneuver around in the dark, and this time took a few steps back, slipping into one of the cells. I flung the bag over my head to mute my panting, then stood motionless, praying that this part of the prison was as dark as Kyle had made it sound.

Unfortunately, this meant that I couldn’t hear what was going on either. I took a minute to slow down my breathing, then cautiously lifted the bag off my head and pressed it to my mouth and nose.

“What the­­…” James was thrashing around, making so much noise that I began to worry about how many others he might draw to us.

“Hey man, what happened? Did you get the flashlight?” Kyle had made his way to his partner and they were both mere meters away from me.

“No, she just up and vanished into thin air! Be quiet, maybe we can hear her.”

I clutched the bag to my face, waiting. The men stood still, but their breathing thundered in the silence. I was trapped in this room if they didn’t decide to move on. Slowly, I reached for the flashlight, then tossed it into the corridor. 

Rather than luring them forward as was my intent, this startled them and they jumped back, flailing. “You have been captured!” echoed suddenly in the hallway and I heard a body slide to the ground. What the hell was happening over there?

“Oh crap, I’m sorry!” Kyle’s voice croaked.

“Nice work,” I quickly moved beside him and flung the net over his body, pinning his arms to his sides. “Looks like you need a new partner, I’m Leira.”

Kyle tensed, “Woah, where did you come from?!”

I ignored this, “You seemed loyal enough to James, I’m guessing his button got pressed by accident in the commotion. Let’s make a similar pact; we work together to escape.”

“Alright, same deal. Thanks. Are you going to let me out of this net? I’m not very useful if I can’t move.” He had a point, but a part of me hesitated. Was I making a mistake here?

As I considered this, Kyle spoke again, “Why do you want to be a part of the CIA?”

“What?”

“You heard me. Why are you here?”

Alright, maybe he was just trying to be friendly, “Have you ever heard of Virginia Hall? She was a secret agent in World War II. Not only did she help pave the way for women to be considered for Spy Agencies, but she did it all with a prosthetic leg; a disability. I’ve always looked up to her.”

Kyle turned, “I’ve read about her. She did incredible work! So, you want to follow in her footsteps?”

I lifted one shoulder, then remembered he probably couldn’t sense what I was doing, “In a way, yes, but I also want to open the door for even more individuals with various, um, conditions.”

“Like blindness?”

My mouth hung open, “How did you know?”

Kyle laughed, “You’ve been moving around in the dark like you’ve got night vision and carrying a flashlight without turning it on. You’re either blind or crazy.”

I laughed too, “Alright Sherlock, I suppose we may have some complementary skills.” I removed the net and went to retrieve the flashlight, “Careful with that; it’s pretty much a beacon for any other candidates who see the light.”

We made our way through each of the cells, looking and feeling for possible escape routes. We talked about Virginia Hall (he actually knew quite a bit about her missions), and about Kyle’s role model, Adolf Tolkachev, a member of the CIA in the 1970’s and 80’s. I generally heard other candidates coming before we could see them, so we’d pull the rope across the floor and trip them in order to access their button. We made a pretty good team.

“Hey, come check this out,” I was in the back corner of a cell feeling around. “The ground here has been disturbed recently, maybe it’s some sort of tunnel.”

Kyle hurried over and began shoving the loose gravel aside. “I think you’re right! There are wooden boards here covering up an opening. A little digging and we can pull out the planks!” We set to work and pretty soon the entrance was open; this was it!

I poked my head into the tunnel, but it was hard to tell what happened after the first couple feet, “What do you see Kyle, is it a drop, or a gradual slope?”

The slight hesitation sent goosebumps rippling up my arms. I suddenly realized how exposed I was in this position and threw myself into the tunnel in order to protect the button at the back of my neck.

As I fell, I heard the chipper voice, “You have been captured!” A small prick, then nothing.

**********************************************************************************************************

I woke up on a stretcher and Kyle’s smiling voice was beside me, “You should be careful who you trust, you know.”

“You bastard! Wait, why are you here? Where are we?”

“We are in the medical room making sure you don’t have a concussion from that fall. And I am here to invite you to a face-to-face interview with the rest of my team once you’re up to it. We’ll have to do some medical tests and psychological screening as well. The jury’s still out on whether you’re crazy or not.”

“You…you weren’t a candidate,” I swallowed. I had just called a member of the CIA a bastard! Jeepers, I needed to watch my mouth, “Wait, if you were just acting this whole time… it wasn’t an accident that you captured your other partner, was it?”

Kyle laughed, “I had seen enough of how James worked, this created an opportunity for me to see you in action. I did tell you ‘same deal’, you know.”

 I shook my head but knew he had me. “Hold on, a face-to-face interview? But I didn’t escape the building.”

“Maybe so, however, the interview isn’t only about escaping; it’s about the choices you make in the prison. You were resourceful and creative, which is hard to teach. I have to say, in all the interviews I’ve been a part of, this is the first time someone has used kissing and a power outage to their advantage! You also figured me out at the end, albeit a second too late; a bit more training and I don’t think this will be an issue in the future.”

I couldn’t contain the joy spreading its way through my body and swung my legs off the stretcher, “So when can we get started?”.

**********************************************************************************************************

After being cleared for a concussion and scheduling an interview for next week, I found myself at home replaying the events in the prison in my head. Remembering Kyle talking about Adolf Tolkachev, I decided to look up this former spy and what he had done. Turns out Adolf was a Soviet engineer that betrayed his country by reporting on Soviet aircraft and missiles; Kyle had basically told me he was going to betray me!

He really was a bastard.