The Rook Chapter 6 – The Interrogation
Last time we were treated to a demonstration of Thomas’ skills when she had to deal with ectoplasmic constructs in Liverpool. While her superpower seems to be limited to those she can touch, like the doctor that treated her as a child, her abilities to command and coordinate a tactical response to strange, out-of-control, supernatural events goes well beyond the ordinary. So we’ve seen her deal with Gestalt as her new self and with a ‘situation’ as her old self. Now in chapter 6, we get to see how the current inhabitant of Myfanwy’s body deals with some of the other regular events at work, like an interrogation.
Inchoate Thoughts
Summing up where things are…we know someone is out to get Myfanwy. They mind wiped her and we don’t know if they wanted to kill her too but they failed in that effort if that was their goal. Instead, she now has no memory but is using the letters her previous self (Thomas) left for her to try to piece together her life so she can figure out who attacked her.
With insight from the notes Thomas left her, Myfanwy was able to get through the start of her first day back to work. She learned that she works for a branch of the British government called the Checquy that deals with the supernatural and she’s had her first experience dealing with Gestalt, a hive mind that inhabits 4 human bodies.
After a short interlude where we got to see her skills and the agency she commands in action, we’re back at her office, the Rookery, where she’s heading into an interrogation.
Painfully Shy Thomas
Apparently whoever this Perry guy is, he doesn’t seem to have a problem insulting one of the top officers of the Checquy and I love the way O’Malley gets this point across with the spittle and slow deflation. The fact that he invades her personal space but shows respect to Gestalt is clearly meant to demean our hero. Could this guy be her superior or equal in the organization?
So far we’ve met 4 members of the Checquy, Lady Farrier, Ingrid, Gestalt, and now Perry. Gestalt and Farrier are in the Court and treat Myfanwy with respect, Ingrid bows to her as an underling, but Perry treats her with insolence. Sure Thomas may have been shy and demure but what could she have done to be treated so poorly by a coworker? Apparently he is either in a superior position than our hero or he has serious problems dealing with women in the workplace.
In any case, Myfanwy is certainly not putting up with some of the crap that Thomas allowed.
The 3rd Gestalt
Putting aside Perry and his manners for now, let’s turn back to Gestalt who we met in chapter 3. In that chapter we met the twins and were introduced to the sister who lead the raid on the Antler Cult headquarters. We also learned that Thomas kinda had a crush on the non-twin back when they were both in the academy. Now we get to meet Robert and see how he fits into the hive mind of Gestalt.
And not only do we get to meet Robert, we also get a feel for Myfanwy’s power. With the first person that she voluntarily touches, not out of fear or dread but simply touches, we see that Myfanwy senses her power in a way she previously had to be in pain to experience. She feels that she can control every part of Gestalt with her mind…and that may be the very reason someone wanted to put her out of business. If she could control someone simply with her mind, I’d think she would have quite a few people fearful of her.
I mean, Magneto made his spiffy helmet and wears it ALL THE TIME so Charles Xavier won’t be able to control him. The same goes for Juggernaut. Actually many of the most feared X-Men are those that simply have mental powers. Even with 4 bodies Gestalt could be vulnerable to Thomas, if she chose to control him.
So yeah, it makes sense that Myfanwy feels like she’s dangerous…she is!
Private Viewing
Now we get to see what this interrogation is all about and from the introduction given, Perry doesn’t seem to hold any particular rank in the Checquy since he is simply referred to in the group of “gentlemen”. This makes me even more curious as to his behavior towards Myfanwy but I put that aside to learn more about the subject of the meeting.
Peter Van Syoc fell under the surveillance of the Checquy based on parameters Thomas set up before she lost her memory. As we saw in the last chapter, she was a pretty well organized and effective administrator who apparently “wrote the book” on how to do things in the organization.
And it was a good thing they were observing him since he consumed a person?!?!?! Hmm…that sounds intense. I wonder if it was kinda like Bilquis from American Gods or was it more of a Hannibal Lecter thing…yuck!
I’m also curious if the “food” was part of his mission, was it to get energy for the mission, or was it just for his own enjoyment? In any case he’s now a guest of the Rookery.
Dr. Crisp
The interrogator is, I think, the 4th or 5th member of the Checquy that we see demonstrate their powers and at first it seems like a glorified carnival trick being able to “read” the past of Van Syoc by looking at him. Did he look the guy up on Facebook or is this really an ability? Then he says Peter had a child who died twice? Hmm…things are getting interesting…
But then the inappropriate Perry interrupts the examination with a personal attack on Dr. Crisp and as is typically the case, we learn that coworkers really should not fraternize outside of work…particularly at parties.
With the history between Perry and Crisp putting the work at hand on hold, I wonder how things used to work before Thomas lost her memories. As it is now, Myfanwy has to break the fight up and draw everyone back to the interrogation and apparently her asserting herself is way out of character.
Back to the Interrogation
Now we’re getting somewhere…Dr. Crisp is like a human polygraph and Van Syoc is not being too cooperative. And then the first thing he involuntarily utters causes everyone in the observation room to react with shock. Except for Myfanwy who has no idea what he said – it could have been Dutch for all she knew. Then we learn Dr. Crisp is more than a polygraph, he can torture a subject and tell if they are telling the truth at the same time.
And as he works his abilities, Myfanwy tests out some of her own powers and while she and Crisp are both tweaking Van Syoc’s pain sensations, I think he triggered some kind of supernatural cyanide.
The Aftermath
And then all hell breaks loose…Perry insults Crisp, Gestalt nearly kills Crisp, the body smokes, everyone is yelling and little Myfanwy speaks up to bring order to the room. Once again I wonder how things worked when Thomas was in control and being shy and demure…would Gestalt have killed Crisp? Who would have brought everyone to their senses? Would Thomas have run from the room causing all the men to feel like idiots for scaring a poor woman?
As it stands, Myfanwy brought everyone down from the precipice with reason and calm. Van Syoc obviously did something to end the interrogation and his life and if it wasn’t for our hero the Checquy would probably have remained in confused chaos.
I’m thinking with her change in character Myfanwy is doing a poor job impersonating Thomas and people are gonna start catching on that she’s not the same. Ingrid in particular seems to know something is off about her boss but it looks like she’s trying to be discrete about it.
In any case we’ve got another meeting with Gestalt coming up so I’m gonna join Myfanwy in a Toblerone and read on.
Retrospective
In this sixth chapter of The Rook, we get some insight into the tensions within the Checquy. With the stress of the interrogation, we see Perry and Dr. Crisp at each other’s throats and then when the subject dies, Gestalt goes ballistic. Fortunately, Myfanwy is the voice of reason and is able to calm everyone down. If there is so much stress cause just by the questioning of someone suspected to be a spy, what else could be hiding under the surface?
Was that successful mission described in chapter 5 something that happened a long time ago and now things have degenerated to the point where high level operatives want to kill each other? Things seemed to go well during the assault on the Antler cult headquarters with Gestalt so perhaps this is a special circumstance between Perry and Crisp.
Regardless, it still appears that Myfanwy has retained some of Thomas’ ability to stay cool in dangerous situations. When all the men were ready to tear each other apart, she kept a level head and brought everyone back to the focus of the meeting. It does go to show that the level of tension is high and the fact that supernatural forces from outside England are trying to gain a foothold in the country is a bit scary. It’ll be interesting to find out what the whole deal is with those utterances from Van Syoc that the men all seemed to understand but Myfanwy was clueless about.
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