Truth Serum

By Joseph Sullivan

“I’m putting the needle in now.”

With my limbs restrained and my head held down, I was helpless to stop them from putting the needle in my vein. My right arm stung like hell for a moment, but then it calmed down. Everything seemed to calm down. The world became so much lighter, and the dark room I was in became a fuzzy blur. The masked man standing over me holding the syringe became truly faceless, blending into the walls.

“What I’ve done is put you under a truth serum,” his voice began echoing in my ears. “You won’t be able to lie about what you saw. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

“Yes…” I wasn’t sure if I was really speaking or just imagining the sound of my own voice. It seemed so clear either way.

“Good.” His answer seemed to indicate that he had heard me. “Now, let’s start with the questions. Where were you yesterday at 12 PM?”

“I was outside…” Full sentences became difficult, but I figured that the harder I pushed through, the quicker it would all be over. “I was inside the embassy…I was an intern there…”

“That is correct,” the faceless man said. “And, when you were there, did you see the ambassador?”

“Yes…”

The room around me had begun to disappear, and I saw in front of me the office, clear as day, as was the ambassador, a balding, middle-aged man in a sharp suit sitting behind his desk.

“And when you saw him, he was receiving a bribe, wasn’t he?”

“I…” I stopped. “I don’t remember…”

“Try to. We know all about it, so we can help you fill in the gaps. Someone came into the office at that time and offered the ambassador money. Now, we know that. We just need you to help us fill in the gaps of what we already know.”

“I…I can try…”

“You’ll do a lot more than that. Remember, you’re under the truth serum. Now. This person who came into the office. It was a courier, wasn’t it?”

“That…that would…make sense…”

“Okay, okay, and what did this courier look like?”

Where there wasn’t one before, something new was added to the image before me. What began as random, amorphous blobs of light started to merge together, forming the outline of another man, who was wearing a similar suit to the ambassador, another dark suit in the room. But like the man talking to me, I couldn’t see his face.

“I don’t know…just another man in a suit…”

“Well, he would’ve been holding a briefcase full of money, right? That’s how bribes work.”

“Yes…?”

The briefcase appeared in his hand, and in it, lots and lots of cash, but I couldn’t read any denominations on the bills.

“I…I can’t describe his face…”

“Well, that’s okay…but you remember a little bit, right? He had to have looked like the ambassador, right? He was a criminal from his own country, part of their organised crime.”

“He was?”

“He was.”

The image changed again. The courier’s skin tone changed to look like the ambassador, and the suit became a bit different too, less like a businessman or a politician and more like a mobster from the crime movies I watched.

“And the ambassador took the money, didn’t he?”

I didn’t say anything for a moment. The image had frozen still, in front of me.

“Didn’t he?”

The forceful voice was jarring enough to prompt the image to move. It was a bit of a blur, but I could vaguely make out the briefcase being handed over, and some words spoken that I couldn’t understand.

“Yes…” I said quietly. “Yes, he did…”

“Good. Very good.”

“I think we have everything we need, Doctor,” said another voice.

“Good. I’ll take him out of it now.”

I felt another sharp, stabbing pain in my arm, and the image before me began to dissipate. I was returned to the cold, dark interrogation room. The masked man was beginning to undo my restraints. As I took another look around, I saw another man in the room, who must have been the other voice, sitting in a chair in the corner, shrouded in shadow.

“You’ve done us a great service, son,” said the masked man as he helped me out of the chair. “We’ll still need you later in court, of course, to present your testimony. But I think you’ll help make a powerful case for the war.”

“The…” I still felt groggy, and I was unsure of where I was, or who I was supposed to be speaking to. “The war?”

“You may go now,” said the masked man, as he opened the door for me. “Some people will be waiting for you outside.”

I walked slowly out of the room and then sped up down the hallway. Even if there were people waiting for me outside, I wanted to get away from those two as quickly as possible. I didn’t even remember what building I was in. I just wanted to get out of it.

But as I went, the image that I saw in that room remained in my mind — that blurry vision of the bribe. I wasn’t sure if it would hold up in court, whatever that meant, but they seemed assured it would.

After all, they told me that I wouldn’t have been able to lie.

About the Author

Joseph Sullivan is a writer and support worker living in Melbourne, Australia.

He is an avid writer of speculative fiction, having been an ongoing contributor to AntipodeanSF since 2022. In addition, he is a regular reviewer for Aurealis, and has written nonfiction for them as well.

You can find his work at <https://josephsullivanwriter.blogspot.com>.