He glanced at , then at the girls behind who were also making threatening poses.
He was obviously trying to think of what to say when I could see the figurative lightbulb going off in his head when he broke into a smile.
"I don't know what you are talking about? What is this White Powder you are asking about? Is it so kind of new ingredient?"
This mother--
I didn't even finish my thoughts before Amber stepped forward and gave him a punch in the abdon, knocking the wind out from him.
The guy doubled over and fell onto his knees while clutching his stomach, moaning in pain.
Amber bent down to grab him by the hair to pull him back up, "I recomnd that you stop wasting our ti here. We're investigating this and you're our pri suspect right now. We could just report you to the station master and let them deal with you or you can tell us what you know."
Ouch… I wasn't expecting Amber to go the violent route… Though I guess we are actually pressed for ti since the bunny girls that had gone to find a bucket might co back soon with managers or sothing.
And if they were to see us beating their chef up, it might not be a good sight.
"Ugh… Wai… Wait… I… I can explain…" He groaned.
Amber tossed him back onto the ground and huffed, "That's exactly what we want from you, so start talking."
Ironically, we don't really even need him to talk since Mara could have gained all the information we needed but we're doing it to get him to admit it.
He looked around nervously before switching his gaze back to , "I… I got forced to do it, ok?"
"Forced? By who?" I asked.
"This… This syndicate… I just… Ok… Let start from the beginning… Well… I was at the Guild's bar and there was an incident where soone ca in and made the best tasting food anyone had ever tasted… I was also there when it happened and… Oh gods… It was heavenly."
All the girls looked at and I managed to keep my poker face.
The guy continued, "It kind of triggered a boom in people's interest for food and many people tried to recreate it using organic food as ingredients… The gangs here obviously took notice and tried to take advantage of that…"
I raised an eyebrow at him, "So what? Are you a chef as well and they kidnapped you to make the sa kind of food?"
He grimaced, "I wish it was the case since I might know what I'm doing in that case… I'm not a chef…"
I looked around the kitchen, "Well, I'm glad to hear that because if you said you were, I wonder where you learned to store your food…"
His eyes widened at , "Are you a chef?"
I had to consider what to say for a mont before deciding that it was better to just tell the truth.
"I know how to cook, yes."
He suddenly reached out to grab but Amber and Lea stepped out at the sa ti to intercept him, my Alv giving him a kick in the knee while the other backhanded him across the face.
The guy ended up doing a half spin as he crashed onto the counter behind him, narrowly missing impaling himself on a knife that he had left stuck on the counter for so reason before he recovered to stand back up on his feet.
"Give a reason why we shouldn't just kill you right now?" Amber growled.
He raised his hands in surrender, "Owww… Sorry… I err… I'm a little desperate right now… I heard that she was a chef and I needed soone to help deal with the cooking problem I have…"
"I think you have way bigger problems than just cooking problems," Ries comnted, staring pointedly at the piles of ingredients that were left out in the open.
He grimaced, "Ok, like I said… I am not a chef, ok?"
"Then why are you even here and working as one?" Lea asked.
"Right, I suppose I didn't finish my explanation… Like I said, the gangs around here caught wind of the organic food boom and they all wanted in on it. So they started looking for chefs to make organic food but pretty much everyone on this station that they could grab had no experience with organic food. So they started looking for people who had tasted that wondrous food that day and managed to grab ."
I raised an eyebrow, "What? They thought that just because you tasted the food before you could recreate it or sothing?"
He nodded, "That's exactly what they thought."
"And you just went along with it?"
"I didn't have a choice! Either I do it or they kill and then go and find another person to replace ! I had to do it!"
I turned towards the bags of White Powder, "So you bought yourself White Powder to make people actually enjoy the crap that you're making so that you don't get killed. And through you, a whole bunch of people on the station are now suffering from withdrawal effects of the drug and incorrectly assud that this was due to the organic food they ate and then looked for more to curb the symptom."
He held up his hands, "Wait… I think you have the wrong idea… This wasn't actually my idea…"
"Are you going to tell that the syndicate were the ones who forced you to do it?"
"To be honest… It wasn't them… It was soone else…"
I frowned and turned to Mara, only to see her giving a slight nod to indicate that he was telling the truth.
I turned back to him, "Who gave you the idea then?"
He interlocked his fingers nervously, "I… I don't actually know who the person is exactly…"
Lea narrowed her eyes at him, "What do you an you don't know?"
"Ok, ok… Damn… So many things happened to in such a short ti… Right… When I first got forced into this job, I basically didn't know what I was doing but if I didn't do anything I would get killed, you understand? So I just… Well… Did whatever I could with the ingredients they gave … And obviously it didn't turn out great. Heck, I was stuck in the toilet for a good half a day after trying out my first creation."
"I'm surprised they didn't just kill you after that," Amber remarked.
He grimaced, "They were thinking about it… But I managed to convince them that I was still getting used to the equipnt and I needed so extra ingredients that they were missing to make it good. Thankfully, they were willing to give a chance and I thought this would be my chance to escape by going out to 'get ingredients'."
I raised an eyebrow, "They let you leave?"
"Not alone… I was accompanied by so guards and I had the idea of trying to lose them in a store when I got called over by so guy hiding his face with a mask… He acted all friendly with as if we knew each other and our eting there was planned and told the 'salt' I ordered was here."
I gasped, "Oh… He sold you White Powder instead of salt didn't he?"
He nodded, "He told that he knew my food was missing this ingredient and that was why it wasn't good so he made buy an entire box of it. Well, not … But made the syndicate pay for it, of course…."
"Did you know it was White Powder then?"
"Not until I brought it back and opened it… I actually thought that maybe my cooking would actually taste better if I had salt but then I realised what I had bought when I finally opened the box after I took it back here…"
"So then you started using White Powder on your food to make people like your… Abominations."
No, I refuse to even acknowledge that whatever he made here was food or that he was even cooking to begin with.
He winced at my terminology and nodded, "Yes… I figured that this was that guy's plan since he acted so familiar with which ant he must have done this with others who were in the sa position as . Like I said, the other gangs were also interested in this and also grabbed their own 'chefs' to capitalise on this… So when I started making it, people got hooked on it and praised my cooking and I got to live and even get paid for it. Heck, they even started treating nicely too…"
Shit… So this guy isn't even the mastermind and is rely another pawn on the chessboard.
Now I'm not even sure where to go from here anymore or if we should even bother with this more than we have…
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