"Oh, really? Within one second after he took my letters and left, I was supposed to pick up the phone and report him missing? Will you promise me that after I do so, you won't call a psychiatric hospital?"
Shivan noticed the change in Schiller and hurriedly tried to mediate. "Officer, you can't be so aggressive. Professor Schiller has absolutely nothing to do with these cases. He was just unlucky enough to happen to encounter—"
"I don't believe in that many 'coincidences'..."
Shivan was about to say more, but Schiller's death stare forced him back. Having abandoned his pretense, Schiller sighed, crossed one leg over the other, and stared at Clay.
"I have to say, agent, your disguise is terribly poor. Such leading questions are a tactic only agents would use. The police would not."
"Because the utterly unprofessional agent training your superiors arranged for you never tells you that agents are immortals flying through the heavens. You answer only to your superiors. Your sole responsibility is extracting from an interrogation subject the result your superiors want. If anything goes wrong, your superiors bear it."
"There is an unwritten rule in your system: low-level agents do not exist. They are Translucent. Whoever makes the decision takes responsibility; the executor bears none."
"No superior will throw you out to take the blame just because someone else is dissatisfied with the statement, because every one of you knows that you are merely guns."
"But police officers walk on the ground. The police system is far more complicated than you imagine. Besides uncovering The Truth, officers at the bottom also need to soothe the public, deal with reporters, and even flatter people who may threaten their superiors' positions."
"Because if they do not, they may lose their jobs, go without pay, and starve