HONOR, DIGNITY, AND PRIDE

Honor, Dignity, and Pride 8

CHAPTER 3: The Room of Lust and Abuse (Gürkan and Cevdet's Confessions)

The first video began playing on the screen. The footage was taken from a blind spot in the parking garage on the -3 basement level. Gürkan had pinned a young, minimum-wage female janitor between the door of his luxury SUV and the concrete wall. The helpless, frozen terror in the woman's eyes projected onto the bare walls of the shelter. On screen, Gürkan gripped her chin tightly, whispering:

"If you want me to renew your contract on Monday, you’re staying late with me tonight. Otherwise, you can dream about getting the money for your sick mother's medication."

As the woman bowed her head weeping, Gürkan’s beastly, sneering expression hit every steel surface in the room.

"Turn it off! Turn it off!" Gürkan screamed, violently rattling his wall shackles.

But with a sudden electric shock from the handcuffs, a 220-volt current arced through his body once more, bending him backward like a bow. Foaming at the mouth, Gürkan's eyes rolled into the back of his head. The sharp, acrid sulfuric acid gas began leaking through the mask's filter. The moment the gas touched his lungs, Gürkan collapsed to his knees, writhing as if suffocating. His sweat-soaked shirt was caked in the dust of the bunker floor.

"Tell us, Gürkan..." said the mechanical, soulless voice. "Who was standing behind you when you trampled on those girls' dignity? Did you feed on this filth all by yourself?"

Gürkan began weeping hysterically inside the mask, his mucus mixing with saliva.

"It wasn't just me... I didn't do it alone!" he shrieked. "Mr. İlkay! You knew from the very beginning! Didn't one of those girls I cornered in the garage come up to your office crying to complain about me? But didn't you throw her out the door without severance pay, saying, 'Gürkan prevents unionization in the company, he keeps the workers down; let's not tarnish the holding's name over his little skirt-chasing affairs'? You protected me, İlkay!"

The big boss, Mr. İlkay, gritted his teeth behind his mask, his jawline flexing tight with a loud c***k.

"Shut your mouth, you filthy animal! I was protecting the company's interests!" he roared.

Erman was gone, but the wave of hatred he left behind was swelling even larger through Gürkan. Gürkan rasped, slamming his head against the wall:

"Was it just İlkay? Cevdet the Ferret! You were my primary accomplice in this holding! You were the one who caught and destroyed the written complaints and garage voice recordings from those minimum-wage women weeping in the restrooms before they ever reached the police! Wasn't I bribing you every month out of accounting under the line item 'operational expenses'? You bought that luxury car sitting under your ass thanks to me!"

Cevdet rubbed his hands together in terror and shouted: "I had no choice! I did it for internal corporate security!"

Gürkan had completely lost his mind. If acid gas was going to burn his lungs, he was going to melt everyone's soul in this room with that very same acid. He turned his eyes toward Mrs. Petek, who was weeping silently on screen, and then toward Sevgül and Marut:

"Mrs. Sevgül! You knew too! While the cries of those weeping girls echoed down the hallways, you were making shopping lists for diamonds! You plugged your ears, saying, 'I won't let the holding's image be ruined by the troubles of low-class trash; let Gürkan do his job'! Mr. Marut! You are the monster who profited the most from this! Was I not the one who handed you the secret financial data and stock tips I extorted from those female executives I cornered and blackmailed? You made millions of dollars on the stock market thanks to the secrets coming out of my filthy rooms, Marut! All of you fed on my lust and my blackmail! You are all knee-deep in this mud!"

And finally, he turned to Mr. Süphan, hiding behind his cute old grandfather mask:

"Grandpa Süphan! You were the one who opened that accounting vault for me! It was your clean, white-haired hands that funneled those millions out of the holding as 'import invoices' to pay off the families of those silenced girls! You created me, damn it! Why are you looking at me with disgust now?!"

The massive locks on the steel door behind Gürkan pulled open to both sides with a heavy metallic boom. The green light of salvation leaking into the hallway illuminated the bunker as Gürkan’s shackles released.

Manager Gürkan, completely disheveled, drenched in sweat and vomit, crawled across the concrete weeping hysterically. As he reached the threshold of the door, he spat a vile gob of saliva through his mask's microphone toward the remaining six people in the room.

"I vomited out the truth and I am leaving this room," he rasped, his voice dripping with malice. "But you... you will die in the next rooms beneath the weight of the lies you used to drain each other's blood. Die in there, you filthy vultures!"

With painful groans and hurling curses at the partners he left behind, Gürkan crawled into Room 3. The heavy steel door slammed shut behind him with a massive boom and locked tight. The digital screen in the room refreshed instantly, resetting the clock for the remaining victims: 01:00... 00:59...

The light on the next victim’s mask flared violently: Cevdet the Ferret.

The remaining five were left alone with cold sweat dripping down their backs under the blood-red emergency lights on the walls. The digital clock melted away mercilessly: 00:44... 00:43... The final victim of the first chamber—the Confession Room—was Cevdet the Ferret. The red light beneath his mask flashed rapidly like a ticking time bomb. Cevdet’s shifting, sly eyes widened in sheer horror as he struggled against his shackles. He tried to rub his hands together, but the rusted chains dug into his flesh.

Mr. İlkay turned toward Cevdet the Ferret, growling from inside his mask. "So you were the one selling my private files to Sevgül, huh, Cevdet?" he roared. His voice exploded over the microphone. "You sacrificed the holding's internal security just to cover up the monthly bribes Gürkan was skimming from accounting! Speak, your time is running out! You will explain everything before all of our corpses are dragged out of this room!"

"I... I was just doing my job, Mr. İlkay!" groaned Cevdet. His voice was tearful, trembling, and slick. "You have to maintain a balance in large corporations! If it weren't for me, Mr. Erman would have ruined you long ago!"

Just then, the mechanical, soulless voice cut through the air from the hidden ceiling speakers, severing their dialogue like a blade:

"Maintaining a balance, Cevdet? You are no balancing force. You are a parasite, a mole feeding on the filth of others. Time is running out. What did you take, and from whom, when you destroyed the forged invoices that ruined Can's life? Vomit the truth, or the voltage at your temples will fry your brain."

The clock dropped to 00:15.

A blue arc of electricity shot from the metal electrodes at Cevdet’s temples. He screamed in agony as his knees struck the concrete. Sharp, acrid sulfuric acid gas began leaking through his mask filter. As his throat and lungs burned, he began weeping uncontrollably, vomiting saliva onto the glass of his mask.

"Stop it! I’ll tell you! Stop it, I can’t breathe!" shrieked Cevdet. "I destroyed them, yes! I wiped the log files from the company’s main server that proved Can was innocent! Mr. Erman promised me a stake in the holding's shares! But I didn't do it alone! Mr. Marut! Didn't you tell me, 'Clean every trace from the boy's computer, we’re going to take revenge on this kid for the old lawsuits his father filed against the holding'? You gave me that order, Marut!"

Marut, the silent partner, shot an icy glare from behind his mask. "Minor pawns can be sacrificed for the future of the company, Cevdet. Stop crying," he said, his voice completely devoid of remorse.

Cevdet screamed toward the others in the room through his sobs:

"Mrs. Sevgül! Even though you knew Can was innocent, you were the one who told me, 'Cevdet, don't blow this up; if we go after Erman, the holding's image will suffer and my charity gala on Monday will be ruined—just cover it up'! Berlin! Even though you heard the cries of that boy's mother, didn't you turn your head, saying, 'Mr. Süphan is going to transfer new cash to me from the import budget, I can't be bothered with this scandal'? You all hid behind me while selling out that boy's life! I was just the holding's trashman! I cleaned up your filth!"

Finally, he turned to the white-haired Mr. Süphan:

"Grandpa Süphan! It was your sweet little hands that transferred those millions of dollars into my offshore account in exchange for those erased documents! Don't look at me now acting like you're disgusted! It was thanks to my work as a mole that all of you sat comfortably in your ivory towers!"

The massive locks on the steel door behind Cevdet opened with a heavy metallic sound, and his shackles snapped free. The green light of salvation leaking into the hallway cut through the dust cloud in the room.

Cevdet the Ferret, drenched in sweat, tears, and mucus, crawled along the concrete toward the door. He paused at the threshold of freedom and turned to face the remaining five people in the room (İlkay, Sevgül, Marut, Petek, and Süphan) through his mask's microphone. A devious hatred gleamed in his eyes.

"I vomited out who bought the Can conspiracy and how," he rasped. "But this was only Room 1! We still have six rooms ahead of us! In every room, we will face the disgusting depravity of another one of you! Let’s see how much lower you’ll degrade yourselves just to survive. Rot in hell, you carrion-eaters!"

Cevdet crawled out of sight toward Room 2 with painful groans. The heavy steel door slammed shut behind him with a thunderous boom and locked tight.