HONOR, DIGNITY, AND PRIDE

Honor, Dignity, and Pride 10

CHAPTER 4: The End of the Masks and the Great Transition

Erman, Gürkan, and Cevdet the Ferret... All three had spewed every drop of venom inside them into their cell microphones, exposing the holding's filthy conspiracy against Can. Hurling the most vile insults at one another and at the remaining partners, they had crawled through the steel doors into the unknown depths of Room 2.

As their broadcasted voices echoed from the giant speakers on the walls, the wave of panic inside the cells of the five remaining people in Room 1—İlkay, Sevgül, Marut, Petek, and Süphan—turned into pure, unfiltered insanity. The chains of their shackles rattled violently against the concrete, while sweat and heavy sobs poured from beneath their heavy visors.

Next came the turn of Mrs. Sevgül—the noble, beloved darling of high society. The red light on her mask flared frantically. The moment the electrodes at her temples buzzed with a low current, Sevgül collapsed to her knees, completely uncaring that her emerald gown was tearing apart in the grime.

"Stop it! I'll talk, please don't hit me with the electricity!" Sevgül wept, her voice trembling through the microphone. "Yes... I knew Can was innocent! When Erman put those forged documents in front of the boy, I was only thinking about my luxury charity event on Monday! If the holding was tarnished, I would be humiliated! I said, 'I won't ruin my prestige for the son of a day laborer,' and I stayed silent! What's more, I'm having an affair with Marut, the silent partner, to bankrupt my husband İlkay and seize all the shares in the holding! While I was in Marut's arms in those basement archive rooms, we were plotting how to destroy İlkay! I am a scoundrel, do you hear me? I did it all!"

With a heavy metallic clank, Sevgül’s cell door unlocked. The woman, her makeup smeared with tears and her appearance completely disheveled, ran weeping toward the next chamber.

Immediately after, the big boss Mr. İlkay’s mask turned red. He convulsed under the first minor shock delivered to his temples.

"I'll tell it too!" İlkay roared, spittle coating the inside glass of his mask. "I exploited those workers! I intentionally ignored the bullying and r**e threats Gürkan subjected those girls to in the parking garage and the restrooms, because Gürkan was crushing unionization at the factory! I threw those crying girls out on the street without severance pay so the company's profit margin wouldn't drop! I also siphoned the holding's primary capital into my offshore shell accounts while carrying on affairs with a foreign female banker in locked offices! I robbed my wife Sevgül, and I robbed the holding! Let me go!"

With another resounding clank, Mr. İlkay’s shackles released as well, and he passed through the door groaning in anger and shame.

One by one, Mr. Marut contorted his marble-like face and confessed in a cold, clinical voice to his dirty stock market manipulations and how they deliberately ruined Can to take revenge on his father. Mrs. Petek wept and screamed that she was innocent, that she had merely been seduced by the glamorous lifestyle and succumbed to Gürkan’s blackmail. Finally, Mr. Süphan—behind his sweet grandfather mask—was forced to confess to his grotesque, masochistic depravities against his own grandchild, sobbing as his prayer beads scattered across the concrete while explaining how he funneled silence money out of accounting.

All five of their doors swung open. Room 1 was left completely empty, haunted only by the lingering echoes of their disgrace.

CHAPTER 5: ROOM 2 — THE WORM ROOM (The Great Game Begins)

Passing through the dark labyrinth of Room 1, the eight partners reached the massive, steel-walled structure of Room 2. Completely disheveled, they were soaked in sweat, tears, and vomit. None of them could bear to look each other in the eye; they had just heard through the loudspeakers—in agonizing, explicit detail—who was sleeping with whom and who was swindling whom.

"You sicken me, İlkay!" screamed Sevgül, trying to gather the torn shreds of her dress.

"As if you're so clean! You were perfectly fine selling off holding shares while lying under Marut!" İlkay roared back.

Just then, the harsh fluorescent lights on the ceiling abruptly cut out, replaced by a blood-red light of intense dread. With a loud, echoing boom, all the doors behind them sealed tight.

Suspended from the ceiling in the exact center of the room by thick steel chains hung eight massive industrial mixing vats. A sharp, nauseating stench of ammonia and acid rose from the vats, piercing right through the filters of their gas masks. The vats were filled with a bubbling, pitch-black sludge composed of billions of live, carnivorous worms from the worm farm, mixed with chemical fertilizer acid.

A mechanical rail system suddenly descended from the ceiling with a loud, mechanical whine and snatched all eight of them by the ankles. Flipping them upside down, it dangled them in midair directly over the boiling, live-worm acid vats. A new countdown began on the screen: 05:00... 04:59...

The mechanical, executioner-like voice echoed through the entire bunker:

"You told the truth and made it through Room 1. But that was merely the beginning. Now you are in Room 2: The Worm Room. If you wish to live, you will answer the darkest, most lethal questions asked by the metallic voice without deceit. The first person to lie or refuse to answer... will have the chain on their feet released, plunging headfirst into that pool of acid and live worms to be dissolved. One person will be eliminated in every room. The first question... goes to you, General Manager Erman!"

Hanging upside down, with cold sweat pouring down into his mask, Mr. Erman looked at the boiling black sea of worms beneath him and began screaming in sheer horror:

"No! No! Please ask, I'll answer!"

CHAPTER 6: The Fall of Arrogance (The End of Mr. Erman)

The red numbers on the digital screen melted away: 04:15… 04:14…

The eight partners hung upside down above the pitch-black fertilizer vats of the Worm Farm, which bubbled with acidic, carnivorous worms by the billions. Blood rushing to their heads turned their eyes crimson. Heavy drops of sweat poured from their brows, leaking around the edges of their screwed-on gas masks and soaking into their hair.

"Let me go! It stinks in here! I’m going to throw up, please let me go!" shrieked Mrs. Sevgül. Hanging upside down, her emerald gown had fallen over her face, suffocating her further.

"Shut up, Sevgül!" roared Mr. İlkay, writhing in pain upside down. "Hearing what you did with Marut behind my back was what actually made me sick! You robbed the holding behind my back, you bastards!"

Mr. Marut tried to maintain his marble-hard composure, though the veins at his temples bulged as if ready to burst. "Don't pretend you're a pure saint, İlkay," he hissed into his microphone. "We all watched the disgusting footage of you locking yourself in an office with that foreign female banker. You were the one stealing money from the holding!"

"Lies! It's a conspiracy!" screamed İlkay. Just then, the mechanical, soulless voice rose from the ceiling speakers, severing the vicious argument like a blade:

"Silence... The court panel is presenting the question. The first target is General Manager Erman, who choked the breath out of people with his arrogance."

A red spotlight snapped on over Erman’s vat like a searchlight. Beneath him, he was closest to seeing the terrifying, subtle squirming and bubbling of billions of worms in the pitch-black acid sludge. He began rasping in absolute terror.

"Mr. Erman..." said the mechanical voice. "In which secret safe of the holding do you keep the originals of those forged invoice records that ruined Can't life? What is the passcode? Speak the truth and lock your ankle restraints in place. Remember, there is no room for lies in this chamber. When time expires or if you give a wrong answer, the hatch beneath you will open."

Hanging upside down, Mr. Erman went completely insane. His pride and rage surged past his fear. He screamed at the top of his lungs inside the mask, spittle covering the visor:

"I won't tell you, damn it! I won't tell you! I'm not giving you that passcode! Who the hell are you to interrogate me?! You're just a sewer rat crawling out from underground! I am the General Manager of this holding! Without my vision, without my intellect, none of you would be anything! İlkay! Sevgül! Gürkan! You were all just sycophantic pawns under me! You betrayed me, saying Erman did everything! You are the real scoundrels!"

"Erman, shut your mouth! Give them the code or you'll burn us all!" shouted Cevdet the Ferret, frantically moving his hands inside his handcuffs. "Tell them the passcode to the secret safe!"

"I'm not giving it, Cevdet! Die! All of you dissolve in this sewer along with me!" screamed Erman, weeping. He was crying and simultaneously defying everyone with his narcissistic pride. "Grandpa Süphan! The whole world will learn about the masochistic perversion beneath that sweet face of yours! Petek! You were thrilled to wag your tail in Gürkan’s office just for a title! All of you are filth! I won't give the code to save scum like you! I'm not telling!"

The clock read 00:03... 00:02... 00:01... 00:00!

"No answer provided. Objection overruled. Execution system engaged."

With a sharp mechanical release, the giant winch on the ceiling disengaged. The steel chain holding Mr. Erman by his ankles gave way at terrifying speed. Screaming in utter agony, Erman plunged headfirst, striking the massive black vat boiling with acidic sludge and billions of live worms.

The moment the acid touched Erman’s soaked skin, hair, and face, the sharp, burnt smell of melting flesh filled the room. Muffled, suffocating shrieks of agony erupted from Erman’s masked microphone, splashing the black sludge in all directions as it bubbled violently. Within seconds, the steel chain cranked upward with a slow mechanical grind.

What hung in the air was no longer Mr. Erman.

His tuxedo melted away by acid, his hair and skin completely stripped, it was a horrifying skeleton—flesh sloughing off in chunks—with live worms still squirming across the bare bone. The first victim of Room 2 was Mr. Erman, defeated by his own arrogance and his steadfast refusal to confess.

Hanging upside down below, the seven remaining partners—İlkay, Sevgül, Gürkan, Marut, Petek, Cevdet the Ferret, and Süphan—watched in horror as acidic, black sludge dripped from Erman's melting body onto them. They were all sobbing uncontrollably, breaking out in cold sweats of absolute terror as they anticipated their own sins being judged in the next room.

With a heavy metallic clank, the door to the chamber opened, and the chains holding the seven partners straightened out, lowering them onto the concrete floor. They had to pass directly beneath Erman’s hanging bones. The mechanical voice from the speaker delivered the final decree:

"Room 2 is closed. The price of arrogance has been paid in acid inside the worm vat. Now, the remaining seven of you... proceed to Room 3. Next in line is Manager Gürkan, who turned the human resources department into a s****l hunting ground. Let's see if Gürkan can answer for the dignity he trampled in the parking garage and the restrooms."