HONOR, DIGNITY, AND PRIDE

Honor, Dignity, and Pride 11

CHAPTER 7: The Trial Where Masks Were Melted

As Mr. Erman’s screams drowned inside the acid vat boiling with live worms, oozing remnants dripped from his hanging bones onto the concrete floor. The digital screen in the room abruptly reset, once again displaying 05:00 minutes.

"Erman is dead... Erman is really dead!" shouted Cevdet the Ferret, sobbing. He tried to shake the chains holding him upside down, but his eyes bulged as if about to pop from the blood rushing to his head. "We're next! Mr. İlkay, Mr. Marut, do something!"

"Shut your mouth, Cevdet!" roared Mr. İlkay, squirming in pain upside down. "Erman paid the price for his ego. Now, whatever that wretched voice asks, we will answer truthfully! We have no other choice!"

The mechanical, executioner-like voice echoed from the ceiling speakers once more, cutting through their weeping like a blade:

"The first victim was eliminated by his arrogance. Now, if the remaining seven of you wish to leave this room alive, you will spew the vile filth in your souls one by one over this vat. The next question... is for you, Human Resources Manager Gürkan!"

The spotlight over Gürkan’s vat lit up in blood red. As the stench of the black sludge boiling beneath him seeped into his mask, Gürkan began screaming in panic: "Ask! Please ask, I’ll tell you everything!"

"Mr. Gürkan..." said the mechanical voice. "In the parking garage on the -3 basement level, in those frosted-glass restrooms, and in the secluded archive rooms on the lowest floors, you transformed your position into a s****l hunting ground by threatening minimum-wage female workers and interns, saying, 'I will terminate your contracts, your families will starve.' Most recently, you summoned the brand ambassador, Mrs. Petek, to your office. While trampling the chastity of those innocent girls, how much money did you siphon from the holding's vault as silence money, and under which import line item did you hide these funds? Speak the truth!"

Hanging upside down, his mucus mixing with saliva as he sobbed, Gürkan screamed into the microphone:

"I did it! Yes, every month I was issuing fake invoices under the name of 'consulting and external organization' from the HR budget! I distributed a total of 4.5 million corporate cash under the table to the families of those twenty-two girls I cornered in those rooms and garages—the ones I made cry and hurt! I disguised the documents as fake import tenders and submitted them to Mr. Süphan for approval! And Mr. Süphan knowingly signed every single one! I am a scoundrel, I used my power to drag those girls into my bed, and I threatened to cancel Petek's contract! I told the truth, please lock my chain!"

With a sharp clank, the steel lock at Gürkan’s feet snapped into place, securing him safely above the vat. Gürkan continued to weep uncontrollably.

The mechanical voice didn't pause for a second:

"The next question... goes to you, Mr. Cevdet the Ferret—the internal audit and security manager of the holding, the man who traded in all this filth!"

The light over Cevdet turned on. Cevdet tried to rub his hands together in absolute fear.

"Mr. Cevdet... You personally wiped Gürkan's vile blackmail videos from the garage, the crying voices of those girls echoing off the restroom tiles, and the computer log files proving Can's innocence from the holding server. In exchange for acting as a mole, in which offshore account do you keep the bribe money you received from Mr. Erman and Mr. İlkay? Give us the name of the bank and the account number!"

Cevdet shrieked into his mask at the top of his lungs:

"I'll tell you! I keep it in a secret account numbered 8849-Cev-X at 'Alpha-Trust' bank in the Cayman Islands! When Erman promised me a share of the holding's stock, I deleted those log files. While Can's mother was weeping at the door, I burned the security footage off the hard drives one by one! I also recorded the footage of Mr. İlkay carrying on in that locked office with the foreign banker, and I put it in front of Mrs. Sevgül for blackmail! I am a ferret, I sold everyone's secrets for money, and I ruined Can's life with my own hands! I vomited out the truth, stop the vat beneath me!"

Another mechanical clank sounded as Cevdet’s lock clicked into place, and the cunning man swung upside down, weeping. This time, the mechanical voice turned to the noble woman of the holding:

"The next question... goes to you, Mrs. Sevgül—the honorable figure of high society!"

Mrs. Sevgül’s emerald dress hung upside down, covering her face; her blush was smeared like mud from her tears. "Ask! Ask, you foul creature, I’m dying!" she shrieked.

"Mrs. Sevgül... Even though you knew Can was innocent and that Erman stole the money, you stayed silent, thinking, 'My charity gala will be ruined, the holding's name will be tarnished.' Furthermore, to ruin your husband İlkay, you are having an illicit affair with Mr. Marut—the marble-faced, silent partner—in the basement archive rooms. Which stock manipulation shell company did you and Marut set up to crash the holding's shares to rock bottom and throw İlkay out on the street? Name it!"

Sevgül screamed into her mask as if vomiting, spittle covering the glass:

"We set it up... Yes! We set up a shell company named 'Mar-Seu Investment' based in the UK! Our goal was to short-sell all the holding's shares on Monday morning to hit rock bottom, drive İlkay insane, and take over the holding completely! I knew that day laborer's son Can was innocent, but compared to my lavish lifestyle, I didn't give a damn about a worker's kid's future! I said, 'Are we going to shake up the holding for a pawn?' and kept quiet! I plotted my husband's ruin in Marut's arms! I am a scoundrel, do you hear me?! Lock this chain!"

With a definitive clank, Sevgül’s restraint locked into place. Right beside her, her husband, Mr. İlkay, hissed at his wife with intense hatred while hanging upside down:

"You w***e! You rotten vulture fed on my money! Selling out the holding while lying under Marut!"

Mr. Marut broke his silence: "Shut your mouth, İlkay, it's your turn."

The spotlight snapped on over the big boss, Mr. İlkay.

"Mr. İlkay... Even though you knew about the bullying and r**e threats Gürkan inflicted on those girls, you stayed silent because 'Gürkan prevents unionization at the factory and keeps the workers down.' You threw the victimized girls out the door without severance pay. Furthermore, into which secret fund did you siphon the holding's main capital while carrying on with that foreign female banker in locked offices?"

The veins at Mr. İlkay’s temples bulged as if ready to burst.

"I’m telling you, damn it!" İlkay roared. "I transferred it to the 'Zurich-Global Fund' account in Switzerland! I siphoned 12 million dollars of the holding's internal funds piece by piece into that fund with that female banker! I stripped the company bare so my wife Sevgül wouldn't take the holding from me! The weeping of those crying girls in the parking garage wasn't worth more than my profit margin; I ruined those girls' lives so the company wouldn't get a bad name, and I knowingly covered up Gürkan's filth! I am a scoundrel too! Lock it!"

With a metallic click, İlkay’s chain locked into place as well.

The remaining silent partner, Mr. Marut, contorted his marble-hard face and confessed in an icy voice to ordering dirty stock market manipulations and deliberately framing Can to get revenge on his father for the old illegal import lawsuit against the holding. Mr. Süphan, meanwhile, vomited through tears and spittle the truth behind his sweet grandfather mask—exposing his masochistic, narcissistic perversions, how he abused his own grandchild, and how he routed silence money through accounting under "import expenses." Finally, Mrs. Petek wept and screamed that she was not guilty of any crime, that she had merely been seduced by the glamorous life, submitted to blackmail in Gürkan’s office, and stayed silent out of fear when she heard about the Can conspiracy.

All seven partners had completed their confessions. Every single one had vomited out the truth down to the most vile detail.

With a succession of heavy mechanical sounds, the ceiling rail system straightened out within eight seconds and dropped the remaining seven people—İlkay, Sevgül, Gürkan, Marut, Petek, Cevdet the Ferret, and Süphan—onto the concrete floor, right beside the horrifying bones of Mr. Erman still hanging over the acid vat.

They lay on the ground trying to breathe, completely disheveled, drenched in sweat and shame. They no longer had a single mask left to hide behind when facing one another. They had heard from their own mouths, in explicit detail, who was sleeping with whom and how each had robbed the holding. The massive steel door at the end of the room opened with a deafening noise, spilling green light into the hallway.

The mechanical, executioner-like voice delivered the final judgment:

"Room 2 is closed. Your masks have been completely dissolved over the worm vat. Now, knowing the sewage souls of one another, pass beneath the bones of Mr. Erman and proceed to Room 3. Remember, this was only the beginning. Five rooms still lie before you, and in every room, one of you will pay for this filth with their life. Walk!"

Sobbing, groaning, and hurling the most venomous insults at one another, the remaining seven began walking toward Room 3, passing beneath the acidic black drops falling from Erman's melting remains.