HONOR, DIGNITY, AND PRIDE

Honor, Dignity, and Pride 14

CHAPTER 10: ROOM 4 — STEEL WIRES AND IVORY TOWERS (The Rush for Cells)

Washed from head to toe in the warm, metallic blood scattered from the detonated bodies of Gürkan and Petek, the five partners spilled into Room 4—dyed the very color of their sins.

With a heavy boom, the giant steel door behind them sealed shut, missing Cevdet’s heel by a fraction of a millimeter. Cevdet lay on the floor weeping, nose bleeding, covered in fresh victim blood, having wet himself in absolute terror.

This area was vastly different from the previous warehouses—cold and mechanical. The walls were clad entirely in brushed, stainless-steel panels. On either side of the room stood six metal compartments facing each other. These compartments resembled narrow, single-person shower stalls, featuring thick, cold iron bars extending from floor to ceiling. Though there were five people left, six cells stood before them; the single vacant cell felt like the shadow of those who had just died—or the executioner watching them from above.

"We're locked in again! My God, please let this end!" screamed Mrs. Sevgül. Her emerald dress was completely coated in a sticky layer of coagulating blood. She tried to wipe the red drops trickling from her hair over her mask.

At that moment, the giant 3D plasma TV screen in the center of the room flickered to life with static. The harsh white light of the screen illuminated their blood-stained faces. The mechanical, soulless voice boomed through the speakers:

"Room 3 has been sealed; blood has spilled from the scale. Now you are in Room 4. You must step inside the narrow metal compartments facing you. The rules are simple. If even one of you refuses to enter a compartment, a 10,000-volt electric current will be sent through the concrete floor you stand on. You have 30 seconds. Either enter those narrow cages, or fry here together!"

The digital screen initiated a relentless countdown from 00:30 seconds: 00:29... 00:28...

"Hurry! Get into the rooms! Hurry!" roared Big Boss İlkay. His jaw clattered with fear. He threw himself into the nearest metal compartment.

However, Mr. Süphan—his white hair disheveled, his chubby cheeks stained with blood—stood frozen in place, paralyzed by his own masochistic terror. Standing at the entrance of a cell, he lacked the courage to step inside.

"I... I can't go in there, I can't breathe, it's too narrow!" Grandpa Süphan began sobbing hysterically.

"Süphan! Get inside, damn it! You're going to get us all killed, you old p*****t!" shouted Cevdet the Ferret, crawling on the floor.

When the clock reached 00:15, Süphan had still not taken a step inside.

A massive electric current surged from the concrete floor into the legs of all five partners. The shockwave bent their bodies backward like bows; teeth slammed together, and agonizing screams echoed from the microphones inside their masks. Süphan’s legs trembled, and he shrieked in pain.

"Süphan! I will kill you with my own hands! Get inside that compartment!" screamed Mrs. Sevgül, glaring at him from behind her bars as she writhed from the electrical pain at her temples. "I am not going to burn here because of your disgusting grandchild conspiracies! Get in!"

Driven by the vicious pressure, curses, and bone-chilling pain of the electricity, Mr. Süphan threw himself weeping into the narrow metal compartment. The moment he stepped inside, the iron-barred doors of all five cells slammed shut and locked mechanically.

Steel Wires and Portraits

Everyone was forced to stand inside steel compartments as narrow as a shower stall, lacking even a single centimeter of space to move. Most terrifying of all... mounted to the back wall at waist height behind each person was an ultra-thin, laser-sharpened steel wire. The wire hovered behind them like a guillotine awaiting the command to strike.

The first portrait appeared on the central TV screen: the face of a young girl—one of the holding's former interns—taken from footage where she was weeping in Cevdet's office.

The mechanical voice boomed once more:

"Now... it is time for confessions. You will explain your connection to the faces on the screen and detail the vile acts you committed against them. Whoever lies or omits details... will be sliced in half as the thin steel wire at their waist shoots forward. The first portrait... comes from your office, Cevdet the Ferret!"

The wire inside Cevdet’s compartment hummed, inching within a millimeter of his waist. Cevdet was completely overwhelmed by terror.

"Cevdet! Speak! Tell the truth, what did you do to that girl?!" shouted Mr. Marut from the opposite compartment, his eyes fixed on the screen. "If you lie, that wire will slice you apart!"

Cevdet lost his sneaky mask completely. Mucus and tears mixed with the blood on his face as he screamed into the microphone:

"I... I just reminded the girl of the holding's rules! I told her she’d be fired if she told anyone about Gürkan’s videos in the garage! I didn't do anything else, I swear!"

A minor warning shock struck Cevdet’s temples.

"Incomplete statement, Cevdet. Vomit the truth!" the voice boomed.

The steel wire behind him crept another centimeter closer to his waist. He felt the razor-sharp coldness through the back of his silk shirt.

"Alright! I’m telling you!" screamed Cevdet, weeping hysterically. "Those intern girls... Those helpless kids who came to HR to complain... I locked them in my office! I didn't treat them like human beings! I used my title and the holding's power, saying, 'If you speak up, the holding will destroy you and throw your family out on the street'! I abused them on that dark couch in my office! Then I threw a pittance of money in front of them and threatened them to keep quiet! I am a sewer rat, I trampled those innocent lives for my own pleasure and mole-work! I told the truth, stop this wire!"

However, the screen abruptly flashed red:

CONFESSION TIME EXCEEDED. NARCISSISTIC DECEIT ATTEMPT.

Because Cevdet had initially attempted to manipulate the system by lying, his punishment was enacted.

"No! I told you everything! Marut, İlkay, help me!" Cevdet shrieked frantically.

The mechanism in the back wall fired forward with tremendous speed and force. The thin steel wire passed through Cevdet’s waist like a storm, striking the front iron bars with a heavy metallic ring.

A deathly silence fell over the room for a moment. Cevdet was still standing.

From inside his mask, he whispered trembling: "Did I make it...?"

A split second later, a deep red line of blood began seeping from his white silk shirt. Cevdet’s upper torso slowly slid forward, cleanly severed from his lower body along a millimeter-thin cut. Eyes wide open in terror, his body collapsed in two separate pieces onto the floor of the narrow steel compartment. He had died with his eyes open. Blood poured down the steel walls of the cell like a river.

The first victim of Room 4 was Cevdet the Ferret, who had abused those interns.