13
When Finn returned to consciousness, he was aware of little things first. The chafe of restraints—real metal handcuffs, not zip ties—against his wrists. A dull ache in his shoulders said his arms had been cuffed behind the metal chair he was in for a while. A blindfold tied a little too tight around his head. He had no idea how long he was out, but he thought it was a pretty good sign that they were no longer traveling. Chances were good that they were holed up somewhere relatively close to Raleigh.
Not that it mattered if they hauled Finn all the way to Timbuktu. Joe would find him. Between Joe’s unrelenting determination and all the resources Hercules Security had at its disposal, the question wasn’tifbutwhenthe extraction team would arrive. All Finn had to do was stay alive long enough for them to get there. Whoever had taken him was fucked, but they’d be fucked even harder if Joe shifted from rescue to revenge.
Finn strained to hear any faint sounds that might give him a clue about where he was and if any of the people who’d kidnapped him were in the room.
“I see you are awake.” The voice came from in front of him. Male, deep pitched, with a melodious accent. There was no way for Finn to tell, of course, but the man had a tone to his voice that was both mature and used to command. “We have some questions for you.”
Finn’s mouth was dry, probably due to whatever they’d stuck him with, but he sat up straight and turned his head in the direction of the voice. “You can ask. Doesn’t mean I’ll answer.”
The man chuckled. “Ah, but it is in your best interest to do so, fully and completely. We don’t have any real desire to kill you, but we also cannot sell you. You’re far too dangerous, and we know your associates are coming after you even as we speak. But we are also patient, and have ways to… compel you. Unpleasant ways. Your friends will not find you before we could do something very, very bad, so your cooperation is only to your benefit. Besides, all we desire is a name. One little name, and we will leave you here and let your associates know where to find you. Alive, even.”
“The carrot and the stick,” Finn said, nodding as if in approval. “A classic opening gambit. But hey, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
“We are reasonable men,” the interrogator replied, and Finn heard him as he shifted closer. From the height of his voice, he was sitting across from Finn, and he leaned closer. “Since you fully appreciate the stakes, let’s get to the question. A man from your organization recently caused a great deal of trouble for my employers. He would have recently returned from Pakistan, and he speaks the language. Tall, dark haired, bearded, and very muscular. That is all we know about him, but I suspect you can tell me at once who this man is.”
Fuck.
Joe. They wanted Joe.
Finn would go through the hell of being tortured for anyone at Hercules Security. They were his family, and he’d do just about anything to protect them. But he’d die before he ever gave up Joe.
“You think tall, dark, and muscular narrows it down any?” Finn let out a sharp bark of laughter. “Have you seen the guys who work at my organization?”
The man sighed. “Which is precisely why we had to risk taking you. You understand the difficulty of our position, I’m sure. We could risk kidnapping one of you and get the name, or we could blow up the entire Hercules Security facility and simply hope we got the right man. This is a… personal issue for my employer, however. He doesn’t want to kill many of you and chance the guilty party getting away. He wants this one man in particular. I’m certain you know who it is, since there can’t be many of you who just returned from my country. But if you prefer, we will blow up your company and kill a number of your companions. We would still have you, of course, and maybe afterward you could verify that we got the right man. It is your decision.”
“Yeah, because blowing up a building in the heart of a major metropolitan area won’t bringanyunwanted attention down onyourorganization,” Finn said, almost insulted by the empty threat. The least they could do was make their threats plausible. “Possibly on an international level. But sure, indulge me. Are you going to use internal or external methods? The building’s pretty big, so one bazooka isn’t going to cut it if you’re going the external route. You’d need some heavy firepower from multiple sources if you want to take down the whole building. Planting explosives inside the building would be even trickier. I mean, security is in thename.”
This time the man laughed. “You Americans. So smug. So righteous. And you never learn. Bazooka, you say? How quaint an idea! But no….” The man leaned in again, and this time his voice was filled with soft menace. “We have a small, private jet at the Raleigh-Durham airport. The pilot will take off with the jet loaded with fuel, and other, shall we say, hazardous cargo. The pilot will radio that he has mechanical troubles and bail out of the plane, which will just happen to crash into your headquarters. Crude, perhaps, but effective—and it will appear to be a tragic accident.”
“Sure, sure, because our West Coast branch would never think to use all of their resources to investigate and make sure it really was just an accident. Uh-huh.” Finn nodded, forcing himself to sound casual. He was probably pushing the limits of this guy’s tolerance, and once that happened, other elements would be introduced into their little chat. Finn knew he couldn’t delay being tortured forever, but with every minute that passed, the team was that much closer to getting him out. “I’m sorry, I just can’t see any way this isn’t going to end badly for you, either in the long or short term.”
“Ah, I see the problem. You are laboring under the mistaken assumption that we care what your people, your company, or even your government could do to us. We do not. Our business is risky, we lose groups all the time. There are always new ones to take their place. It is simply the way things work in our world. If your coworker had simply destroyed a cell of our organization, we would not care. The weakshouldbe culled from the herd. But this time, your people made a critical error. Your coworker killed my employer’s son—his only son, just eighteen years old. This has nothing to do with logic, I’m afraid. Payback is irrelevant. My employer desires this man, and he will stop at nothing to get him. He has left the issue of collateral damage atmydiscretion, however, and I am a man who abhors waste. So the price of this information, you see, is in your hands. While you stillhavehands, at least.”
Joe was in deep shit. If it was personal, this guy’s claim about going after Joe carried a lot more weight, which gave Finn even more incentive to resist whatever they subjected him to. He’d rather die himself than turn Joe over to some sadistic asshole out for revenge.
“I’m sorry about your employer’s son, but I can’t help you, buddy,” Finn said, shrugging as much as his bonds would allow. “You can threaten to blow up buildings and remove body parts all you want, but that’s not going to dig up information I don’t have. Operational security is a thing in our business. The only missions I know about are my own, and I wasn’t in Pakistan.”
The man gave another sigh. “I would say your loyalty is admirable, but really it is nothing but foolishness. You may practice ‘operational security’, but I know well that men talk. Theybrag. And I have no doubt you know exactly of whom I am speaking. I will ask you nicely just one more time. The name.”
Shit.This was it. The talking was over, and the hurting would begin. But whatever pain Finn endured would be nothing compared to what they inflicted on Joe if they got their hands on him.
“I don’t know.” Those three words were the only thing Finn intended to say from here on out.
“Such an unfortunate decision, but if that is the one you’ve chosen to make, so be it.” There were a few moments of quiet, though Finn heard slight movements. Then the door to the room opened. “Our guest has refused our hospitality. Therefore, it is time to begin. I would tell you this won’t hurt, but I would be lying. Such a pity, Mr. Finnegan. I just hope that your coworker is worth the pain.”
He is. Finn closed his eyes and focused inward as he braced himself for whatever lay ahead.
