Blood trickled down from the cut on my scalp, skirting my eye and sliding down my cheek, before dripping from the point of my chin. I would have wiped it, but it was challenging, with my hands shackled as they were. The best I could do was rub my cheek on my shoulder, though it interrupted the stream only temporarily.
“Why bother?” Wallace asked, pausing to unbutton his cuffs and roll up his shirt sleeves. “You know this isn’t going to stop until you tell me what I want to know.”
“I’m kind of banking on you getting bored, eventually,” I shrugged. “Because, like I have been saying this entire time, I don’t have anything to tell you. No amount of abuse can change that.”
I spit blood onto the cement floor. He was still warming up, so it wasn’t actually that bad, yet, but head wounds always bled more than you would expect.
“We’ll see,” he tugged at the ring on his index finger for a moment before deciding to leave it on. It did more damage anyway. “I’m still having fun, for the moment. Perhaps that will change.”
He turned and delivered a blow to my ribs that forced the air from my lungs. I coughed, splattering a fine mist of blood across the front of his white shirt. Wallace glanced down and curled his lip in distaste.
“Shouldn’t have worn white,” I laughed; a somewhat gruesome sight, I was sure. “Rookie mistake.”
He hit me in the face, that time, his ring slicing across my cheek. He would probably have done it again, if the door hadn’t opened. He paused and turned to see Tom enter.
“Well, did the search turn up anything?” Wallace asked impatiently.
“Nothing,” Tom shook his head. “I did find some notes. She was keeping track of names, numbers, locations, pretty much all the information she could get. Detailed, too. She has been paying more attention than she let on. But they were all on paper, hidden amongst her things. There is no sign anyone but her has ever seen them.”
“Good. But it isn’t definitive. We need more. Did you bring what I asked?”
Tom nodded and turned back to the door,
“Send him in,” he barked.
A shuffling of feet preceded a man entering the room, his eyes on the ground. As the door slammed shut behind him, the young man glanced briefly in my direction. Luke. Shit. His eyes widened when he saw me, but I spoke before he could react further.
“Come on, Wallace. Are you getting old or something? I didn’t think you would have to bring in a relief hitter so soon.”
“Is that what you think this is?” Wallace smirked.
“Of course. Why else would you bring in one of the kids?” I feigned ignorance.
“He has spent too much time with you, in my estimation. I am a bit concerned you may have influenced him with your more… subversive ideas. You are claiming that isn’t the case?”
“Of course it isn’t. You think I would trust him with any of this? I’m not a complete idiot. He’s a child, and moreover he is one of you. He would have run straight to you if I had said anything… untoward,” I rolled my eyes. “He would have been thrilled for the chance to curry favor, I’m sure. Besides, it’s not like he could have helped me, in any meaningful way. So, why would I risk being exposed by telling him anything?”
“Is that right, Lucas?” Wallace turned to Luke, who had flushed and dropped his eyes back to the ground.
“I… I don’t even know what we are talking about,” Luke stammered. “What is going on?”
He glanced briefly up at me but didn’t meet my eyes. Good play, kid. Of course, it was also possible that he was just genuinely confused. That worked too.
“It is easy enough to explain,” Wallace smiled. “This is what happens to traitors, Lucas. I thought it would be a good idea for you to understand that. Especially given your close proximity to Rayna, recently. I would be interested to hear what kind of things she has said to you about the ubarae, during your time together.”
“I… I don’t really know, sir,” Luke replied. “We mostly talked about the mission, and training. She taught us how to fight them, is that what you mean?”
Wallace sighed, exasperated.
“You know what, Luke? Maybe you should stay and watch, for a bit. Really understand what is at stake here, before I ask you any more questions,” he turned back to Tom. “Bring in a chair and put it in the corner. He clearly needs some time to think, and a demonstration of how serious we are.”
Tom nodded and stepped outside.
“Oh, come on, Wally,” I groaned. “You don’t need to traumatize him like that. I knew what I was getting into when I started this, but he doesn’t know anything. Just leave him out of it.”
“You don’t want him to see this?” Wallace raised an eyebrow. “Then tell me what I want to know.”
Tom returned, placing a chair in the far corner, he gestured for Luke to sit.
“Fine, you want the truth?” I asked. “Truth is, I think you are all monsters, him included. After all, he agreed to this insane plan, didn’t he? You all agreed to exterminate the ubarae, all this so you could feel ‘safe’? No one is ever safe, anyway. And most of them aren’t even a threat, they just want to live in peace, like the rest of us. The ones who don’t, the Vickis and Carmines of the world, I have no problem dealing with them, but this? I could never do this. It disgusts me that you even thought I could. You all disgust me.”
Wallace backhanded me across the face, ending my speech. I spit a glob of clotted blood and saliva onto the floor.
“You see, Luke?” Tom said. “She is a liar, a traitor. She tried to fool us, and now she spits on our work, our goal. She holds all of us in contempt. If you are protecting her, surely you can see that it is a waste. Really consider what it would mean to betray our cause. Reflect on if you have any information to share with us.”
I wasn’t exactly giving Luke any reason to protect me. But I didn’t need to. He didn’t know anything that would compromise me any further than I already was, really the only one who could be hurt by his testimony was himself. If Luke said anything about our private discussions, they would likely consider him compromised, too. Hopefully he had the good sense to keep his mouth shut, for his own sake. Tom left him in the chair and approached me, appraising my injuries as he did.
“You’ve been going easy on her,” he noted to Wallace.
“You can’t rush these things,” Wallace replied.
“No? We don’t have much time left before the big event. If anyone knows, we might need to adjust our plans to take that into account.”
“Don’t worry about that. She hasn’t had the opportunity to tell anyone about the arena. And if she had, she wouldn’t have risked disabling the devices by herself. No, I am more concerned with the big picture. Things can go ahead today, as planned.”
“Understood,” Tom checked his watch. “But we still have time before I need to go. Mind if I sub in, for a bit?”
Wallace stepped back with a smile,
“Be my guest.”
Tom stepped back, examining his handiwork with unsettling interest. Vicki had been right. He clearly had years of frustration to work out on my ribs, stomach and arms. He had even taken some inspiration from the succubus, inflicting burns on my forearms with a small torch when the mood struck him. I hadn’t thought him capable of such brutality. Another place where I had been mistaken. He mostly avoided my face, but I wasn’t sure if that was some last vestige of pity, or because he wanted me to be able to talk without impediment. If the latter was the case, he was wasting his time. Part of it was pride, certainly. I was going to die here, I knew that, but at least I could go out knowing that I hadn’t given in. However, more of it was practical. As long as they didn’t think anyone knew about them, about their plans, they wouldn’t make any moves to conceal themselves. They wouldn’t change locations or send their people to ground. Once the attack went off later today, the others would know what had happened, and they would move on the locations they knew of, at least. It wasn’t how I had wanted this to go down, but it was better than nothing. Still, for that to work, I needed to sell this. I couldn’t allow myself to slip, even for a moment.
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“Well, Rayna, what do you think? I know how you’ve looked down on me. Am I still foolish and incompetent now?” Tom sneered, his knuckles red with my blood.
He shouldn’t be taunting me. Objectively speaking, it made for a poor interrogation tactic at this point in the game, but this was personal for him. He felt he had something to prove. Likewise, I should probably grovel, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. They probably wouldn’t have believed it, anyway.
“Of course not,” I replied. “It takes real talent to beat a woman who’s bound to a chair. Why didn’t I realize your potential sooner?”
He snarled, striking me in the stomach to vent his rage.
“You still think you are better than me, don’t you?” he demanded.
I took a moment to catch my breath before I answered.
“I mean, obviously. This really isn’t doing anything to convince me otherwise. Did you think it would?”
“I figured you out, foiled your plans, you are at my mercy,” he insisted.
“You figured me out after months of going behind your back. I let Britton go right under your nose. The fact that you eventually pulled your head out of your ass is not something to be proud of. And as for whose mercy I am at, well, I think we both know the real answer to that, don’t we?” I looked over at Wallace, raising my eyebrows. “You are just his little lapdog, you bark when he allows you to, and you heel when he calls. Right?”
Tom’s nostrils flared, furious.
“You shut your mouth. I’ll show you I am nobody’s dog.”
“If you really want to prove something, maybe you should release me, make it a fair fight.”
“Ha! Has that gambit ever worked?” Tom snorted.
“Why not? Whatever happens we are still locked in this room, and I’m injured. It shouldn’t be that hard for you,” he hesitated, and I stuck out my chin. “Even now, you’re afraid of me? Even now, you know you can’t best me.”
Tom scowled, stepping closer to the chair.
“You think you can taunt me like this with impunity? Maybe I will take you up on your offer, then we’ll see…”
Wallace put a hand on his arm and pulled him back.
“I think perhaps that is enough, Tom,” he said calmly. “It is time for you to be going, anyway. Get the crew together and go prepare for this evening’s festivities, alright? I don’t think there is much benefit to continuing this. I will finish up, and then come and join you for the commencement.”
Tom looked like he was about to protest, but after a moment, he let out a breath and nodded.
“Alright, Pete. You’re right. I’ll… see you at the arena,” he turned to leave.
“Good doggy,” I called after him.
I saw his back stiffen, but he left the room without a backwards glance. I sighed,
“So, does that mean we are done, here?”
“Almost. I have a few more questions that our mutual friend was too worked up to get to. Minor things, really, this doesn’t have to hurt much at all. Just clear a few points up for me, and this can all be over.”
“What do you need to know?” I asked, hanging my head in exhaustion and defeat.
“When did you decide to attempt this subterfuge?” he asked. “The first time Tom spoke to you?”
“No, of course not. If I had, I would have played along then, wouldn’t I? I spent a long time thinking about it, but I couldn’t decide what to do. I still wasn’t sure, until the day I woke up here. That left me with little choice. I figured I had to go along, at least a little, if I wanted to survive.”
Wallace nodded; the answer made sense to him. Good. If he believed I had been forced into this, surprised by it, that left less room for me to conspire with anyone.
“Why not just say you weren’t interested, when we first met here?”
“I didn’t think you’d have let me leave. Would you?”
He didn’t reply, which was answer enough.
“So, this was all last minute, all improvised?” he continued.
“Yes, I keep telling you,” I let my lower lip quiver, just a little bit. “Please, there isn’t anything else for me to tell, Wallace. What can I say to make you believe that?”
“Probably nothing,” he admitted. “At least not completely. But I do believe that you have wasted enough of my time. I am beginning to suspect that all of your posturing was just a stalling tactic. I think you were hoping to delay tonight’s event, but unfortunately for you, it isn’t going to work.”
Wallace slipped the gun from his belt, inspecting it quickly before thumbing off the safety. Good, we were done, then.
“You’ve convinced me that there is nothing more I can get out of you. At least not without days, maybe weeks, of careful work. I would lock you up and continue this at a later date, but I know you too well, Rayna. You’d find a way out, somehow, and that could cause real trouble for me. So, better we wrap this up, nice and clean and permanent. It’s what you wanted anyway, isn’t it?”
I raised my chin and held his gaze but didn’t answer.
“Then I am happy to oblige,” Wallace raised the weapon.
I felt the cold metal press into my forehead. He was taking no chances. I saw his finger wrap around the trigger and waited for the click. For the darkness that would follow. What I heard was something else.
“No!”
There was a sudden blur of motion and a yelp of surprise. I blinked, Wallace and the gun were both gone. I looked down to see a tangle of limbs on the floor, where Wallace struggled with his assailant. It took me a moment to realize what was happening. I glanced across the room. The chair was empty. Honestly, I had forgotten Luke was even here. He hadn’t made a sound or a movement in the hours he had been sitting there. Clearly Wallace had forgotten him, too. The two men grappled on the ground, both fighting for possession of the gun. After what felt like an eternity, an explosive shot echoed in the tiny room. Both figures on the ground went still. There was little I could do but wait to see what had happened. It was Luke who rose first, blood drenching the front of his shirt. He swayed on his feet, gun in his hand. When he stood, he had rolled Wallace away from him, exposing his face, or at least the place where his face had once been. I grimaced. I hadn’t been his biggest fan, but that was still a gruesome way to die.
“I didn’t… I didn’t mean to…” Luke blinked owlishly, clearly going into shock. “It just went off…”
Well, this changed things. Just a moment ago, my only option had been to wait for a bullet in the head. Now, suddenly, a variety of possible futures had opened up before me. Of course, many of them still ended in me getting shot, but it was an improvement.
“Hey, hey, Luke. Look at me,” I called to him, probably more loudly than I had intended with the gunshot still echoing in my head. “I need you to focus on me, ok?”
“I… I think he’s dead,” he said, numbly.
Wallace was very, very dead, but now wasn’t the time to get into that. I needed him to pull himself together, and that wasn’t going to help.
“It doesn’t matter right now. Push it out of your mind.”
“I just shot someone. Killed him. What was I thinking? I shouldn’t have even… How can I just…?”
“Because you don’t have a choice. Look, we have a lot to talk about, but now isn’t the time. We are going to have to work through this later,” presumably with a lot of therapy, “but for now we need to hurry. Compartmentalize, like we talked about.”
The gunshot probably wouldn’t have alerted anyone, they were expecting Wallace to execute me. And the struggle wouldn’t have been loud enough for anyone in the hallway to hear. We might have a moment or two before anyone noticed that something was wrong, but not much more than that. Luke took a shaky breath, still swaying slightly. He didn’t move. It was a reasonable response. No one reacted well to killing someone for the first time. At least, no one you really wanted to meet. But we didn’t have time for him to deal with that. I was going to have to hope he could follow clear, simple orders.
“Luke! Listen to me, I need you to go through his pockets and find the keys to the shackles. Can you do that for me?”
“His pockets?” Luke glanced down at the body and clutched his stomach.
“Don’t look at his head, alright? Toss your jacket over it, then check his pants’ pockets. I need you to hurry.”
Taking another wavering breath, Luke managed to drop his coat over the top portion of the corpse, then he rifled the pockets, trying not to look as he did. It took longer than I had hoped, since he had to stop and dry heave a few times, but eventually he rose with a key in his hands.
“What now?” he asked, clearly not up to making any decisions of his own, right this moment.
“Unlock the shackles,” I wiggled my hands and feet, still clamped to the chair.
He nodded absently and approached, attempting to get the key into the slot. His hands were shaking so violently it took a few attempts. Once my right hand was freed, I gently took the key from him and handled the rest myself. I stood tentatively, testing my injuries. Fortunately, they were more painful than debilitating. My legs were mostly fine, my burns hurt but were otherwise not an impediment. At worst I had a cracked rib or two, and some blood running down from a cut on my scalp. I could work with this. I wiped the blood from my eyes, finally.
“Ok, Luke, we need to get out of here, immediately. You need to follow me and do exactly as I say. Understand?”
“I… I’m not sure I can do this. I didn’t mean to…” he trailed off. “I couldn’t just let someone die in front of me like that. Not again. Not like Liz. But still, I didn’t mean to kill him. And… I am not sure I can be a part of whatever you are doing.”
“You really don’t have a choice right now, Luke. I’m sorry. I didn’t want to drag you into this. But what’s done is done. The people here are going to figure out what you did, sooner rather than later, and we need to be gone before that happens. If you stay, they will kill you. There is no going back from this.”
For just a moment, I thought he was going to succumb to panic. His eyes darted back and forth, like a trapped animal and the muscles in his legs and arms twitched, like he was about to break into a run. But after an instant, he swallowed hard and clenched his fists, shoving his feelings down somewhere to unpack later. He took a long, deep breath.
“Alright, what do we do?”