“Where is it?”

“How would I kn-” Willam spat blood as a iron clad fist cracked across his face. He grinned antagonistically goading his interrogator into punching out again, knocking the chair he was tied to off its feet.

The room was a dark dimly lit space, the cold hard walls bouncing the sounds about in an eerie echo. Willam groaned on the floor, his face impacting the ground with a bloody crunch, his hands tied behind his back not letting him break his fall.

His mind raced, just one month ago his life was great, his studies were going well, his business was booming and he and his sister had a nice apartment to call home. And yet now here he lay, face down in a growing pool of his own blood.

“Get up.” His masked interrogator pulled him up by the scruff of his shirt, settling his seat back upright. Willam knew what they were after, however he was never going to tell them where it was.

He had formed a small business alongside some members of his business and economics major at the Citadel University, the small group focusing their efforts on facilitating trade between the Condor Kingdom and Bastion. They acted as contractors, assisting larger organisations that wanted to outsource administrative work.

It was fairly lucrative, though it took a while to get up and running, they now had a team of 20 employees letting them start contending for contacts with smaller international companies rather than the tiny local industries they had started out with.

It was then that he and his company came into conflict with the White Skulls, even if he did not know it yet. The White Skulls had stranglehold on industrial trade between Citadel and the Condor Kingdom, running various small and medium sized companies to obfuscate the fact.

Willam and his company hit a stone wall when they tried to offer their services to these companies, their lack of work was bad enough that they considered switching to a different sector. The only reason they had started their company working in trade with the Condor kingdom was because of Edward Norton, a fellow university student that helped in the company's founding, and a Condor Kingdom citizen and son of a noble family.

Just as they were about to change business sectors Edward contacted his family and was able to put Willam in contact with a small sized international shipping company, based out of this very warehouse he was imprisoned in.

He would never call himself a paranoid person, however he was suspicious the moment he stepped foot in the warehouse, the amount of goods going in and out was far too large for a small sized company. His suspicions only grew after they began their work, the books showing a smaller number of transactions than what he saw when he first visited.

It was a barely noticeable discrepancy, however Willam had an eye for such details and so to him it stuck out like a sore thumb. However no matter how much he scoured the books he couldn’t find anything amiss to affirm his suspicions and so he let it drop.

That was however until he spotted the White Skulls milling about the warehouse when he visited once. They usually kept to themselves when they expected guests, but for some reason they were out in full display when he visited the second time. He assumed it was a not so veiled attempt to threaten him, something that was confirmed when he spoke to the person in charge of the whole operation.

“Stop zoning out,” Willam was pulled back from his thoughts as a bucket of ice cold water was thrown over his stark and battered form. “Make this easier on yourself, where's the data shard?”

“No idea what you're talking about,” he grinned at the man, the data shard in question he had swiped by pure happenstance, it had been sitting on the desk of the warehouse boss when they had met for the second time. Willam couldn’t stop his curiosity and sneaked it into his pocket when the man had turned his attention elsewhere.

He didn’t think anything of importance would be on it, but he was extremely surprised when he came across a mountain of blackmail on various small local companies in their industry across Citadel. Even more so when he saw his own name on the file, luckily his folder was empty, but he still couldn’t help but feel alarmed that it was there in the first place.

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“This was my mistake, and I intend to fix it,” a man stood up from a chair in the corner of the room, his interrogator stepping aside and letting him take centre stage. Willam instantly recognised him as Barry Freeman, the boss of this warehouse and the one he had stolen the data shard from. “Let's cut the crap Willam, tell me where the shard is and we can both go home with no more troubles. Neither of us will be able to deal with the consequences if my bosses find out.”

He rolled his white shirt up his arms, rotating his shoulder before he motioned for the interrogator to untie Willam from the chair. Willam rubbed his wrists, the skin having become red and rashed from the tight rope he was bound by.

“I can be kind to those who cooperate,” Willam briefly considered rushing the man, however the ever present interrogator at his side dissuaded him. “Just tell me where it is and this can all be over.”

Willam considered it, but only for a moment. He wasn’t dumb enough to think they would simply let him go at this point, the only thing keeping him alive was the data shard, as soon as he gave it away he would be disposed of.

“I still don't know what you’re talking about,” he responded and Barry’s face fell, the fake smile he was wearing replaced by an angry scowl.

“Don't play games with me!” He lashed out with a punch sending the now unbound Willam off the chair. “Do you think you're big and strong keeping your mouth shut? There are always ways to make you talk, take for instance that little doll you were running with before. Your sister isn't she? It’d be a shame if my boys got a hold of her wouldn't it?”

Willam paled for a second thinking about Anna being captured by these people, however he calmed himself with the fact that she should be on a starship soon, far away from this planet and their reach. If all went as he had planned she should be fine.

Barry was clearly pissed off by his lack of reaction, pulling his arm back to release another punch. However before he could the room turned red, a blaring alarm ripping through the air.

“Bzzzt! Bzzzt! Bzzzt!”

“What the fuck is it now!” Barry was pissed as tuned on his heel and stormed off through the door and into the narrow hallway beyond, not before turning back around briefly and pointing at Willam. “Keep an eye on him.”

Willam eyed the man and calculated his chances in a fight. From what he could see the only weapons he had were his pair of iron knuckle dusters, which he could say from experience hurt like a bitch. Willam rolled his hands around the thick rope that had once bound him, the interrogator’s back was turned to him as he watched his boss stomp out of the room.

Willam waited for the door to close, and the moment it clicked into place he lunged forward, rope held between both hands as he flung it over the interrogators head pulling it back taught around his neck.

“Hrrk!!” The interrogator choked, hands instinctively reaching up and grabbing at the rope tied around his neck. Willam jumped up, pressing his knees into the man's back before pulling back on the rope with all his weight. The interrogator swung around, knocking Willam into the wall, however despite losing balance his grip on the rope didn’t falter.

The man thrashed about, however without being able to claw his fingers under the rope to free his lungs to breathe his resistance quickly became less and less. Soon after he collapsed to the floor, Willam falling down with him, not wanting to let up on the rope even if the man had fallen down. He waited a good minute longer, pulling ever more to make sure he was dead and wouldn’t get back up and club him in the back.

“Ha!” Willam collapsed back, panting. The day had been hectic, from being chased since dawn to withstanding this brutal interrogation. He just wanted to collapse. “Why the fuck did I steal the shard?”

He berated himself as he lay down exhausted, despite knowing that he had to move he had very little will to do so left inside him. The adrenaline fading away when he spent his last scraps of energy to kill his interrogator. Anna always said his curiosity would get the better of him, and today it almost seemed like it did. Probably still would if he couldn’t find a way out.

“I really should get moving,” Willam sighed as forced himself to his feet, walking over to the door only to find it locked. “Just my luck.” He sighed before searching the deceased interrogator and pulling out an access card. He swiped it over a small panel next to the door and its bolt slid open with an audible pop. “That’ll do it.”

Before he opened the door he looked himself up and down, dressed in only the tiniest rags covering his genitals and body covered with blood and bruises. It would be immediately obvious to anyone outside that he wasn’t supposed to be there.

“Sorry big guy,” Willam stripped the interrogator down, while he was bigger than he was and the clothes were quite baggy at a glance nothing would look amiss. “But I need these more than you.”

He also took the iron knuckle dusters, while if he got into a gun fight they wouldn’t be much help, against anyone else they would prove valuable. He also pocketed the access card, it could come in handy during his escape attempt.

Willam opened the door, only to be met with a man trying to do the same from the otherside. The black haired and blue eyed man was dressed in a White Skull uniform and Willam lashed out with his iron clad fist without thinking.

Not knowing it was Leonard he was attacking.