President Maganti was tall and broad-shouldered. His gray-streaked hair was slicked back and light stubble covered the lower half of his face. He was dressed in a pristine white shirt, the sleeves rolled back to reveal muscular forearms.
Despite the cold, he wore a simple cotton shirt and trousers, seemingly unaffected by the weather.
He was even larger than he looked on TV, Abhijat thought distantly.
“Well, what’s the holdup?” Maganti scowled, turning to Rinisa. “Let’s get on with it. I don’t have all day.”
“Always so impatient.” Rinisa smirked, placing a small metal briefcase on the makeshift table near the door. She clicked the briefcase open. “We have Jehan Fasih at our mercy. Do you have any idea how much trouble this bastard’s caused me? How close he came to destroying everything we’ve worked for all these years?” Picking out a syringe from the briefcase, she sauntered over to Fasih’s side. “Just let me savor the moment, won’t you?”
“Make it quick,” Maganti growled, looking at Fasih through narrowed eyes. “You can gloat over their dead bodies all you want. The longer they’re alive, the more trouble they can cause. The gala starts in less than 24 hours. I can’t afford any mistakes.”
“Then we won’t make any,” cooed Rinisa, kneeling beside Fasih and taking his hand gently in her own. She held up the syringe in one hand, squinting at the clear liquid in the barrel. With her other hand, she pushed up the sleeve of his cardigan.
“This doesn’t have to be unpleasant, you know,” she said, smiling sweetly at Jehan. “If you cooperate, I can make this a lot of fun for both of us.”
He dipped his head slightly, hair falling into his eyes. “I can barely contain my excitement.”
“See? That’s what I like about you!” she beamed, plunging the needle into his flesh. “Can’t withhold the supercilious sarcasm even when you’re staring death in the face, can you? I’ll miss these condescending quips after we’ve put a few bullets in you.”
“I’d say I’m sorry for your loss,” Fasih murmured, fidgeting slightly. “Only I don’t have any sympathy to spare when these bloody manacles have been digging into my skin for heaven knows how long.”
“Oh, my poor boy. I promise I’ll take them off just as soon as you’ve answered a few questions for me.”
Fasih said nothing, simply stared down at the manacles around his wrists, absently biting his lip. “I...I’ll try but–” he jerked on the chain, causing the manacles to dig into the delicate skin on the inside of wrists, drawing blood.
“Yes, yes,” Rinisa said encouragingly, using an embroidered handkerchief to blot out the blood. “That’s all you have to do. Try. Try really hard for me, okay Jehan? Where’s the latest Amven prototype being stored? One of the QRI labs?”
Fasih frowned, then tipped his head back to gaze at the ceiling. “I...no.”
“Okay, that’s progress.” Rinisa smiled, her voice soft and comforting. “An external government facility, then? Or has the security contract been sold to some private body?”
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Fasih lowered his gaze, frowning thoughtfully at the manacles once again. The fidgeting had gotten worse. “I’m not...I can’t–” He jerked on the chain one more time, his tone plaintive. “I can’t concentrate.”
Maganti snarled, his eyes alight with barely restrained fury. “Take those fucking chains off him,” he snapped through gritted teeth. “We’ll never get any information, at this rate.”
Rinisa sighed. “Patience, my dear–”
“Damn your patience!” the president bellowed. “You think I don’t know you’re getting a kick out of watching him like this, chained and helpless at your feet? I’ve no problem with you playing your games, Rinisa, but if you so much as think about jeopardizing the plan–”
“I’m jeopardizing it?” she whirled around, her tone icy. “I’ve brought you Jehan-fucking-Fasih on a silver platter and this is how you repay me?”
“He’s no use to me if he won’t talk,” Maganti retorted. “And he won’t talk as long as he’s in those damned chains. He looks like a cornered animal, ready to claw his own skin off. Surely, the drug’s taken effect by now–”
“Oh, it’s taken effect, alright.” Rinisa grinned, dragging a finger lightly over the side of Fasih’s face. “He’s good and pliant.”
“So he won’t try to run if we take the chains off him?”
She laughed. “He won’t try to run if we hold a knife to his throat and order him to lean into it. Not for nothing they call it a miracle drug.”
Rinisa caressed the golden chain around her throat contemplatively.
After a few moments of absentminded fiddling, the locket was on the palm of her hand. She uncapped it, then pressed the gleaming metal head to a small, concealed socket at the juncture where the manacles met the chain.
The manacles around Fasih’s wrists clicked open and dropped to the floor. Rubbing at the reddened skin, he sighed, content.
“Now that that’s over,” Maganti began, impatient. “Back to the questions. If the latest prototype isn’t being stored at the QRI, then we’re left with government facilities or a top-notch private security agency–”
“Or a bank,” interjected Rinisa. Fasih gasped, causing her to break into a triumphant grin. “I’m right, aren’t I? A bank vault, that’s where it is.”
“Is that true?” Maganti asked, his flinty eyes boring into Jehan.
After a moment’s hesitation, Fasih nodded.
“A bank in Qayit?” Maganti prompted, taking a step closer.
Fasih shrank back, but nodded again. “It’s – uh – the United Development Bank…” He bit his lip, gazing around dazedly.
“Yeah? Which branch?” Maganti demanded.
“I…uh,” Fasih stammered, trying to push himself to his feet. “I’m not…I don’t–” He swayed slightly, pressing his shoulder against the wall for support.
“What the–” Maganti started forward, but Rinisa held up a hand, wordlessly urging him to step back.
“He’s confused,” she said, turning to the president with a frown. “Dazed. Let him get his bearings. Do you want him spouting nonsense just because we forced him to give us an answer before he could gather his thoughts?”
Slowly, Fasih pushed himself to his feet and took a hesitant step forward. The manacles around his ankles clanked and rattled, the chains screeching. Eyes wide, he lurched forward, then stumbled and swayed sideways until his back was inches away from Abhijat’s face.
Taking his cue, Abhijat slipped the broken buckle-pin between his fingers and drove it as hard as he could into the small of Fasih’s back, pushing him away.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” he snarled, slamming the smaller man hard against the wall for good measure.
Fasih uttered an aborted cry of pain and shrank away from Abhijat.
Before he had a chance to look at Fasih’s face, Maganti surged forward and kicked Abhijat in the gut. The pain burned through his thoughts, forcing him to curl in on himself, a whimper escaping his lips. His vision swam, and Abhijat scrunched his eyes shut, the darkness a welcome relief.
Above him, he heard a sudden shriek, followed by a brief scuffle, and then Fasih was pressing a smooth, rectangular object into his hand.
He forced himself to peel his watering eyes open, only to see Fasih get thrown against the wall by an enraged Maganti. At the president’s feet lay Rinisa, a needle sticking out of her neck, the plunger of the syringe pushed all the way in.
She really had gotten a taste of her own medicine. Or perhaps, to be more accurate, of Fasih’s medicine. Dazed and nauseated, Abhijat burst out laughing.