Time Sensitive Target

Part 27 - Intravenous Agony

Were they taking me back to the room with the table? Would they do the polygraph after all? It only took me a moment to realise we were heading the wrong way, the door ahead of us was rusted metal with a huge iron bolt. 

"W- wait-" I hesitated, my feet stopped but Sonny was having none of it. The grip on my arm tightened as he pulled me closer to the opening, his comrade stepping ahead to scrape the bolt aside. "Don't leave me with him!" I pleaded quietly, resisting the force against me. There was no response, neither of them cared. And why would they? I was just another prisoner now. Sonny forced me inside, a familiar putrid smell hitting the back of my nose. There was no sign of al-Raheem, even in the poorly lit conditions I couldn't make out another living being. The scent of decay prompted a frantic scan of the cavernous room for a body, or body parts... I had no idea what had happened inside these walls. 

Up until now I'd fooled myself into believing I was safer with the Americans than I ever was in al-Raheem's dungeon. Even though the image of Jase emerging sodden from the torture he'd been inflicting was etched in my memory as a warning, I really hadn't believed they would do the same to me. And yet... here I was. Ant warned you it was going to be bad. 

The younger man pushed me towards the centre of the room, where Sonny was adjusting a large wooden armchair. My eyes darted to all possible exits, but that was a pointless thought. I wasn't going anywhere except for where they wanted me. Sonny looked towards me, but not at me as he paced purposefully, grabbing me by the back of the neck. I flinched and jolted against the contact, but didn't bother resisting. He pinched hard and led me to the chair, forced me down against it and bound my left forearm to the arm of the chair. Amid the panic swirling in my head I noticed he didn't bind my wrists. Was that just standard, or was it possible he cared? Not that it made a difference, he grabbed the other arm and restrained me in the same way, wrapping rope around my ankles to the chair leg after he'd finished. I counted my breathing in my head, desperate for a sense of control. 

In... two, three, four- hold- 

The main door swung open, revealing an inky sky. I hadn't even realised the day had long since left, there was no concept of time in the cell block. Jase entered casually, unreadable as ever and nodded to Sonny and the other man. They both left swiftly, leaving Jase to fiddle with a camera pointed directly at me.  

"I really don't know anything else," I trembled, wriggling my arms to soften the chafe of the rope. Jase laughed from the back of the room, dragging a chair in front of me and sitting nonchalantly. His knees touched mine he was so close. There was nothing, nothing to his demeanour or expression to suggest he disliked this part of his job. If anything it looked quite the contrary, his eyes had more fire behind them than I'd seen since I'd met him. 

"The problem is," Jase looked down towards the crater I'd made in my right wrist. "Your word means very little to me. You lied to my face, and tried to cover it up with a very poorly executed story. I thought you were meant to be a psychologist, Paige." 

"I'm sorry," I whispered as tears sprung in my eyes. 

"Mmm. Well, I'll forgive you. If you give me what I want now," Jase's green eyes sparkled darkly. 

"I don't-" a soft sob interrupted my words. "I don't know anything, I swear it." Tears fell freely down my cheeks as I dragged every ounce of remaining mental strength to remind myself of Ant's words. It's going to be shit. You can endure it. 

"Shh, shh," Jase hushed tenderly. "You don't need to swear it, this will do that for you," he pulled out a small metal case and unlatched it carefully. What the hell was in the case? A long, thin syringe with a thick needle emerged between his fingers, several more lining the inside from what I could see.