'No,' Chris grated between his teeth. 'We'll bring her. We don't know what she knows. And besides, I know exactly how we can get her to cooperate. Send a couple of deputies over to pick up her grandfather in the village,' he said.
'No!' she shouted. 'Leave him alone!'
Chris walked up and grabbed her hair, wrenching her head backward. 'You want him left alone? Then I suggest you learn to cooperate, starting right now, or by the time I'm through with you and your pathetic grandfather, they won't be able to identify enough of your remains to even conduct a ceremony to get you into the next world.' He shook her roughly and a small cry escaped her lips. 'Got me?'
She nodded, mute, and Jason knew she was finished. There was little she could tell them, though, and it would go easier for her if she broke sooner. He thought of what they might do to her to make her talk.
Chris turned his cold stare at him. 'As for you, hero, I can't wait to see what my boss and I find tucked away in that brain of yours. I bet you know all sorts of things we'll find interesting.'
Jason laughed softly. 'You aren't smart enough to figure out that an iron crowbar and a charged field don't mix, and you think you can get me to tell you things I don't want you to know?' He laughed again, the sound mocking. 'You're the most ridiculous bad guy I've ever met.'
'Oh, you'll talk, tough guy,' Chris said. 'After a few hours or days with me and my boss, you'll tell us everything we want to know and more.'
'I don't know anything,' Jason said, deadpan. 'And my name is Doe. John Doe.' He knew talking his way out of this one was impossible, but he also knew that anyone could be broken. He would have to come up with a plan to get both himself and Tina out of this mess and he needed do it fast.
'Get moving,' Giles barked. 'Save the talk for when we're back at the base.'
Chris tied Tina's hands in front of her while Giles continued to hold her at gunpoint, then the sheriff shoved her toward his truck.
The others took far more precautions with Jason. Jesse, his chin dripping blood, held the rifle steadily aimed at his heart and he looked more than ready to pull the trigger. Troy and Chris tied his hands behind him and his feet together, then picked him up and tossed him into the back of the second truck.
Jesse climbed in, holding the rifle firmly. 'I should shoot you now for hitting me like that,' he said.
Jason kept silent, thinking furiously. There had to be a way to escape and salvage the mission, but he was drawing a blank.
All he could think about was Tina.
The ride was cold and uncomfortable, and the bed of the truck provided little protection from the rough ground they traveled over, so by the time they'd arrived back at the Quonset building, Jason felt bruised from head to toe. Jesse had remained silent the entire way, which suited him fine.
They might be brothers in name, looks and even blood, but Jason held no illusions about their relationship. He would kill Jesse the moment the opportunity presented itself.
When the truck came to a halt, Chris and Troy jumped out and yanked him to his feet, tossing him onto the ground with enough force to rattle his teeth. They picked him up again just as Giles got there, angry, red faced and shoving Tina in front of him. 'Don't say I didn't try to help you, girl,' he snapped. 'Take them inside to the holding cells. I've got to get back to the village.'
'What for?' Chris asked. 'Don't you want to see them questioned?'
Giles grunted. 'You won't get anything out of her short of torture, and he'll be even worse. Besides, your boss called and wants me to search Siku's cabin.'
'What, no warrant?' Jason quipped. 'I'm really beginning to think that due process hasn't come very far up here.' His comments earned him another shove and he almost fell again.
'Shut up,' Troy said.
'Come on,' Chris said, grabbing one of Jason's arms and gesturing for Troy to take the other. 'Jesse, you cover Tina. Let's get them inside. The boss will be here soon enough.'
'Who's the boss?' Jason asked.
'You'll find out, and then wish you hadn't,' Chris said. He and Troy lifted him and began carrying him to the building.
'You don't mean Boris, do you?' he asked. 'Boris Ambros?'
They stopped suddenly. 'How'd you know…' Troy demanded.
'He's a spy, you dumb-ass,' Chris snarled. 'How do you think he knows?'
'Oh,' Troy said, then they kept moving.
The guards let them pass into the building without saying a word, and they entered the building through the same door that Jason had used before. 'Say, this looks familiar,' he said.
'I don't think the problem is going to be getting him to talk,' Jesse said. 'The problem will be getting him to shut up.'
'This is what family means to you, huh, Jesse?' Tina asked. 'You and Giles have a lot in common. He seems to think that his only family is money. That how you feel?'
'That how you got him so riled, Tina?' he replied. 'Talk to him about his family? Do you know his mother has cancer and no insurance? He's doing what he's doing/or his family.'
'You don't hurt other people for your family, you idiot,' she said. 'Not for money and not for anything else. A real family doesn't expect it from you and wouldn't want blood money, anyway. The ties that bind a real family together are more tightly wound than any packet of cash you'll be earning for your work today.'
'Maybe,' he said, shoving her along. 'But I don't have a family, remember?'
'You could have,' she whispered. 'But you were too selfish to see it.'
'Just shut it, Tina,' he said.
Instead of going down into the cavern below, they went to the far side of the building, an area Jason hadn't explored before. Along the wall, six heavy metal doors were set at even intervals. Each door had a small slot at the bottom where a tray could slide through, but no windows. The lock was electronic and Jason studied it carefully as Chris opened the first door and shoved him into an empty eight-by-eight room. The floors and the walls were made of poured concrete.
'Enjoy your stay.' He laughed. 'I'll be seeing you real soon, hero.'
Troy stepped forward and cut the ropes binding his feet together, but left his hands tied. 'Don't try to escape…' he said, but Jason cut him off.
'Wouldn't dream of it,' he said. 'I wouldn't want to miss the chance to visit with old Boris in person.'
'Yeah, whatever,' Troy said. 'It's your death.'
They slammed the door, and Jason could hear a series of clicks as the lock was reengaged.
He listened carefully, worried that Chris might try to force himself on Tina, but from the sounds of it, they put her in the next cell over and locked her in. The lock was the same electronic model as the one on his door, and the tones were the same, too. He heard the three men leaving, but they didn't speak other than to taunt them both with a final call of, 'See you soon!'
Silence descended and Jason studied the room once more. Pounding on the walls would be useless and there were no windows.
He lay down on the cold floor and pushed open the tiny slot for the tray. 'Tina?' he said. 'Can you hear me?'
He heard the squeak of metal and then her reply. 'Yes, I can hear you,' she said.
'Are you okay?' he asked. 'Giles didn't hurt you, did he?'
'I'm all right,' she said. 'Scared witless, but physically okay.'
'Good,' he said.
'Jason?'
'Yes?' he replied. 'What is it?'
'We're in serious trouble, aren't we?'
He tried to think of something clever to say, some lie that might soften what was coming, and knew that nothing he could say would make the situation any better. She was strong enough to know the truth, probably knew it already.
