Where are they?" the man asked me again. I knew I shouldn't tell him, but just the thought of him stop hurting me was very inviting.
"Wouldn't you like to know" I said bravely. I knew that would earn me a backhanding, but aside from tempting me to tell him where they were he was the bad guy trying to kill my parents, highly trained spies, and trying to destroy the very country I called home.
He raised his hand and I closed my eyes, waiting for the pain to come. The impact from his hand on my face nearly made me cry aloud, but my father tried to train me in resisting torture and so far it was working.
"I'll ask you once more before I really start the torture" he said. "Where are they?"
I thought of a witty comment to set him off edge and after racking my head for one it came to me, "Alaska" I told him.
Of course I was lying, but he didn't know that.
He looked like he was thinking, then replied, "I swear to god, If you're lying..."
He didn't need to finish the sentence, I knew he was willing to kill me and I knew he would once he found out I was lying, but I needed time to come up with a plan.
He left the room in a flash before me, but I was to concentrated with not letting my pain obvious to really notice.
I fell asleep in the steel chair a couple minutes later; one of the forms of torture he used was making me sleep deprived. They had the decency to untie me when I promised not to try to get away so it was easier to get some shut-eye.
During the time he wasn't in the room I woke up frequently, trying to think of ways to outsmart the bad guys into either letting me go voluntarily or sneaking out of their grasp.
In the morning I awoke to the sounds of gunshots.
I cursed and kicked myself mentally.
Were they really in Alaska? That's not what they told me. They specifically told me they were going to the bank, or England when you deciphered their code.
All at once, without warning, then door burst open and a pair of strong arms picked me up and threw me onto their back, almost like the game my father used to play with me where he used to sling me across his back and tell my mother that he had a sack of potatoes and asked where to put them, but I knew this man wasn't my father, so I tensed up, thinking the man torturing me was bringing me to my untimely death.
To my surprise when he busted through the door to the outside many colorful lights swirled around and a team of many men stood in a line with rifles in their hands.
The man carrying me put me down onto a stretcher and while a medic strapped me in he asked me, in a British accent, which surprised me, if I said anything to endanger my parents.
"No" I replied. "I said they were in Alaska"
He smiled. "Smart girl, when you're old enough I might have to offer you a job on the force"
I smiled back, holding back the pain as the medic shoved me into the ambulance.
I stood in the same place that British officer smiled down at me ten five years later and shivered involuntarily, remembering the pain that I endured the week leading up to him.
"Can I help you miss?" A tall man asked, coming up behind me.
"Oh, no" I replied quickly. "Just waiting for an old acquaintance"
"Where's your parents?" he asked.
"I don't know. Why do you ask?" I asked, immediately him question put me on edge. The coincidence of the place I was in was too much for me to handle.
"You look a bit young to be out by yourself"
"I'm twenty thank you very much" I replied stiffly.
"Then you're ready" he replied.
"Wha-?" I began, but then a flashback of his face put together with the young British officer's face entered my head and I remembered him. He was the British officer who saved me.
"I'd like to offer you a job" he told me.
"Yes!" I replied, before even thinking it through.
"Welcome to the SAS, Cougar" he replied, smiling at me.