Chapter Two
Ryan, Michael, Nikita Alex and Sean stood in Operations, staring at the image that the techs had enhanced. In the passenger side of the car sat Amanda, smiling as the van rove away. Now they had confirmed that Amanda was involved. It was a matter of finding out where she had brought Birkhoff and what specifically she wanted him for. "How could she grab him?" Nikita said what they were all thinking. "How could she know he'd be out there alone? It wasn't a planned event."
Everyone looked back and forth without any ideas. She could have been tracking his car, but not him- there was no way she could be tracking him or they would have caught it. They had taken out his original tracker and Amanda never had access to their new tracker information. It was shocking enough that Amanda had monitored them close enough to catch when Birkhoff was alone when she grabbed him. "Have we gotten any clues about where Amanda might be?" Michael asked.
Ryan, who had followed up with the tech answered, "The techs have been unable to find anything. They have checked all her usual places; they've looked for the usual signs, but so far nothing."
"Nothing?" Nikita questioned. "They have found absolutely nothing?"
Slowly Ryan shook his head as he frowned. "Nothing." He repeated. "And Birkhoff is the one that trained these techs."
"They couldn't track the van" Alex asked.
Ryan again shook his head. "They used a diversion. They met up with two other vans, making it impossible to determine where they took him. Each of those three vans met up with three more- several times."
"How could Amanda get that all into place? This is insane!" Michael replied.
When Birkhoff woke up, both of his hands were throbbing in pain. Charlotte had bandaged them up, but they still hurt like hell. Cautiously he opened his eyes to survey the damage. Both hands were completely crushed. "Great." He groaned.
"Ah, Birkhoff, you're awake."
Birkhoff immediately recognized the voice. "Oh no." Birkhoff replied to himself.
"Oh yes Birkhoff. You are mind now. You are going to pay for working with Nikita and Michael." Amanda taunted him, coming into his view.
"Just kill me Amanda. You know I am not going to tell you a damn thing."
Amanda walked closer to Birkhoff in front of his chair where he could see her. "I don't want to know anything." A smug look crossed her face. "I told you this is not about that- it's about pain, torture and punishment."
Nodding her head, a young man came over and ripped Birkhoff's t-shirt off. "What the hell was that?" Birkhoff protested angrily.
Grabbing a metal pole, Birkhoff barely saw the glowing end before it hit his bare chest. Birkhoff let out a horrific scream of pain. Sharp pain radiated from where she had poked the poker into his chest. It felt like he was on fire. The pain and heat radiated through his chest and neck. "That is for your betrayal to me."
When Amanda pulled the metal from his chest, Birkhoff looked at the horrible burn it had left on his chest. "What are you doing to me?" Birkhoff questioned her, angered by the burn.
"I told you. It's time for revenge." Amanda replied. "You are gonna do work for me so I can find your little friends."
"What are you insane?" Birkhoff half-groaned and half-yelled. "I'm not going to rat out my friends."
Amanda grabbed another pole from the fire that Birkhoff now noticed and walked behind him. Without another word, she drove the pole into the back of Birkhoff's opposite shoulder. Birkhoff screamed again in pain. "This keeps up until you help me."
Glaring at her, Birkhoff replied, "Then keep it coming bitch."
Amanda cracked Birkhoff across the face with the pole. His nose made a sickening crack and he felt the blood trickling down his face. Walking around the chair next to him, Amanda grabbed a fistful of his hair and yanked his head up so he was looking at her. "I will break you. You are weak, Seymour Birkhoff." She told him, "You will be begging to do my work to stop the pain."
"Just keep telling yourself that." Birkhoff looked away from her.
"Your friends won't find you. They don't even have a lead." Amanda was so close to Birkhoff now he could feel her breath against his cheek. "You are stuck. Think back to what you use to be- the selfish creature you used to be. Why protect friends that will never be able to save you?"
"Face it Amanda- Nikita will always beat you. Every time, every place, Nikita will always beat you."
Amanda didn't even flinch, her face remained like stone. She stood up and turned around, signaling her workers. A pair of men grabbed Birkhoff roughly under his arms and threw him onto the cold, damp floor. Until the men started putting him into cuffs built into the floor, Birkhoff hadn't even noticed them there. His stomach pressed into the bare floor they stretched out his arms and legs as far as they could go- to the point it began to be painful. When Birkhoff, unable to see anything but the floor, heard a whip crack in the background his heart began to pound. He struggled against the shackles but he couldn't move an inch. The whip cracked across his back, Birkhoff letting out a muffled scream as the pain sharply stung through his back. After a while the whips began to hurt less as his nerves began to be overloaded by the pain.
Almost immediately after Amanda stopped whipping him, he was ripped up off the floor without warning. Things were starting to get hazy, probably from the loss of blood. The two goons lifted Birkhoff to his knees. In the haze, Birkhoff saw Amanda signal down with her fingers. Before his brain could process what was happening, one of the goons shoved his head under water in a tub in front of him. He held his breath as long as he could before his lungs began to burn. Kicking and struggling, Birkhoff tried to get his head out of the water, but the goon had him held under by his neck. As he struggled, Birkhoff could feel every one of the goon's five fingers around his neck. Starting to feel weak, Birkhoff figured they would hold him under until he passed out, but suddenly his head whipped out of the water and his lungs automatically drew in a huge breath of air causing Birkhoff to start coughing. "Are you going to help me?" Amanda demanded.
"No." Birkhoff coughed out his response.
Again his head was underwater before he could comprehend what was going on. This time things went quicker as Birkhoff weakened each time they held him under shorter and shorter until Birkhoff was on the verge of passing out. He couldn't even hold his head up as they threw him back hard against the floor Gurgling Birkhoff was having trouble expelling the liquid from his lungs. "Keep thinking about helping me." Amanda walked over and taunted Birkhoff- even though all he could see were her shoes. "This is only the beginning- the weak stuff. I will break you- it's only a matter of time and how much pain you want to endure before you end up doing it anyway."
"You won't win." Birkhoff responded.
"Yes I will." Amanda confidently responded. She walked up to Birkhoff's crushed hand and drove her shoe heel into it, causing Birkhoff to scream in agony. "You are selfish man Seymour Birkhoff. When push comes to shove you will give up your friends for a stop to the pain and your life."
Feeling weak and knowing he was about to pass out, Birkhoff slowly looked up at Amanda through his wet and bloody hair hanging clumped over his eyes. "Never." He responded as he passed out.
"Charlotte!" Amanda called for her second in command.
"Yes." Charlotte came over, quickly scanning over the passed out tech.
"Can you tie him back up? Prepare for the next phase. We will get him to do what we want." Amanda directed her.
"Sure." Charlotte watched as Amanda left. Carefully she locked Birkhoff's hands and then feet into the cuffs. Using a scissor she cut off his blue jeans- for the next step Amanda wanted as much skin as possible exposed. Charlotte was tempted to clean the blood from his wounds, but Amanda liked to see the dried bloody wounds. Charlotte did a quick survey to make sure none of his wounds were too sever- Amanda didn't want him to die- she wanted the pain and torture to carry on as long as possible.
Once they had made sure he was okay, they all left the room, locking him in. "I can't believe we finally got him." One of the goons commented.
"How so?" Charlotte was confused. She had not known about this plot for more than two weeks.
"We've been waiting for an opportunity to do this for almost two years. This is the first time one of them was alone where we could grab them.
As the guys walked away, Charlotte was shocked to hear they had been plotting this for so long. It really scared her what they may have in place for Birkhoff. If they had been plotting it for so long, who knows what they had planned for him.
