Saturday

Chapter 10

Tony and Gibbs have been prisoners of the Korean slave traders for six days now. Both of them have been battered and tortured for six days straight. They're both badly bruised and have wounds all over their bodies.

It's Saturday morning, just after dawn.

The door to Tony and Gibbs' cage swings open. There's a loud bang as it slams against the bars. Tony and Gibbs wake up as a couple guards enter into the cage. Gibbs is immediately struck in the face with a club and falls to the ground. Two guards grab Tony and drag him away. A couple guards remain in the cage. The guards in the cage proceed to beat Gibbs with their clubs. Gibbs, who is lying on the ground, uses his arms to protect his face from being hit as almost every other part of his body is being pounded on.

Tony is dragged into one of the buildings. Once inside, the guards throw him to the floor. As Tony turns his head to look up, one guard punches him in the face. The other guard kicks Tony in the stomach. The two guards grab Tony and force him to stand. They tear his shirt off and hold him. Another guard walks over. The guard is holding a club with barbed wire around it. Tony eyes widen.

The guard strikes Tony in the chest with the barbed wire club. A couple spots of Tony's chest begin to bleed. The guards continue to hold him up. He's struck again; this time in the stomach area. Once again, a couple spots begin to bleed. Tony manages to force his way free of the guards holding him, but is quickly knocked to the floor. The guard with the barbed wire club proceeds to pound it against Tony's back.

The already scabbing wounds on Tony's back due to the whip from six days ago tear and bleed. The guard pounds the barbed wire club against Tony's back four more times. The door tot eh building swings open. The guards grab Tony and force him to stand. They sit Tony in the chair and tie him to it. He's hardly able to move. The only parts of his body he can really move are his legs and his head. The blood from Tony's back drips onto the floor.

The guards begin smoking cigars. A chair is placed a couple feet in front of Tony. The translator walks in with Chioke. Upon seeing Tony hurt, Chioke manages to break free. He runs in Tony's direction. Two guards try to grab him, but Chioke dodges both of them. After reaching Tony, Chioke quickly wraps his arms around Tony's neck. Two guards grab Chioke and try to pull him away.

"Don't touch my son!" Tony shouted at the man who can't understand him to begin with.

The two guards continue trying to pull Chioke away, but he won't let go. A couple other guards, who are just standing around smoking cigars, start laughing and making fun of the two guys who don't seem to be able to handle a child. The translator grabs a cigar out of the mouth of a guard and walks next to Tony.

"When a child needs to behave…" The translator begins to say in English so Tony understands. "There's always one way of forcing better behavior from a child." He presses the cigar against Chioke's arm.

Chioke's arms quickly unwrap themselves from around Tony's neck.

"You fuckin bastard!" Tony said as he looks at the man standing at his side. He struggles trying to break free from the chair.

Tony looks forward. He watches as Chioke is being tied to the chair a couple feet in front of him. Due to the cigar burn to his arm, tears are flowing from Chioke's eyes. Tony is angered by this cruel action.

"I'm going to kick…" Tony begins to say.

"Kick my ass?! That might prove to be a bit difficult in your current situation." The translator said. He punches Tony in the face. The man walks to another guard and grabs the cigar from his mouth. He walks to Chioke. "Now… I would strongly suggest telling us what we want to know." He puts the cigar closer to Chioke's leg. Chioke looks to Tony who sees the fear in his eyes.

"What do you want to know?" Tony asked.

"It's so nice of you to finally be cooperative, or at least show some cooperation." The translator said. He reaches into his pocket. "We know someone has been keeping tabs on our operation. My boss got a little trigger happy upon your capture. He killed the man you called, Cal; the man we suspected of sharing valuable Intel with your government."

"What the hell do you want from me?!"

"He gave your friend a key." The translator stated as he reaches into his pocket. He takes out a key and holds it up for Tony to see. "We want to know what this key is for."

Tony knows what the key is for. He knows it's the key to a locker at the airport in Seoul, South Korea. The information in the locker is a valuable asset to shutting down this slave trading operation. Tony knows it's something which can't be handed over to them. But at the same time, he can't bear to watch Chioke being hurt, or even knowing of it happening.

"That's our key. We brought it with us." Tony chuckled.

"You've never seen this key before in your life!" The translator yelled. He walks over to Tony. He shoves the key in Tony's face. "You see that… Those are Korean symbols!"

"It looks more like a bunch of tool scratches to me."

"That's because someone didn't want anybody to know where the key came from!" The translator punches Tony in the face with the key in hand. Tony's cheek now has a cut across it due to the key being scratched against. "A tool was used to remove the markings. We can still tell those are Korean symbols on the key. Not enough is still visible to know which symbols."

"You do realize I'm American, right?"

"Maybe you'll be more cooperative if I…" The translator begins to say as he walks to Chioke.

"I don't know what the key is for! I honestly don't."

"I think you do." The translator pushes the cigar toward Chioke's neck.

"The kid is more valuable to you unharmed." Tony stated. "Cuts, burns, scratches… All run the risk of becoming infected. I don't think your boss would appreciate the merchandise being of lesser value due to your incompetence." He sees the translator's hand pulls away from threatening to burn Chioke again.

The translator speaks to a guard in their native language. The guard walks out the door. The translator turns to Tony.

"I guess you have a point." The translator said. He speaks again in his native language. Two guards walk over to Tony. They take his shoes off and hold his legs up. Another guard carries a heavy leg rest over and places it down. Tony's leg are placed onto the leg rest and strapped to it. His bare feet are hanging just off the furthest side of the leg rest. Chioke chair is dragged a little further away, yet remaining in front of the chair Tony is tied to. The translator grabs a cigar from a guard's mouth. He walks to the leg rest. "But you on the other hand…" He presses the cigar to Tony's left foot.

"Argh!" Tony cried from the pain of the cigar burn.

"What's the key for?!"

"I don't know!"

The cigar is now pressed to Tony's right foot.

"Argh!" Tony cried again.

The man the translator sent out finally comes back in. He applies some type of creamy substance to the burn mark on Chioke's arm. The camp doesn't have much medicine, but Chioke is getting what the man was actually able to find.

Tears flow from Chioke's eyes as he's forced to watch Tony being tortured with cigar burns to his feet. After a couple cigar burns, a paddle is smacked to the bottom of Tony's feet. Through the torture, Tony doesn't disclose any information about the key. And Chioke remains untouched, just forced to watch.