Weller takes his comms unit out of his ear and runs out of his apartment with Jane's plea still ringing in his ear.
"Kurt, please! Please don't do this."
The chances of her staying put in her safe house are slim to none but at this point he has no other option. It's his fault the building's on fire, he has a responsibility to the other residents despite any danger to himself. Besides, he's armed and knows that he's likely to be abducted. So Weller's still confident he can stay aware enough to avoid Roman even in the middle of a fire. He just hopes Jane doesn't show up and get spotted by her brother.
Kurt runs towards the smoke, sees that the fire is coming from the other end of his building where a lot of seniors live. The hallway is already quite thick in particulate matter and he can hear a woman calling for help somewhere in the midst of it.
Weller looks around, sees a lot of people clambering towards the exits, no one suspicious. He continues running towards the screams until he figures out which apartment it's coming from, then kicks down the door.
He can't see anything through the dense wall of smoke but does hear the woman shouting for help and follows the weakening cry until he finally blindly grasps a shaking arm.
"I'm going to get you out of here, ma'am," he shouts, grasping the woman by the shoulders and trying to judge how he should handle the situation. "Can you walk or do you want me to carry you?"
The woman feels frail in his hands and he can hear her gasping for air as she tries to push herself to her feet.
Screw it, he thinks. No time for this.
"I'm going to carry you, ma'am," he states as he reaches down to pick her up in a fireman's carry.
The old woman is docile and light as he puts her over his shoulder and heads back out the door. The hallway is nearly clear of people now and hotter, more heavy with smoke and ash. Weller holds the woman with one arm, uses the other to navigate along the wall, looking for the stairway.
About two doors down from where he found the woman he hears more yelling but Weller knows he can't do anything about it until he finds the stairway and gets his first victim to safety. So he pushes on, gagging on smoke, blindly counting his steps and guessing where the stairwell should be.
Finally, he arrives at the right door and pushes through, sees that the stairwell starting to burn but still passable. The woman on his shoulder screams at the flames though, and he has to yell calming things to her while he runs through fire, lit embers flying everywhere.
About two floors down the woman stops panicking and he realizes it's because she's passed out due to smoke inhalation. Weller's not all that far from it himself as he continues to pant and suck in the ashy air. Thankfully there's only one more floor to go before they will both be breathing fresh air and he pushes on, coughing and crying until he sees the red exit sign, crashes his way through the door.
Weller chokes and sputters, tries to empty his lungs of the heavy smoke as he takes in the surroundings, sees that emergency vehicles have started to arrive. He spots five firefighters getting out of a fire engine, some other smaller fire rescue trucks arriving as well.
A firefighter runs by and he flags him down, passes the unconscious woman off to him.
"There's still people stuck in the building, I know where they are," Weller shouts as the hands the woman over. "I'm going back in."
"No, you've already inhaled too much smoke. Wait here for paramedics and let us deal with it!" the fireman shouts. "Gear and personnel are getting set up, we're about to go in."
The guy runs away before Weller can argue that there's no time to spare, that he isn't going to wait around and let people die because of him. All he can hear in his head is that other voice calling for help; Kurt knows he has to go back.
Weller is about to run back into the building when he sees another firefighter coming towards him, thinks the guy must have been sent over to help him locate the person he'd heard. So he stops and waits for the fireman to catch up so he can give him a sit-op before they ran into an inferno.
"There's someone stuck in one of the apartments on the fourth floor, east wing," he shouts as the firefighter. "Follow me."
The other man nods and Kurt turns, runs back towards the building. He hears the firefighter following close behind as they come up to back exit but before he reaches the door something sharp slams hard into him from behind.
It takes Weller half a second to realize his mistake, another half to feel the piercing pain in his shoulder.
"I wouldn't try anything," Roman warns. "There's a knife in your subclavian artery right now. And if I take it out, you'll bleed out in a matter of minutes."
"What do you want?" Weller grunts, still facing the door and wondering how he's going to turn and fight Roman without the knife getting torn out through his artery. Because he knows that Roman's right, he's in real trouble if that knife is removed right now.
"Right now, I just want to go for a ride," Roman replies. "So you're going to follow me to that truck over there."
Roman gives the knife a twitch to emphasize his demand and Weller barely manages to hold back a scream. Instead he grinds his jaw and grunts, feels the blood dripping down his back. He knows his only option at the moment is to go along with whatever Roman is asking of him, hope there's a way out later on.
So he lets himself get guided to one of the small fire rescue trucks, feels the pressure of Roman's hand on the knife in his back, threatening to push it in deeper. When Roman tells him to get in the back of the truck Kurt instinctively balks, then feels the tip of the knife dig further into him.
This time he does scream but it's lost in the emergency atmosphere, there's no one looking their way at all. Weller's vision greys for a moment as Roman pushes him into the back of the vehicle, kicks him in the small of the back for emphasis, and cuffs him to a railing.
Weller lays face down on the metal flooring, Roman's foot pinning him down to the ground. He feels Roman lean over and grab the knife that's still in his back, jiggle it around to cause some more damage.
Kurt bites back the scream but hears himself moan pathetically.
"We're going on a trip," Roman declares ominously, a whisper in his ear. "And then we're going to have a little talk."
"If you cooperate, I leave this knife in and you don't bleed to death. Do you understand?"
"Why are you doing this?" Weller sputters, even though he knows he shouldn't.
Roman pushes down on the knife, drives it through more of his flesh.
"Do you understand?" he repeats.
"Yes," Kurt groans.
"So you want me to leave the knife in?" Roman taunts.
"Yes," Weller repeats. He knows Roman is right, that he would bleed to death quickly if the blade is pulled out of him. And he can't die here due to a stupid mistake. Not when he had promised Jane that he wouldn't fall for exactly this ruse.
"Even if it costs you more pain?" Roman asks.
Weller groans again, knows that this is a key element of torture. Controlling the victim, making them beg. But he doesn't have any choice, knows that Roman is unpredictable and volatile, could easily lose it and kill him in the heat of his anger.
"Yes," he mutters, bracing himself for the knife to dig in deeper.
So when Roman's boot slams down and crushes his right hand he's as surprised and relieved as someone with a knife in his back and a shattered hand can be. Of course the hand still explodes with pain and he feels tears threaten for an instant as it throbs in time with the pain in his back. But at least the jagged edge of the knife hadn't pushed any deeper or caused much more damage to his shoulder.
"Good," Roman growls, next to his ear. "Remember you asked for this. Got to make sure that knife stays nice and deep."
This time Kurt knows exactly what's coming. Screams as the blade pushes in towards his clavicle, before mercifully passing out from the pain.