Author's note: Sorry I realised that it was quite confusing that I had used "he" and then the captors acted surprise that Rui was a "boy".  So this chapter has been corrected.

Author's Warning: R for readers age 18 and above - This chapter contains violence, explicit sexual material of a non-consensual nature and slash.

Please take heed of the warning above and only carry on reading if you are prepared. Also, this scene is crucial to the plot, so if I inadvertently offend any readers please look the other way! Please do drop me a note if you've read this chapter because I'll really appreciate feedback about this chapter in particular, be it disgust, anger, boredom etc … …

kensingtonkid: I haven't killed Rui off – not exactly. However, I hope this chapter is still within the boundaries of what you consider acceptable to Rui! I really appreciate your constant reviews – keeps me motivated. Thanks for the lovely reviews!

Lian: Thanks so much for reading and commenting! I have been reading your story and will go to read your latest update now.

Piglet: Hi! Good to see you around. And thanks so much for your encouragement! Yes, I have the same problem as this other writer whom one of my friends commented "will describe every single plant, flower and shrub along the way" if he is writing about walking through the path! I have tried to speed up the plot a little in this chappie ne! I hope it's quick enough yet coherent too! Thanks for your constructive advice!

Chapter 9 – Nightmare

"No Ace, stop trying to recruit my best agent. You know you've got a huge team over there." Prof folded his arms across his chest rather defensively. "He isn't even trained in your area."

"Has natural talent." Ace nodded at me. I realized that his reputation of being a man of few words was indeed not exaggerated.

"He went through an aptitude test."

Ace chucked, "the same aptitude is required for both our jobs. You know the reasons why he was chosen to be in your department."

"It's J's decision."

Ace inclined his head, conceding defeat gracefully. Then he turned to me, "you've got talent, boy. I'm still willin' to teach if you're willin' to learn." I found myself nodding.

"I'll be in touch, boy. Ciao." Ace stood up and slipped out so silently that the only sound we heard was of the door closing behind him. I found Prof staring at me with a haunted look in his eyes.

"You don't know what you are in for," he finally spoke. "It was dangerous enough with you being a decoder, add on hacking skills to that … …" I fidgeted uncomfortably and he shook his head, "alright, get back to work. Let's sort out this mess later." I gratefully escaped back into my room. It was almost dusk when I had finished decoding the new message that Prof had forwarded me. My eyes bulged and my throat felt extremely dry as I read and re-read the message. With shaky fingers, I hit the enter key to send the translated paragraphs to Prof before leaping from my chair.

"Prof … …" My voice trailed off as I burst into his room without knocking. To my surprise, the room was empty. I was about to backtrack when suddenly the sirens in the corridor went off. "Shit!" I cursed inwardly as my heartbeat accelerated. This emergency could mean only one thing - someone was trying to break in. Spinning around, I ran to the library. The large monitor on the wall flickered to life as I entered, and J appeared on the screen.

"What's with the alarm, Stein? Did you set it off accidentally?" His face was impassive as per normal. I swear that man has nerves of steel.

"Someone is trying to breach security." To my surprise, Prof suddenly appeared next to him on screen. "Prof? What are you doing there?" A sense of dread was starting to fill me as I realized that I was alone.

"J wanted me to help him out with a sudden emergency two hours ago. I was coming back in an hour's time. I heard the alarm and rushed over."

"I'll send a team down. In the meantime, turn off all the systems – you know the drill." I quickly pressed a black button that eliminated all the information in the database and shut down all the computers. "Stein, stick to Route B and good luck. We'll get there as soon as possible." I swallowed nervously as the screen flickered for a second time and died. I knew it was more for my safety than theirs that they had to break connection, but I never felt more alone. I had, of course, known of the dangers that we would face if our enemies discovered our location. However, knowledge is quite different from reality. There was no time to think of that now, they would be in here in a matter of minutes. I had to do my best to trick them and stay alive. Route B – I mentally went over the plan that had been drilled into me and got into position … …

Suddenly, there was a loud explosion and the lights overhead went off for a minute or so. This was followed by rapid footsteps pounding down the corridors. They were spreading out and I heard harsh voices, doors being burst open and things overturned. The unfamiliar icy fingers of fear wrapped themselves firmly around my heart as the footsteps approached. I sucked in a deep breath and launched into a stellar performance worthy of an Oscar. More was at stake for me than simply fame or fortune, I was gambling to escape with my life or a worse possibility - the ghastly fate of being tortured to death. My only trump card was that few rational human beings would believe a ten or eleven year old boy capable of being an agent, and I had to milk that for all it was worth.

The door burst open and a deep authoritative voice commanded, "search this room thoroughly." Three pairs of footsteps headed for different corners of the room. From my "hiding place" behind the desk, I continued to keep my face vacant and a small whimpering noise escaped from my lips as I hugged my knees to my chest and rocked slowly to and fro. My intuition warned me that someone was approaching and the hair at the back of my neck rose, even as I heard an exclamation of surprise near me.

"F***! Come and see this!" It was a strain to continue my pretense of being lost in a world of my own makings when other footsteps started to head in my direction as well. I heard a gasp of shock.

"What's wrong with this kid?" A slightly foreign sounding voice spoke. I placed the accent immediately – German. "In shock?"

"Why is there a kid here in the first place?" A second voice joined in.

The deep emotionless voice spoke, "There's something wrong with this kid.  Look at that rocking and whimpering – autism probably. They could be trying to cure the kid to make use of any unique abilities whatever they may be.  Either that or it's someone's kid and the kid's acting." I felt my blood turn to ice in my veins at the accuracy of his guesses. However, outwardly I continued to let out my soft, almost soundless whimpers as I rocked slowly, keeping to a constant rhythm. From the corner of my eye, I saw a pair of shinny black leather shoes stop next to me.

"Well, well. What do we have here?" I almost leapt out of my skin as a hand landed on my shoulder. Instead still in character, I simply cringed away from the human contact and slid towards the wall, my whimpers increasingly slightly in volume as I hugged my knees more closely.

"Hey," the deep voice sounded mildly surprise. The hand moved towards me again. I simply slid closer to the wall until I had practically plastered myself against it, curling up in a fetal position.

"We aren't going to hurt you," the deep voice said in a reassuring tone that did nothing to calm me down considering that another voice added "yet." I felt strong finger grasping my chin and forcefully tilting my face up. I struggled internally to keep my expression vacant revealing only a certain amount of fear in my eyes. Glancing up momentarily into a masked face that revealed only a pair of gray eyes as hard as gimlets, I managed to repress a shudder with superhuman effort and focused my gaze unseeingly at the dark material that covered his chin.

I heard an intake of breath, "you're a boy!" I silently cursed my longish brown hair.

"Hey, I think the kid's really autistic. He's too young to acquire such excellent acting skills."

"Such as pretty boy too." I felt goose bumps on my arms as the foreign sounding voice almost purred. The hand released my chin, allowing me to lower my head as my hair covered my face.

"Complete the search." The deep voice commanded. However, he did not move from beside me. The noises began again. After a while they finally stopped as the troup assembled next to me.

"Nothing?" The deep voice asked.

"Nope." I could sense the others agreeing.

"Shit!" Their leader's frustration is clear.

"Let's leave them a present … …" I tensed up again as there was no mistaking the malicious tone in the foreign voice.

"You sick fag!"

"Come on, you can't tell me you don't get turned on by such a pretty little thing. Pretend he's a girl." My eyes widened. Were they talking about me? For the first time in my life, a numbness took over my mind. I simply could not have processed the information that I just heard correctly. I had to be mistaken.

"Chief?" There was no answer. Say no! SAY NO! A voice was screaming in my head. Suddenly, I was grabbed from both sides by different pairs of arms and my worst nightmare began. I wanted to thrash wildly, to yell at them to stop, to curse them and to beg. Yet, a self-preserving mechanism took over. As much as I would like to think that my motives were purely noble in wanting to remain loyal to my organization and save lives, I know I was motivated by the knowledge that things would be far worse if my cover was blown and they realized that I had been pretending.

So I struggled to an "acceptable" extent and my efforts were rewarded with a hard blow to my face. The room was suddenly spinning. When my world righted itself, there was the metallic taste of blood in my mouth and to my horror my jeans were on longer on me. My underwear was pulled over my eyes as a blindfold and I was forced onto my hands and knees, my legs pulled apart and held in position by several pairs of arms. Horror and dread filled me as I tried again to struggle, but my efforts were futile. When a pair of hand roughly gripped my hips, I closed my eyes in despair as I tried to shut off my mind and erect a mental barrier against what was happening and was to come - my last and only remaining defense to protect my sanity. Then I was jerked back and I screamed as my world erupted in unbearable pain. The red hot pain lanced through my body as muscles and tissue tore.

"F*** he's so tight!" A voice groaned. I could not count the number of times they took turns to have their fun, my soul slowly dying inside as the degradation and the humiliation continued. The few tears that leaked from my eyes were absorbed by my blindfold. After some time, the pain was reduced slightly, their passage no doubt lubricated by the blood from my torn tissues and the fluids that were deposited in my body. Then my head was suddenly pulled back roughly by my hair. I gasped with the pain, realizing my mistake too late when they held my mouth open. To my horror, they had apparently decided to fully utilize the facilities. I choked, tried to breath and gagged as they took turns raping my mouth and throat over and over again. They finally stopped when I began to vomit the foul tasting liquid I had been forced to swallow. I shuddered convulsively a few moments after emptying my stomach, unable to contain my revulsion and rage that I felt at this latest act of deprivation. Raucous laughter followed my action.

"See I told you he likes it, the little slut!" Before I had recovered from the shock that they had actually misinterpreted my reaction, rough hands reached over and grabbed me. I jerked violently and tried to back away, but the hold only tightened. "Now don't be shy baby, you know you want it," a different voice purred next to my ear, sending a puff of hot breath down my neck. To my mortification, I felt the first faint stirrings of arousal as the skillful hands continued their administrations, even as their owner continued the plunder of my body.

"See you're really enjoying this, otherwise you wouldn't be getting hard. I can make it good for you." The voice continued to whisper seductively. I wanted to scream my denial, to vehemently protest against the falsehoods he was trying to implant in my mind. I had to hold back, to prove his lie. However, bodies are programmed to respond to stimulation. I was powerless to stop the slow betrayal of my body even as breathing became more and more difficult. My humiliation was complete when I came violently in the hand of my rapist, my entire body shuddering and shaking with the most intense yet decadent waves of pleasure I had felt in my life. Almost immediately, I heard a yell behind me as the rapist found his own release in me.

"It isn't rape when you're enjoying it so … …" the same voice muttered hoarsely moments later in my ear. I remained silent with my head hanging forward lifelessly, my spirit had been completely broken – I no longer had the will to resist anymore but hoped that the end would come quickly.

"We have to go," their leader suddenly announced. "Movement spotted from lookout fifteen." I heard a few curses as I was flung to the floor, discarded like a piece of used clothing. My head connected with something hard and I finally sank into blessed oblivion … …