Chapter 13

Ari pulled at the ties around his wrist, his movements subtle and understated. He stopped as he felt the knot loosen slightly, using his fingers to check how loose it had become. He didn't want to alert them to the fact that he would soon be free of the ties binding his arms above his head. He watched through hooded eyes as his captors stood some distance away, talking quietly. He strained to hear what they were saying but was unable to succeed.

He made himself relax, his body pulling on his arms slightly, his face impassive, his eyes unreadable. He had known all his life that one day this time would come. And it had never worried him. Death was his living and held no fear for him. He would simply cease to exist. He watched as Jules Therese separated herself from the group, moving slowly towards him, her hips swaying seductively in the tight black slacks she wore.

"Does the condemned man get a last request?" Ari asked calmly, his eyes racking over her body in open admiration.

"No" Therese purred, stepping close to Ari, her hand running down his cheek, one finger reaching out and running along his lips. Ari opened his mouth slightly, allowing the finger to slip into his mouth. He watched as she watched him, a game of cat and mouse ensuing between them. Slowly she withdrew her finger and wiped it contemptuously on his shirt.

"Pity" Ari murmured continuing the conversation from before, "It would have been to have you one last time, I do so enjoy your body" he whispered seductively. Therese grinned as she bent down to retrieve something under the table to Ari's left.

"Your body won't be able to enjoy anything soon" she told him with a smile, brandishing the baseball bat that she had picked up. "I intend to make sure of it" she murmured into his ear, running the bat up his left leg and down his right one, before suddenly swinging it at his stomach. Ari tried to double over but the ties binding his wrists prevented it. He coughed and gasped as white hot heat spread through his body, the pain immense. Ari used all of his senses to block out the pain as much as he could he turned his thoughts inward in order to ride out the wave of pain.

Therese watched him intently, her first reaction to grin as he gasped for breath, but she watched as he gathered his strength around him, his face becoming an impressively blank mask, not outward sign that he was in pain. She swung the bat again in anger, watching as his body reacted to the hit, pulling upwards slightly and tightening but his eyes watched her impassively.

"Feel better now?" he asked her calmly, his voice slightly thicker but other than that no other indication of what she had done.

"No" she ground out, aiming the bad at his knee, missing slightly and hitting his thigh. She watched as he closed his eyes briefly, but once more he stared impassively at her. She began to swing the bat in a flurry of anger, not aiming just swinging.

She watched in satisfaction as blood began to pool around him, but still those dark eyes just stared at her, his lips curving into a smirk, his dark eyes laughing at her, fuelling her anger.

"ENOUGH" roared a commanding voice from behind her, and she swung round to see a tall man in a suit standing in the doorway. She dropped the bat and backed away from Ari, shooting him a glare of pure evil as she did so.

"I want him alive" the man told her sternly, crossing to stand in front of Ari.

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Ari struggled to stay conscious, he fought the pain radiating through his body whilst trying to convince his captors that he was truly unconscious. He knew that he was only a hairs breadth away from the reality of it. But if he gave into his need for the relief of the darkness he knew that he would pay for his mistake with his life, and he wasn't willing to do that at the moment. He tried to make out what they were saying but found the effort too much to bear. He closed his mind off to their words and turned his mind inwards, blocking out everything else around him, and managing to fight of the black veil pulling at his senses. Turning his mind inward also gave him the illusion of being truly out for the count.

Ari was unsure how long he had hung suspended from his restraints, but he tuned his senses back into his surroundings and listened carefully. When he was sure he was alone he slowly lifted his head and painfully opened his eyes. He stared around the room through blood shot eyes, dried blood congealed and cracked around his eyelids as they opened making things slightly blurry. But he knew he was finally alone.

Slowly and with care he twisted his hands, opening up the wounds on his wrists from the restraints. He waited a few moments for the blood to begin to pour. Carefully he twisted his hands, using the warm wet blood as a lubricant to free his hands from the already loosened constraints. He bit back a scream as his hands popped free, his arms falling to his sides, his body tumbling to the floor as the circulation returned to his arms. He lay there breathing through the white hot pain radiating through his arms and shoulders as they adjusted to being down at his sides again after so many hours above his head.

He swallowed back the bile and vomit and crawled his way to his knees, fighting another wave of pain from the injuries he had sustained when Therese had beaten him with the bat, and from the later injuries inflicted when he was interrogated by the man in the suit.

He looked around the room as he knelt on the floor. He gritted his teeth and lumbered to his feet, a metallic taste filling his mouth as he bit his tongue to stop the cry of pain escaping from his mouth.

He smiled grimly to himself as he crossed the room to a point in the corner. He carefully picked up the chair nearby and placed it under the air vent. He then silently stood and removed the cover, painfully lifting himself inside the air vent. He smiled in satisfaction, knowing that part of his plan had been in relying on the fact that he knew where they would take him, and his having already laid the plans for his eventual escape. Ari had never left anything to chance, and he hadn't planned to start with his own death. He had only survived this game he played by constantly thinking ahead, planning and preparing for any and all eventualities, this one included. He had to admit though he was relieved that he had guessed correctly in where they would bring him.

Part one was a success he though grimly as he slowly made his way out of the warehouse in which he had been held captive. Part two of his plan was much more difficult he thought to himself, as Gibbs's face appeared in his mind. Something's and some people just couldn't be predicted, at least not completely, he thought as he finally made his way outside and to the motorbike he had hidden in the area and the homing device he had hidden on the bike.