A.N.: I will be gone for the weekend, so there will not be any updates before Monday – sorry guys. Meanwhile enjoy the story!
Chapter 23:
It was dark, pitch dark and he wasn't able to see a single thing – but he knew something was deeply wrong, he wasn't exactly sure what was going on, but whatever it was, it was deeply wrong. As his vision was no help for him right now, he was concentrating on his other senses...
Wherever he was, it was cold in here – not freezing cold after all, but cold enough to make him shiver, but as he realized right now, maybe that was due to the fact, that he felt like his clothes were gone. Not all of them, but except for his shorts and t-shirt, he believed he was naked. He knew he had been dressed before it had gotten dark, before he had lost his memory and before he had lost consciousness.
As he tried to move from his position right now, he felt a restrain on his forearms and as he tried harder the second time, the restrain increased to a short, sharp pain. He hissed, but tried to stay calm, for he didn't want the people who had taken him here – whoever they were – to know that he had woken up. He had the slight feeling that it actually wouldn't improve the situation.
He was unable to move his head upwards to get a look at his hands, but even if he would've managed to do so – the darkness was invading him, he wouldn't have seen anything. He stopped struggling against the hold on his arms, lay still and tried to touch the restrains keeping him down... It was cold – metal, steel – but it weren't handcuffs, it was to thin to be that, it definitely was something else... It felt like steel wire to him, which would also explain the pain he had felt a few moments ago.
But still it wasn't giving any hint, what – the hell – had happened to him. Except for a stitching, piercing headache and the pain at his wrists, he physically was okay. But he had that slight uneasy impression it wouldn't stay like this... He couldn't recall what had happened before he woke up in here and he didn't even have the slightest sense of time – he had no idea if it was night or day and how long he already was here.
He tried to recall the last event he was remembering..., it was hard to focus. He knew he had been at work and he had gotten home very late into the night. He remembered that he made his way to his apartment, taking the subway and walking the rest of the way home through the deserted, dark New Yorker night streets. But he couldn't remember that he had ever entered his goddamn apartment.
Something must've happened on his way home, Someone must have attacked him, but he didn't know how it had happened or who would have done it. He tried to recall the latest events before the big dark hole of uncertainty had engulfed him. What had he done? What had he been entangled in that might have caused a kidnapping – and how the hell was he supposed to get out of this situation?
There needed to be a reason for all this... all of a sudden panic engulfed him. He remembered the warning he had been given, the words Elizabeth Tejar had said to him. She had told him to be careful, had told him that if he would dig to deep and to obvious, he would put himself into danger, a hell lot of danger. He hadn't believed her, hadn't taken her warning all too serious and obviously he would be forced to cope with the consequences now.
He closed his eyes, breathing in deeply and slowly, and tried to keep the rising panic at bay. He couldn't afford to lose his composure to the situation right now. He listened carefully to his surrounding, but there was nothing he was able to detect – obviously he was alone, at least for the moment. But he had the slight impression it wouldn't stay this way.
He had no track of time, but he was pretty sure he had been lying here for quiet a while, when someone approached the room. His arms were feeling sore already, being trapped in that upright position and he had spent the last twenty minutes with moving his hands carefully trying to keep his circulation working and not aggravating the injuries to his wrists due to the steel wire holding his arms in position.
There was a short, soft beam of light as somebody entered the room but he didn't manage to get a good look at that person, being blinded by the light as his eyes were used to the darkness around him. The other person was directly approaching him, stopping right in front of the spot he was trapped at.
"Agent Taylor."
The man definitely was having an accent, a southamerican accent. His panicked suspicion had been most likely confirmed – this man was from South America, from Chile and therfore one of the persons Elizabeth had been searching for. One of the torturers during the Chilean dictatorship and they had taken him, kidnapped him to this abandoned place.
"Who the hell are you? What do you want from me?"
"Who we are is none of your concern and what we want - you will find out soon enough."
A sudden feeling of awareness overwhelmed him – he knew who these people were and he knew what they wanted. It were the Chileans Elizabeth had asked him to search for, had warned him about. Unfortunatelly he also knew what they were capable of, he had seen Elizabeth's evidence.
"Agent Taylor – I have only one simple question for you that I want you to answer, nothing more. What has Elizabeth Tejar found out for the organisation that has assigned her? What does she know?"
He hadn't expected them to ask him anything different and he knew he wouldn't answer this question. He wouldn't help them. Of course they had ways to force him to, but if he was able to, he would withstand them, he would not give in to them. They would hurt him – he knew that – and that made him swallow hard, swallow his fear down. He didn't want to be in pain just for one simple question that he could not answer, but it most definitely couldn't be avoided.
"I have no idea what you are talking about."
"This – Agent Taylor – is a lie, we both know that."
"Do we?"
"Yes we do. I assume then that you are not going to help us willingly?"
"There's nothing I can help you with anyway. I still don't know what you are talking about."
"That's too bad."
He realised that he wasn't alone right then as two more people stepped beside the bed he had been tied to. He felt the tension on his arms lessen as one of the two men cut the wire holding him in position and hauled him to his feet. He saw an opening and tried to fight against the man setting his arms free, but he was immediately slapped right in the face very hard, causing his lip to split and blood flow from it.
He felt anger rise in him, but somewhere in the back of his mind he asked himself if it was clever to attack these men once again. He had no idea where he was or how many other people there were and fighting against them would most probably have him end up in even more pain. But he wasn't willing to give up that easily. This may be his only chance of escape, having his hands free right now, he couldn't let it slip away.
He managed to get a direct hit at one of the two men, hitting him in the lower abdome and causing him to gasp and that was the last thing he was able to do for his defense. He felt a sharp pain at the back of his head and a sudden feeling of nausea and dizziness rushing over him as the other one knocked him down. He was unaware of his surrounding for just a few moments, which gave the two of them enough time to shove him a few feet away from the bed, lifting his hands and tie them back up at some spot above him, leaving him unable to do anything else for his defense.
He gasped for air, finally being able to take another breath after the sudden attack he had been forced to cope with, before he started to struggle against the restraints once again. He knew it was pointless – these guys were professionals, they wouldn't have him run away that easily, but still he felt like he needed to try. The man who had first talked to him, reacted to his fruitless effort.
"That's of no use, Agent Taylor. You shouldn't strain yourself – you will need all the strength you have."
The man stopped for a moment, giving Danny some time to think about the threat, giving him time to actually feel frightened about it. Danny almost believed he could see the man smile friendlessly although it was pitch dark around him.
"I am going to tell you what is going to happen to you now. As you are not willing to help us, we – I am sorry to say that – will force you to..."
"Yeah, I really believe you are sorry about that."
He knew it wasn't very smart to interrupt the guy in his little "prepare for your torment" speech, but he wouldn't show any fear. He would not give in to his assailants' attempt of scaring him, although he most definitely knew that it would inflict even more pain then.
"I advice you not to interrupt me, Agent Taylor. That's highly unwise, it will just cause you more discomfort. Anyway, the two men by your side are the ones responsible for you telling us what we want to know. Unfortunatelly you left us no choice but to use brute force to do so. The man to your left – as you can't see it I will tell you – is holding a pipe in his hands. I guess you already know what he is going to do with it."
Danny swallowed hard, not answering to the obviously rhetorical question. He knew his opponent would most probably inflict severe damage – at least breaking him a rip or two, if not even worse. He knew they would not kill him, they couldn't afford to do so, but he knew he would have to suffer for his decision.
He could almost hear the searing of the blund object as the men holding it swung it into his direction. As he couldn't see what was going on – and he actually had no idea how the other man was doing so – he had no chance to prepare himself for the impact.
He hit him hard, the first hit connecting with his ribcage. He could feel at least two of his ribs break, as he had feared it to happen and he couldn't help but gasp for air and cry out in pain. They had just started their torment and he already felt the pain overwhelming him. He wasn't supposed to endure something like this, nobody was.
The next impact was even worse and it felt like his assailant had used some other object to hit him, the object connecting with his left leg and breaking his tibia instantly – the bone splattering. He screamed now, not being able to put any more weight on his left leg, but still trying to escape from the man in front of him. He however didn't get a chance to do anything in his protection for it happened a second time, causing him to fully lose the ability to put weight on his legs as the bone in his right leg was severly injured now, straining his full bodyweight on his already sore arms.
"As you might remember – I told you there are two men beside you. The other one is having a knife with him and he is eager to use it. But we can end this whole process right here, if you are willing to help me and answer my question."
Danny breathed hard, trying to ignore the pain in his broken legs and not even clearly listening to the words being said to him. But he wouldn't answer, he wouldn't give in to the still polite questioning of the man in front of him although he was just being tortured by his two goddamn handy men.
The elder man didn't seem to feel any need to talk to him any more, but he obviously had given some sign to the two men aside of Danny. He could feel the steel blade cut through the fabric of his T-shirt leaving him exposed to further injury and he didn't have to wait for it any longer, as the cold steel blade cut a deep wound to his back and yet another one and another one...