Palm of my hand
The burlap sac was removed from his head and he was greeted with a swift punch to the face. His head tilted back and his vision blurred tried to raise his arms and legs but found they were cuffed to the metal chair he sat on.
As his vision grew better, he confirmed that he was indeed in a room with a single harsh yellow light shining down upon him.
"What do you know about the AI?" asked a gruff voice from behind.
"Oh come on, no dinner or a date?" Michael remarked despite how slurred his voice was "If you guys want to hear my dirty little secrets then you better try harder than that".
It did not surprise him that he received another punch to the face. He felt a warm liquid forming in his mouth and spat out some blood.
"That's my shoe", snarled a feminine voice before her foot swung out and connected with Michael's jaw.
"And here I thought it looked better that way", he said with a bloody smile.
Needless to say that his captors continued to beat him senseless over the next few hours, pausing only because they didn't wan't to wound him too much. During those moments of calm, Michael did his best to figure out a means of escape.
Unfortunately the only way to escape was through the one door in the stuffy black room he was in. This of course got much tougher considering how Michael was also cuffed to the chair. As he thought of what he could do next, the door opened up, allowing three people to enter with one of them wheeling in a tray of surgical equipment.
Make no mistake, Michael was not some specially trained operative with a bloodied past. The only thing of note in his life was that his detached nature allowed him a higher threshold of pain. This character defect came in pretty handy as it allowed him to endure their beatings for much longer than most people, while giving them nothing.
That being said, even he had a breaking point which was soon to be reached.
"That's enough for now", said the gruff voice as the female raised a bloodied Michael by the hair. She simply flicked him in the chest and he fell into the chair, completely lifeless and still.
Despite knowing that this would happen, Michael was having a hard time staying conscious. He knew he would have to remain awake or else they might just toss his body out and leave him to die. He had to stay awake long enough which meant that he needed something to keep him awake.
'That's right', he thought 'Somewhere here they've got Monika. Damn it, I need to get out of here now. I need to find her and get out'.
He tried shaking the chair, moving it from side to side in an effort to bend or weaken it a little but soon enough the door opened and this time one of them carried a bucket while the other carried a towel.
Michael had seen the videos before but to actually experience a waterboarding quite literally took the breath out of him. The cold sub zero water falling on him coupled with the cloth wrapped tightly around his neck all made it nearly impossible for him to last any longer.
"What do you know about Monika?" barked one of his captors
"Monika with a 'K' or with a 'C' because i only have enough space here for one person", he replied and they wrapped the towel around Michael.
"What do you know about Monika?"
"Courtney Cox may have gotten the role but the producers originally wanted Tea Leoni", he replied and was treated to another bucket of water.
They were about to ask another question when he heard a voice shouting stop. They did as told, setting him back up and removing the towel. Michael now saw an old man walking into the room dressed in a suit with a blue and white scarf around his neck. He looked like he was in the late sixties, evident by the wrinkles in his skin but the coldness in his eyes told Michael to be on his guard at all times.
"You", he said slowly catching his breath "You're not government are you?"
"Oh?" asked the man in surprise with a British accent "What makes you say that?"
"Well for starters, thing one is ex SAS, thing 2 is former Mossad. It takes a certain level of skill to punch someone hard enough and not knock out their teeth. And the lady there trying to kill me with her glares is former Pakistan or Israeli forces. To my knowledge, only those two groups have such painful kicks."
"Not bad", said the man with a chuckle while pacing the room "Still sharp as ever I see."
"Do I know you from somewhere?" asked Michael
"No but I've read your file so I do know you very well", said the man placing a hand on Michael's broken shoulder, making him hiss a little in pain.
"'Nihilistic, apathetic towards oneself yet shows genuine interest in those around him.' That was the psych eval the doctors gave you when you were discharged".
"Thank you for that pointless stroll through my past", said Michael sarcastically "If you look to your right you'll the the live reproduction of what I call 'The Hanging parents of Fairbrook'".
Needless to say that the SAS operative punched him hard in the face once again for that.
"There's no point in hitting him or hurting him", said the old man and the attacker backed off.
"Good dog, now roll over"
"Now you know why you're here but let me fill in a few gaps for you", said the old man standing before him like how a judge stood over a convicted felon.
"My name is Alex Walcroft, CEO of Essex Securities, a private armed organization that over the course of last year had come across a rather interesting find".
"You see our last mission had us stage a car crash in an effort to kill a team that developed a particular game which I'm sure you must be familiar with".
"Salvato?" asked Michael with eyes wide open in surprise.
"See", said Alex looking to the others "Sharp as ever. Yes we were hired by another company to take out team Salvato and in the process recover all their system files. Given the amount of money we received from our employer we didn't ask any questions and proceeded to do just that".
"However during our search, one of our operatives discovered codes or fragments of data that seemed be part of a larger and more complex program that our employer had no idea about. It was only after months of agonizing research did we come to the realization that the team had unwittingly created the ultimate form of life."
"A true artificial intelligence".
"So what's the big deal?" asked MIchael sounding uninterested "AI's are pretty common nowadays or have you not read the papers?"
"Please", spat the man "You and I both know those cheap articles do not even come close to what I'm talking about. Long story short we know you have the AI designated as Monika on your system."
"Ok, ok so what if I do?" asked MIchael "You're not going to get a single answer out of me".
"That is true", said Alex snapping his finger and in came in another operative wheeling in a laptop. MIchael did his best to hide his worry when he saw Monika on the screen.
"You have proven to be a very tough nut to crack Michael so let me break this down for your friend", said Alex as he turned to her.
"You are going to lift the protections around your core programming so that my division can analyze your structure or else I will inflict pain like never before on that boy".
"Don't listen to leather face", barked Michael and was punched in the stomach.
Monika looked defiantly at Alex and said "Go ahead".
"Very well then", said the man with some resign in his voice. He proceeded to the table and picked up a syringe then checked to see if it was working. Once he confirmed that, he jabbed the needle into Michael's neck and within seconds the boy began to convulse in terrible pain.
Monika grit her teeth and clenched her fists trying not to look at Michael's body writhing in agony.
"One more then", said Alex without a care in the world and jabbed another needle into Michael then turned to her.
"Right now that boy is experiencing what it's like to be at the bottom of the Pacific ocean. Depths that terrible is sure to force a great deal of pressure on someone even like him. Of course you can end it all by lifting the protocols.
"N…..N…...N…..NNNNNNOOOOOO"
"Michael", said Monika worriedly as she saw the froth forming on his lips
"Make no mistake here I have no qualms in killing him", said Alex in a raised voice "But you can save him. Just lower your security and I'll let him live".
Monika shifted her gaze back and forth continuing to weigh both her options. Alex barked at her some more in an effort to get her to crack but the girl remained resolute in her decision.
It was only when she saw the colour fading from the already bloodied body did Monika finally wave the white flag.
"Alright, alright", she screamed "I'll do whatever you ask. Just stop hurting him".
Alex looked at her then jabbed another needle into Michael which stopped his violent convulsions.
"I did my part, now you do yours", he said and she nodded
00000000000
Michael was unsure about how much time had passed since he passed out from the pain. He slowly opened his eyes and saw that unlike before, he was not alone in the dingy cell.
"Wa….ter", he said hoarsely and the guard came forward. He bent close to Michael who repeated his request. The guard took a step back, possibly examining his pathetic state before finally deciding that he was no threat. He went outside and quickly returned with a glass of water.
Michael slowly opened his mouth, letting the cold water flow into his body and relieving some of the thirst he was feeling at the moment. Perhaps a bit too greedy, Michael drank a little too much causing him to cough and convulse forward.
The guard came close to check on him and Michael's head shot forward in an instant. His teeth dug into the guards neck and with one vicious pull, he bit off the flesh and the artery in his neck causing him to cough while stumbling back and trying to cover the wound in his neck.
It was to no avail as the man slid against the wall, fell down and never got back up. Michael then tipped the chair to the left, wincing in pain a little as his already badly damaged body hit the cold hard ground. He inched towards some of the broken glass before him and grabbed the nearest piece with his right hand. With that he quickly cut open the restraint in his right hand and did the same in his left. In a matter of minutes he was free.
The first thing that Michael did was take off the jacket of the fallen guard and put it on him.
"You won't be needing that anymore", he remarked then examined the body and was glad to find a fully loaded pistol carried in a hidden holster. Michael also took out a ball point pen and twirled it in his left hand a few times before tucking it into the jacket pocket. He then checked and confirmed that the gun was loaded before slowly opening the door to see a guard on either side of his room.
He opened the door slowly then launched himself forward, jabbing the pen into the neck of the guard on his left. Before the guard on the right could react, Michael grabbed the guard before him and spun him around so that when the guard on the right fired, he shot his comrade in the process. After he fired three bullets, Michael dropped the body and fired a pair of bullets into the guard's chest hitting two vital spots in the process.
He watched the guard fall down before taking any ammunition they had and proceeding forward. The place that he was in looked like an old bunker that was probably used during the war, which one though he was not quite sure but it meant that he would have to be careful proceeding forward.
Before he did anything else though, Michael first took the two dead bodies in the corridor and tossed them into the room he was a prisoner in. Once that was done, he looked down the dark and half illuminated corridor before proceeding forward.