3. Pain
Alex had been sitting for ten minutes when he heard the door open. Instantly he was on his feet. Alex lashed out with the palm of his hand knocking the Chinese man he recognized as the lead expert on torture, Doctor Three, from the textbook Alex had owned while training to be an assassin two years ago. Alex was glad that he got out before the "fun" began. Alex ran to the end of the corridor before he came to a wall at the very end. Alex guessed there was some sort of secret door in it but he had no idea how to get through.
He tried everything he could think of before giving the door/wall a large shove. As soon as he touched the white wall the corridor filled with gas and Alex slumped unconscious within minutes.
When he came around the first thing Alex heard was the sound of Beethoven's Six Symphony. He felt the thick cords of rope snaking around his entire body and opening his eyes and peering through his eyelashes he realised that he was back where he started. He could barely even move thanks to the rope; other than wriggling his toes and moving his head from side to side. He cursed himself for being so stupid but no move to betray he was awake. But ….
'Ah you're awake,' smiled Three from his chair a bruise on the top of his head.
'How did you know?' Alex snapped angry, but knowing there was no point in pretending that he was asleep.
'My dear Alex I've been monitoring your heart rate –'Three began.
'Didn't know you were so interested in the affairs of my heart,' Alex smirked getting a slap on the cheek.
'So I was able to see that your heart rate picked up and deduced from this you were awake.'
'Oh you were de-juiced like Violet Beauregarde,' Alex quickly answered back masking his disappointment.
Three slapped the boy again, 'I believe you know the nuclear codes,' smiled Three.
'Nope,' lied Alex easily.
'I have it from a source in Afghanistan that you do,' Three said.
Alex cursed in his head, 'they must be wrong then.'
'I know you,' said Three.
'Well then you should know I'll never talk,' Alex said completely calm seeing no point in lying as Three obviously knew Alex knew.
This seemed to be what Three was waiting for. He launched himself at the teenaged boy beating him senseless. Three had shown himself to be a master of karate, boxing, Tai Quan Do and Judo in this beating. At then end of the day he sent for a doctor of medicine to fix the sixteen year old up. After all you can't have your informant dying on you. This style of getting Alex to talk, or at least trying to continued until day five. On day five Three was beginning to realise that the boy was going to need more extreme measures to make him talk.
So psychological was brought in talking about everything from his father and mother to Ian to people Alex had killed or seen killed to Ash. When this didn't work the persuasion of food was added. Alex could smell the smell of Italian, Chinese and Indian wafting up his nose causing his stomach (empty for six days) to groan. But Alex just closed his eyes ignoring the smell having not had anything to eat.
This was given up the next day because Three had bought another five guys with him. They were all at least six feet with bulging muscles which Alex did not like the look of in the slightest. There was a bald one wearing a grey, tight-fitting t-shirt, dark jeans and a pair of dirty white trainers. Alex decided to call him Baldly. Then there was the black on wearing a white vest, a black zipper, blue jeans and black trainers with gold stripes. Alex decided to call him Zipper. There was one with a lot of straggly, brown hair, dark empty eyes who was wearing brown combats, brown hiking boots and a cream vest. Alex decided to simply call him Hiking Boots, There was an older one with dirty blonde hair, face and arms a mass of scars who wore black boots, comfortable black jogging trousers and a white Nike shirt. Alex decided to call him Scars. The last one had a skinhead and wore black leather trousers, a metallic belt, black leather boots and a black leather jacket. Alex decided to call him Leather. Alex noticed that they all had batons.
'So are you going to tell me the nuclear code?' Three asked.
'No,' Alex said ever calm.
'Fine,' Three nodded at the men.
Alex cried out as five batons pounded into him. Within half an hour Alex was unconscious with five broken ribs. On day thirteen Alex awoke to Three fingering a shark knife in his hands. Once again Alex refused to say anything so Alex felt the knife slice his left arm. He smelt the iron-smell of blood before passing out again. By day twenty Three had moved onto cutting his right arm as well. On day twenty-eight both arms were being continuously sliced open.
By the end of the first month the days were beginning to blend into each other. A few days into the second month Alex's torso was being cut by the knife. Alex was just glad that they wanted him alive so they were avoiding doing any permanent damage and giving him a slice of bread a cup of water a day. Half was through the next month, or so Alex supposed, Three introduced a whip causing Alex to scream and cry whenever it touched his cut and bruised skin. Towards the end of the month Alex was now being whipped by a fork-tounged whip and a cat-of-nine-tails whimpering in pain having no voice left to scream with as the blood streamed from him. It got so bad that Three only had to come near him and he'd whimper crying softly into the blood soaked stone floor. Nobody should have to suffer this way especially a sixteen year old kid. Not that Three thought so he was positively enjoying his time with the annoying boy spy.
Some time at the beginning of the third month Three branded Alex with the SCORPIA symbol of a scorpion on his right shoulder saying that close to finding him. Alex hoped they would hurry up but at this point had little hope left. Dr. Three was angry but was confident that his men would never let any of the spies get close to his complex. As he was branded Alex felt the pain was more than anything Alex had ever experienced and he blacked out. After waking up he retched; having nothing in his stomach to throw up. This was when the red-hot irons were introduced. Within a few weeks Alex was being electrocuted once a day. He didn't know how much longer he could survive this treatment and just wished for his pain to end.
