Chapter 8

After staring at the red welt on Ishikawa's arm left by the tiny amount of the drug on the tip of the needle, Crusader had whirled and stalked off out of the room, followed by the cluster of men he had arrived with. Haruka tried to think why the name Iscariot had been so important, surely if it was just another member of the organization he wouldn't be so upset. Which meant there had to be something special about the same. Iscariot. Haruka's eyes narrowed in thought. No, it couldn't be. There was an Iscariot in the garrison, he was a very low-level tech but – could he be feeding Crusader what information he had? He couldn't have access to too much, his level wasn't high enough for that but still – whatever information he had was too much to give someone like Crusader. But the members of the garrison were well vetted. Maybe it was a brother? Someone he had just let some information slip too? And surely the man couldn't have guessed how vital information about his vacation could have been.

Suddenly Haruka heard hammering from a nearby room. He listened, curious as to what was going on but well aware he would never find out. Still it gave him something else to think about.

Not long after the hammering stopped, Crusader walked into the room with his little following. "All right boys, lets move him." Haruka suddenly realized there were only 4 men in the group. Good, they'd underestimated him. So many people did. He wasn't especially tall or bulky in built, but he'd trained to make what he had work as well as possible. With his job, good reflexes and muscles had saved him more than once. Iwase wasn't the only reason he was still alive after one and half years. It would be best to wait until they were in the hallway and he could figure out in which direction to run.

The followers unstrapped him from the chair and pushed him towards the hallway. He stumbled more than necessary to try to act as though his legs were numb from being strapped down. He wasn't going to get a chance to warm up for this. Crusader turned left at the door, so he decided he would run to the right. His left leg swung up in a round house kick to take the front left man in the chin with a sharp crack. He continued the move with his body and swung an elbow into the stomach of the man behind him. As the first man began to slump unconscious to the floor, the second grabbed his stomach and gasped once before spilling his dinner all over the floor. Haruka ended the swing facing back the way he had started and then put both feet briefly on the floor and took a step forward to position his feet. Crusader had turned around and the man nearest him starting to move towards Haruka. He grabbed that man in a judo hold and threw him into Crusader. Crusader and 3 of his men down, only one left. The last man had drawn a gun but hesitated when a gasping "Alive!" came out of Crusader laying on the floor under his man. Using the man's indecision Haruka threw himself into him knocking him back against the wall and grabbing his gun. A quick chop to the neck knocked him out and then Haruka was running for the end of the corridor.

Unfortunately alive didn't mean unhurt. He had just reached the end of the hallway when a shot rang up and pain ran up his right arm. A quick look back showed Crusader lying on the floor with a gun in his hand. Haruka turned towards the stairs he had spotted and kept running but he was familiar with that pain. The bullet had hit his right arm and he could no longer use the gun in that hand. He could shoot with his left hand, but not well. Unfortunately he was counting on speed to get him out, not stealth. Which meant he made enough noise going down the stairs for the two men on the next door to position themselves on either side of the exit from the stairs. Equally unfortunately the one on his right grabbed his arm right where the bullet had gone in. The pain stopped him in his tracks and his vision began blur. The next he knew, he felt his arms wrenched behind his back, the pain in the right driving him to his knees and then handcuffs were snapped around his wrists.

Haruka came back to his senses as he was being half dragged half walked into a room where Crusader stood scowling at anyone and everyone in the room. A set of chains hung on the wall. Haruka wondered if that was what all the banging had been about. One man held on to him as Crusader walked over to him and then grabbed his right shirt sleeve and ripped it off his arm. The man looked closely at the bullet hole and then tied the material of the sleeve around his arm, over the wound and stopping the bleeding. He gave a vicious yank as he tied the material down but Haruka managed to grit his teeth and not cry out.

Crusader turned to the man at Haruka's back. "You! Hold him tightly. Put that hand on the lower part of his arm so you don't knock him out grabbing the wound. Vinnie! Soften him up for me." Haruka grunted as a fist slammed into his ribs. The next blow took him hard on the opposite of his body. The hits moved up and down his body from his face to his abdomen. Soon his awareness narrowed into hanging on to consciousness as blow after blow fell on his body. He didn't even notice when that consciousness faded and the blows began to drift away from him.

Suddenly he was on the floor and his face and hair was soaking wet with extremely cold water. "Alright," it was Crusader's voice. "Stand him up again." Haruka was hauled to his feet, wavering a bit as he tried to get his balance. Almost immediately those hands were again on his arms, holding him steady. "Strip him." He tried to struggle but it was totally ineffective. He couldn't break the hold on his arms, he felt like he would be lucky if he could still walk. Hands tugged at his shirt and when the problem with the handcuffs were encountered a knife came out to cut the sleeves off him. One after another his shoes and socks came off, then his pants and underwear were tugged down around his ankles and off his feet. Crusader came over and stood directly in front of him. We'll give you a night to think it over. Decide whether or not you want to talk. Things will only get worse from here on out you know. All we want is the codes to get through the firewall around the command center. Oh, and this is for tryng to escape." He leaned into Haruka and then brought his knee up hard into Haruka's groin.

He couldn't stop the high pitched whimper from escaping out of his throat as he slid to the floor hunched over as best he could in the fetal position. He was dimly aware of several kicks against his back, in the kidneys and on his spine. Finally one hit his head and he floated down into the welcoming darkness.