Sorry for the long wait, but here you have a brand new chapter.
Warning: Mentions of child abuse!!!!!!
Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognize. Please enjoy.
Chapter 12
Delko sat down opposite the terrorist at the table in the interrogation room. Ryan stood behind the terrorist, although out of his eye shot. Ryan knew what this could do to a person. To know someone was standing right behind you, but you couldn't see him, you didn't know what he was doing, or where exactly he stood, you couldn't even prepare yourself to anything he would do.
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He heard the cracking of the wooden floor behind himself. Crack. Crack. Crack. He wondered how often he had already been sitting there, no, kneeling there, his naked back exposed, waiting for the first blow. He knew his father was standing there, but he didn't know how close he was, or how far away, or if he watched him or not. It was worse than the beating Ryan knew would follow. His knees ached from kneeling on the hard floor for such a long time. But he knew that it was good he could actually kneel down. If he had to stand, waiting for the inevitable to happen, his knees would go weak. So weak. He felt his guts churn, his hands trembling. He didn't know what he did wrong this time, what had caused his father to want to teach him a lesson, but he would have confessed anything now to get over with that mental torture and finally hear the first swish of the belt…
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Delko closed the folder he had checked and leaned back, "Antoine Henry… Look, I'm gonna make this fast. You tell me where we can find the hostages and your little friends. We're gonna find them anyway."
Henry just smiled, "Fuck you…"
"Mhm, doesn't sound like you want to be cooperative. How about this: If you don't tell me, I'm gonna make sure you'll spend the rest of your life in jail. And let me tell you, I know some people out there who know would just love a nice French accent in their cell… You still look kinda young, I'm sure you'd have a lot of admirers there…"
Henry still smiled, "You're not gonna find them. Neither my friends, nor your friends. Unless you agree on our deal. Your little girl there still 'as our toxin. We want it. Then you might get your friends back."
"No, Antoine, this is not how it's going to be." Eric said. "You let go of your hostages and turn yourself in and then go to jail. Or you hurt or kill your hostages, we'll catch you and you're gonna end on the chair. Either way, you're going down." He got up. "I'll let you think about this. I'm gonna have a cup of coffee. But don't worry, you'll have some company…" He blinked at Ryan, "Don't go to hard on him." He left.
Ryan had to grin. Delko had been in a similar situation, back then when he and H. had tried to find out who had ordered the hit on Marisol. And he vividly remembered Memmo Fierro's face after it. And now, Delko was giving him the go-ahead. To beat the answer out of Henry, if nothing else helped. But it wasn't Ryan's style. Sure, he had freaked out on people before. But not like this. Frankly, he felt that beating the living crap out of this guy would make him feel much better. He actually felt his fingers itching. But there were other methods. So he just stood there. And waited. For Henry to turn around and face him. But Henry didn't. And more, he didn't seem uncomfortable. Ryan approached him. It was a race against time. God only knew how Ron and his mother were. He had to do something. And he would.
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It was the last time he would ever try it. Try to discuss. Try to stand his ground. Try to explain. The next time something like this happened, he would just take it. He had tried to fight. When his father had called him into his office, cane already in his hand, Ryan had refused to kneel down. Because he didn't deserve that punishment this time. He had tried to defend himself. Against Vincent McCormick. But when the teacher had interfered, Vince had put all the blame on Ryan. And the principal had called. But it was useless to try to convince his father. But he refused to kneel down. Duke had watched him. A second or two, Ryan didn't know. Then he had come over. Slowly, menacing. And then he had grabbed Ryan by the arm and twisted it around. Hard. Ryan screamed out, tears shooting to his eyes from the pain in his arm. It hurt so much… But Duke didn't stop. And he got his will. At some point, when Ryan couldn't handle the pain anymore, he gave up. His knees collided with the floor. Duke let go of Ryan's arm. Ryan huddled on the ground, holding his arm. Duke knelt down beside him. He grabbed Ryan by his neck and held his head to the ground while squeezing hard. "Never again, Ryan. Don't you ever again try this. If I tell you to kneel down, you will kneel down, or I'll make you. And believe me, next time I'm going to break that arm, you understand?" He did.
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He heard a muffled scream from Henry when his head collided with the table. But Ryan didn't react. He knew he was putting his career on the line, but he didn't care anymore. There was only one thing that mattered, "Where are your hostages?"
"This is police brutality."
"Answer my question, or I'm gonna give you police brutality." Ryan banged Henry's head once more against the table. "Where are the hostages?"
"Ouch… I'm not gonna tell you!"
"Oh, you will tell me…." Another bang. "We can play this all day, but I'm not sure your head is hard enough, so, where are the hostages?" Another bang.
"You're only gonna find their remains if you're lucky!"
Ryan let go of Henry's head. He had to take another route. He looked outside to see if Delko was already approaching. He wasn't. Ryan closed his eyes. He had to think. And he had to think fast. He sat down opposite Henry and watched him. Henry looked back at him. For long minutes nothing happened. Ryan was out of ideas. He was close to just give up and to admit his failure when he noticed a difference in Henry. It was little, and maybe Ryan hadn't even noticed if he hadn't just looked at him. Henry had started nibbling his lower lip and staring at the wall behind Ryan. When he noticed Ryan was looking at him, he turned his head away. Ryan noticed the sweat on his face. What the hell had gotten into Henry? When Ryan turned around to check, he saw it. A spider on the wall. It was one of the little spiders with the extremely long legs. Ryan grinned. Henry suffered from arachnophobia. He slowly got up and walked to the wall.
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Ryan Wolfe was not afraid of a lot of things. Two things, mainly. His father was one of them. The other one was heights. His father had noticed it the first time when Ryan had been standing on the balcony of the house and had started trembling. But Duke hadn't shown any sympathy for him. Ryan vividly remembered the trip to NYC when he was about 10. His father had dragged him up to the platform on the Empire State Building. The view must have been amazing, but when Ryan had looked down, he felt his biggest nightmare had come true. He had started shaking. His knees had gone weak. He had tried not to faint, but he had lost. The view around him had started spinning and then it had gone all black. He had been woken up again by his father slapping him. Any other father would have poured some water into his face, but Duke had resolved to slap him, in front of all people. When he was fully awake again, Duke had pulled him into a standing position and pushed him to the security fence again and held him there for over ten minutes. After that, when Duke had turned around and left the platform, Ryan had broken down, crying and trembling. Until now, he still was afraid of heights. Luckily, nobody had discovered it so far…
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"Hey Charlotte… How are you doing?" Ryan whispered when he had the spider sitting on his hand. "Yeah, I know, the glass walls are pretty cold. But let me tell you, the table here's awfully homey. Oh look, there's my friend Antoine. You wanna come over and meet him? Sure…" He walked back to the table. "Antoine, this is Charlotte. Charlotte, meet Antoine. Oh, you wanna sit on his shoulder? Of course. You gonna be good friends." He placed the spider on Antoine's shoulder. The guy was now trembling like hell, and Ryan could hear muffled screams when the spider started moving and crawling up the shoulder to his neck. Ryan watched as tears came to Antoine's eyes and rolled down his cheek. He felt a twinge of sympathy in his heart that even the thought of Ron and his mother being held captive could not erase. He softened his voice, "Just tell me where I can find your hostages, and I'm gonna take the spider off you."
"I… I can't… They're gonna kill me… Fuck you." He turned his head away from Ryan and threw up on the floor. Ryan rolled his eyes and left the room. He was just about to take his cell phone and call Horatio when he heard a voice behind him:
"What did he say?"
Ryan turned around; it was Duke. "Nothing. And I don't think we're gonna get something out of him. This guy has a huge arachnophobia, and there's a spider crawling up his body, but he's not saying anything. I don't know what to do." It wasn't easy for him to admit that in front of his father. But why lie?
Duke rolled his eyes a bit, but then he said, "Let him go."
"Pardon me?"
"Let him go and get some patrols to follow him. He may lead you to their hiding place."
"You're kidding me. This guy will never do that."
Duke gave him a look, "I see you're out of ideas. Why don't you let anybody take over that knows how terrorists think?"
"I'm not gonna let this guy get out again. We can keep him here for assault and accessory to kidnapping at the very least."
"And what good is that? All your fancy investigation stuff has not led to anything valuable now. I want my wife back, and if something happens to her because you made the wrong decision, I'm gonna make your life a living hell, Ryan."
Ryan shook his head, "You've done that already once, what new methods could you possibly have?" And he turned around to look for his boss.
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But his father's idea was stuck in his head. Maybe this was the last possibility they had. Maybe that guy would lead them somewhere. Not the hiding place, but something else, maybe. Ryan went to see Horatio and told him about it. Horatio wasn't really thrilled of that idea.
"There must be something else. Have you checked with Valera and Trace?"
"Yes. But they don't have anything. Anything at all. Horatio, I don't like the idea either. But… my father knows about terrorists, and he wouldn't suggest such a thing if he didn't think it could lead somewhere."
"I understand that Mr Wolfe, but right now, he's as desperate as you are…" He looked out of the window. "Okay. We'll do it. I'm gonna have patrol all over the city following him. Top priority. Let's pray it is the right thing to do."