I've been itching to upload this chapter so I could get on to the next one but I have to stretch them out so you guys don't demolish my supply of prewritten work. That's what happen with Caught in the Crossfire but I find it much easier to parcel out chapters that I just cut off when convenient than to write a whole new chapter every so often from scratch.

Look forward to the next update some time in December; probably near the holidays.

Now with that in mind enjoy the torture.

Warning, heavy on the cursing.

After an hour, the questions continued to fly. But thankfully the man seemed to lay off of questions about an organization they had never gotten the chance to investigate.

Fox had even been able to pass off some plausible false information but now it seemed as though the man was headed in that direction again.

"Where did the bombings occur?" he asked Snake suddenly

"Why the hell does that matter to you?" Eagle interjected "Why would you want to know so much about a group that has nothing to do with you?"

"You sure have a lot to say when not a fucking soul was talking to you!" The man yelled at him "When I do ask you something I hope you talk as much."

The leaderman repeated the question for Snake but Eagle interrupted again, more annoyed than before.

"You still didn't answer my question." He snapped

"Eagle will you shut up." Snake growled knowing that if he didn't then he was about to cause problems but Eagle completely ignored him.

"I am the only one asking questions around here." The man barked but Eagle was strangely unphased.

"What kind of interrogation is this anyway?" Eagle continued "You sound more like you need us to fill you in on the morning paper. If you don't have anything worth asking then why don't you let us go?"

For whatever reason the leaderman ignored Eagle altogether and although Eagle looked royally pissed, he decided to keep his mouth shut.

The man asked Snake the question for the last time to which Snake answered truthfully.

His next questions were aimed at Alex deliberately.

"What type of bombs were they; remote sensor or suicide?"

Alex shifted around trying to relieve the pressure on his damaged wrist. "I don't know."

"You don't know anything do you, you worthless child." he spat "What does everyone think they were?"

"I would know what everyone thought if they had told me. I didn't have time run a poll" Alex snapped back; annoyed by the man's comment for some reason.

The man punched Alex in the stomach solidly causing him to hiss in pain.

"I don't want your lip, you little piece of shit! What were you told by those who sent you?"

Alex's wheezing filled the hollow sounding room as he tried to catch his breath.

"MI6 thinks its suicide bombers." He eventually managed

"I see." He suddenly turned to Wolf who looked barely conscious but was still listening.

"I haven't asked you anything in a while. With as ignorant as you are Cub here is finally going to suffer. Your other friends over here were so informative I didn't get to do anything to the kid."

Wolf didn't respond to anything that he said so the man came right up to him to antagonize him further.

"Doesn't sound like you want to know a damn thing!" Eagle shouted suddenly, rattling his chair on its loose bolts. "You're just an immature bastard who's got a beef with a child!"

The man ignored Eagle again and continued to taunt Wolf with threats of what he would do to Alex if he didn't answer. Since Wolf still wouldn't even look at him, the man grabbed his hair and yanked his head back. Wolf was just able to stifle a groan.

"You don't fool me." He whispered harshly in Wolf's ear. "You think you're slick, you think you can play dumb and sick and I'll forget about you, but you're wrong. I know that you're holding back and I will continue to torture that boy until he dies unless you tell me what you know and if that doesn't work I'll continue with the rest of your team until there's no one left. No amount of loyalty to your damn country is worth all of their deaths is it?!"

Wolf looked at him with a strange expression in his eyes but he still said nothing.

The man released his grip on his hair and was mildly surprised to find that his fingers came away bloody.

"What is the name of the group whom you were sent to spy on?" he suddenly asked heading back to Alex's prison.

Wolf was quiet for awhile as he fought to remember, to save Alex from some of the unnecessary pain but his head hurt terribly and his mind was a haze of confusion. He couldn't pull the thoughts together.

After a few more moments he heard Alex yell in pain. Snake looked at Wolf worried.

"Just answer Wolf." Fox called, who was about 2 meters directly to Wolf's right. He didn't know how bad Wolf's condition had become.

Wolf just rattled his chains in frustrated confusion, "I'm trying to remember." he slurred out but the man slashed Alex across the chest again anyway. Alex's chest was quickly covered with blood. The cuts went deep, not like the surface wound of a razor but more like the strike of a dagger.

The second slash was particularly painful because it went diagonally across his old bullet wound; from his right clavicle almost to the left side of his hips. Now every breath burned.

The man grabbed Alex by his hair, "You had better get that leader of yours to open his damn mouth and speak because if he doesn't you're going to die real soon!"

Alex gasped, trying to catch his breath, which had been snatched away by the pain. He looked at Wolf whose expression was agonized to say the least. His eyes showed just how sorry he was, how much he wished he could somehow take away all this pain that he had indirectly caused but they also said how fearful he was. Alex could see real fear, terror even, in Wolf's eyes and Snake, looking on as well, could tell that it was because he could feel himself slipping away and he knew it was because he was dying.

Alex felt tears well up in his eyes as he saw the man grab the picana again and he knew that Wolf was blaming himself completely but he understood Wolf's situation. He didn't blame him in the least. Instead he braced himself for the pain he knew would soon come.

"Answer the damn question!" the man demanded

Wolf managed to say that he couldn't remember but of course it did no good. The man was so frustrated with this lack of progress, he turn the picana up to the highest it could go and jabbed the thing into Alex's back, right between the shoulder blades.

The pain that Alex felt was like none he had felt so far and the scream that ripped from his throat was so very tormented that Fox felt wetness on his cheeks despite himself.

Snake squirmed in his chains shouting the answer to the man above the screaming despite the threat of extreme punishment that had been made very clear at the beginning of the session if they spoke out of turn.

The leaderman stopped the assault but Alex continued to scream for a little while longer from the intensity of the electric voltage in his body.

"Their name was اخوه في الله (Brothers in the Lord)! Snake shouted again. "If all you want is the information ask somebody who can answer DAMN IT!"

"What is their next target?" The man demanded without turning around or putting down the torture device.

"We don't know!" Snake answered in extreme annoyance

Eagle lost his temper again when he saw the man move towards Alex.

"How the hell do you expect us to know when you never even let us past your fucking FRONT DOOR!" he shouted

"Shut the hell up when I'm not talking to you!"

The Japanese man who had been around in the session before turned to Eagle with an evil glare, pulling out a gun. "If you speak out again when no one has acknowledged you I will cause you a great deal of pain with this that you won't be able to forget in a hurry."

Eagle growled and rattled his chair violently but said nothing.

"You," the man yelled at Snake "answer the question and don't give me any bullshit about not knowing 'cause I don't believe it!"

"Believe what you want then but we didn't get there!" Snake snapped rapidly losing patient now

"You answer then." He directed at Fox

"If we were all together in the same godforsaken truck when you ambushed us, how the hell am I gonna know when he doesn't!?" Fox growled

"Then we'll head back to good ole Wolf." He marched back to the spot where Wolf was practically hanging, gesturing for the Japanese operate and the burly man from the first day to follow him.

"Unchain him and stand by in case he tries anything funny." He barked at them

Wolf nearly fell to the ground once he was free but he managed to catch himself. It was becoming clear that the confusion, pain and tiredness, even numbness now, in his limbs could only mean one thing and he was afraid of it; truly afraid despite his portrayal of fearlessness when he was with his teammates.

He realized that he was going to die of this bleed in his brain and if things continued like this no one would know. He would die a lonely pathetic death at the hands of a sadistic fool and no one would know what he had endured before finally giving in.

He tried to ease the shame of the moments that would follow by standing up as straight and as tall as he could.

"Maybe I need to bring you up to the torture section too. You know, right next to your little buddy; would that work?" the man taunted but Wolf made no response

"What is their next target?" the man asked slowly, getting to the point.

Wolf took a moment forming his response "We don't know bull about that group of people."

The leader man yelled in frustration and grabbed Wolf around the neck pushing him up to the wall. "How can you not know! What sort of investigation have you carried out that can't even provide your bosses with that basic piece of information? Is that how inadequate you all are?" he growled out as he squeezed. He then rammed his forearm up against Wolf throat to more effectively choke him.

"What makes you think that your country is worth so much fucked up loyalty that you would die and let your friends die to preserve it?" the man didn't seem to realize that Wolf was completely unable to answer as he violently struggled against him trying to breath until the two other men held him down.

"I don't understand it." The leaderman spat as Wolf stopped struggling all together and his eyes rolled back in his head. He stepped back in disgust and the rest of K-unit watched in petrified horror as the two men let Wolf fall first to his knees and then to the floor. His eyes were closed and he did not move.

"You disgust me." The man spat on him

The man went back to Alex after telling the two men to leave him there on the ground. When he came back into the room, Alex's eyes were over flowing with tears of utter shock.

"What did you do?!" Alex screamed

"I killed him, now you had better answer the question before I kill you."

"What good did that do!?" Alex wailed glancing at Wolf continually hoping he would get up, but his comrade didn't move.

"In case you haven't noticed yet I'm not in this for the good of anything. Now answer the fucking question!"

Alex glared at him with furious red rimmed eyes. The sadness he had just felt for Wolf's death was being consumed by intense animosity for this man in a completely different way from the ever present hatred he had for him as their torturer. Now instead of wanting the man dead he wanted to kill him. Alex knew that, had he been loose, after a small exertion he would smile down at the man dead on the floor with multiple knife wounds to the neck with no remorse whatsoever.

"Go fuck yourself you asrehole! I'm not answering anything more!" Alex cursed furiously

When the man came up to him to smack him across the face, Alex let lose a tirade of kicks that slightly bruised the man's midsection. When the other two men came over to help him as he was doubled over, he waved them away. "You little rat!" he shouted straightening up.

He punched him in the chest right over his fresh wounds and the old bullet scar driving the blow hard. The combined pain of the two wounds and the pressure exerted on his heart initiated a sudden violent struggle for air. Eagle gripped the handle of his chairs in desperation seeing Alex struggle as though he was being smothered.

The wheezing sound was almost unbearable and his face was beginning to turn blue. After what seemed like forever he coughed vigorously and what ever had happened seemed to pass but apparently Alex had not learned his lesson yet.

As the man started to circle him in agitation apparently trying to think of a different tactic altogether, Alex kicked out again tripping him. The boy actually seemed to have momentarily lost his sense of reason because the look on his face when the man crashed to the floor was entertained to say the least and he didn't bother remedying that when the man jumped up with a fiendish expression on his face.

"If you think that because your leader is gone then you're the new trouble maker, you are making a sad mistake. I'll teach you what happens to little trouble makers."

"I don't care." Alex stated defiantly.

"Oh really?"

He marched around behind Alex and released one of his arms from the chains above his head. Snake held his breath in uneasy anticipation of what was about to happen and Fox continually rocked his chair to loosen it from its bolts while Eagle tried unsuccessful to squeeze his hands out of the restraints that had been fastened to the arms of the chair.

Alex's face however was strangely indifferent. The fear or pain apparently didn't register until the man took a firm hold of his shoulder and whispered something in his ear. Even then he looked more angry than scared, but when the leaderman suddenly yanked the right arm in his grasp downward and back completely dislocating the shoulder, the blood drained so quickly from his face that the rest of K-unit thought he would faint and the scream that reverberated off of the walls of the large room made their stomach roll.

Alex hung there gasping from the pain as the man went around to his other arm and took a hold of it.

"Do I need to do this one too?" he asked

Alex concentrated on breathing and ignored him.

"I said, do I need to make this arm useless as well?!" he shouted, yanking Alex's face upward so he could see it.

"No." Alex reluctantly growled out in a pained groan.

"Now I asked you a question and I'm sick and tired of waiting for an answer."

Alex continued trying to slow his aching, racing heart and control the pain that was running up and down his arm.

"I'm not answering anymore questions." He answered after a moment

"You just don't get it do you?" The man laughed obviously incredulous at Alex behavior

"Alex," Fox shouted "don't be stupid and stubborn. Acting like this isn't going to bring him back. Don't make it harder for yourself."

"You had better listen to your team mates because they have much more sense than that excuse of a leader ever had and I'm losing my patience very quickly" the man growled in exasperation

"You're gonna leave us with only three team members Cub" Snake added "and you know that we sure as hell don't want that; we can't afford to lose anyone else. I can't allow you to die too."

Alex stared at Snake for a moment before answering in a cold, hoarse voice. "You need to get out of the habit of making promises that you can't keep Snake. You said that you wouldn't let Wolf die either but he did; you can't control what's going on so don't pretend that you can stop it." His voice was bitter and angry as he spoke.

Snake was stunned. He glanced over at Wolf's still form lying on the cold ground. Alex was right; if he couldn't control anything how could he hope to prevent the worst. "I'm sorry mate; so sorry." he whispered although he knew that Wolf couldn't hear him.

The leaderman growled in frustration "I don't have time-" he paused to request the picana from the Japanese man beside him "to wait for the little snot nosed brat to get over his temper tantrum. So if you don't start answering quickly I'm going to start hurting you again."

Alex sighed depressingly again as his rush of anger induced adrenaline wore off and pain took over again "I don't know. How many times do we have to tell you the same thing?"

The man nearly screamed in aggravation "And how many times do I have to tell you the same thing; I don't buy it!"

Alex simply remained silent until the man dug the electrical device into his side and the current ripped through his body again.

"Let's try a different question." the man suggested as he finally shut off the device. Once he had regained a slight semblance of composure, Alex answered in the negative again, as did the rest of K-unit and the pain began again.

This cycle continued for maybe four more questions. All of them pertained to an organization and a supposed investigation that they knew nothing about and as the questions continued the members of K-unit began to get very suspicion of where this man and his secret group stood in the midst of all this.

His questions suggested that he knew much more than he was letting on about the group he was asking them about. As a matter of fact he seemed to be testing them to make absolutely certain that they were as ignorant as they seemed.

"Did you go there as an undercover team or did you just waltz in like you owned the place?"

Alex's body was twitching uncontrollably as tears streamed down his face. He was beginning to wish that he was dead as well. His voice was extremely hoarse and desperate as he again answered with an 'I don't know' despite the fact that he did actually know. He was simply so taxed that he couldn't think straight.

Alex closed his eyes, tensing himself, waiting for the electricity to fry his over stimulated nerves again as he heard the man yell in frustration, but the characteristic jab didn't come.

When he opened back his eyes what he saw caused his heart to momentarily stop. The man was instead almost running towards him with the giant pot of hot water that had been returned to boiling temperature. He was holding it as though he intended to dowse him with the whole pot.

Alex knew without a doubt that if that man succeeded in pouring that pot of boiling water on him that he was going to die of pain first and of the actual injuries second. The thought of it all drove him completely hysterical.

As the man drew closer with the heavy pot that he was obviously struggling, with Alex screamed and thrashed around as he struggled to find some way to avoid the horrific pain to come.

Now that was an evil cliffy even for me. But if you enjoyed this chapter, the next one should be just as good if not better. Stay tuned and please review.

Happy Thanksgiving.