The cell door slid open with a rasping noise and Blue Sun mercs grabbed Kaidan and hauled him to his feet and out of the cell. Out of the corner of his eye he saw James being treated similarly, and behind him Garrus was dragged out too.
"What's happening!" Shepard's voice came through the locked door and the walls, shrill and hard. "What's going on? Garrus? Kaidan?"
"It's okay", he started to say as they dragged him past her door but a rifle butt aimed at his kidneys cut him short and turned the words into a groan.
The leader of the group, the same man that had caught him stopped outside Shepard's door. "The Dealer wants to see some blood. And we are happy to oblige, isn't that so, boys?"
The mercs answered with cruel laughers and excited shouts. It was clear that they were looking forward to this.
"He wants you to watch too, Commander." The man punched in the code that opened the lock. "Come on", he said, dragging Shepard out into the corridor. "We mustn't let the man wait." He pushed Shepard to make her walk and steered her down the corridor with a hand on her shoulder. "He is paying us a fortune, but to tell you the truth, Commander, I would gladly do this for free." He leaned close to her, bringing his mouth to her ear, his fingers digging into her shoulder hard enough to make her wince. "I've had many women but you were by far the best...
The implication of his words froze her. She felt her body go numb with fear, felt her stomach tie up in a tight knot when he let his other arm slide around her waist and pull her against him. His breath was hot and wet against her ear. She tried to move away from him but he tightened his grip on her and held her in place. "Even reluctant you were sweeter than most are willing..."
He pressed into her and she would have doubled over hadn't he held her upright. Bile rose in her throat and black spots whirled in front of her eyes. "I'm going to kill you", she promised, her voice low and ragged. "I'm going to rip your fucking heart out."
The man laughed brutally and shoved her in front of him to make her move. "Come now, there is no need for such foul language. You forget, you're in no position to make threats, Commander. Or would you like to watch when I punish your friends for your bad behaviour?" With that he pushed her through the door at the end of the corridor and into a room brightly lit with spotlights.
The white ceramic tiled floor and walls gleamed. The harsh light that made them blink and squint after the hours spent in darkness. Hand-cuffs linked to chains hung down from the ceiling to the left and the right of a chair similar to the one they had strapped Shepard to in that other facility. It looked... staged. As if someone had built a set for recording a vid, and she wasn't surprised when she saw two camera droids hovering a few feet up in the air. No doubt, they would descend like vultures to transmit every anguished scream, every drop of blood the torturers could force from their victims.
Her heart was beating wildly in her chest, her mouth dry, her breath rasping in and out of her throat as the man behind her shoved her towards the middle of the room, towards the chair.
The Normandy's armoury had become the central point for planning the operation. The high-pitched voices of the salarians mingled with the rough growling tones of Zaeed Massani as they tossed ideas between them.
This wasn't the first time Kirrahe and Bau planned an extraction and the veteran bounty hunter couldn't help but to be impressed by the ingenuity of some of the ideas they proposed. He had worked with salarians before and knew they weren't as soft as they looked but he hadn't worked with anyone of Jondum Bau and Kirrahe's skill and experience. The determination, the sheer bravado, the two of them displayed more than matched his own.
The plan itself was simple enough. Cortez would drop off Kirrahe and his STG-team a few clicks from the facility itself and then make a loop, coming up on the building's right flank but staying out of its sight. With the IFF still active he would have to fly blind, relying on the maps and charts he was going over with Joker and EDI. Once the STG guys reached the facility they would cause a distraction, something that sent the mercs scurrying out of their base like curious rats.
Cortez would then proceed towards the building and drop Zaeed, Bau and Javik right on top of it. Kirrahe and his men would meet up with the shuttle to keep the LZ cleared of enemies until the extraction team returned.
A piece of cake.
But Zaeed knew better than most that things could get messy very quickly. He was counting on it in fact.
Shepard was forced to watch as the mercs stripped the three men to their waists. A black dampening collar was put around Kaidan's neck. It beeped and the omni-lock at the back started blinking red, indicating that it was active, interrupting the neurological signals to the L2-implant.
Then the metal hand-cuffs were clasped around James and Garrus' wrists and the chains were adjusted until their arms were stretched above their heads and they were forced to stand on the tip of their toes.
"Why are you doing this?" She asked, her voice barely more then a whisper.
"Because the Dealer pays me to." The man's voice rasped in her ear. "And because I enjoy it."
"Who is the Dealer?"
"I don't know", the man said as if it was a riddle he himself had wondered about. "I've never met him face to face. Our businesses are always conducted via holo-comm and all I ever see of him is a shadow."
"He's hired you before?" She asked, watching as Kaidan was strapped into the chair.
"Yeah. Usually to hunt down batarians. We take them here or to one of the other facilities the Dealer has prepared. We torture them for days and make them beg for their lives again and again. And these little things." He jerked a thumb towards the camera droids that was whirring into position. "They're his eyes and ears. He sees and hears everything. He is watching now..." He breathed the last words into her ear like a lover whispering of his desire. "He wants to watch as we torture your boyfriend..."
"He is not my boyfriend", Shepard managed.
"Ah, there is no use denying it, Commander", the man said grinning. "You two where quite the hot item two years ago, and one of our informants overheard you flirting during the Major's hospitalisation."
Shepard gave him a glance over her shoulder. "We're not together any more. Just let him go."
The man laughed, a rich surprisingly warm and beautiful sound. "Would you rather he watched you get raped then? Or maybe you'd like to watch us rape him?" He slid his hands up her sides, following the curve of her hips and waist, up to her breasts. Shepard shuddered in repulsion. "I could do to him everything I did to you, darling..." The man whispered in her ear. "Raping a man breaks him. It turns him into something less then a man in the eyes of himself. But some men..." He breathed, rubbing the palm of his hands over her breasts. "Some men like it, like being humiliated and used. I bet your pretty Major is one of them..."
"You're sick", she gritted out. She held her bound hands pressed against her abdomen, feeling the hard line of the hidden knife against her skin. She met Kaidan's gaze. She could tell by the tense lines around his eyes that he was struggling to remain calm.
"It's okay", he said, his voice hoarse. "This is not your fault, Shepard."
"Kaidan..."
Behind her the mercenary laughed again. "Such devotion and loyalty. How touching..." He let go of the grip he had on her and stepped around her, sauntering towards the three males on the display. "Let's see if the others are as brave. What about this one?" He had stopped in front of James and grabbed the young man's face, his fingers digging into James' cheeks. "According to our dossiers you regard him as something of a little brother, don't you, Commander?"
"Let go of him!" Shepard's voice was sharp.
"And what of the turian?" The man said with another unpleasant wide grin. "He's been with you from the start." He released his grip on James' face and walked over to the other side of the scene's centre-piece, the torturing chair with Kaidan.
Garrus met the man's amused gaze with eyes the colour and heat of a welding-torch. "You're the one that raped her", he said, sub-harmonics dark and menacing. "It was you I smelt on her. You will die for that."
The man laughed. "You forget, turian. You're a prisoner, and I'm the one who will kill you. When the Dealer has tired of your screams, and the screams of your pretty Commander you all die." He turned towards Shepard again. "Shall we start, dear?" He walked with deliberate slowness between the two men extended from the chains and Kaidan strapped to the chair. Then he stopped and lifted two fingers to his ear. "Yes sir?" He listened to the instructions and nodded and smiled. "As you wish." He turned back to Shepard. "We've been given new orders. The Dealer wants to save your lover for later and start with your young Lieutenant."
Okay, so I didn't get to the torturing in this chapter as I thought I would. But we're getting close at least... And closer to finding out the identity of the Dealer.
Thank you to CyanB for being a source of inspiration and ideas. And to all of you who have taken the time to post a review. Cheers to you all!