"Come on, Stone. We know you know more than you're telling us. Where the hell are they keeping Brody?" Evan Hollister lowered his face close to Jonathan's ear. "Just tell us what we want to know and we'll walk right out that door and leave you alone."
Jonathan's eyes widened, and he shook his head rapidly. "I told you. I don't know anything. I haven't seen Brody since… since…"
"I bet your little girlfriend will know." Frank Staples leaned against the credenza in Jonathan's office and began gnawing on his thumbnail.
"What girlfriend?" Jonathan swallowed hard.
"Blondie with the big mouth," Staples spat.
"Blondie?" Jonathan sputtered as his mind raced. "You mean Francine Desmond?"
Staples flicked a piece of nail off the end of his thumb and groaned. "Yeah, the fed. I hate feds!"
"Francine's not my girlfriend. We're done for good. That ship sailed long ago." Jonathan shook his head again.
Hollister narrowed his eyes at him and folded his arms. "She and her sidekick there… what was his name again?"
"Stetson?" Jonathan blinked several times as he tried to clear the sweat trickling down his forehead into his eyes, blurring his vision.
"Yeah… pretty boy. He's been on Brody's back for years. I bet he knows where Brody is," Staples sneered.
"I'm telling you. I don't know. I'm just an import/export guy. I have nothing to do with them… any of them," Jonathan insisted.
"Enough of this!" a deep voice boomed from the other side of the room. "I know what will loosen his tongue." The man pulled a small vial and syringe out of his pocket and moved closer to where Jonathan sat, taped to a chair.
Jonathan wiggled his wrists, trying to release the binds holding him. "I'm telling you. You've got the wrong guy. I haven't talked to Francine in months!"
The man removed the safety cap from the syringe, held the vial up, and inserted the needle. He drew back the plunger, filling the barrel with an unidentified liquid. After tapping the syringe several times, he dropped the vial back into his pocket and squirted a few drops of the liquid in the air as Jonathan watched his every move. "This will help you speak the truth," the man stated before he plunged the needle into Jonathan's arm.
Warm liquid burned Jonathan's vein, and he tried hopelessly to wrestle his arm free. Several long seconds later, he found himself drifting out of consciousness.