Chapter 2
Interrogation
Adam Harkin spent the next several hours lying in the back of a speedboat listening to the water chopping and the younger sister's incessant chatter. The sun was still an hour or two from rising when they finally came ashore and dragged him into a building that smelled vaguely of rust and rot and despair.
They untied his hands and feet for a brief period, but only in order to tie him to a heavy chair with armrests. Laura extended a claw and removed all of his clothes except his underwear on account of her sister, who she told to pay close attention.
"Wanna make bets how long he lasts?" Gabby asked. "I give him five minutes."
"This isn't a game, Gabby, and I'm not going to waste any more time than I have to." She took a deep breath and slowly released it. "Alright, let's get this over with."
She removed the hood from over his head, and it took several moments for Harkin's eyes to adjust to the bright lights shining in his eyes.
Laura sighed again. "No, you won't talk yet. You're angry, and you wanna prove to yourself that you're a tough guy." She shook her head as if disappointed in him. "Everybody talks, Mr. Harkin. Everybody, including me. You can tell me right now everything you know and where I can learn more, or I can start removing body parts. You can either die in excruciating, unimaginable pain, or with your body still fully intact and without feeling a thing. Either way you will tell me everything I want to know. That's nonnegotiable."
Harkin squirmed in his seat but concentrated on staring straight ahead, ignoring the two young women on either side of him.
"I'm not a sadist," Laura said. "I take no pleasure in making people suffer even when they deserve it. The taped mouth has as much to do with me not wanting to hear you scream as not wanting you to be able to relieve stress if you force me to start cutting you."
"She's technically a masochist, not a sadist," Gabby explained. Laura turned and glared at her. "Sorry, shutting up now..."
Laura shook her head and leaned over to meet Harken's gaze. "People talk quicker if they're not able to scream," she said. "Besides, if I hear you beg for your miserable life knowing that you ignored the pleas of tens of thousands of children, not to mention grown men and women, you'll make me very angry. And trust me, neither of us wants that."
"Laura has issues. Lots of issues..."
"But you won't be my issue much longer, Mr. Harkin. The sooner we're done here, the sooner we can put an end to your human trafficking business, and the sooner I can find Kimura..."
The man's eyes widened, and Laura nodded. "That's right. You've been selling children to Kimura to use as test subjects. That's how we got wind of your operation. One of your men got sloppy and was smart enough not to test my patience. I know you hate Kimura. Everybody does. You're going to help me find her, and then I'm going to put her out of her misery. Understand?"
Without another word she wedged an adamantium claw underneath one of the man's fingernails, slowly prying it off while he silently screamed and thrashed in his chair.
"If it makes you feel any better," Laura said, pausing when it was halfway removed, "I've had the same done to me, and also much worse. Of course I have a healing factor, but Kimura used to make a game out of how much skin she could peel off before I became whole again. It was to teach me how to properly conduct an interrogation, and to give me a good reference point for pain. On a scale from one to ten, this isn't even a one. Kimura was very thorough and good at her job in case you're curious, and she taught me everything she knows. Time's running out, Mr. Harkin."
She finished prying off the fingernail and moved onto another before he could finish screaming. "Kimura usually started with my back, sometimes my breasts, but I prefer fingernails. If you're still not willing to talk, I'll move onto your toes. Trust me, that'll hurt much worse. And once I start removing skin, you'll be begging me to just cut them off instead."
Laura took a step back once she had removed the second fingernail and Harkin finished screaming. Tears filled his eyes and ran down his face, and not just because of the pain. Realization was setting in of what he was in store for, and that very soon he'd be begging for death. If he had any regrets in his life besides being caught however, Laura didn't see it in his eyes.
'Almost there,' she thought to herself, hearing Kimura's voice encouraging her to skip to the end. While she contemplated removing the tape covering his mouth however, she caught Harkin looking directly at her sister, and knowing exactly what that look meant, extended her adamantium claws mere millimeters in front of his face, causing him to flinch and lean as far back as possible.
"Gabby," she said calmly, "if you wouldn't mind, please walk around Mr. Harkin where he can't see you. We went to a lot of trouble bringing him here, and I'd hate to sabotage the entire mission just because I didn't like the way a rapist was looking at my sister."
She shrugged and walked behind him. "Like I said, issues..."
Gabby positioned herself behind him, arms crossed, watching her sister curiously. She had never been taught how to properly interrogate someone, and had always just shot people in the kneecaps when they had information she needed. Laura however hadn't been satisfied with such barbary, and had told her to watch and learn how to break even a hardened criminal with minimal effort.
"I don't know what exactly Weapon X did to Kimura," Laura continued, retracting her claws, "but they made her skin even harder than adamantium. That means if I want to kill her, I'll probably have to at least partially skin her alive. If you don't tell me the name of everyone you've ever sold children to and where I can find proof, I'll practice on you first, Mr. Harkin. Tell me what I want to know, and you won't feel a thing. You're still going to die, but it's entirely up to you if you wanna go to hell looking as you do now, or blind, deaf, dumb, and without your limbs or even your skin. It's your choice, Mr. Harkin, and it's a limited time offer."
When he didn't immediately answer, she slammed her heel between his legs and released a claw, causing him to once again silently scream in terror.
"I wouldn't squirm too much if I were you. If this were personal, I'd probably start here, and I wouldn't ask you any questions until I was already done."
"Don't worry, Mr. Harkin," Gabby said cheerfully, "neither of us have twigs and berries either, and you don't hear us complaining!"
Laura paused and glared at her again. "Sorry. Can't help it..."
Gabby mimed zipping her lips, and Laura leaned over and whispered in Harkin's ear. "People like you have hurt me since I was a little girl," she seethed, barely controlling her voice. "Not only that, but they've also hurt the people I care about, and you are standing in my way of hunting down and killing Kimura. This is already personal, Mr. Harkin, but I'm doing my very best to control myself. Would you like to make this even more personal than it already is?"
Harkin closed his eyes and shrank away from her, and finally shook his head. "Good, because I lied earlier. I already have all the experience I need in making people suffer..."
After a mercifully short interrogation session, Laura spent the next several hours on the phone and her computer while Gabby stood guard and talked nonstop to their captive. She had contacts around the world working to confirm the information given to her by Harkin, either by hacking servers or busting down doors, and so far the operation was running smoothly like a well-oiled machine.
Jubilee was in Hong Kong searching for live prey since she was fluent in Cantonese and knew her way around the city, and was almost as good of a tracker as Laura herself. Kitty Pryde meanwhile was back in New York City, putting her considerable computer skills to good use. There were many more members of their respective strike team, the operation itself being overseen by Jean Grey, but they were the only ones Laura was actively working with. Officially speaking, the X-Men had nothing to do bringing down the human trafficking network, and were relying on Laura, Gabby, and Jubilee to do all of the dirty work.
All of Adam Harkin's information was thus far checking out, and after a few hours of thorough questioning and waiting for further questions from her team, as well as a couple more fingernails, Laura decided she had learned everything she was going to and decided to pay her respects to the ruler of Madripoor. It was her island she was using as headquarters after all, and Adam Harkin was technically one of her citizens.
Jessán Hoan, better known to the world as Tyger Tiger, had no love for Kimura as she had tried overthrowing her government a time or two, and occasionally made use of the island's infamous black market, as well as other less reputable services.
Tyger had cleaned up much of Madripoor's dark reputation since becoming queen about eight years prior. It was still a capitalist's paradise, but there were two rules when it came to trading on her island. No drugs, and no human trafficking, with the latter being punishable by death. Despite that, Madripoor had been a hotbed for trafficking for a century or more, and it was still a thriving industry in the nation's criminal underbelly.
"That's right," Laura said over the phone, speaking in an adjoining office. "He's currently tied up at 616 by the docks. The usual place. I've got all the information I need from him, and you should have everything relating to Madripoor by now. I'll have the X-Men send you a copy of everything else we find later today and keep you in the know. Would you like to interrogate him yourself?"
Laura glanced at Harkin in the other room and nodded as Tyger spoke. "I understand. Good luck to you too. If we do this right, and if we're quick enough, we'll bring down the largest human trafficking ring in the world, imprison or kill most of the buyers and sellers, and hopefully find everyone they've ever sold as well."
She nodded again. "Right, I understand. We'll be careful. You do the same. Thank you for letting us operate in Madripoor. It's home away from home, especially with the weather changing in New York. I'll let you know when I've killed Kimura, or if there are any other developments. Goodbye." She hung up and immediately walked out of the office behind Harkin, and without making a sound, extended two adamantium claws straight through his chest, killing him instantly.
"Hey!" Gabby cried. "We were talking! I was just getting to the part where we saved Jonathan!"
"Consider it a mercy killing then." Laura untied Harkin from the chair and with minimal effort, dragged his body into a back alley where she unceremoniously tossed him into an awaiting dumpster that Tyger would have picked up within the hour.
This was justice as far as Laura was concerned, and Madripoor for that matter. Adam Harkin was too rich and powerful to ever stand trial, and there wasn't a facility in the entire world secure enough to keep him alive long enough to do so. Even now the rats were scattering, going underground for the foreseeable future, and dangerous men from around the world were searching high and low for him, leaving no stone unturned.
"Where to next?" Gabby asked, suppressing a yawn.
Laura paused to think. It was a good question, and one she hadn't given much thought to. Since she was eleven-years-old, she had been going on dangerous missions almost nonstop, which was the only time she was ever allowed outside The Facility. Ever since then, it had been difficult for her to sit idle too long, and she rarely gave much thought to what she would do after a mission was complete. It wasn't in her nature, but perhaps more importantly, it also wasn't in her programming.
"We wait to hear back from Jubilee, Kitty, and Jean," she said finally. "We did the dirty work, now we let them do theirs. Tyger's giving us free reign in Madripoor while we're here, and we'll probably get a lead if we wait here long enough. No point in going back to New York."
Gabby nodded and suppressed another yawn. "So what do we do until then?"
Laura smirked at her. "You're gonna get some sleep. I've got an apartment not far from here. While you're doing that, I'm gonna go over some of the documents I haven't had time to read."
"Shouldn't you get some sleep too?"
"I've only been awake for thirty-six hours. I'll be fine after some coffee. Just try not to grow any more in your sleep. If you end up being taller than me, I'm going to cut your feet off."
Laura was in fact not fine even after three cups of coffee, and she ended up dozing on the couch not long after an extended shower. She had been planning on babysitting her phone and laptop all day, but even though it was technically her operation, now that the dirty work was done, Laura was admittedly low on the totem pole of people who needed to be kept in the know.
The apartment was just the bare essentials and a place to sleep when she was on business. It was located on the bad side of town and not far from the smuggling hotbed of Buccaneer Bay. If there was any work to be done on the island, it would probably be here.
She didn't sleep for long however, and after Gabby had gotten a few hours, they found themselves lounging on the couch together, sitting in the dark, listening to the familiar sounds of the city below and each other's breathing.
"How much of what you said was true?" Gabby asked quietly. "When you were threatening to torture him?"
Laura seemed to pretend not to hear, and brought her knees up to her chest and hugged them tightly. "Most of it," she said sometime later. Laura sighed and shook her head. "All of it. When you're interrogating someone, it sometimes helps if they build an emotional connection to you. You want them to feel something other than just anger towards you. Hate and anger give a person strength, but fear, pity, and despair break them. It's one of the reasons why 'Good Cop, Bad Cop' works so well, and it's basically fast and dirty Stockholm Syndrome."
"More like 'Bad Cop, Scary Cop'.
Laura chuckled darkly, but not because of what she said. "I should've been compensated for being Kimura's therapist all those years. And yes, I do see the irony and the similarities between us. It's our differences that matter, not everything we have in common."
'Or so you keep telling yourself,' Kimura whispered.
"You two are nothing alike," Gabby said firmly. "Nothing. Understand?"
Laura quickly looked away when her sister caught her eye, and Gabby scooted closer. "Thank you for showing me how to interrogate someone that doesn't involve putting bullets in their kneecaps. I'm just sorry that you had to learn from experience."
She nodded. "I'm sorry too, Gabby, but it is what it is. Kimura turned me into one of the most dangerous weapons on Earth, and now that weapon is pointed directly at her. Trouble is that's exactly what she wants. In the end, Kimura always gets what she wants. Always..."
Gabby grabbed her hand. "Not always. Not this time. This time we're gonna kill her!"
Laura sighed again. Nobody knew Kimura better than her, and nobody seemed to understand what exactly it was that Kimura wanted most in the world. Rebuilding Weapon X in her own image and attempting to become queen of her own nation were just petty games to her. Something to amuse herself with and pass the time as an immortal. Kimura hated herself, and she couldn't even harm herself like Laura could, and so took all her frustrations out on others.
Her hands began to shake and she immediately stuffed them under her armpits as if she were cold. She had promised them both that she would not cut herself so long as Gabby was under the same as her. So far she had made good on that promise, but while all days were difficult, some were seemingly impossible to get through.
Perhaps sensing this, Gabby leaned over and rested her head on her shoulder. "You're alright, Sis. We'll stop Kimura, and we'll get through this together just like always. Try to get some sleep. Six hours every other day is going to get you killed, and I don't wanna live the next couple centuries without you. You're all I've got left..."
Laura nodded, and shutting her eyes and snuggling with sister, she quickly found herself having an almost pleasant dream. True nightmares were surprisingly rare for her. Most of the time she was so exhausted by the time she finally allowed herself to sleep that Laura didn't even dream, and woke up almost as exhausted as she'd gone to sleep feeling.
Other times she had what she supposed most people would consider nightmares, but they were so familiar after all these years that they didn't bother her much anymore. When she did have nightmares however, she had a habit of screaming and cutting her bed into pieces, and sometimes even herself. In their year and a half together however, she'd never had a single nightmare in the presence of her sister, and occasionally even had pleasant dreams far removed from hell.
It was so pleasant in fact that she didn't appear to wake when mist began filling the room, seeping through the window before suddenly taking the shape of a young Asian woman with red eyes and a long yellow coat. She grinned ear to ear, flashing a pair of fangs at the sisters asleep on the couch, and tiptoed over to them. She licked her lips, staring at the elder's neck, hearing the blood coursing through her veins, and bent down to take a nibble when without warning Laura extended two claws on either side of the vampire's throat, who immediately covered her mouth to keep from laughing. "Come on, dude!" she whispered. "Can't you take a joke?"
"Jubilee," she said calmly, not removing her claws, "what are you doing here?" Gabby stirred in her lap but didn't open her eyes.
"I finished up early and decided to stop by for a snack." She licked the trickle of blood from between Laura's knuckles and swished it around her mouth. "Dude, you have no idea how much that hits the spot after a long day. Emphasis on day."
Laura retracted her claws and wiped away the blood, and more importantly Jubilee's saliva, when Gabby suddenly jumped up with her claws extended, startled by the smell of cold death, before squealing and leaping into Jubilee's awaiting arms.
"Hey, kiddo! Oops, excuse me. Hey, young lady." She shook her head, laughing. "Have you grown another inch since I saw you last week?"
Gabby nodded. "Did you bring me back presents?"
Jubilee held her heart as if it hurt, or in her case, suddenly started beating again. "Of course I remembered, Gabs." She produced a large sack from within her coat and handed it over, which Gabby immediately ripped open and began devouring all manner of Chinese candies, chocolates, and snacks, as well as a few toys Jubilee thought she'd like.
Laura glanced at the miniblinds and the fading sunlight poking through. "Jubilee, it's at least fifteen hundred miles from Hong Kong to Madripoor, and it's still daylight. This isn't a social visit. Why are you here?"
"Also, isn't sunlight like really bad for vampires?" Gabby asked with her mouth full.
Jubilee dug underneath her shirt and from around her neck retrieved a gold amulet with strange writing and a large ruby in the center. "Blade gave me this, remember? Sunlight still hurts like a nasty sunburn, but I won't burst into flames while I have this on. I guess this is probably the first time you've actually seen me out during the day, huh?"
Gabby nodded. She blamed her poor memory on having been shot in the head one too many times, which Laura partially agreed with, but she mostly attributed it to her sister's inability to listen or pay attention. In truth, she shared this in common with Jubilee, and Laura supposed it was a trait common among immortals that forgot they could still die from carelessness and incompetence.
"What's in Madripoor that's so important that you couldn't just tell me over the phone," Laura asked. "It's something dangerous or else you would've just left it to us." Although adrenaline bubbled in her chest at the prospect of another mission, Jubilee believing that her very special talents were required immediately made her cautious, especially for Gabby.
Jubilee met her gaze and nodded, answering many of her questions. "I didn't call ahead because I wanted to let the both of you both get your beauty sleep." She studied the dark circles around Laura's eyes, glad that she had at least gotten little, and as usual couldn't help checking her wrists and forearms despite knowing it was pointless.
"Some guy I had for a drink told me that Weapon X had been running experiments here in Madripoor before Kimura took over. They weren't sure if she was pulling the strings or not, but it's a lead if nothing else, and if they are still here, they need to be stopped."
"What kind of experiments?"
"Well, I'll give you a hint. What has super strength, super speed, super senses, immortality, supernatural powers, hates sunlight, and are sexy as hell?"
Laura sighed but Gabby jumped up and down clapping and squealing. "Oh my God! Are we gonna get to play vampire hunters!?"
(A/N: Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed. This chapter was inspired by "Daken/X-23: Collision", specifically the scene where Laura interrogates/tortures a villain for information and discusses being tortured herself. That was shortly removed from her time with X-Force, which I like to think she's somewhat regressed to in this story. Laura's angrier and less composed than she was in "Killers By Trade", and she keeps hearing Kimura's voice in her subconscious. Given her programming and how much time they spent together, I like to think that this is something Laura has always struggled with, but has only gotten that much worse since her last stint as Kimura's prisoner.
I was very happy to be able to introduce Jubilee so early in "Killers By Choice". She was sorta the "breakout character" for me in its predecessor. Her friendship with Laura is one of Marvel's biggest missed opportunities in my opinion, and Laura killing vampires is just a match made in Heaven. Honestly, this plot thread was a bit of a happy accident after learning of a comic where Wolverine goes to Madripoor and fights a vampire. If Weapon X is/was interested in immortality like Laura suggested in the previous story, then running experiments involving vampires make sense. With that said, I just wanted an excuse for Laura, Gabby, and Jubilee to kill vampires.
All credit goes to my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who has blessed me with this story and all of you wonderful readers. God bless)