Chapter 84

The effect was immediate. The second the towel became waterlogged was the second she started to buck and thrash. Koenig thought that was unusual. There was normally a period, ten seconds or so, when the person being waterboarded tried to wait it out. When they thought that waterboarding wouldn't work on them.

But Nash didn't even try to hold her breath. As soon as her nose and throat filled with water, she expelled it like she'd accidentally swallowed bleach. It sounded like a whale's blowhole. Came through the towel in a fine mist. She looked at Hobbs, her eyes wider than Bambi's. Pleading.

To the untrained eye, it looked like she'd panicked. Hadn't even considered holding her breath. That's certainly what Hobbs thought. He was definitely panicking. He was thrashing about more than his daughter. The veins on his head were popping. He was trying to scream through his gag. Koenig didn't think Nash was panicking, though. He thought she was being pragmatic. She couldn't stop the waterboarding from happening. It wasn't in her wheelhouse. She was completely at Draper's mercy. And right now, Draper seemed fresh out. There was no safety word she could use. She couldn't tap the floor in submission. The only person who could stop the waterboarding was her father. Koenig thought that, far from panicking, she'd decided to amplify the effects. Bring her father around as quickly as possible.

Draper didn't stop, though. She kept pouring.

Now Nash had a problem. Blowing out the water in her nose and throat had left a vacuum in her lungs. They were empty. They needed to be filled. She looked at Koenig and winked. It was little more than a flutter, an almost imperceptible movement of her left eyelid. But Koenig saw it. She was letting him know that he was in on the joke. He was in on the joke and her father wasn't. It was their little secret.

After exactly ten seconds – Koenig counted them – Nash decided to take the hit. She breathed in and inhaled Draper's water. The towel clamped tight across her face. Looked like a death mask. Nash started to convulse.

And still Draper kept pouring. She kept pouring until Nash went limp and Hobbs was apoplectic.

‘Your daughter is now dying, Mr Hobbs.' She said it so matter-of-factly she might as well have been telling him the clock on his microwave was two minutes fast. ‘Do you want me to stop?'

He frantically nodded. It looked as if he would agree to anything.

‘Lift her up, Koenig,' Draper said.

Koenig did. The towel fell from Nash's face and she started to spasm. Koenig thumped her back, and after a moment she expelled a load of water and snot. She took in huge rasping breaths. Then vomited. Her fear might have been exaggerated, but the drowning was real.

‘Are you ready to talk?' Draper asked Hobbs. ‘Because I barely washed her face that time.'

Koenig peeled off the gag.

‘Yes!'

‘So talk.'

Hobbs hesitated, only for a second, but Draper was playing a zero-sum game.

‘Put his gag back on, Koenig.'

‘Daddy!' Nash screeched. ‘Make them stop! Please!'

Hobbs seemed stunned, unable to process what had happened. What was still happening.

‘The gag!' Draper snapped.

Koenig fixed the duct tape over Hobbs's mouth again.

‘Lift her feet.'

He did.

Nash winked again.

Draper placed the sodden towel over Nash's face and started to pour. The waterboarding was shorter this time but seemed much longer. Hobbs certainly thought so. He didn't struggle. Just quietly wept as he watched his daughter drown. Shoulders hunched. He was ready to talk. Everyone in the room knew it. Koenig had never seen anyone so utterly defeated.

Draper stopped pouring. Koenig lowered Nash's feet.

This time Hobbs didn't hesitate. The instant his gag was removed he screamed, ‘Jakob Tas!'