Chapter 20

Chapter 20

Maksim

Afluorescent lightbulb flickering overhead casts long shadows on the wall behind the son of a bitch who’s sitting tied to a chair in front of me. One of his eyes is swollen shut and his lip is busted, but we’ve gone pretty easy on him so far. I’m about to show him how bad things can get, though.

“I’ll kill you,” I say, keeping my voice low and deadly as I lean in closer to him. “You’ll think what happened earlier was a walk in the park compared to what I’m about to do.”

“No,” he shakes his head, “I already told you everything I know. I swear.”

“I don’t believe that,” I growl, nodding to Lev.

He steps forward, a wicked-looking knife flashing in his hand.

The man in the chair struggles against his bindings, his eyes widening. “What the fuck? What the fuck are you going to do?”

“I’m just gonna carve some skin,” Lev replies, grinning. “Maybe take one of your fingers. Just a pinky, nothing major. Maybe a thumb.”

“You fucking sicko,” the guy spits out, his eyes wild.

“Don’t worry,” Lev chuckles, the tip of the knife pressed against the man’s neck. “Maybe it’ll grow back.”

“It’s not like you’ll have much time to miss it, anyway.” I crack my knuckles, the sound echoing in the small, mostly empty room.

It’s a storage closet, technically. One we don’t use often, and it’s a hell of a lot better than the basement, which is usually where we take the more stubborn assholes who need a little motivation.

“I’m telling you, man. I don’t know anything!” the guy whimpers, his voice shaking.

“Then how did you know we were coming?” I ask, leaning back and folding my arms across my chest.

“I didn’t,” he says, then stammers, “I mean, I d-didn’t know at first. I didn’t get the call.”

“But there was a call?” I ask, tempted to punch him again just to take out some of my growing rage. “Someone tipped you guys off?”

He nods. “I g-guess so? They don’t tell us much, not since Booker got killed. They used to let us make our phone calls and videos and whatnot at our own places, wherever we wanted. But after Booker, they started getting jumpy. They wanted us all in one place; I guess so they could keep an eye on us.”

“Who?” Lev breaks in before I can say anything else. “Who are they?”

“I don’t know,” the guy says, his voice pitching high in fear as if he knows that answer won’t be good enough. “Seriously. I just do what they tell me! I never met the bosses or anything. None of us did. We show up to work, we get our instructions, we do our thing. We get paid. That’s it, I swear.”

“You better be telling us the truth,” I warn him, reaching for a gun sitting on the table next to the chair.

“I am, man. I swear. Look, I’ve told you everything I can. There’s no reason for you to hurt me, is there?” His eyes widen as he glances from the gun to me and back again. “Please, man. Don’t kill me. I don’t want to die.”

I cock the gun, aiming it at his kneecap. “I still feel like you’re holding out. My guys mentioned something about a flash drive. What do you know about that?”

He swallows hard and looks at the floor. “That’s where some of the information is stored. Phone numbers, addresses, contact info for targets. That sort of shit. That’s everything, though. All the information they gave me was on a thumb drive. You’ve got it, don’t you?”

“It’s encrypted,” Lev tells him. “We’ll need your help getting into it.”

“You have the password, don’t you?” I ask, pressing the gun against his knee. “I bet if I pull this trigger, you’ll remember.”

“Okay, okay, yeah.” He’s sweating, I can see the beads forming on his upper lip and forehead, and he looks at me, his eyes pleading. “It’s…fuck. You’re not gonna believe me.”

“Try me,” I growl, moving my gun to hover over his groin instead.

“It’s ‘password’,” he squeaks, wincing back from me. “That’s what all the passwords were. All one word, lowercase. Just…password.”

“You’re joking.” I raise an eyebrow. “That’s not a password. That’s a fucking security nightmare.”

“It’s a good way to get yourself killed,” Lev grumbles, his voice full of disdain. “Fucking idiots.”

“I’m just telling you what it was.” He squirms in his seat, the ropes around his wrists and ankles starting to chafe. “I’m not an IT guy, I’m just good with socials. You want a hacker, talk to one of your own guys.”

“Oh, trust me. I will.” I nod to Lev, who moves to untie the guy’s arms and legs. “If I find out you’ve been lying to me, or you’ve left out even the smallest detail, I’ll be back for your knee. Got it?”

“Yes,” the guy whimpers, rubbing his raw wrists. “I’ll do anything, just don’t…don’t kill me. Please.”

“I’m a reasonable guy,” I tell him, standing up and tucking the gun into the waistband of my pants. “I’m letting you live, but I’ll be watching you.”

The guy gulps audibly and stares at me with wide, round eyes.

“And next time I come knocking for information, I don’t want to work for it, d’you understand?”

“I… uh…yes?”

I lean in close to him, and he once more flinches back. “I don’t like liars and I don’t like scammers. Don’t try to hide from me, and don’t even fucking think about telling anyone we’ve spoken. I’ll know. And I won’t be so reasonable about it.”

“Right,” he whispers, voice shaking. “Got it. I w-won’t tell a soul.”

Lev takes him by the arm and hauls him to his feet. “Let’s go.”

They leave, and I follow them to the door, turning the lock before heading back to the office. It’s been a long fucking day, and there’s no end in sight.