Rage and Ruin | 2

1 | 1

J A K E

I made sure the room was pitch black except for a bright light shining directly above Huard, illuminating him as he sat in the chair. I'd double checked the ropes that kept him secured to his seat so that there was no way he could escape.

The man's head was still hanging forward as he remained unconscious. Under the light, his graying hair shone and the glasses were beginning to slip off of his large nose.

This was enough. I needed him awake.

I lowered the temperature around the man, intending to freeze him out of his slumber. It was frigid in the room before he came to, waking with a start. Huard's head snapped up and his black eyes darted around frantically, trying to make sense of the situation I'd put him in.

Out of his mouth came a string of phrases in Romanian that I couldn't understand. I glanced at the assassin, knowing that she was fluent in the language due to her enslavement here.

She spoke a few curt sentences to him in Romanian before turning to the rest of us and saying, "He speaks English, though not very well."

"It doesn't matter how he says it," I said, my gaze boring into the black eyes of the President, "But he does need to give us the information we want."

His eyes searched my face for a sign of pity or understanding. I had none to give.

"Speak," I ordered, knowing that he had words on his tongue, but was too intimidated to say anything.

"Why am I here?" His accent was thick, but the words were clear and came very quickly. Though he wasn't showing it outwardly, I could sense his nervousness. Nervousness was good; I could prey on it.

"You're here to give us the information that we need," Tesla spoke, looking down at the man with intensity in her blue eyes.

I let the metal of my knife catch in the light. "If you're uncooperative, there will be consequences that you won't like."

"We can do this the easy way or the hard way, you choose," she finished, watching the man closely. Her features were stoic to the point of intimidation. The President did seem to be affected by it, but remained calm.

"We'll start out with an easy question," Tesla began the interrogation. "How long have you been the leader of this country?"

"Three years," he answered without a problem.

      "What do you know about Imperium?"

      Huard shrugged. "They were an organization of terrorists in this country. They murdered and spied on others for power." I narrowed my eyes at him. Was he going to be more willing to talk than he had originally seemed?

"Where are they now?" Gigi asked in a low voice. As she stood hidden in the dark, her eyes glittered as the only distinction that she was even there. She was taking the resurrection of Imperium almost as badly as Delphinium; she believed it was them who murdered her mother.

The others believed her to be harmless, a meek girl among dangerous criminals. But I got a strange feeling that her quietness was meant to hide more than just a shy temperament. Whatever it was that she was keeping a secret, I would pry it from her; it was clearly something big and important. If it affected me, I'd find out a way to use it.

"Imperium is gone," the Romanian President stated matter-of-factly. "One of their own mercenaries defected and killed them all."

I glanced at Delphinium, who wore a straight face. Either the man didn't know that that same mercenary stood before him or he was playing games with us.

"If they're gone, then why did you decline to speak with us on the subject? Shouldn't you be comfortable talking about them if they're all dead?"

Kane stepped forward when Huard didn't give an immediate answer. "You were President during the time they were functioning, weren't you? You're ashamed that you didn't even notice what was being hidden from you."

Huard let out a slow breath. "Yes. I wasn't able to catch the people murdering government officials in my own country. If it was revealed to the world, I'd be a laughingstock."

My eyes narrowed on the Romanian. He was taking the easy way out and agreeing with Kane. I could sense a wave of warmth radiating off of him as his heart sped up; he was lying.

"If you really did take ownership of the fortress, there have to be papers giving you the permission to do so. Do you have them?"

"Yes," he answered quickly. "Not on me, of course."

"Where are they?" Delphinium shot out, determined to prove her point. I knew that she'd break into Huard's personal office to find the papers if she had to.

"Not so fast, Tesla," I broke in, catching her eye as she turned to look at me. "We don't need the papers to know he's lying. I can already tell."

She raised an eyebrow. "How?"

"I have my ways."

Pushing her white tresses out of her face, she asked, "And how do I know that you're not lying? We all know you only work for yourself."

My glare deepened. "When have I been wrong about things like this? Please, enlighten me."

Delphinium had no verbal response. She only stared at me for a few seconds longer and gave a small nod of her head.

To the President, she snarled, "So you're lying? I told you that you could choose either the easy way or the hard way. It seems that you've chosen the latter."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Huard replied, standing his ground with his head held high.

There was a cracking sound as she slapped him across the face. "The world we know it is at stake, and that is your answer?"

"I told you the truth," he insisted, though the longer he spoke, the more I knew that I'd been right.

"No, you didn't. But you will." She stood over him threateningly. "I'm giving you one more chance to tell me what you really know about Imperium."

The President spat at her feet. "Who do you think you are to threaten me?"

In a flash, one of her knives was nestled against the flabby skin of his neck. "I think that I am a plague. I'll take your friends, your family, and then, finally, once you have nothing left, I'll come for you too."

Baring her white teeth, she pressed her blade in harder. Blood began to prick up from his skin and drip down his neck into the collar of his shirt. Huard grimaced in pain but still clamped his lips shut.

Their gazes cut through each other as they were face-to-face, both determined to bend the other to their will. Blood kept oozing from the cut Delphinium was slicing. Any deeper and the knife would hit his main artery.

The air in the room seemed to be sucked out. The assassin was seconds away from adding a another name to her long list of kills.