Chapter 18 - The Safehouse Interrogation
When the canvas bag is finally ripped from my head, the sudden bright light blinds me.
I blink rapidly, my eyes adjusting to the environment.
I am tied to a heavy oak chair in the middle of a massive, echoing barrel room of an abandoned, upscale winery.
The air smells heavily of fermented grapes and damp earth.
Liam is tied to a metal pipe a few feet away, his face bruised and bleeding.
Sitting elegantly across from me at a wooden tasting table is Evelyn Cross.
She is wearing a pristine white designer suit, sipping a glass of red wine as if she is at a casual networking event.
"Emma Whitaker," Evelyn says, her voice smooth and devoid of any humanity. "You have been entirely too much trouble for a college freshman."
"Where is the drive, Emma?" she asks, setting the wine glass down.
"I destroyed it," I lie, trying to keep my voice from shaking.
Evelyn sighs in profound disappointment.
She nods to one of the massive mercenaries standing behind her.
The man steps forward and punches Liam viciously in the stomach.
Liam coughs violently, spitting blood onto the concrete floor.
"Let me clarify the situation," Evelyn says calmly.
"Daniel Pierce kept the master decryption key in his head, but he left the physical ledger with you.
I need that ledger to properly secure the loyalty of the politicians Daniel was blackmailing.
If I do not have it, Vanguard's empire falls apart.
So, you are going to tell me where the hard drives are, or I am going to have my men slowly dismantle your new boyfriend right in front of you."
I look at Liam, who weakly shakes his head, silently begging me not to give them the data.
"You will kill us anyway," I say, tears of absolute terror stinging my eyes.
"Probably," Evelyn admits with a cold smile. "But the level of agony you experience before that happens is entirely up to you."
She pulls a silver surgical scalpel from her pocket and walks over to Liam, placing the cold blade against his throat.
"Ten seconds, Emma. Or I open his carotid artery."
May you like
I squeeze my eyes shut, my mind racing for any possible way out.
But before I can surrender the location of the drives hidden in Liam's backpack, the heavy wooden doors of the barrel room explode inward with a deafening blast.
