The Law of Nines

34

STANDING NEXT TO JAX was a man Alex instantly recognized. He was the burly passenger from the Jolly Roger Plumbing truck that had almost run over Jax the first time Alex had seen her. He was still wearing the same dark, dirty work clothes.

Jax’s clothes, the clothes she and Alex had bought together, lay where they had been carelessly tossed to the side as they’d stripped her.

The bearded man’s grin displayed crooked, yellow teeth. His dark eyes remained fixed on Alex, giving him a meaningful look while putting an arm around Jax’s waist in a familiar manner. She flinched slightly at his touch. In her drugged state she probably wouldn’t be able to understand it all, or to care a great deal.

“Glad you finally made it for the show,” the pirate said as he reached over with his other grimy hand and rubbed Jax’s bare belly. “We didn’t want to start in on this fine bitch until you was here.”

Alex could see Jax’s muscles tense at the man’s rough touch. She held her breath.

Alex put all his effort into keeping the rage off his face. It was a monumental task. More than anything, he wanted to kill everyone in the room and get Jax free. Most of all, though, he wanted to get his hands on the man who had his on Jax.

He knew, though, that if he did the wrong thing Jax was going to pay the price. He had stopped taking the drugs so that he would be able to think. That was what he had to do. As Ben had always said, it was his mind that was the real weapon.

“Now,” Vendis said, “I want you to tell me all about the gateway.”

Alex didn’t reply. He simply blinked dumbly, as if he wasn’t sure what they wanted him to say.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Vendis said in mock apology, gesturing to the filthy man with his arm tightly around Jax’s waist. “I forgot to introduce you. This fellow here is Yuri. As it so happens, Yuri knows this young lady. In fact, she killed his brother. Isn’t that right, Yuri?”

The look on Yuri’s face darkened. “Sure is. But I’m about to settle the score.”

“As you can see,” Vendis said, “Yuri has a rather unsympathetic attitude toward the young lady’s predicament. That’s why I invited him to come along. Men with grudges tend to be much more focused on getting revenge.”

Alex judged that he and Jax would have little chance to get away as long as she was so heavily drugged. She wouldn’t be able to help him and she wouldn’t be able to run. Trying to carry her and fight off pursuers at the same time would never work. He needed her at least partially alert in order to change the odds enough that they would have any real chance.

“All right,” Alex said in a slur. “Can I go now?”

“I didn’t come here to have you play games,” Vendis snapped.

“Don’t act stupid with me. We’re finished with all this nonsense of gentle pretense to coax answers forth. I’ve put up with games and the promises of results for long enough!

“You are going to tell me what I want to know, or else Yuri here is going to start cutting on her. Nothing fatal, you understand, but definitely disfiguring and, more importantly, agonizing. If you don’t want to cooperate and tell me about the gateway, I can tell you from experience that she is going to quickly become a rather gruesome, bloody sight.”

Alex shrugged. “All right.”

Vendis glowered. “What do you mean, ‘All right’?”

“Go ahead. Cut her up.”

A curious smile came to Vendis’s face. “You want me to start cutting her up?”

“If you want to,” Alex said.

When the man’s frown returned, Alex went on, slurring his words slightly. “She’s drugged. She won’t feel it. I know. I’m drugged the same way and I don’t really feel much of anything or care. If you kill her, you will be doing us a favor.”

“A favor?” The man looked truly puzzled. “What favor?”

Alex shrugged. “She will die without really suffering. She won’t feel it much or care. It will all be over.”

Vendis stepped closer. His voice became louder. “You’re making no sense.”

“I only know part of what you want. She knows the other part. Without the half she knows about the gateway, my half is of no use. If you kill her you will be doing us both a favor because you will fail to get what you want from this world and I won’t even have to feel sad about her death because, with the drugs, I can’t feel sad.

“The way she’s drugged, she won’t really feel it when you cut her, so go ahead. Cut her, let her bleed out and die. Then it will all be over and done with and you won’t get any of what you want.”

“You both will die, though. Die an agonizing death.”

Alex blinked slowly. He wavered a little on his feet for effect. “If we are to die a horrible death, what better way? This drugged up, neither of us will really feel it or care. That will be the end of it. Finished.”

Vendis turned to the doctor. “Do these potions you gave them do as he says?”

The doctor spread his hands. “The drugs are how we control them. It keeps them in a stupor.”

“And she won’t feel it if we cut her? He won’t care?”

“Well, not exactly. She’ll feel it.” The man cleared his throat. “But perhaps. . not as much as you would like. It would be only a distant pain. She may cry out a little, but it’s as he says. She really won’t be that aware of the pain, or care. Being on the same drugs, he can’t feel any anger or sadness about it. The drugs’ actual purpose, after all, is to prevent patients from feeling either hostility or emotional distress.”

Vendis ground his teeth before turning away from the doctor. He stalked to Jax. Yuri backed away.

Vendis lifted the blindfold to peer into Jax’s eyes. They were half closed. She didn’t look like she was much aware of anything. Alex knew only too well how out of touch she was with what was going on.

The thought crossed his mind that if what he was doing didn’t work, then it probably was just as well that she was drugged. He ached for her and what she was going through. He wanted nothing more than to break the necks of these people, but he had to mask his anger if he was to have a chance to save her.

Vendis reached out then, and viciously twisted her left nipple. She should have cried out. She didn’t flinch or try to pull away. She only hunched her back a little in a dull response to the pain. No more than a whisper of a moan came from her lips. Her glassy eyes showed virtually no reaction.

Vendis pulled the blindfold back down. He turned to see Alex staring off, his eyes out of focus, not reacting. He let out an angry breath.

“You are being paid for results,” Vendis growled at the doctor. “This is hardly producing results.”

The doctor shrugged apologetically. “Well, I don’t think that this kind of approach can be expected to be compatible with—”

“If you stop these potions you’re giving her,” Vendis cut in, “how long until she will be fully awake?”

“Within twenty-four hours she would be largely back to herself,” Dr. Hoffmann said. “But I would respectfully advise that we not do that. Need I remind you how dangerous she is?”

“I don’t need reminders of anything from the likes of you.”

The doctor swallowed at the look in Vendis’s eyes. “Of course not. I only meant to point out. .” When he saw that his attempt at an explanation was only darkening the glower on Vendis’s face, he changed his approach. “With your approval, I could cut the dose enough so that she will be aware, yet still be controllable. I think we can strike a balance that will work to our advantage.”

“Will she be awake enough to scream her lungs out when Yuri starts cutting her?”

“Absolutely. If we reduce the dose enough, absolutely.” The doctor fiddled with a button on his white coat. “I can adjust the dose to still take some of the fight out of her, but leave her awake and aware enough to feel the pain and scream when you cut her.”

The smile returned to Vendis’s face. “Good. How long?”

The doctor looked relieved to have been able to redeem himself. “She should be the way you want her by tomorrow night at this time.” He gestured to Alex. “What about him?”

Vendis turned to study Alex’s face a moment. “If he is left like this, are you sure that he won’t care when she screams?”

The doctor scratched his temple, then answered reluctantly. “He’s not bluffing. With as much Thorazine as we’re giving him he can’t bluff. With as much as we’re giving him he doesn’t have the ability to care about anything. I believe he really would rather we kill them both right now while he’s drugged. He knows it would be an easy way to go compared to what’s in store for them. Maybe it would be best if I also cut back on his Thorazine. Maybe that would be a good idea.”

Vendis’s glare slid from Alex to the doctor. “Maybe it would.”

“The drugs will be worn off for your purposes by tomorrow night,” the doctor assured him. “We’ll wait for your return, then.”

“I have matters I must attend to.” Vendis’s gaze shifted to the others. “See to this. Any of you knows how to cause agony and make it last until you get what you want. I don’t need to waste my time standing around while a couple of troublesome people bleed and scream and cry for mercy. I only need the information once they give it up.”

Everyone except Alex bowed.

Vendis gestured to the doctor. “Show me out.”

After they had gone, everyone let out a sigh of relief.

“Well,” Alice said, “I guess we’ll have to wait and do this tomorrow night.”

Henry gestured to her and the two orderlies. “You three get him back to his room.” He grinned as he glanced back at Jax hanging naked from the showerhead. “Yuri and I will take good care of her tonight.”

Alex’s knees went weak.

One of the orderlies seized Alex’s arm, turning him around. “Let’s go.”

Alex’s mind raced. He had to do something to buy Jax time. He dug in his heels and looked back over his shoulder.

“I know that tomorrow, once you reduce our drugs, you’ll be able to get us both to talk. I also know that after you get what you want you’ll kill me. When I’m dead I won’t be able to know or care about anything anymore.

“But if either of you touches her tonight, before I’m dead, then once I’m off the drugs I will care and I will have plenty of reason not to talk. If you touch her, I swear on my life you will be trying to explain to Vendis why you failed to get anything from me.”

“Well, well,” Alice said. “I think we just found out how much he really cares for her. He’s going to make this easy for us.”

Yuri’s eyes glinted with menace. “And if he cares for her so much, once off the drugs we won’t have to disfigure her too much before he’s eager to tell us everything he knows.” He glanced over at Henry. “Then we can have her, and we won’t have to be concerned about what damage we might do. Besides, the way she is right now it wouldn’t be much better than screwing a corpse. It would be a lot more satisfying if she was awake and kicking.”

At first displeased, Henry considered a moment. “I guess you may be right. Alice, I don’t trust our patient, here. And I don’t trust a nervous doctor to adjust the dose correctly. He’s worried about his own neck but it’s our necks on the line. We take orders from His Excellency, not a doctor from this world. You make sure that Alex gets enough so that he can’t fight, but not so much that he won’t care about her screams.”

Alice coldly appraised Alex. “I would have to agree with you about the doctor.” She smiled crookedly. “I’ll make sure that my patient is able to be terrified, but not able to fight back. In the meantime, if you two do anything to ruin her so that she can’t talk, or he won’t, I’ll have you both hanging there in her place when Vendis returns. Got it?”

Henry made a sour face. “Got it.”

Yuri folded his arms and finally nodded.

She shoved Alex. “Let’s go.”