“That was easy. What next?” asked Diane.
“We torture him. Get the information out. We did not come this far for nothing. Thanks for playing along. If our mission ends today, I hope you know that I really have enjoyed working with you. I wish you were my partner in my business.” said John.
“Thanks, detective. Hunger will be back to consciousness in five minutes. Do you know any torture techniques at all?” Diane asked.
“Actually, no. Hunger was right. They don’t teach torture techniques at the University. They are illegal, after all. What about you?” asked John.
“I know a few, but there simply isn’t enough equipment here. There are some back at my apartment, and I have used them a few times. Todd has been teaching me how to use whatever is available to torture a victim. As of now, I am out of ideas. We will have to figure something out.” said Diane.
“Figure something out. My understanding about torture is simple. Cause maximum pain to the victim without any lasting damage to his body or mind. Once we get the information out of the victim he should be able to go back to how it was before the torture started. What can we find in this room that we can use to cause him pain? Make him give what we need, which is information about the location of Todd. I have a gut feeling that Todd is right here in this building.” said John, thinking hard, trying to come up with something.
“I have an idea. It’s crazy, and I am not sure if you will like it.” said Diane.
“If there was ever a time for crazy ideas, this would be it, Diane. Go on, I am all ears.” said John, sitting on the bed.
“I remember seeing this in a movie. The villain had just caught the hero and he wanted him to give him some kind of passcode. He removed all the clothes that the guy was wearing. Then, he took a chair, and removed the bottom of the chair. Then, the hero was tied up to the chair securely. Do you want to guess what happened next?” asked Diane, pausing her narration.
“Not really. I don’t really watch movies that much.” said John.
“Well, the villain then took a rope with a strong end. He then proceeded to smash the hero’s private area, if you know what I am taking about.” said Diane, finishing her torture plan.
“Ouch! That is going to hurt. As a guy, I am not sure I would enjoy performing that torture.” said John, with a wince on his face.
“That is why I said that you may not like it. We do have a chair over here, and we should be able to remove its bottom. Undressing this Hunger guy is not a problem. There is no rope, but we can make one with his bathrobe. He won’t need it anyway. Also, since it is a bathrobe made rope, it may not hurt him that much. What do you think?” asked Diane.
“You are sure that we won’t be causing any permanent damage to his, well, private area?” asked John.
“I am positive. If that is the only question you have, I suppose you are on board?” asked Diane.
John nodded in agreement. He walked up to the chair and used a knife from the kitchen to remove its bottom. Meanwhile, back in the room, Diane got busy with the unconscious body of Hunger. She removed his bathrobe and since he wasn’t wearing any undergarments, her job was done the moment she began. She smiled on looking at his private area, and lifted him up by his shoulders. By now, John had dragged in a chair which had its bottom removed. They placed him carefully on the chair.
John then grabbed some curtains. He used two of them to bind him securely to the chair. With another piece of the curtain, Diane made a rope. She made a strong puff at the end, to ensure that it was somewhere between hard and soft. Once everything was done, they both stood admiring the handiwork. They seemed very impressed with what they had achieved. All that remained to be done was to make sure that he would give the necessary information. Then, they could close the case for good. By now, five minutes had passed, and Hunger started to wake up.
“Where am I?” asked Hunger, recovering slowly from the smack on his neck.
“You are still in the same room, Mr. Hunger.” said Diane.
“Why is it so cold? Why am I naked? You two are some kind of perverts.” said Hunger.
“That’s not really true. I hope you understand the situation right now. You are tied to a chair. I can see that your family jewels are exposed and I have a rope in my hand. You want to guess, what all this means, Mr. Hunger?” said Diane. John continued to keep quiet.
“What is all this supposed to mean? I don’t quite understand what you are saying, lady. What is all this?” asked Hunger, still not realizing the trouble he was about to get into.
“I always believe that a demonstration is always better than an explanation. Allow me, Mr. Hunger.” said Diane.
She then swung the rope she made, and it smacked right into him, under the chair. Hunger let out a cry of pain. John winced again, experiencing sympathy pain.
“That hurt! I am going to kill you, lady. You and your friend who is sitting on my bed will both be murdered. In a few hours, my friends will be here. I will make both of you suffer, and then you will know what I am capable of.” said Hunger, screaming in pain after each word.
“You know what we want to know Hunger. Who is the person you are holding for Mr. Dragon? I will keep hitting you until you tell me.” said Diane, screaming back at his face.
“Never!” Hunger screamed back.
Diane smashed the rope under the chair and hit him again. Hunger screamed again, launching himself into a tirade filled with the choices of swear words. Diane smashed into him again, and he screamed a lot louder. She did not even wait for him to finish his pain scream, and smashed the rope into him again.
“Still nothing, Mr. Hunger?” asked Diane, now standing to his side, and whispering into his ear.
Hunger’s face was contorted in pain. He was not speaking anymore, but he did nod his head, sideways. Diane smashed the rope again, and this time, she was extremely fierce. She smashed the rope the second time and then one more time. This was perhaps the last straw, and Hunger started screaming again.
“Okay! Alright! You can stop hitting now. I am begging you to please stop hitting me!” said Hunger.
“Ready to talk, Mr. Hunger?” Diane asked, looking at John. John nodded in approval.
“I will talk. I will talk. You will have to promise not to hit me again. I need your word. I need his word as well.” said Hunger, panting from pain, his face still contorted.
“Good. Finally some sensible words instead of swear words. I am not a big fan of swear words, Mr. Hunger.” said John, breaking his silence for the first time since the torture started.
“Okay. First question, who is it that you are holding for Mr. Dragon?” asked Diane.
“I only know his name and not much else. His name is Todd Luck. He was assigned to me about three weeks ago. The instructions were clear. I am not to hurt him, but I am not to let him go anywhere either. I should not let him contact anyone outside or anything else. That was my assignment.” said Hunger, his voice improving since the pain below his waist was reducing.
John smiled, and so did Diane. Their hunch was correct.
“Where are you keeping him?” asked Diane.
“In the kitchen, there is a panel behind the oven. The key code is 266182. Use the code and that will lead you to the underground chamber. He has been jailed in that chamber for the last three weeks.” said Hunger.
“Thanks. Sweet dreams.” said Diane, pulling out her dart gun and shooting him straight in the shoulder. He went unconscious for the second time that day.
“Detective, let’s go.” said Diane, heading towards the kitchen.
John followed her and they were in the kitchen. They looked around and found a single oven. It was a large oven, big enough to be used at a commercial bakery. John opened the oven door to find that the oven was a fake. At the back of the oven, which was empty, he saw a lit keypad. Diane saw it too. She came forward and pressed the code that Hunger gave them before he was knocked out. The panel went from red to green, and a door slid open. Beyond that, they saw what looked like the luxury suite in a five star hotel.
Diane went in first and John followed after her. The moment they stepped inside, a man stood up from his chair. John recognized the face. It was Todd Luck. John’s face broke into a smile. Diane, who was right behind him, ran past him and hugged Todd. John waited for the reunion to stop, and it did a few seconds later.
“Todd, this is John Russo, the private detective who has been helping me. John, this is where I keep my promise of helping you find Todd.” said Diane.
“Thank you Diane. Mr. Luck, I am so happy to find you.” said John, shaking hands with him.
“I am glad to see you, John. Of course, I am very glad to see you, Diane. Not bad for your first assignment in the field.” said Todd.
“Thank you, Todd.” said Diane.
John was offered drinks by Todd from the attached bar. As he finished his drink, Diane quickly explained everything that had happened so far. She told him about her infiltrating Mr. Dragon’s group. She told him about John and his assistant’s capture. She helped them as much as she could. She also told him about the trip to the dock, and how they finally managed to find him at the underground chamber. Now, it was Todd Luck’s turn to talk to the detective.
“A private detective? I had no idea private detectives could be this effective. So, my sister hired you to find me? I have to hand it over to her. She has always been like a guardian angel to me. God bless her. Thank you for helping my partner find me, detective. If there is anything I can do for you, I would be happy to do that.” said Todd.
“Mr. Todd, I need only one favor from you. That is for you to come with me, so I can have your sister meet you. That was my job, and I would like to bring this to a satisfactory conclusion.” said John.
“That is the least I can do for you, detective.” said Todd, and they tapped their glasses and went for another round of drinks.
TWO HOURS LATER
John was sitting in the hotel room of Rita Luck at Hotel Trinity. They had reached her almost half an hour earlier. His client, Rita Luck, had been crying ever since they got here. Every now and then, John and Diane would look at each other and roll their eyes, unable to understand why Rita would cry so much. Todd, being a government agent that he was, could not tell her what his real job was. He had made up some story about getting into a fight with one of his colleagues and having to spend the last three weeks at a hospital. He also told her that Diane was his girlfriend, who worked as a nurse at the hospital where he was. John thought that it was a horrible lie. Oddly enough, Rita completely bought it. Ten more minutes went by, and she finally stopped crying. She then walked up to John.
“Detective, thank you for finding my brother.” she remarked, hugging him, and planting a soft kiss on his cheek.
“That is quite alright, Ms. Luck. You have helped me in so many ways, and I would like to thank you for that. Enjoy your time with your brother. I will take my leave now.” said John, waving goodbye to her, Todd, and Diane.
John stepped outside and had reached the elevator, when he heard someone running behind him. He turned around to see Diane running after him. She reached him and stopped. John gave her a few seconds to catch her breath.
“I already said my goodbye, Diane.” said John.
“I know, John. Todd says that he won’t need me for at least a week. He will need to travel to the main office to share some documents including those related to the containers that we tracked. Until then, he says, it is my vacation.” said Diane.
“Well, you deserve it.” said John.
“I know it’s getting late, but I was hoping you would like to come to my apartment to have a bite and perhaps watch a movie afterwards?” said Diane.
“I have parked my car in the basement.” said John, opening the elevator for her, and getting into it after her.
Once inside, John pressed the elevator button for the basement car park. As the lift started moving, he felt Diane move a little closer to him. He knew what she was about to do. Responding to her movement and secretly hoping that the lift door won’t open, he also made a subtle movement towards her. Even as he kept his eye on the lift indicator, he turned to face her. He was just about to grab her by her waist when his phone rang.
“Damn! This is always coming in between.” he said, noticing that it was Sheila on the phone.
“Isn’t that your assistant? It must be important.” said Diane, moving away from him, implying that he should answer the call without any delay.
John pressed the answer button and spoke. “Hi Sheila. I was in the middle of something, sort of important”.
“I am sorry to have called you, Boss. I know how you like to take a break after a long day of work. This one was definitely a long one. However, there was an old man in the office this evening. He said that something had happened in his office. A robbery of something very valuable. He would much rather work with you than the police.” said Sheila.
“Hmm. We received a huge pay check just now and I think I should take a vacation, Sheila. Having said that, I always valued your opinion over reason. What would you suggest?” asked John.
“Boss, I think we should take this up. The old man seemed agitated and what little he has told me, it is already shaping up to be a wonderfully complex case. I think you would love it and by extension I would love it too.” said Sheila, sounding excited.
“I guess I can always take a vacation later. It is already very late tonight, so let’s discuss tomorrow morning over breakfast. Good night.” said John.
“I knew you would say that, Boss. I will be ready for you in the morning. Have a good rest tonight.” said Sheila, and the call ended. John looked at Diane and smiled.
“I guess you will not be spending tonight with me, John?” said Diane, returning the smile.
“I can spare at least an hour before leaving for my apartment to rest and prepare for another hectic day tomorrow. I hope one hour would suffice.” said John, stepping out of the elevator which had already reached the basement car park. Diane followed him and they reached the car.
“One hour should be OK.” said Diane, as they both stepped into the car.