Teddy nodded to the voiceless henchman, who smiled and nodded back. He touched the stick to a place on Jolaine’s back. Graham couldn’t see the exact point of contact, but the resulting scream was horrifying. It reverberated off the concrete walls and metal surfaces. When it was over, Jolaine sagged even deeper. When she rolled her glazed eyes up to look at him, she no longer looked human. It was as if that part of her — her soul, maybe? — had been driven out. Equal parts humiliation and pain, her expression told him that she was done. Her spirit had fled her body.
“Pain is such a terrible thing,” Teddy said. “Look at what it does. Look at what your decision does to others. Perhaps we could touch the prod to her eye. I’m not sure what—”
Graham blurted, “3155AX475598CVRLLPBHQ44 6833D0Z.”
Teddy looked stunned. “Excuse me?”
“Graham, no,” Jolaine rasped.
Graham repeated the code. “That’s what you’re looking for, right? The code?”
“Graham! Please don’t!”
Teddy’s eyes narrowed to slit. “Say it two more times,” he said.
Graham glared through Teddy’s skull. He sensed that he’d created an opportunity for himself — he wasn’t sure what it was, exactly, but he sensed that the stakes had changed, and for at least a little while, Graham now had a hand to play that might buy additional time.
“Get this thing off my neck,” Graham said. “I’ve given it to you twice. For a third time, you get rid of the noose.”
“Or, how about I just tighten it more?” Teddy countered. “Tighter and tighter until you give me what I want?”
Graham’s heart could not race any faster without shredding itself. He was playing a dangerous game of who-blinks-first, and he was already in it too deep to stop. “Brain cells,” Graham said. “They’re very sensitive to oxygen.”
Teddy turned to the goon who stood next to Jolaine.
“No!” Graham shouted before Teddy could give the order. No one moved, awaiting Graham’s next step. “No more prodding,” he said. “Let her arms down, and get her off of that… whatever the hell she’s sitting on. That’s sick.”
That frightening look of amusement returned to Teddy’s eyes. “So now you’re telling me that I am sick?”
“You’re a friggin’ torturer, dude! Of course you’re sick! Jesus.”
Teddy leaned in closer, till his features blurred and their noses nearly touched. “You think you have control,” he whispered. His breath stank of cigarettes. “You are wrong.”
“I have the code,” Graham said. “I have everything you want. Please step away from my face.”
In his own time, Teddy moved back.
“Thank you.” Graham cleared his throat again. “Whatever this code is — whatever it does — I figure it’s got to be important. There’s no pattern to it. It’s a random cipher, so that means it’s not the Kremlin garage code or something stupid like that. And given everybody’s focus on me and my family, I figure that somehow we’re the only ones who know it.”
The change in Teddy’s eyes told him that he was close to the mark.
“So, here’s where I think I have a little control. It’s a long code, with a lot of characters. If you shock Jolaine again, or if you don’t do what I ask, I’ll just change some of the elements. You’ll never know.”
“Oh, we will know,” Teddy said. “We will test the code and we will know.”
This was going exactly as Graham had hoped it would. These assholes had inadvertently taught him how to extract information through a diversionary conversation. He’d just learned that they had a way to verify what he told them. “Then what?” he pressed. He was so excited — so terrified — that his voice trembled. “You’d test and find out it didn’t work. Then all you’d know was that I gave you the wrong sequence. You’d never know how it’s wrong.”
“That would be a very big mistake, young man. You do that, you’ll see how sick I can be.”
“So, let’s make a deal,” Graham said. “Take this noose off of me, get Jolaine a chair, and I’ll tell you what you want to know. If I’ve lied, then we’ll still be here. You can torture us till you’ve had your f ill.”
Teddy regarded him, clearly looking for the angle that could hurt him or his cause. “You are playing a very dangerous game, my young friend. If you toy with me, I will hurt you very, very badly.”
“I’m not your friend,” Graham said. This defiance game was not for the weak of heart, but once in, he had to go all the way.
“Okay,” Teddy said. “Okay, we do things your way. But God help you.” As he loosened the slipknot from around Graham’s neck, he called over his shoulder and said something that caused the goons to loosen the ropes on Jolaine’s arms. A folding chair arrived from somewhere. They lifted her off the horrible sawhorse contraption, and they put her on the chair. Her wrists remained tied, but they rested on her lap.
Graham ducked a little as the noose was lifted away. When he was free, he said, “And now my hands.”
“Not part of the deal,” Teddy said. “You should understand that my patience is now gone.”
“I had to try,” Graham said.
“It is time to give me what I bargained for.”
Graham nodded. “You’re going to want to write this down,” he said.
From a few feet away, Jolaine tried one more time: “Graham. They’re terrorists. You’re giving them something terrible. I can only imagine what it is, but please don’t—”
“Look at me,” Teddy said. “Not at her. You and I have deal.” He snapped his fingers and spoke again to his buddies, one of whom produced a pen and a tablet of paper. “Say it slowly.”
Graham enunciated every character.
Teddy wrote as he spoke. After he’d documented the cipher string, he said, “Now we’ll see if you told truth. Say it again.”
Graham didn’t hesitate. This time he raced through the cipher, nailing every character. “Would you like me to do it backwards?”
He barely saw the man deliver the punch to his gut. The blow pushed the air from Graham’s lungs and collapsed his knees. Spots exploded behind his eyes, and for the longest time, he could neither see nor breathe as his insides convulsed. He wondered for a while if he might suffocate. Finally, breath came, but his insides felt like they might have been run through a blender.
Unable to access his hands for support, and Lord knows unable to do anything that might resemble a sit-up, he rolled from his side onto his stomach, and from there inch-wormed to his knees, then found his feet and stood. He didn’t know why, but it felt important to stand. By the time he was up, the goons were all gone.
The cold was beginning to work its way into him again.
“You shouldn’t have done that,” Jolaine said. “That code is for some kind of weapon. And for them to go to these extremes, it must be a weapon of enormous value.” She spat a wad of blood onto the floor.
“I bought us time,” he said.
“At a huge price.”
“I couldn’t just watch them do that to you,” he said. “That wasn’t right. I couldn’t watch it.”
Jolaine shook her head. “I can take care of myself,” she said.
A laugh burst out of Graham before he could stop it. As she heard her own words, Jolaine chuckled, too. “Evidence to the contrary notwithstanding,” she added.
Graham looked around the room for some way out. This place had the same wire windows as the room he’d broken out of. He could see the heads of two guards who now were stationed just on the other side. Movement through the window on the door told him that at least one guard was out there, too.