“Ah. I see. You do not recall meeting a woman at a bar a few weeks ago and rambling on about what you do and whom you do it for?”
A window opened for a second in the man’s eyes. It was a sudden moment of realization.
Dufort’s voice grew louder as he continued to press harder. “You were drunk. You told her whom you worked for and how if she knew what was good for her, she’d let you have your way with her or else I would put her to work like the other girls. Didn’t you?” He yelled the question so loudly, it almost hurt his own ears.
The man’s sobs drowned out the echoes of Dufort’s voice. “I didn’t know.”
“What did you not know?” Dufort leaned over the man, sneering into his face.
The captive shook his head back and forth dramatically. “I didn’t know she was an agent. I was so drunk. I just thought she was a common street walker.”
Dufort frowned at the response. “So you just mouth off to a prostitute about what we do here? Is that it?”
The man froze for a moment, realizing he was only digging the hole deeper. “No. She was the only one.”
“The only one you remember,” Dufort interjected.
“I swear. She was the only one. She kept asking so many questions. I thought maybe I could lure her back here as a gift to you. You could make her one of your girls.”
“Oh?” The wealthy Frenchman stood up straight and flattened out his jacket. “I hadn’t realized you were considering bringing me a gift. Why didn’t you say that in the first place?”
“I meant to. Please, forgive me. Yes, she was to be a gift, but when I woke up, she was gone.” The man’s begging was quickly becoming severely irritating.
Dufort held up a hand, signaling for the man to cease his blabbering. “Tell me, my good friend. Do you know how to find this woman again?”
“Yes,” he said confidently.
“And you could tell me where to find her?”
The man nodded his pudgy face rapidly. “Of course. I want to. I will take you to her.”
Dufort half turned around and rubbed his chin. It was an old habit he’d picked up so long ago, he couldn’t remember. Whenever he had something important to consider, he would stroke the tip of his chin with his thumb. In this case, he wasn’t considering anything. He’d already made up his mind about what to do with the insubordinate fat man. His reckless behavior could cause problems, especially if the woman he’d been talking to truly was an American agent. Dufort knew exactly what he was going to do when he came down to the basement to dole out his brand of justice. The only reason for the inquisition was to find out if the man had talked to anyone else. The whereabouts of the woman in question was already known. Three of Dufort’s men were on their way to pick her up at that very moment.
He tilted his head back toward the man on the floor, whose heavy breathing had subsided slightly. “Thank you for being honest with me,” Dufort said. “And thank you for being so considerate to think of giving me such a wonderful prize.” He drew closer to his prisoner and gazed into the man’s eyes again, this time with a kind look.
“You’re very welcome. I knew you were a man of keen tastes, and I…”
Before he could finish his sentence, Dufort swung around and kicked him in the side of the head with his boot. The chubby man fell over onto his side, stunned from the sudden blow.
Dufort pounced on him before he could right himself. The needle sank deep into the man’s arm, causing a sudden look of horror to wash over his face.
“No!” he screamed out as loud as he could. “No! Please!”
It was too late. Dufort had already emptied the liquid into the man’s veins. The drug performed its work quickly. It was something they kept in the compound to make sure the girls were always too stoned to run away, but awake enough to please the men that paid for their company. What Dufort had given the two victims was an amped up version that would cause a horse to overdose. With a human, death was guaranteed.
The fat man’s yelling became blubbering, agonized moans as the drug began to toy with his mind. There was no telling what kind of hallucinations he was having. Some people claimed to see flames all round. Others said there were dragons being ridden by skeletons. By the time the body began convulsing, the hallucinations became more intense until the mind fried itself and started shutting down all the vital organs.
From the sound of it, Dufort doubted it was a pleasant way to go, which was why it was his preferred means of execution. Getting rid of the bodies was as simple as propping them up by a dumpster outside a nightclub. The murder weapons could be left on site, furthering the illusion that it was just an accidental overdose by some smackhead.
Dufort checked his watch as his betrayer began to slowly give in to death. At the three minute mark, the body had ceased its violent twitching.
“Get two more of the men to help you take them down to the river. Leave them by the bridge.” Dufort ordered Caron.
“Yes, sir. Same game as usual?”
“Yes,” Dufort nodded as he turned away and headed up a darkened staircase.
With that problem taken care of, he could focus his attention on other things, like why Petrov hadn’t reported in yet.
Chapter 6
“I can’t believe you dragged me all the way up here at such a late hour of the night,” Charlie grumbled, staring out the window at the mountains in the distance.
He’d been complaining almost the entire eighty minutes they’d been on the road. Darkness had settled across eastern Tennessee over an hour ago. Sean tried to be understanding of his friend’s irritation, but that patience was wearing thin.
“It’s only 8:30, Charlie,” Sean said, still attempting to keep a calm voice. “Relax. I’ll have you home before midnight.”
That was the wrong thing to say.
Charlie erupted. “Midnight? Son, I don’t think you understand that when you get older you can’t be runnin’ around all over tarnation until Lord knows when in the morning.”
Sean just shook his head slowly, eyeing the road ahead. “Where did you say your friend lived again?” He thought changing the subject back to the mission at hand would help.
“South of the city, near West Town. Should be coming up here in the next few exits.”
The subsequent minutes passed in silence. Sean had called Adriana earlier to explain that he would likely be spending the night in Chattanooga and that he’d see her in the morning. He didn’t go into all the details about what had happened, although at some point that conversation would have to occur. Instead, he simply told her he was helping a friend with a problem and couldn’t make it back. She understood, as she always did.
Sean smiled as he thought about his Spanish girlfriend. A strange twist of fate had brought them together. Their relationship had been a funny one so far. Both of them were extremely independent. It seemed Adriana still had a taste for adventure, while Sean actively tried to avoid anything involving danger. Well, he did get out on his paddleboard in the ocean, but that was hardly adventurous.
He never gave Adriana a hassle about the things she did with her time, despite some of the trouble she got herself into. She was her own woman, strong and free willed. There was no way he would ever try to change that about her; it was one of the things about her Sean loved. Being somewhat of a loner himself, he didn’t mind having several days or even a few weeks to himself on occasion. If she went out of the country chasing a new discovery, he could occupy himself.
Lately, he’d been reading more than ever before in his life. The ironic part was that most of his studies centered on ancient mysteries. Sean had encountered plenty of strange and fascinating things while working for the International Archaeological Agency out of Atlanta. He didn’t miss traveling all the time, but he did miss all the interesting things he and his friend, Tommy, discovered.