“I don’t have time for games, Agrippina. I need answers, and I want them now.”
“A pity,” she said, looking away from me and towards the window once again. “Games are so much fun in these dull times. Without them, men grow bored and fail to realize how fun this world can be.”
“I told you I don’t have time for this,” I growled, my hand moving on its own towards her throat. “This is life, where there are no rules and no one gives a damn what game you’re playing. All I want is to do what’s right, and to do that I need information.”
She chirped out a quick laugh and my hand involuntarily tightened. I glanced at it, deciding to loosen it.
“By whom, exactly, are you doing right by, Jacob Hunter?” She asked. “Certainly not by me or else you wouldn’t be here trying to usurp my rule and disrupt all the fine plans I have put into motion.”
I forced the surprise from my face and tried to suppress my frustration. She was only baiting me. There was no way she knew what I was trying to do.
“Perhaps this is for your Amazon?” She continued. “Is all this an attempt to do the right thing for her? No, I do not think so, for she was always so angry and I assume still is. You would have brought her so that she could exact some measure of revenge if you were truly trying to appease her feelings.” She blinked up at my slowly. “Perhaps you really should have sent her, so that I could service her in ways you are so obviously incapable of.”
“No more games,” I growled, my hand tightening once again as my head inched closer to hers. She moaned under the pressure of my grip. I couldn’t tell if she was recoiling from the pain or enjoying it. “Now tell me, where Nero is?”
“My Nero?” She blinked innocently. “He’s back in Rome, of course. Why? Did someone tell you something to the contrary?”
I blinked. “You knew we were coming.”
“Of course.” Her voice was a silky purr. “I was not jesting when I said that it was good that you have come in search of the orb.”
She was fishing again. After everything she’s done, she knew we’d cause trouble for her one day. I had no doubt that over the past few years, much of her time had been spent imagining ways that we would strike at her. Taking Nero from her was an obvious one. All she had to do was make an offhand remark to her generals the other day that he was onboard, just in case we were around to hear about it. She’s probably done it a hundred times before.
She had always seemed a patient woman.
And she was very good at her games.
I was growing more and more frustrated with every passing second. Questioning her directly wasn’t going to get me anywhere, so I let my anger expedite the process. I reached out and flipped her over so that she rested on her stomach. I stepped on the bed and placed my right knee between her shoulder blades.
“My, my,” she said softly. “I had hoped you would get rough with me.”
I ignored her as I retrieved my boot knife and pulled a lighter from my pouch as well, making sure she could see what I was doing as I held the flame against the blade. Before the knife could cool down, I tore away the sheet that hid Agrippina’s legs and backside and pressed it against her right butt cheek.
Jack Bauer had taught America the finer parts of home torture for the better part of a decade on TV, but the CIA had given me far more substantial knowledge on the subject of human intelligence gathering much later in my life. It had amazed me how many clever household items could be used to inflict pain on someone, and there had been a few I swore I’d never utilize. In fact, I never thought I’d ever have the gumption to use any of it, but I suppose I’d make an exception in Agrippina’s case.
And the exception was well worth it. I took a certain amount of pleasure from her moans as her supple backside burned. Her breathing grew more labored and her body perspired as she writhed against my knee. I removed the knife and saw a neat little crease on her otherwise flawless behind, a superficial wound, one that would heal easily.
“Do you want to tell me where Nero is now?” I asked.
“He’s not here,” she said, her voice only slightly belabored.
My anger got the better of me again as I relit the lighter, holding it beneath the knife until it was all but glowing. I waited so that Agrippina could see what was to come, but with her silence came my knife and the sizzling sound of her skin burning. Light wisps of smoke floated from the new wound, and I smelled the slight odor of charred flesh. Her moans were intense this time. Raw. She’d reached the limit of her masochistic nature.
Good.
I removed the knife and saw her second wound was at least at the second degree burn stage. It had to hurt like hell. She’d have trouble sitting for at least a few weeks, and I only wish I could be there to see her suffer.
I leaned close to her ear. “Where is he?”
“I told you!” She gasped through the pain. “He is not here.”
I decided to pull back. There was something in her voice that told me she was telling the truth. I flipped her back over, and leaned my knee into her stomach this time as I pressed my boot knife against her throat and leaned in close once again, my nose inches from her own.
“He’s not here?”
She shook her head, even the small motion causing my knife to nick her throat. I left it where it was.
“He’s back in Rome?”
She nodded this time and tears began to fall lazily down her cheeks. “Yes.”
There were ways to determine if someone was lying or not. The CIA had taught us those as well, and everything about her tone, infliction and eye contact told me she was telling the truth this time. She was still human after all, even with all she’d done, and therefore vulnerable to the pitfalls of human psychology.
I paused before deciding to shift tactics again, realizing that I didn’t need Nero anymore. Agrippina was right here. Maybe I could coerce her on my own, but I tried to settle down first. I removed my knee from her stomach and climbed off the bed, leaving my knife where it was. I looked down at her and decided I had a few questions that needed answering first.
“What are you doing here? Really?”
There was still fear in her eyes, but her sobs slowed as my voice softened.
“I was looking for you,” she mumbled, her tears evaporating.
“Why?” I asked.
“Because I wanted to see what you would do when you saw the orb.”
I looked at her curiously. “Testing a theory?”
“I was,” she said easily, “and you didn’t disappoint me.”
I watched without action as Agrippina placed her elbows on the bed beside her and scooted herself back so that she came out from underneath my knife. I barely even twitched, let alone try to stop her. She sat up and tossed her hair away from her face and reached out to grab my forearm. Again, I didn’t react as she pulled me down beside her like a grumpy child in need of a good scolding. She sat so close that her breasts were pressed up against my arm.
“There are so many things we must discuss, Jacob Hunter,” she said softly, her expression as innocent as they come. She was a completely different person now; all her sexual promiscuity, confusing mannerisms and air of superiority gone completely, replaced by a rational human being. Suddenly, I doubted everything I had heard from her earlier tonight, no longer certain I shouldn’t trust her now. All I could do was sit patiently, stupidly, and wait for her to continue.
She angled her face away from mine and smiled at no one but herself. “Gaius was always the family favorite, destined for great things and bestowed with many opportunities, but I was raised by the same parents who bore and nurtured my brother — the same family who insisted all their children be well schooled and educated. But unlike my doting sisters, my schooling did not end when it was time for us to take on our more womanly responsibilities.
“Knowledge is power, Jacob Hunter. I believe you know this to be true. Uncle Claudius was always so insistent that we girls harness our minds as well as our bodies, advice I followed and they ignored, and the study of language became a passion of mine. Claudius often said that understanding those who others cannot gave you power over both. ‘Keep it secret,’ he used to tell me, ‘never let on that you are already two steps ahead of them’.”