“Mostly because Patrick likes you, and I don’t like Patrick. Also, because Matt likes you, and I don’t like who Matt works for. I also don’t like you because I don’t like anyone, but I mostly don’t like you because I utterly hate Lena. I think the both of you are bad assets that can’t be trusted, and I think that the both of you have done enough damage to the HVA to simply let you die comfortably.”
“So, you are going to kill me, then?” Vivika asked, as plainly as she could manage.
“Isn’t that fairly obvious?”
“Well…” Vivika weighed her words, “I guess there are a few things I don’t understand.”
“Such as?”
“Well… uh…”
Vivika took a tally of the situation. She wasn’t in a black cell or torture room, or even the confines of… well, anything confining. She was simply sitting in the booth of a cafe, sitting across from what, by all appearances, appeared to be her babysitter for the evening. Vivika was quite familiar with the investigation techniques of these types of people: they always sought to build rapport… whether that was a ‘good rapport’, like making you feel at home and equal, or ‘bad rapport’ by outright dominating you. These people were masters at sensing your weakness—finding a wound and sticking a hot poker inside of it to see what made you squeal. But all things considered, the Dragon Lady was doing a horrible job. She was intimidating, that was for sure; but the situation didn’t add up, and the confines of the café didn’t lend to her threats.
“I guess I just don’t understand why you would want to.” Vivika tested.
“I just explained that to you.” Dragon Lady scowled, “I think you are stalling.”
“But… why would you want to hurt me? Do you enjoy it?”
“You already know I do, dear.”
“What is it about pain that you enjoy so much?!” Vivika whined, trying to keep her voice down.
“Oh, I don’t enjoy pain at all.” Dragon Lady smiled. “On the contrary… I do whatever I can to avoid pain. It’s a terrible, terrible feeling. That’s why I enjoy making others feel pain: because I know how horrible it is, and I know how horrible it is for them. It’s not just that I enjoy what they are feeling—how they move, or how they squeal. I enjoy watching them try to rationalize what’s happening to them. ‘Why is this happening to me?!’, ‘Maybe if I twist this way, it will hurt less!’, ‘Maybe if I cry, she’ll stop slicing.’ All of the little lies people tell themselves to convince themselves that there’s a way out of it. If they just try this, or if they just try that, it’ll eventually be over. Whatever logic they use, it eventually culminates in the realization that it’s never going to stop. That’s when I become their god. And that’s what I’m going to do to you, dear.”
“I think that’s vile.” Vivika scowled, as bile welled up.
“I think that it’s more your problem than mine.”
“I think you are sick.”
“Why would I care what you think?” She laughed coldly, “You should hear the things people scream when I’m working on them. They beg, they plead, they offer, and they tell me everything, down to what their wife looks like naked, and what their children’s deepest fears are. They lose all loyalty to everything and everyone. Except for me, little girl.”
By all measures, the things that Dragon Lady was saying should have made Vivika cower where she sat. Yet something rang strangely. Dragon Lady was enjoying this immensely, talking about her favorite hobby. Yet she had stopped calling her ‘dear’, and was now calling her ‘little girl’. Vivika couldn’t quite put her finger on it… but it was as if the Dragon Lady felt she had found a wound with which to salt… a position of power she could exploit.
“I’m not a little girl,” Vivika said, testing the waters.
“Of course, you are.” Dragon Lady grinned maliciously, “You are a tiny thing… all skin and bones, shivering with fear. You’ve been playing your little spy games and now you’ve been caught, like you always knew you would be. You knew it was going to happen, and now here you are, staring down the barrel of your reckoning.”
Dragon Lady was clearly trying to make her feel small; yet once again, something wasn’t clicking. Dragon Lady was becoming more volatile by the second, acting more and more triumphant. Yet she hadn’t accomplished anything except for scaring Vivika more. Oh sure, that was certainly a triumph; but that wasn’t the triumph that the evil bitch was aiming for. She was becoming more volatile in the hopes that Vivika would… what? What was it that the Dragon Lady wanted?
Carefully, Vivika played back the conversation in her head. Dragon Lady had, thus far, not asked her any questions. That might mean that Dragon Lady already knew everything… or it might mean that she hadn’t yet found something to probe.
“I… I…” Vivika stalled. She tried to cower just a bit. It was easy to do, since she was afraid. But it seemed to make the Dragon Lady feel even more triumphant. There had to be a way to use that to her advantage.
“I… I…” Dragon Lady mocked.
“What do you want from me?!” Vivika whined.
“I have already told you what I want, you imbecile!”
“Actually, no you haven’t.” Vivika straightened up a bit at ‘imbecile.’ “You’ve told me that you want to hurt me, and you’ve more-or-less told me why; but your reasons don’t add up.”
“Oh, you weak, little girl.” Dragon Lady leaned forward, “You stupid, insignificant little girl.”
The ploy had worked. Vivika had sensed the first time that Dragon Lady had said ‘little girl’, and detected that she had wanted to demean her. But when the Dragon Lady had switched to ‘imbecile’ and Vivika had appeared to react to that, Dragon Lady had switched back to ‘little girl’. Vivika was now quite sure that Dragon Lady was investigating her. Thus, Vivika decided to give her what she wanted and begin cowering again. Surely this would give her some time to figure out what was going on.
“I’m not weak.” Vivika said, feigning offense, “And I’m not a little girl!”
“Sure, you are!” Dragon Lady smiled, “You are playing a game you know nothing about. Running around, playing your little spy games with Matt and MI6… did you really think that you could play those games against professionals like me? Oh, you stupid, worthless little bitch.”
“MI6?” Vivika thought to herself. “What the hell is MI6?”
Suddenly, Vivika recalled the conversations that she and Lena had discussed in Lena’s bedroom. She remembered the story that Lena had told about the British asset at the Interhostel—about how the British apparently always chose pretty women as assets (something all the agencies seemed to do, apparently). Naturally, Vivika had assumed that Patrick and everyone else in the HVA was already in on everything that she and Lena had been doing. Vivika just assumed that Dragon Lady did too, but now, she wasn’t so sure.
“Wait…” Vivika shook her head, “What are you talking about?”
“You know exactly what I’m talking about, little girl.”
“No, I really don’t. I have no idea who MI6 is!”
“Lie to me again.” Dragon Lady seethed, “Go ahead… see how that plays out for you.”
“So, this is an investigation!” Vivika said to herself. “But they wouldn’t be doing that unless… unless they didn’t know everything about Matt and Lena and me. But what do they already know?! What could they possibly know for sure about me?!”