––––––––
I startled awake. Darkness entombed me as I waved my head around. That was when I remembered I was strapped to a torture chair getting electric jolts in the ass. Sweat covered my naked body. Soreness and fatigue wrenched my muscles.
The agony in my head continued to throb.
“Welcome back, Mr. Benson.” Smith’s voice came from somewhere off to my left. “You passed out.”
“Just taking a little nap.” I turned my head toward him. “You were boring me.”
“Defiant to the end. Admirable.”
“It means a lot to have your approval.”
Smith paused for several moments, said, “You remind me of a younger version of myself. I used to believe I could change the system from the inside. Politics bored me, however, so my delusions of grandeur didn’t last long. I saw everything in black and white, right and wrong, good and evil. That’s not the way things work however. Sometimes, evil can bring about good. If you want a garden to flourish, you have to get your hands dirty.”
Having a conversation with someone while you were naked, covered in blood and urine, and blinded because of a helmet was an odd experience. To say that my life had seriously derailed at some point would be an understatement of hilarious proportions. Then again, I was sure someone in Thailand would pay serious money for an experience like that.
“First of all, I didn’t even want to play the game. I didn’t want to change anything. All I’ve wanted since my discharge was to be left the hell alone. The system sucks, and I didn’t want any part of it. You dragged me into this. And second, I—”
Smith cut me off. “Is that true? Did I force you to expose yourself during a bank robbery? Did I make you stick your neck out for others?”
“Helping someone in the heat of the moment isn’t the same as getting involved with a bunch of government dickbags such as yourself.”
“And yet here you are, captured while working for an agency of government dickbags, as you so eloquently put it. You say that you want to be left alone, yet you joined the military after 9/11, you stopped a bank robbery, you stayed in Arthur’s Creek to help rescue survivors, and you joined up with Albert Nelson to find and eliminate me.”
I recoiled at the mention of Nelson’s name. No one was supposed to know about his involvement with the new version of the Psych Ward except for a handful of people in Washington. We knew Smith had gotten to several high-ranking members in the intelligence community, but his knowledge of Nelson meant something much worse.
He might have someone in President Thomas’ cabinet in his back pocket.
The magnitude of what I’d gotten myself involved in was mindboggling.
“Surprised I know his name?” Smith asked. “You’ve been playing the game for weeks, Mr. Benson. I’ve dedicated my life to this.”
“What’s your name, anyway? Your real name. Not this Smith crap.”
“Does it matter?”
A metal ting came from the cart to my left.
It made my heart flutter. There were knives, tin snips, and other horrible instruments on that cart. The electricity was bad, but I still had all of my fingers and toes attached after a few jolts.
“I just figured it would be good to know the name of the man I’m going to strangle to death later.” I shifted in the chair, felt blood squish under my butt. Nasty. “Is it Doug? Jim? Steve?”
“You never stop, do you?”
“Todd? I bet it’s Todd. You seem like a Todd.”
“Do you really think that killing me would fix anything? What would happen to you if I were gone? Do you truly think they wouldn’t eliminate you as well? We’re threats to the power structure of this country. Threats to the system are eradicated. You’re useful to them as long as I’m still operating.”
“To be honest, Todd, I haven’t thought that far ahead. My plan only involved two steps. The first one was killing you. The second was to drink myself stupid in celebration. I’ve never been much of a long-term planner.”
Something cold and metallic touched my left pinky toe. I shifted my foot away as far as I could, but with bound ankles that only meant a few inches. A strong hand grabbed hold of my foot and straightened it out.
I wanted to beg.
But to hell with that.
“I understand why you blame me for everything. To a worker, the CEO always appears malevolent.” Smith’s voice came from directly in front of me, but much closer to the floor. “But you can’t blame me for the loss of your friends. Your soldiers. For Samantha.”
Sharp blades touched each side of my little toe.
I barely felt the pressure they applied.
Fury gripped me again.
“I’m going to kill you,” I hissed.
“Will that bring back the soldiers you lost in Iraq? Will that absolve you of your failure to protect them?”
“Don’t mention them, you son of a bitch.” I bucked in the chair again, even though I knew I couldn’t force my way out of the bindings. “You don’t get to—”
“I didn’t kill them, Mr. Benson. You did.”
The throbbing in my head multiplied exponentially. I could barely think straight as anger consumed me. If I could have freed just one hand, I would have throttled him to death.
“Samantha didn’t die in my hands. She died in yours. If you hadn’t involved yourself in her life, she would still be here.” Smith’s voice had quieted to barely more than a whisper. “Everyone you love dies.”
He’s right, Sammy said. You’re the problem. You.
I focused all of my willpower on the restraint around my right wrist. If I could destroy an entire park bench I’d been tied to in Arthur’s Creek, I damn sure could work on a single strap. All I would need was an inch of leeway to pull my hand free and get the party started on Smith’s face.
Nothing happened.
Not even a vibration ran through the chair under me.
The machine on the cart to my left beeped.
Smith grunted, and the pressure on my toe vanished. “Thank you, Mr. Benson.”
“What?” I took deep breaths, working to up my mental intensity even more.
But nothing moved around me. All remained silent and still.
“The electrocution didn’t work as well as we’d hoped. Fortunately, a little mental work over is giving us some stellar readings. We still need more though.”
“You...” I gulped. “You were just screwing with me?”
“Oh, no. I was speaking the truth, just in a way that would get you riled up. You are a failure. Of that, there is no doubt. You have all the power in the world, and yet you destroy everything you hold dear. It’s quite sad.”
“Fuck you, Todd.”
The snips or shears or whatever he had wedged around my toe clanged on the cart. The machine whirred away on the second shelf.
Smith moved to the door, his footfalls barely audible inside my helmet. “If electricity didn’t bring your telekinesis to the surface, perhaps heat will. They say that fire is the great purifier. Let’s find out.”