Cobra: The Vigilante: Volume Two

by Nicholas Bella

  Richard leaned forward as I slumped to my side, dizzy, with my vision blurring even more. “When you wake up, we’re going to have a nice, long conversation.”

  That was the last thing I heard before everything went black.

  Chapter Eight

  I came to and immediately realized I had been bound to a chair with metal handcuffs. My ankles were tied to the thick wooden legs. I was also barefoot and shirtless, and considering I was still in the form of Mr. Foster, I knew it wasn’t to get a look at my abs. If I wasn’t a superpowered being, this little scenario would have had me just a little bit more worried, but as it was… I could turn this situation into something that might still work for me. I just had to let them think I was vulnerable, that way, I could find out what I needed to know through my own brand of victim interrogation.

  I looked around the room and saw Takahashi approaching me. He reached forward, gripping my chin and tilting my face upward so our eyes met. “You’re an Enhanced Human with the ability to switch forms. I find that interesting. I also noted that you weren’t under the effects for very long. You’ve only been out for about five minutes. Normally, that drug would have had a human incapacitated for at least six hours.”

  “That just proves your constitution is off the charts.” That statement came from Richard as he came into my view, standing beside Takahashi. “Tell me, who are you? Who sent you? And what is it that you want?”

  Takahashi released my chin so I could better respond. That was nice of him. Anyway, I pretended to be a little bit more out of it than I was. They didn’t need to know that I was fully aware of everything going on and was already planning my escape. I licked my lips and acted like the drug was still working me over. “What… what the fuck… did you drug me with?”

  “I’ll be asking the questions,” Richard said. “As a matter of fact, I already did. Now I expect answers, or Takahashi here is going to have his way with you and I’m going to enjoy watching.”

  Well shit… I didn’t need that. I wasn’t afraid of being tortured, but I didn’t need them to learn how indestructible my flesh was. Better to play this shit smart. “No one sent me,” I said, answering one of his questions in hopes of getting him to reveal more information.

  “Is that so? Well, how did you find out about me?” Richard asked.

  “From your buddy, Mr. Jingles,” I said.

  Richard snorted. “Well, I guess you did me a favor by killing him. I’m assuming you’re the one who did. How did you find out about him?”

  “You’d be assuming correctly and we all have… our little secrets,” I taunted. Of course, my attitude was met with two hard-as-fuck punches to the jaw from Takahashi, which actually had me reeling afterward. That wasn’t the most surprising thing to me. What really shocked me was that my lip was bleeding and throbbing. The throbbing, I was expecting, but the bleeding was new. I was starting to put some pieces of this puzzle together. Takahashi was also an Enhanced Human, because no way in hell could a regular human hit me that hard and make me bleed. Shit, I didn’t think it was possible. Maybe he knew more about me than I thought he did. I yanked at the handcuffs and realized I couldn’t get out of them. My muscles didn’t feel as powerful as I was used to and now, I was starting to worry. What the fuck had they done to me?

  “You won’t be breaking out anytime soon. I bet you’re super strong, aren’t you?” Richard asked me as he leaned forward so our eyes were on the same level.

  “I have a few skills,” I said, trying to stay calm and think up a plan B.

  “I bet,” Richard said, grinning. “Found your little comm earbud. It’s only a matter of time before I track down your partner. You’ve killed two of my associates, and leaving your little calling card has members a little nervous. You were planning on killing me tonight, weren’t you? That’s why my guards and Mr. Foster are dead in the next room.”

  I shrugged. “Why not?”

  Again, Takahashi nearly knocked my block off with another solid punch to the face. I groaned in pain, because shit, it hurt! I could taste more blood in my mouth, couldn’t say I was a fan of the coppery flavor. However, I decided to swallow because I really didn’t want to leave my DNA in this place if I could help it. I forgot how much it hurt to get my ass handed to me. Embarrassing, too. My jaw, nose, and mouth were throbbing, and that wasn’t typical for me at all. I wasn’t healing as fast as I normally would. I was healing, but it wasn’t instantaneous, and that was really freaking me the fuck out.

  “I can do this all night,” Takahashi said. “You know by now, I’m like you.”

  I gave him a knowing grin. “An Enhanced Human? Yeah… but I doubt you’re like me.”

  He snorted. “A super strong shape-shifter with impenetrable skin… yeah, we know about your skin. Found out when the needle broke. By the way your lip is healing, seems like you’ve got super healing in your bag of tricks too.”

  Shit! They must have tried to do something else to me while I was out.

  “That’s why we had to make sure you stayed… how should I put this… impotent,” Richard said. “You see, there’s a chemical produced by the government to weaken Enhanced Humans. We regular people have to have our own counter-attack weapons, you know. We couldn’t inject you, so we made sure you inhaled a nice amount of the gas while you slept. Makes you vulnerable to the type of pain I’m going to put you through.”

  Well, that explained everything and now I was starting to panic. Just how vulnerable did that drug shit make me? I didn’t want to lose my head just yet, literally or figuratively. I could still work this to my advantage… I was just going to have to hurt a lot and be careful about what information I gave up. I didn’t like them knowing that I had a partner, but I was certain that Jordan had protected himself and was probably fully aware of my own situation. Or he at least knew things hadn’t gone according to plan.

  “I have to give you credit for being able to take out my security team and the real Mr. Foster,” Richard said as he walked over to the sofa and made himself comfortable, crossing one leg over the other. Takahashi, of course, stayed ever by my side.

  “It was easy,” I taunted.

  Richard laughed. “I bet. You’ve been infiltrating my team for about two weeks, right?”

  Holy shit! He knew… What the fuck? He knew!

  Richard smiled. “I like that look on your face right now. All of this time, you thought you were on to me, but I’ve been keeping my eye on you.”

  “How did you know?” I asked. My heart was pounding in my chest, and I didn’t have any clue that they had known about me. How much did they know? Did they know about what I really looked like? Did they know about Jordan or Alexi? Oh God!

  He nodded his head at Takahashi. “Your scent changed. The first day you became part of my car detail, Takahashi informed me of the difference in Tanner’s scent. He knew you weren’t Tanner. I was going to take you down that day, but then decided it would be in my best interest to find out what it was you wanted. It was a risk. I let you think you’d been successful, was careful about what conversations I had, and only made sure to give you the information I wanted you to have. I knew my house had been bugged. I’ll give you credit where credit is due. You’re damn good. Had I not had Takahashi at my side with his super senses, I surely would have been at your mercy right now.”

  Oh my god, how much did they know about me? I started to run through my head everything I’d done, trying to make sure that I had been careful. Was I ever followed? I hoped not, but then I didn’t know what Takahashi could or couldn’t do. God, please let Jordan be safe!

  “So, I’ll ask you once more… why did you want to take me out?” Richard stared hard at me as he awaited his answer.

  Time to get bold. “Because I don’t like rich sons of bitches like you taking advantage of those less fortunate. You motherfuckers with the Killing Game deserve the fate I gave you,” I said.

  Richard cocked an eyebrow. “I will admit, killing Walter and Cecily in the manner t
hey had killed their last victims was…” He paused and looked off to the side, then returned his gaze back to me, adding a wicked smile. “It was creative? Artistic, even.” He made an offhanded gesture. “Doesn’t matter. Their deaths only aided me in being more cautious. So, you fashion yourself a vigilante, eh?”

  “Yeah, why not?” I shot back.

  “Tell me where your partner is,” Richard demanded.

  Oh, thank god, they didn’t know where Jordan was. Oh, that was right, they had my comm and were going to try to trace it back to him. Not if I could help it. But for now, J was safe. At least one thing was going right tonight. No way in hell would I give up that information. “My partner is in my asshole.”

  Again, Takahashi retaliated. Only this time, he removed his sword from its sheath and stabbed me straight through my thigh meat. I cried out, then growled in agony as I felt searing pain shooting through my leg. Blood poured from the wound, down my leg, and off the blade onto the floor. So much for not leaving my DNA in this place. I also didn’t like the fact that the drug they forced me to inhale had made my skin penetrable. The only thing I was focused on now was getting out of there alive.

  “Where is your partner?” Richard demanded again.

  “Where are yours?” I retorted as I glared at him. I grit my teeth together and growled in pain as Takahashi twisted the fucking blade in my thigh, widening the wound and making me bleed more.

  “Give him another dose,” Richard instructed, and Takahashi walked away for a few seconds, then returned with what I assumed was the same drug they’d given me that had me incapacitated. It was a plastic canister with a mask attached to it. He grabbed a handful of my hair and forced the mask over my mouth. I twisted and turned my head as much as I could, but it was all in vain. I began to hold my breath as the chemical mixture filled the mask in a hazy mist. I could hold my breath for a long fucking time, almost as long as a Navy SEAL, but I was betting he could hold the mask to my face longer than I could hold my breath.

  Three minutes passed before I had to give in, and against my will, I sucked in all of the mist. I could feel it filling my lungs, making me choke and cough. Takahashi removed the mask, then twisted his sword again, this time in the other direction. I screamed and cursed him out for the hell of it. I hated being in this position, especially since I hadn’t seen it coming. I had to admit, as far as pain went, it was far better to give than to receive, let me tell you. How was I going to get myself out of this bullshit and get away? Think, damn it!

  “That looks painful,” Richard commented as he gestured at my wounded leg. My flesh was healing around the blade, which was going to be painful once it was removed.

  “If it’s any consolation to you, it is,” I said.

  “It’s nice that you have such a winning personality, Mister… Cobra? Is that what your vigilante street name is?”

  I nodded with a malicious grin. “You like?”

  He shrugged. “I guess it’s as good as any. Fucking superheroes think you’re saving the world. You’re not. Long after you’re dead, the Killing Game will be in business. As a matter of fact, what you heard was true. We are going to be extending it to hunts. I’m actually looking forward to such a sabbatical, and we don’t need you getting in the way of those plans.”

  “Who’s ‘we’?” I asked.

  “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

  “Oh, I would. Please tell me,” I said.

  Richard laughed. “You tell me where I can find your partner and I’ll answer just one of your questions, deal?”

  “No deal.”

  Richard shrugged a shoulder. “Well, can’t say that I wasn’t trying to be agreeable. I am a business man, after all. Deals are what I specialize in. Listen, you’re not leaving here alive, you must know that by now.”

  I nodded. “Which gives me no incentive to give you information.”

  “There are ways of making you talk,” Richard retorted.

  “There are ways of making me suffer, not talk. There’s a difference. You can cut off my body parts. You can make me scream for my mother, but you’re never going to make me give up my partner,” I said.

  “I’m more than willing and able to push your pain tolerance and put your reserve to the test,” Takahashi said, then as if to prove it, he pulled his sword from my leg, which was painful as fuck, and stabbed it sideways through my left leg, the blade also going through my right leg, skewing them both. Again, I screamed, spit flying from my mouth as I cursed them both. Still, I didn’t give up Jordan’s location. I’d die before I did that.

  The pain that was shooting through my lower extremities was agonizing and I wanted to rip Takahashi’s head off every time he twisted the blade. I could feel it slicing through tendons and muscle with each turn of the steel.

  “Have you ever been disemboweled before, Cobra?” Richard asked.

  I was panting heavily, trying to keep my calm through the pain. Sweat poured from my pores, running down my face and dripping into my eyes, but I managed to give Richard an “if looks could kill” glare.

  “Ooohhh, those are the eyes of a vicious killer wanting to break free and wreak havoc,” he said with a chuckle. “Tell me, what makes you better than us? You kill, and I can tell you’ve been killing for a while.”

  “I… I don’t kill for fun,” I said.

  He snorted. “Oh, come now, of course you do. You can’t do what you did to Cecily and Walter and not get some sort of morbid satisfaction out of it. Maybe you tell yourself you’re doing the world a favor. That your acts are just and noble, but they’re just as depraved as those you’ve condemned.”

  I rolled my eyes. “I don’t need a lesson in morality from you,” I shot back.

  “I suppose you’re right.” He nodded at Takahashi, and the man pulled a small, black case from his inside coat pocket. “Since you’re being difficult, Cobra, I’m going to let Takahashi have his way with you. He really has been anxious for this moment. We were waiting for you to make your move so we could make ours. I must say, you covered your tracks well. Takahashi tried to follow you on several occasions, but he was never successful. I have to tell you, he’s not used to failure. It pisses him off when he doesn’t reach a goal. I believe he’s been wanting to take his rage out on you for quite some time.”

  Takahashi opened the black case and I saw the tools of torture inside. Oh great, this was going to be fun. Fun in the sense of one of the worse days of my life. I was not looking forward to having my fingers cut off, or my nails removed. Nipples sliced and eyeballs gouged out. All things I’ve done to people before. Like I said, it was better to give than to receive. I mentally and physically braced myself for what was coming.

  Takahashi removed a scalpel and placed the blade at the tip of my ear lobe. “You won’t be needing this,” he said, then sliced my lobe from my body.

  Again, I screamed and cursed them to the pits of hell. Shit! That fucking hurt like a son of a bitch! “Go fuck yourselves!” I growled in my pain-filled rage. I could feel my blood dripping from the wound, wetting my shoulder and running down my back and chest.

  “This is interesting,” Takahashi murmured.

  “What?” Richard asked, eyebrows creased.

  “He’s healing faster than before.”

  That was good news for me, of course.

  “The solution?”

  “He’s growing an immunity to it,” Takahashi said. I could tell by the shocked and disappointed tone in his voice that he wasn’t happy about my constitution, but I was.

  I could already feel my ear lobe healing. Soon, I’d be strong enough to break through these fucking bindings. Also, it gave me an idea. If I made it out of there alive, I was going to look into getting my hands on that “solution” the government came up with to neutralize my kind. If I could gain an immunity to it, I would. That way, I’d never fall victim to it again. That, of course, all hinged on if I could get out of there alive.

  “Then speed it up. I want to know where to find his partne
r,” Richard urged. “Give him another dose, too. I don’t care.”

  With that, Takahashi yanked my head back and stabbed through my left eye with the scalpel. Blinding pain shot through my head as I lost vision in my eye. Blood poured from the wound, gushing down my face. I screamed as my eye was ripped by the blade. I really hoped I survived this, so I could return this fucking favor!

  Takahashi pulled the scalpel out and plunged the blade into my other eye, giving me the same horrible torture and blinding me completely. God, the pain was unbearable, but I had no choice but to bear it. I thrashed as much as my bindings allowed and cursed vile enough to make a sailor blush. I didn’t even know if my eyes were impenetrable without the poison in my system weakening me, but I never wanted to find out before. I had a high tolerance for pain, but that didn’t mean I welcomed it. Not by a long shot. Of course, having my bones break and stretch whenever I transformed helped prepare me for certain kinds of torture. I knew I could endure this, but holy shit did I wish this night had gone how I had planned. It was supposed to be Richard sitting in this chair with me stabbing him with pointy objects, not the other way around.

  The blade was pulled out of my eye and then plunged back into my left eye, just as the organ was healing. This was hell, pure hell! My blood was soaking my face as my eyes were tortured over and over, keeping me blinded and screaming at the top of my lungs. A lot of words exited my mouth, like motherfucker, cock sucker, I’ll fucking kill you, and go to hell. But not one thing I said betrayed Jordan. He moved from my eyes to stabbing me over and over again in my chest and stomach, puncturing my organs, only this time, with a serrated knife. It was a wonder I had any blood left in my body, but I felt it gush over my torso as this son of a bitch made me his julienne salad.

  All I could do was scream and thrash. I couldn’t remember the last time I had felt so fucking helpless. This wasn’t a good look for me, not at all. I fucking hated it. Still, I kept quiet on Jordan’s whereabouts. Unlike the people I killed, I had integrity. Takahashi ceased stabbing my insides and slicing my flesh to go to work on my exposed toes. I was wiggling them as much as I could, but it didn’t help. He grabbed my big toe and demanded I tell them about Jordan. When I spit in the direction of his voice, I felt the blade slice through my toe, severing it.