I shrugged, somewhat uncomfortable with having to utter those words myself.
“Rape is about power and control. The rapist has it all, and the victim has nothing. It's as simple as that.”
“As far as control is concerned, that might be a correct assessment, but I don't see the merit in that. Now, power—that's a completely different point.”
“It is?”
He nodded. “Let's stay with you for our example. Wouldn't you agree that, Greene maybe excluded, I'm the least likely person in the building you'd want to have sex with right now?”
I wondered for a moment if I should ask about the women in his crew, but decided that it was beside the point.
“Pretty much, yeah.”
He grinned as if I'd complimented him.
“Now, wouldn't true power be if I somehow managed to get under your skin, that my personality and charm were both so strong that it would make you overcome your revulsion and that sense of betrayal that your eyes are screaming at me? That is real power, not taking something from a woman that she can't defend. Only it takes a true idiot not to realize that. Hence someone like me will always stand well above someone like Greene.”
I had to give it to him, what he said made sense. It creeped me out, but yes, it made sense.
The rest of the way to the cafeteria we spent in silence. I didn't dare speak up again, lest he make me even more uncomfortable than I already was.
Once we got there, I couldn't help but deflate a little more. The cafeteria, large enough to house a good portion of the well over two thousand employees at once, was lit sparsely with more floodlights, but that wasn't what made me pause just inside the doors. In the middle of the room, tables had been put together and turned into a long, exceptionally well-stocked buffet.
“Are you actually planning to keep us here for the weekend?” I asked, my voice sounding smaller than I felt comfortable with.
“No,” came his reply before he gave me a gentle nudge. “Now grab some fruit and salad. I don't have all night.”
He watched me closely, then pushed me toward the door that would lead us back to the atrium. I went without protest, but also without the previous enthusiasm. I couldn’t say why, but seeing that feeding station suddenly hammered down the possibility that I wouldn’t just have to tough out the night before I could return home and never leave the safety of my own four walls again.
At the edge of the glass cathedral that housed the prison I was about to be sent back into, Nate reached for my shoulder and brought me to a sudden halt. I tensed, about to shake off his hand, but he let go before I could get to it. His face was completely void of emotion, but his eyes were still bright with intensity that I couldn't make sense of.
“A word of advice, if my previous warning hasn't made it through that thick skull of yours yet. My offer stands—you help us, and I will make sure that your stay here will pass with more comfort and less danger to your well-being. I can't force you to take it—I also wouldn't if I could. You can call me a liar and a cynic, but I believe in personal choice and freedom, and it is your right to choose to be a mindless, blind sheep rather than rise above that. You are of use and value to me, but only if you so choose. If you duck your head and ignore my offer, you are of no use to me, and consequently I will not be interested in you any longer. I remain with what I've promised all of you before—if you don't provoke us, we will not torture or hurt any of you, but if you're useless otherwise, we won't step in when things go wrong inside that glass cube.”
Whatever it took, I told myself again. Whatever it took.
But right then, that incentive, that knowledge just wasn't enough to make me betray myself.
I held his gaze as calmly as I could and hoisted the bag higher onto my shoulder. It weighed a ton, but it was nothing compared to the grief and frustration dragging on my heart.
“Got any other grand statements to proclaim, or can I join my fellow hostages inside the nice, cozy glass cube with the sanitary bucket?”
He stepped aside and gestured toward the middle of the atrium.
“Join away.”
I wondered if it would be too much to ask whether he'd let me use the restroom before he sent me back, but I'd pretty much barred that way myself, so I dredged on without another word. By the time I'd made it to the cube door, he was long gone, proving even more how insignificant I was. And I hated myself for just how much that grated.
This time I got more attention from the other hostages. Apparently the promise of food got their concern up while Greene's verbal abuse was something they were happy to ignore. I dumped the trash bag in the middle of the cubicle and retreated to my corner without touching anything.
I didn't tell them about the cafeteria, and I certainly didn't share the few candid tidbits Nate had dropped along the way that were news to me.
I did notice that, of everyone who’d remained behind, Gabriel Greene was the only one who didn’t scramble for anything to eat—and when I caught his knowing gaze, I got the sense that, like with Nate before, he knew more than he let on. Suddenly, staying away from the candy bars sounded even more like the wise decision of the century.
Exactly what was it that I could do that made me interesting to Nate? And somehow I just knew that it was that exact same thing that got Greene staring at me with that uncanny level of hostility, even if he tried to hide it behind that machismo act of his. It had to have something to do with my academic career, and not just my nice smile or my other assets.
I didn't find any answers, and staring out into the atrium where the security station showed yet more guards patrolling hallways but not much else didn't yield anything, either.
Chapter 12
It didn't take long for most of the food to be gone. Even with Nate’s promise to keep us fed, everyone was bound to hoard as much as possible, and while the sack had been full to the brim, twelve people could eat an astonishing amount of food in a short time. I wondered if I should feel privileged for knowing that there was a lot more available in the cafeteria, besides the undisclosed number of vending machines that hadn't been raided yet, but somehow that didn't make me feel better. I had the distinct feeling that asking for any of that would come at a price, and if our ordeal would only go on for another day as Nate had hinted, I wasn't going to compromise myself for food.
Besides, not eating anything when everything still reeked of grilled homo sapiens wasn't hard. And anything that kept me from needing to use the bucket was an advantage in my book.
I'd half expected Greene to greet me with a similar comment than the one he'd sent me off with, but it took him an entire ten minutes to stop staring at me as if I held all the answers. Once he got bored of that, though, he was back in the game.
“I wonder what took you half an hour to get the food here. The next vending machine outside of the atrium is, what, three minutes away? Five tops. Let's say five. You don't look like you can do it in three.”
I gave him a baleful stare, but that was all he was going to get out of me this time. Try as I might, I couldn't quite shake off Nate’s warning. Maybe I had underestimated Greene because I assumed that, his taunting aside, he wasn't thriving on making this difficult on all of us.
Like before, Greene didn't need my participation to amuse himself.
“So that's about fifteen minutes tops, five each for the way, and how long could it possibly take to fill a bag with food? That still leaves the other fifteen minutes unaccounted for. Want to entertain us with what you were doing in the meantime?”
Holding my tongue was easier when I tried not to look at him, so I stared out into the atrium instead. What was it about that guy and the candy bar?
Not replying might have helped to not feed the troll, but that didn’t keep him from volunteering more of his idiocy.
“I bet you loved sucking his cock. Or did he fuck you straight up in your ass? It's always the ugly chicks who dig the perverted stuff the most. I bet you came almost instantly—”
Cl
osing my eyes, I did my best to tune out the drone of his taunting. Not that it helped much.
“I mean, really, the way you keep slobbering after him even now is disgusting! Do you have no self-respect?”
That did catch my attention, but only for a moment. Greene's eyes narrowed when he realized that I hadn't listened to him ramble at all, but before he could launch into another tirade, the door to the cubicle swung open, admitting the supposed victim of my adoration.
Only when I didn't feel myself instinctively shy away from him did I realize that something terrible had happened in my chat with Nate—somehow, even fully aware of what he'd done and was capable of, talking to him had made me think of him as a normal human being again instead of a monster. And because my mind was capable of worse feats than what Greene could come up with, I felt myself wonder if there was something to that attraction thing Nate had mentioned in the weirdest discussion about rape that I'd ever had with anyone.
That was the point where self-preservation did kick in and the cringing happened, but only after I'd spent a good twenty seconds gazing up at him, likely not looking as disgusted as I wanted to. He wouldn't have been smirking otherwise as he held out a cup of coffee to me, of all things.
This man was so going to be the end of my sanity.
I stared at the steaming cup, at a complete loss for what to do. Why was he doing this? Just minutes ago he'd been all, “I won't do anything for you unless you do something for me,” and now he was bringing me coffee?!
My bewilderment must have been obvious, as Nate started explaining as he set the cup down beside my left knee.
“Considering that you spilled your last cup of coffee because some raving lunatic set off explosives all over the building, I figured I owe you a fresh one. Besides, as I told you before, you do something for me, I do something for you.”
He even had the audacity to flash one of those purely male smiles at Greene as he left the cube. That he wasn't hit by a fountain of scalding coffee for his trouble was a testament of me trying to be the better person.
That move certainly proved that he did nothing that wasn't calculated. I didn't think for a second that it was a white flag, or even a small thank you for playing along as I got the food for us hostages. What I'd thought was mostly idle banter had obviously been him casing the situation. In Greene's behavior he had found a weakness that he could exploit.
Shit.
I was still staring at the untouched cup when Greene got ready to deliver what I was sure was another prime example of his level of sophistication, but I cut him off before he could get started.
“Go ahead, give it your best. If it's something I haven't heard yet, you can have the coffee.”
Sadly, he wasn't as much of a one trick pony as I liked to believe, and switched tactics immediately. Settling back on his haunches, he regarded me with a lazy smile playing around the corners of his mouth.
“Oh, you should have it. I'm sure you did something to deserve such a treat.” He paused, his grin turning nasty. “As much as I like to amuse myself with the notion that it's for doing a good job licking his balls and asshole, I think the truth is much more sordid. First, you just happen to talk in the foyer minutes before the hostile takeover, which clearly was a last check-in to see if everything is ready. Then you marvelously disappear while everyone is rounded up, only to get thrown in with us once we've had enough time to stew and come up with the most horrifying scenarios in our heads. They give you two hours to gather intel, then you get plenty of time to check back with him to relay it. Oh, I know what that coffee is for. Just watching you eye fuck him all the time makes that quite obvious.”
He fell silent with a look of grim satisfaction on his face, leaving me completely flabbergasted. Of all the things he'd spewed, this was the worst. The problem was, it also was the most plausible, and as the others listened on, I could see agreement in their eyes.
That was the reason why no one had stood up to defend me. They all thought I was a traitor at best, a planted mole at worst.
And just like that, things had gone from bad to much, much worse.
Chapter 13
I had barely finished the coffee when Nate was back, this time with four of his men, two of which each grabbed Greene and me and dragged us outside without a single word of explanation. I didn't protest but also didn't help along, and consequently landed on my ass in front of the computer station where they deposited us both. The box of grenades was gone—I checked.
While I slowly got to my feet, Nate leaned against the work table to our right, assuming a relaxed pose with his arms crossed over his chest. He could have been chatting with old friends, or trying to make new ones. I had no idea how much exactly he knew of what Greene had accused me of, but it couldn't be coincidence that he kept pushing like this now.
“You probably wonder why I asked my associates to bring you here,” he began.
I remained mute, determined not to give him anything unless someone put a gun to my head. Greene was more cordial about the situation, almost mirroring Nate, yet sans a table to lean against.
“Oh, no, the reason is perfectly obvious. You want information from me, and she's here to play the second part in your weird 'good cop, bad cop' scenario. Don't bother, it's not working on me.”
Nate seemed to consider that, then gave a brief nod of acknowledgement. I could have strangled him right then and there, but had the sinking feeling that in this situation, whatever I did, I'd just doom myself.
“Very well. I would still like to remind you both that it is in your best interest to cooperate with us and not make a nuisance of yourselves. This will all be over much quicker if we get what we want sooner.”
Greene snorted.
“Okay, I'll play along, mostly because I'm bored. You got me there. What exactly do you need us…” he overstressed that word “…to cooperate with?”
Turning to the cute techie, Nate nodded at her.
“Bring up the first list, please.”
I was surprised that he asked, not demanded, but she acted as if she was used to that. Maybe she was.
A few seconds later, the screen that had been tuned into the camera feeds switched to a list of project titles. I scanned them quickly. I knew a few of them, and the rest also sounded like what Green Fields Biotech was working on. Greene scrutinized the list, but his face remained blank. Nate waited, and when nothing came from either of us, he cleared his throat.
“Do those projects sound familiar to you?”
Again I chose not to react, and Greene took his time finding a reply.
“So this is about the capital of the corporation, if I may venture a guess? Undercover corporate espionage only got you so far, and now you need me to resolve the last remaining details and tell you all our dirty little secrets.”
He got a somewhat amused smile in return.
“Something like that. Provided you actually know what your father's company is up to. Your reputation isn't exactly built on being a capable CFO.”
I hadn't realized that Greene had gotten a promotion recently, but it explained why he was grinning with satisfaction now.
“You'd be surprised about what I know that people don't expect me to be capable of.”
Nate shrugged. “Then care to tell us a little bit about all those projects?”
“And what's in it for me?”
Another shrug. “What do you want?”
I was surprised at the direction their exchange was taking, but then Greene proved again what he was really made of.
“Easy. What I want is her.” He indicated me with a sideways jerk of his chin.
I blinked, not believing what I was hearing. Before it could sink in properly, my stomach turned into a tight, uncomfortable ball as Nate seemed to consider it.
“Define that.”
Greene snorted.
“Gladly. I'll even be so gracious as to offer my side of the deal first. I tell you everything that I know, and once we're done, you give me a
n hour with her in a nice room where no one comes in and will distract us. I can get more specific if you want me to, but I'm getting a sense here that you'd rather get on with business, and while I do her, you can do whatever you came here for.”
My initial shock wore off about the time Nate donned a pensive face.
“You can't be seriously considering that?!”
He raised his brows at me as if my outrage came as a surprise to him.
“Why? Don't you think that's a fair trade? We get what we want while you take one for the team?”
If there had been a weapon readily available, I would have gone for it now, but in the same careful calculation he'd shown before, Nate seemed to have ditched his gun and knife before having us fetched from the cube. His eyes held an unspoken challenge as he kept holding my gaze, and I was pretty sure that he knew what was going through my mind right then.
“So, do we have a deal?” Greene cut into our staring contest.
“I don't know, do we?” Nate asked me, still playing along.
“The hell you don't!” I shouted, not caring if every last soul in the building heard me. “You can't just give me away as a bargaining chip!”
Too late I realized that I'd inadvertently strengthened his base, sounding more like an offended lover than anything else. Greene's triumphant leer was making me sick.
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