~ ~ ~
When Eli regained consciousness he was sitting on a hard wooden chair in a dark, empty room with his hands bound behind his back. He coughed and slowly opened his eyes all the way. Something in the corner moved, and he turned his head toward it.
“Eli Cohen. My, what a bad boy you’ve been.”
The voice was female, evenly-modulated, calm. The woman from the car.
“Who are you? What do you want?”
“I’m one of the members of the team you sold down the river. One of the people who was condemned to death by your treachery.”
“I don’t understand. I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he protested, coughing again.
“Let’s not waste each other’s time, Eli. I know who you are, I know what you do with the Mossad, and I know that you’ve sold information to a Russian by the name of Mikhail Grigenko.”
“Mossad? What, are you crazy? I’m not with the Mossad. Where did you get that idea? Is this a robbery or something? I don’t have a lot of money, but–”
She stepped forward and slapped his face.
“Don’t lie to me. I know what you did – your betrayal of those who put their lives on the line for you. There’s no point in denying it. Denial will just piss me off, Eli, and believe me when I tell you that you don’t want to piss me off.”
He studied her face, and then his eyes widened.
She nodded. “Ahh. So you recognize me. Which means you know what I am capable of. Are you afraid yet, Eli? You should be. Very afraid.”
“I told you I don’t know what–”
She slapped him again.
“You don’t get it, do you? You’re not going to make it out of this room unless you tell me what I need to know.”
David stepped out of the shadows. “Hello, Eli.”
The blood drained from Eli’s face. “You.”
“That’s right. So let’s not play any longer. I have some questions, and I need answers. You will answer the questions. If you aren’t cooperative, I’ll torture you until you’ll wish you had died ten times over. You know I’ll do it, so let’s make this simple. You betrayed the team. I know you had a hand in them being killed. I know Grigenko is behind it. My first question is, why?”
“Why what?”
“Why did you betray them?”
Eli spat on the floor. “I didn’t know what was going to happen. I swear I didn’t know he was going to sanction them…”
“Really? What did you think he would do? Send them flowers?”
Eli had nothing to say.
“My question stands. Why?”
Eli raised his head. “I’m not saying anything. You can’t do this, and you know it. You’re one of us. One of the good guys. This isn’t how we behave.”
David moved back behind Eli and picked something up, then turned back to Eli.
“You know what this is? Of course you do. This is a soldering iron. I just plugged it in. Within thirty seconds it will get hot enough to light a cigarette. I’m going to start with your head and work my way down your torso. I’m not bluffing, and you’ll be very sorry if you decide to test me. Once I’m done with the iron, I’ll switch to using electricity, then acid. You know what I’m trained to do. Now I’m going to ask you one more time. Why did you betray the team? Why did you betray me?”
Eli gritted his teeth, refusing to speak.
David turned to Jet.
“Go watch out front and make sure nobody’s around. I don’t want to be interrupted.”
She nodded and paused, looking at Eli. “I guess next time I see you, you won’t have much of a face left. I wish I could say it was nice meeting you, Eli, but it wasn’t.”
She turned and walked to a door behind Eli. He heard it open and then slam shut. It echoed. They were in a large space – some kind of abandoned warehouse or industrial building.
“Don’t do this. There’s no coming back once you do this,” Eli pleaded in a quiet voice.
“That’s right. Just like there was no coming back from the hit squad that attacked me at one of the safe houses. Just like none of the team will come back from the dead.”
David moved closer to Eli.
“Last chance. Why?”
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