Page 128 of One Minute Out

“So you are... you are what?”

“Right now I am the guy trying to convince the young lady holding you to place that pair of pliers on your nuts and squeeze, but I’m having a hard time getting her on board with that. Some people aren’t as crazy as me, I guess.”

He barks out a thin laugh. “She won’t do it, and you aren’t here. You don’t scare me. Go fuck yourself, American. You’re bluffing.”

I turn my attention to Talyssa. “Think of your goal. Just think of your sister. There is one person between her and you right now. The man sitting right there.”

It’s quiet for a long time. Finally she says, “Yes. I... I understand.” To my surprise, I hear the sound of metal tools being moved around.

Now Maarten says, “What are you doing?”

I speak in a robotic, dispassionate voice. “Talyssa. Don’t wait. He’s just trying to buy time. There will be no more delays. We have to begin destroying his will now. To do that we have to destroy his body.” This disconnected tone only increases the certitude in the captive that I don’t give a shit about what’s happening. Like I could torture him to death and then order lunch without a moment’s pause. It’s psychological warfare, which is effective. Not as effective as actual warfare, but since I’m not there in the room, it’s the most powerful tool I have at my disposal at present.

I hear the Dutch hacker begging, and I hear Talyssa’s heavy breath. I worry she’s about to pass out, but apparently Maarten Meyer worries she’s about to start fucking him up with hand tools, because he screams now.

“No! Please! No!”

Talyssa Corbu speaks, and her voice surprises me. Apparently she’s found a wellspring of strength. “I’ve got it from here, Harry. I’ll call you back when I have what I need from him.”

“Wait, what are you going to do?” shouts Meyer.

Her own tone has become robotic now as she answers him. “I’m going to do to you everything my friend told me to do to you.”

I remind her, “We need him alive. Listen to me. You puncture an artery and he’s no good to us. We need him—”

“He’ll live,” she says. And then, “Just.”

And then she hangs up on me.

Holy shit.

•••

“Who is he?” Maarten demanded. “Who is he?” Spittle flew from his mouth, and tears drained freely from his eyes.

Talyssa leaned close to her prisoner, just as she’d seen the intense and frightening American who called himself Harry do in the bunker in Herzegovina. In a soft voice, still bereft of personal connection or passion, she said, “I don’t know, exactly. But he is a mass murderer. I’ve watched him kill in three countries over the past few days. I myself have never done anything like this, but unfortunately for you, I have reached my breaking point. I can see myself picking up that ice pick and filling you with little holes. Also unfortunately for you, I am not very well versed in human anatomy, so there is a reasonable chance I’ll hit one of those arteries he warned me about.” She shrugged. “Maybe we will both be lucky tonight. Let’s find out.”

“I’ll do the fucking hack! I’ll do the hack!”

“My friend warned me about you stalling, didn’t he? I think I better go ahead and show you my conviction to—”

“No stalling! Release my hands right now and I’ll get to work. You just tell me what you need.”

Talyssa thought it over for a few seconds, the ice pick shaking in front of her face. Finally she said, “I’m going to need to see some very fast progress from you.”

“You will get it! You will! I’ll show you! Just don’t hurt me.”

Talyssa’s heart had never beat so hard in her life, and she wasn’t even the one in mortal danger at present. But she cut off his wrist ties with the butcher knife, and she pushed his chair up to the computer.

THIRTY-EIGHT

Jaco Verdoorn stood in a window on the top floor of the Casino of Venice, looking across the passageway in front of him, down to the north-south street a block away. He saw men pass, and he thought they looked suspicious, but like Klerk said before, he didn’t see Gentry.

He radioed Hall inside the auction taking place in the next building over. “Hall? Lion Actual. How much longer do you anticipate the market lasting?”

Hall answered in a whispered voice. “I’m guessing no more than a half hour, but you know the boss. He’s amped up right now; he might decide to leave at any time.”

Verdoorn knew that meant Cage was snorting coke, which was no surprise to the South African, because they traveled together regularly.

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