Page 42 of One Minute Out

I know what she is asking by this. “Nobody got killed.”

Obvious relief washes over her, but I see her lower lip continue to tremble. “What now?”

“Now is the ugly part. I won’t know how ugly till I get started. You want to wait out here?”

“Of course not. I need to be in there listening to what he says. But... please do not torture him first. Give him an opportunity to tell the truth.”

She’s so out of her element right now. It speaks volumes about her relationship with her sister that she’s doing all this, but I worry about bumping up against her limits soon, perhaps in the next five minutes.

“I’ll start gentle. But what’s gentle for me probably won’t be considered gentle by you. I will use something called the presumptive. It means that although we don’t know everything, we’re going to come at him like we do. I’ll lead. I’ll tell him we know he’s with the pipeline, and the Consortium.”

“The Consortium?”

“In the car he asked me if I was sent by the Consortium. Does that mean anything to you?”

She shakes her head and looks back at the entrance to the bunker. “What about me? What do you want me to do?”

“You just whisper in my ear if you have something to say.”

She nods her assent, although she remains incredibly reluctant about all this. I return to my captive and hear him muttering something in Serbo-Croatian. I don’t know what the hell he’s saying, but I don’t like it. I smack him on the side of the head, and he shuts up.

Talyssa gasps in surprise behind me.

“You better speak English, Niko, otherwise the only language we can communicate in is pain.”

He switches to English, and again he says, “You the man that kill Babic, yes?” After a little chuckle he says, “Some bad people looking for you.”

“Where are the women?”

“Who are you? What do you want?”

I didn’t go through all this shit to get interviewed, so I don’t answer. Instead, I repeat, “Where are the women?”

Now he replies with “What women?” and I punch him in the jaw. I know it hurts, because I’ve gotten my own face bashed in a time or two.

Talyssa gasps again.

Vukovic grunts, and his head shakes inside the hood. After a moment it begins to hang. He’s not unconscious, he’s just showing signs of defeat, coming to the frightening realization that his future depends on me. It gives me some slim hope that I won’t have to pound on him all day.

“The women and girls who were locked in the cellar of Ratko Babic’s house. Where were they taken?”

He spits inside the bag, and bloody phlegm drips out of it, down onto the tunic of his uniform.

I ask with more authority in my voice. “Where... were... they... taken?”

“They gone. I don’t know where. I don’t know what happens before Mostar, I don’t know what happens after Mostar.”

Talyssa Corbu surprises me by stepping forward and shouting now. “Liar! I saw you in Belgrade with the Branjevo Partizans. You picked up the girls, brought them to the farm near Mostar.”

His head cocks to the side; perhaps he’s surprised to hear a woman’s voice, but he makes no reply.

I lean closer to his face. “Oh, shit, Niko. You’re lying to me? I guess it’s time to knock your block off.” I punch him again. It’s not a particularly hard blow, but I am pacing myself. Still, my right hand throbs with pain and I think I’m going to have to look around for something else to bang against his face if this goes on much longer.

More blood and spit drip out of the bag. Corbu has stepped back against the graffiti-covered wall, apparently surprising even herself with her outburst.

I say, “Okay... if you know about Belgrade, the previous stop in the pipeline, then I bet you know about the next stop.”

His head shakes hard. “They tell me nothing. Belgrade is Serb mafia, like here. That’s why I go there. I work with them. The next stop... it is different group.”

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