Page 79 of Stars and Scars

He stares at me for a moment too long before laughing.

“What kind of a stupid name is that? I don’t know what you’re talking about, dude.”

He tries to stand up, but I grab his collar and drag him back down.

“Not so fast. You’re not going to warn the Aegis Order that I’m here.”

His eyes bulge out of his head. He again tries to rise, but I grab hold of the trapezius muscle in his shoulder and squeeze hard on his nerve center. He collapses back to the sofa, crying out in agony.

“I’m not into inflicting pain, but quite frankly, hurting you doesn’t bother me. I want the names of your contacts in the Order, and I want them now. This can either go easy, or hard. But you’re going to tell me one way or the other.”

“Who-who are you?” he gasps. I still haven’t relinquished my grip.

“Your worst fucking nightmare if you don’t tell me what I want to know.”

He stops struggling, and I ease up…a little.

“Man, I don’t know, all right?”

“Bullshit. You work for the Order. Their ideology matches your own, and you hacked into Charlottesville’s social media accounts on their behalf to extort money. No games.”

I start to squeeze again and he holds up his hands.

“For fuck’s sake, man! Stop! I’m not with them, I swear.”

“Did you know,” I say coldly, “that the human body CAN survive having its eyeballs exploded like overripe grapes?”

“Oh god, don’t hurt me! I swear that I’m not with the Order! I hacked the accounts, sure, and I tried to get some cash off that influencer chick with the big tits, but I’m not a terrorist.”

I shake my head.

“You’re almost convincing me. Too bad the evidence says otherwise. I know you did the hack from this address.”

I check out his laptop, which, while nice, isn’t nearly powerful enough to be like the one Harlowe told me to look for in the villa.

“And I know you have a better computing rig around here somewhere. Do you still want to lie to me?”

I squeeze, and he groans.

“I’m not with the Order, I swear to God! Look, I can show you Wyatt’s computer array, all right? It’s where I snuck in to do the hack in the first place.”

Frustration mounts within me. I thought I was one step closer to finding the nation. Now it looks like I’ve gone on a wild goose chase, and wasted a bunch of time with McCloud when he’s just a dead end.

I’m not entirely convinced he’s telling me the truth, however.

“Show me. And if you try to run, you’re just going to the hospital tired.”

I stand up. He tries to bring the laptop but I knock it out of his hand.

“Will you cut it out?” he snaps. “I told you, I’m not a cultist or a terrorist.”

“Yeah, just someone who extorts money from innocent women.”

He snorts.

“That stuck up, privileged bitch isn’t innocent–”

My hand is around his throat and shoving him against the wall before I even think about it.

---