1:30 pm
The Farm
Dante had spent the morning with Simon interviewing the soldiers. One of the buildings is set up to house guests and is completely soundproof. The building is equipped with state of the art monitoring systems and has a self destruct feature that would make the warehouse look like kids playing with matches. Within 4 minutes of activation, there will be nothing but a huge hole in the ground and a pile of ashes no bigger than a milk jug. It also has remote activation built into it so there is no need to worry when they are on the road.
Dante had only seen Simon interview one person before so to watch him interact with the 11 remaining guests was something to behold. Simon was casually strolling through the room singing Breaking Benjamin’s “Blow Me Away” to all of the men. He made special emphasis when singing the line, “only the strongest will survive”, right before he showed them what that meant. “Your cover’s blown, nowhere to go, only your fate. Lonely I walk alone.”
Simon had quickly determined who the leader of the group was by watching the men interact on the monitoring equipment. When he first went into the room, he took the leader and placed him in the middle of the room, the other 10 men all able to see him from their restraints, and he bound and gagged him without asking a single question. He slowly walked around the room, stopping to stare into the eyes of each man. Every single one of them looked away before Simon did. When he got back to the first guy he paused for several seconds and said,
“I need to know who you work for. I have a pretty good idea, but I need to be certain. I am also sure that most of you feel like you are just doing your job, following orders, being a good soldier… by coming to my home and trying to kill me and my young friend over there. I already know who each of you are… or were, before you were KIA. I also know every single family member you abandoned when you took on this role. Can you imagine what thoughts will be going through their minds while they are being tortured, all the while knowing you lied and faked your own death and brought this fury to their doorstep?” He stopped and paused. At least 3 of the men showed a reaction to his words, barely, but it was there. As a shark senses blood in the water, Simon zero’d in on the first and most obviously distressed of the 3. He stared the man in the eye for several seconds and asked,
“Who do you work for?” The man paused, doubt in his eyes. A small smile broke Simon’s mask and he turned, grabbed the whip from the table next to the leader and crack! The skin on the leader’s chest lay open from the wound, blood running down his bare torso. Muffled screams were the only sound in the room. Simon waited until it died down a little bit and then leaned close to the soldier and said in a very menacing tone,
“Can you imagine what your son, Jeremy, will think when he faces the end of his life in the most painful way I can imagine and all the while, knowing it was you who brought the devil to his doorstep. You won’t have to imagine, you will be there to watch so there is no doubt who is responsible.” The man’s eyes widened even further and before he could say anything, Simon gagged him and continued singing,
“Your cover’s blown, nowhere to go, only your fate, Lonely I will walk alone.” He walked up to the next man who had shown a reaction and stopped in front of him for several seconds until a smirk appeared on his face. Simon leaned in and said,
“The first one who tells me what I want to know wins.” His smirk morphed into a full on smile and on his way out the door, he adjusted the temperature in the room to 90 and walked out the door, still whistling the tune.