"Indeed?" I shifted my arms a little so that they pressed against my sides. I still had my phone. I still had my knife. This man might not be underestimating me, but he sure as hell hadn’t searched me very well. "Then Harlen isn’t the man behind the buyout of premises on West Street?"
"No, he’s not behind the buyout, although he will definitely benefit from it." Once again it sounded like it was all one big joke only he could understand. "You really must tell us your sources."
"The Directorate," I said, crossing my arms to hide my hands. Slowly, carefully, I grabbed my jacket and pulled it around until the pocket holding the knife was at the front of my body. "They did capture one of your boys and they do so enjoy the odd routine-breaking bit of interrogation … as you will experience yourself once I hand you over to them."
He laughed. "My dear, I’d start worrying about your future rather than mine."
I reached into the pocket and wrapped my hands around the hilt of the knife. "Look, I don’t know where the goddamn book is. I don’t know where my father is. Those facts cannot be changed, no matter how much you might wish otherwise."
"We shall see."
He moved, and his shadowy form wavered briefly—the first real indication that I was indeed watching a projection rather than a real person. I quickly scanned the wall behind his image, and for the first time noticed the faint outline of a doorway.
Then his image flicked a nonexistent switch—or at least it was nonexistent in this room—and something hit me with the force of a sledgehammer. I was thrown backward, my spine hitting a wall with bone-crunching force and my body shaking, trembling, and tingling. The assault stopped almost as soon as it had began, but the skin underneath the wire felt like it was burning, and my whole body felt weird. Numb, almost.
"Now that you’ve had a taste of what I can do, please answer the question."
I licked my lips and somehow croaked, "What fucking question?" God, there were spots dancing before my eyes, and my ears were ringing. What the hell had he done to me?
"Where is the book?"
"I don’t know—"
I didn’t get any further. The force hit again, and only the wall at my back prevented me from being thrown. But it didn’t stop my limbs from shaking and dancing, and it didn’t stop the energy that was flowing through me.
Electricity. He was using electricity on me. God, the wire. It was coming through the wire around my legs.
The energy snapped off again, leaving me a trembling, twitching mess. And yet my mind was suddenly clear. I had to get the wire off before he hit me a third time. Had to.