At this point, I wanted this over. I would have preferred being handed off to whoever had offered the reward for my supposed father’s information. I was ready for anything as long as I was cast from this situation.
“Ouch!” I yelled when a sharp prick stung the bottom of my foot.
After x-rays and them using an ultrasound machine that didn’t turn up anything, they were now poking at different areas of my skin to make sure I wasn’t implanted with anything. Was an MRI next on the list? When the man who had stepped out returned wheeling in a large rolling table filled with cutting devices, I mentally prepared myself for the pain on the horizon. My days on drugged-up Easy Street were over.
“Let’s search the back side of her first,” one of the men suggested. His statement brought the others out of the sick trance they had been in while eyeing their section of my body.
I would bet this was the part of their job they enjoyed most. They found pleasure in torturing people for information and searching in places that many weren’t willing to go to find it. If it meant taking the person apart, they didn’t care.
“Is this your jobs, finding answers by any means necessary even if it means doing bodily harm to an innocent person?”
No one replied, but their silence was my answer. If Tywin didn’t find a way to find me and soon, I was afraid there wouldn’t be much of me left for him to find. The vultures weren’t circling my body anymore, they had landed and were ready to pluck out my eyes and scoop out my brains.
They were concentrating on my tattoo now, poking at it and rubbing different solutions on it to get a reaction, I supposed. When the woman picked up the scalpel, I knew this scene was about to turn from ugly to horrific. I wasn’t a human to them anymore. I was a puzzle they weren’t going to stop picking apart until they solved their riddle.
“Aww!” I yelled. “You fucking bitch!”
The woman had sliced into the area near my tattoo, the blade sliding through my skin and leaving a peppery sting behind. My loud yelling and squirming didn’t faze them one bit.
“You guys are rogue government agents, right?” I questioned, blowing out deep and winded breaths.
“Yes,” they answered in unison. “My mother drilled it my head when I was a child that if I ever came in contact with government agents and my life was in jeopardy, that I should…”
“What?! You should what?”
Even though they had me drugged and tied face down, I sensed their intense stares while they awaited my answer. Was I about to buy myself time or was I about to pour gas on my situation while they held blowtorches? I didn’t believe it mattered anymore. My mother had left me in the hands of two trained killers who’d trained me to kill. Therefore, I didn’t know what to think at this point.
“There is a tattoo on the inside of my right ankle. It can be picked up by black light, but it’s so small that it can be easily missed.”
The one holding my head down eased up on the pressure, and I lifted and glanced around at them. They stared at each other for a long time, contemplating my admission since I had sent them on a couple of wild-goose chases.
“Sounds like something she would do,” the taller man said, referring to my mother. His words were enough to convince the others that the update was worth checking out.
They unstrapped and flipped me carelessly because they were so eager to find their treasure. All I needed to do was extend my wrist a little bit more to get my hands on their tool table.
After re-doing my restraints, they converged on my ankle after one of the guys left, only to quickly return with a black light. They were prepared for everything. So, the search began. They twisted and turned my leg until they found something, but I was sure it wasn’t a tattoo because I was lying my ass off to stall them.
Had I pushed them too far with all the lies and deflection tactics? The drugs had me sluggish and fatigue had a tight grip on me, but the scalpel I had shoved down the front of the white granny panties they had given me to wear would give me a fighting chance. Could I stay alive long enough for the LoC or Tywin to find me?