~ A surprisingly short distance from Jaden's cell, Andrew was not having as easy a time of it as Jaden had wished for him. At the moment he was being strapped into a questionable looking chair, still gagged, and hands still cuffed. The man who seemed to be in charge of him had not forgotten that Andrew had nearly broken his nose and he was, as a consequence, a good deal less gentle than he could have been. The fact that Andrew couldn't fight back at all emboldened the man who was, like most bullies, cowardly in nature.
Once he had Andrew firmly strapped into the chair, he pulled the gag from his mouth. Andrew coughed, glad to finally be rid of the object. His tongue was dry and his throat felt parched. His captor stepped to the door and opened it.
"He's ready," he said to someone outside. "Go tell Thomas." Andrew wondered who Thomas was and if he might be slightly more inclined to be helpful than this guy. He heard a door close not far away and in a moment a man stepped into his cell. It was the fourth man from the group that had taken them. Andrew thought a few choice expletives but kept his face neutral.
"Thank you, Chase," the fourth man said, not taking his eyes off of Andrew. "Go and get an update on Kathleen for me."
Chase nodded and slipped out of the cell, closing the door behind him. Thomas walked a slow arc to stand behind Andrew.
"You seem to be at my mercy."
"Yeah, and your point?" Before the last word was clear of Andrew's lips he felt the sharp point of a knife pricking the back of his neck.
"Well my main point was that your life is mine if the idea happens to strike my fancy."
"Fair enough." The knife withdrew and Andrew heard it being re-sheathed. Thomas circled back into his view. Andrew couldn't see where he'd put the knife. It wasn't on his belt, so probably in a boot. A quick sweeping glance revealed no other weapons on the man that were immediately obvious.
"But I don't want to be forced to kill you," Thomas continued. "I'd prefer that you just give me what I need and then maybe I'll let your little friends off in relatively good health."
"How do I know they're not dead already?" asked Andrew.
"You don't."
"May I have a drink?"
"Sure." Thomas opened the cell door and spoke a quiet word to whoever was outside, and then closed it again. "While we're waiting for that, why don't we talk?" he said, sitting down on the pallet and leaning forward, elbows on his knees.
"Alright," conceded Andrew. "How about we start with you telling me what all that noise was out in the hall just a little while ago?"
"You really want to know what that was?" asked Thomas. Andrew nodded. "That was your friend Jaden trying to make a run for it and consequently getting the shit beat out of himself. But don't worry. He's still alive, for now. Says that he might be able to draw the map that was given to that pretty young lady that you were with. What do you think about that?"
Andrew shrugged, choosing to ignore the baited way the man had mentioned Takyle. "Maybe he can. How should I know?"
"Well, if you know that he can't then you might want to speak up now. Kathleen is already awfully angry with him; I don't imagine that finding out she can't get the map from him would help his case much. If he can't, it'd be best to just get that out now, before I tell her what he said. Get me?"
Andrew nodded solemnly. "Oh yeah, sure bro, I feel ya'." He kept up his perfect poker face even though his mind was racing frantically. "Quick question: If I can draw the map for you, would you let them go?"
"Why sure! No reason to keep them here if you can supply us with the map!" agreed Thomas, just a tiny bit too enthusiastically. He was obviously lying through his teeth. Andrew sighed. He hated lose-lose situations. ~
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