at large. As of this moment I am revoking Inspector Duran’s rank and privileges, and issuing a warrant for his arrest. If you encounter Inspector Duran , I want him taken into custody and brought before me immediately so that I can interview him personally.
“Let me repeat this so that my intentions are perfectly clear. Alec Duran is now a fugitive. He needs to be found and–”
“Turn it off,” Duran said. Robson glanced back at him again, unsure, then reached out for the keyboard and dismissed the video.
No one spoke.
Duran suddenly felt overwhelmed by fatigue again. By hopelessness. His life seemed to be reeling from one calamity to the next. With his strength failing, he wasn’t sure how long he could even hold himself up.
“Looks like even your friends have turned on you, Alec,” de Villiers said finally. “And I don’t know if they’re interested in your side of the story.”
12
The holophone in the corner of the room was ringing again, and Talia recognised it as her own, but she could not answer it. She was still tied up to this table, no closer to freedom than she had been almost an hour ago.
Capper and Crumb would be returning soon. When the guards outside Grove turned them away, as they inevitably would, her two captors would not be happy. In fact, she had no doubt that they would be enraged, not only because she had lied to them but also because she had wasted their time.
And right now she had run out of lies. There was nothing else she could say to them when they returned that would stop them from punishing her.
So that only left her with two options: escape, or face horrific torture and probably death.
As the minutes had gone by, Talia had tried to wrestle free of her bonds, straining to the point of exhaustion, but they would not budge. The young man, Winny, had watched her struggle, not even attempting to stop her. She figured that either he was too shy or he simply understood that she was undertaking a futile exercise, and didn’t care if she wasted her energy.
He was an odd one, she noted distantly, not your typical street thug. He was nervous and fidgety and uncertain. Talia guessed that he was firmly entrenched on the bottom rung of the gang hierarchy, one who was pushed around by the others and who rarely protested when told what to do. Even in regards to Talia , he seemed edgy. He watched her with a mixture of trepidation and desire, as if she were a piece of forbidden fruit dangling within reach on a nearby tree, a prize he desperately wanted to claim but was too afraid to do so.
Perhaps that was the only angle Talia had left to play, but she wasn’t sure exactly how to work it.
She suppressed a sob of despair. How could it have come to this? After everything she’d worked for, after all she’d been through, it was all going to end in pain and torture in this shitty old factory that was probably only a mere two blocks from her home.
She waited, expecting to hear the sound of doors opening and closing deeper inside the building any minute. To hear the thump of angry footsteps.
Do something , she told herself. Don’t let it end here.
But what could she do? She was stuck fast.
She had tried engaging Winny in conversation several times, attempting to feign a companionable tone of voice, but he had ignored her every attempt to speak with him. He had obviously been instructed not to communicate with her in any way, and he was carrying out his commands to the letter. However, being the skittish and obedient type, she now decided that he was more likely prone to fall in line with the application of authority. She needed to alter her approach accordingly.
Winny. Get through to him. Be forceful.
Talia closed her eyes and took a deep breath to settle herself and calm her nerves. She needed to be composed, in control. She needed to be convincing.
She exhaled, opened her eyes. She looked across at
“Let me repeat this so that my intentions are perfectly clear. Alec Duran is now a fugitive. He needs to be found and–”
“Turn it off,” Duran said. Robson glanced back at him again, unsure, then reached out for the keyboard and dismissed the video.
No one spoke.
Duran suddenly felt overwhelmed by fatigue again. By hopelessness. His life seemed to be reeling from one calamity to the next. With his strength failing, he wasn’t sure how long he could even hold himself up.
“Looks like even your friends have turned on you, Alec,” de Villiers said finally. “And I don’t know if they’re interested in your side of the story.”
12
The holophone in the corner of the room was ringing again, and Talia recognised it as her own, but she could not answer it. She was still tied up to this table, no closer to freedom than she had been almost an hour ago.
Capper and Crumb would be returning soon. When the guards outside Grove turned them away, as they inevitably would, her two captors would not be happy. In fact, she had no doubt that they would be enraged, not only because she had lied to them but also because she had wasted their time.
And right now she had run out of lies. There was nothing else she could say to them when they returned that would stop them from punishing her.
So that only left her with two options: escape, or face horrific torture and probably death.
As the minutes had gone by, Talia had tried to wrestle free of her bonds, straining to the point of exhaustion, but they would not budge. The young man, Winny, had watched her struggle, not even attempting to stop her. She figured that either he was too shy or he simply understood that she was undertaking a futile exercise, and didn’t care if she wasted her energy.
He was an odd one, she noted distantly, not your typical street thug. He was nervous and fidgety and uncertain. Talia guessed that he was firmly entrenched on the bottom rung of the gang hierarchy, one who was pushed around by the others and who rarely protested when told what to do. Even in regards to Talia , he seemed edgy. He watched her with a mixture of trepidation and desire, as if she were a piece of forbidden fruit dangling within reach on a nearby tree, a prize he desperately wanted to claim but was too afraid to do so.
Perhaps that was the only angle Talia had left to play, but she wasn’t sure exactly how to work it.
She suppressed a sob of despair. How could it have come to this? After everything she’d worked for, after all she’d been through, it was all going to end in pain and torture in this shitty old factory that was probably only a mere two blocks from her home.
She waited, expecting to hear the sound of doors opening and closing deeper inside the building any minute. To hear the thump of angry footsteps.
Do something , she told herself. Don’t let it end here.
But what could she do? She was stuck fast.
She had tried engaging Winny in conversation several times, attempting to feign a companionable tone of voice, but he had ignored her every attempt to speak with him. He had obviously been instructed not to communicate with her in any way, and he was carrying out his commands to the letter. However, being the skittish and obedient type, she now decided that he was more likely prone to fall in line with the application of authority. She needed to alter her approach accordingly.
Winny. Get through to him. Be forceful.
Talia closed her eyes and took a deep breath to settle herself and calm her nerves. She needed to be composed, in control. She needed to be convincing.
She exhaled, opened her eyes. She looked across at
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