The Fine Line of Revenge by Martin Cox

gun to their head?’ he asked.
    ‘It is amazing how many people will talk a lot more with a large block of stone hovering over them.  You see it doesn’t always kill them straight away. It can be days before they die,’
    ‘You just leave them there, screaming.’
    ‘They don’t usually scream. It’s more of a moan. This one here just has to accept that he is a thief and we will spare him the lingering anguish.’
    ‘Surely, Sperafico can live without whatever it is he has stolen, why not just kill him now and move on?’
    ‘It is many things.  It is the principal of the matter to consider.  The man has been tempted, before this, nothing, apparently a loyal employee. Do you think he will do it again? His replacement may get away with it and get away with more. Dead men don’t talk Mr. Grimlock.  When you need them to talk, you need them alive.’  Grimlock blew out a large exhale of smoke as Maddox wandered off towards the odd interrogation.  In the distance Grimlock could see that the man had calmed.  He could hear him admitting stealing some of the shipment and that he would return it.  Maddox approached the, now blubbering, man.  He dismissed the two men holding the stone. The interrogator wiped sweat from his brow with a white handkerchief and began to untie the ropes.  Maybe it was fatigue, sweaty hands or clumsiness, but certainly it was unintentional, that one man lost grip of his end of the stone.  Grimlock watched, in horror, as the stone slipped away from their fingers.  He quickly turned his head away from the sickening event, as the man’s roaring scream filled the air once more.  He turned back to the silence.  It was clear to see that each member of the interrogation party was relieved. The stone had landed a whisker away from the side of the man’s face.  Not even a scratch.  Sperafico exited the fort and approached Grimlock, as he finished the last drag of his cigarette.
    ‘You see, incompetence.’ He stared Grimlock in the eyes for a second, before blinking.  ‘I still cannot fully understand why you have come this far, without any need to do so.’  He paused for a second.  ‘I am at the end of my chain with bad deals, missing helicopters and incompetence.  I think you should be on your way Mr. Grimlock, I will contact you when I need you.’ Sperafico’s frightening stare again consumed all of Grimlock’s robust traits.  From the doorway, a large man passed Sperafico a mobile phone.
    ‘It is for you,’ he said in Portuguese. Sperafico took it and listened.  He said ‘Thank you’, hung up the phone and gave it back to the burly man.
    ‘Apparently we are receiving visitors,’ Sperafico said calmly, he thought for a moment before he spoke again. ‘Is that why you are here? To help them get in? To help them kill me?’ The calmness exploded into rage as if he was another person. He nodded to the large man who wrapped his strong muscular arm around Grimlock’s neck.
    ‘You’ve got it all wrong,’ Grimlock choked.
    ‘Have you been found out like you feared? Is this the nature of your visit, to repay your government of your wrong doings, with my capture?’
    ‘I came to warn you that he was up to something,’ Grimlock insisted.  Sperafico wouldn’t listen to Grimlock’s reasonable plea.
    ‘Finish him. For all to see.’ The burly man dragged Grimlock away under his arm, the toes of his shoes dragging on the ground erratically as Grimlock tried everything he knew to force his way out of the grip.  But it was useless, it was the thickest arm he had ever seen and it was clamped around his neck like it was a metal vice.  Grimlock’s eyes began to close and it was at this point that he knew what that noose was for.
    ‘What the hell is going on?’ Maddox asked, as he returned, watching Grimlock disappear around the side of the building.
    ‘Take a few men with you, our Mister Harvey is approaching with a small group from the east, nothing to be worried about,