But I guess Dempsey had been very specific with the orders because the man who was holding my head pulled just a little bit harder as he interrupted my attempted request. “You so much as utter the rest of that question…” To help emphasis his words he pushed something cold and mostly round into the right side of my head. Great, a gun, this thug was shoving a gun into the side of my head. “…and I pull the trigger.” He finished as he attempted to bore the gun into my skull. Call me crazy, but I got a feeling that my earlier assumption about number one was going to end up being about as wrong as possible.
As soon as the gun was shoved into me, its pressure vanished as number two broke in, “I’m sorry for my associate’s behavior,” he must have pulled the man’s gun arm away from my head. “But I’m afraid we have the strictest instructions in how to deal with you.” After a moment’s hesitation he added. “And unfortunately for you one of those instructions is to keep your body temperature as low as we can without killing you.”
I had started the chattering as a show, but I quickly found that once I had started, I was simply unable to stop. So through chattering teeth I offered a flat comment. “In other words, you’re freezing me to death.”
Guard number two dismissed my worry, or at least I thought that was what he was doing, as he answered me. “Nonsense you’re in no danger of freezing to death.” He must have motioned for number one to release my head because the tension vanished before he went on. “If that was our intention you would have been thoroughly soaked before we brought you in here. Besides, if we were freezing you, do you honestly think either of us would have been in a position to hear you call out?”
“You’re getting a similar effect of soaking me by pumping my body full of ice cold fluid.”
“How did…” Guard number two began to ask, a look of honest shock on his face.
I was in no particular mood to be nice so I simply spoke over him. “The twinge in my arms are very unique to IVs. And when you pump people full of IV fluid they typically get cold. So I’ll ask you the question again. Why are you freezing me?”
With an exasperated sigh number two attempted an explanation. “Since you can’t see everything we have you hooked up to I can see why you think we’re trying to freeze you.” One of the pair, more than likely number two, took a couple of steps towards me. Presumably it was so he could whisper his facts into my ear. “I know you don’t know what we know, so let me correct that deficiency. One of the things we have you connected to is a fancy thermometer, and currently it says your body temp is 89.7.”
I could sense him turning his head to face number one, “We need to raise the room’s temperature just a tad. Would you be so kind and see to it?” I could hear number one leave, albeit hesitantly, before number two went on. “We were told to keep your body as close to ninety degrees as possible, so that’s what we’re going to do.”
Needing more answers I decided to fish a little bit, the worst thing that could happen was they would kill me a little sooner than planned. “These IVs have got to be doing more than helping you regulate my body temperature.” I waited several moments for number two to reply before I realized that I hadn’t actually asked him a question. “What are you putting in my body with those IVs?”
“You don’t get to…” Began an irate number one, I was ready to upgrade my feeling to an absolute certainty.
If it wasn’t for number two I think number one would have cheated Dempsey of his retribution. “Marcus,” number two began. I should have expected them to know my name but I would be lying if I said that sudden knowledge didn’t scare me even more than my confinement. “I know what you’re capable of even when you’re cold, without certain restraints in place. Now if you please, our boss would prefer you alive. He told us you are potentially valuable to him but he is perfectly willing to accept our word that making a corpse of you was our only real option. Besides, he will answer all of your questions when he arrives.”
I could hear the retreating guards but, before the door was closed completely, it was swung open once again and the footsteps were coming towards me. As I began to pull in a long breath to try and ease my nerves a blindfold fell across my eyes, once again plunging me into a world of darkness. Not to mention another skipped heartbeat, but my heart quickly made up for lost time.
“I almost forgot to give you this newest accessory; it’s a very stylish. I do hope you enjoy the… privacy this piece provides.” Guard number two said without emotion.
Sick to my stomach from the isolation, an over-beating heart, and information overload, I just sat in my chair and thought about the goons’ words. There had to be something useful there, I just had to filter out the gems from the muck. As I searched in my mind I grew depressed with the uselessness of my information. I didn’t think I was asking for too much, I only needed something to prevent myself from drowning. Unfortunately for me guard number two was one of the most tight-lipped and careful men I had ever come across. That man could teach politicians how to give useless answers. And to make it even worse he managed to do a fantastic job controlling his partner as well. I sat there lost and alone, with only my thoughts to mark the passage of time or keep me company. This was going to be a long wait.
Chapter 14
There wasn’t much for me to do sitting here in this freezer, tied to a chair, and blindfolded. I only had the words of the two goons to occupy me, so I kept running through them in my head. It didn’t matter that I had gone over the words enough to know that nothing was there, I still had to search for the nugget of information that might be useful. As the minutes started dragging out, in my mind they began to turn into hours, then days, and finally years.