Nightmare in Red (Nick McCarty #5)

“Uh… no,” Nick replied in his mask altered voice. “You have come to America with darkness, terror, and destruction in your heart and mind. The Unholy Trio captured you with a mission to bring your ass into the light. We’re not your Mommy, so the introduction will be painful. My associate, El Kabong, has a few choice movies which will illustrate for you what will happen if you don’t cooperate fully. I will then give you a small demonstration to convince you of what is to come if we have to force your cooperation.”


“You are all devils! This is not allowed in America! I have seen what you do. It cannot be allowed!” Sidi worked himself into a twisting ball, yanking at his wrist restraints and kicking his feet out as the Unholy Trio enjoyed the outrage. “Release me this instant, devils!”

“If you don’t lie still while Kabong shows you the videos, I’m going to stun-gun your pecker until your eyes pop out.” To get Sidi’s attention, Nick fired off an arc from his stun-gun. Dabor quieted instantly, but closed his eyes and began praying in repetitious form Nick recognized from the Koran.

Nick signaled John who nodded. They both joined into the prayer recital with vigor until Dabor halted. He opened his eyes and Nick stun-gunned his groin area. After an interminable jackknifed wailing scream Nick crouched next to Sidi. “As you can see and feel, we don’t appreciate murderous ass-wipes like you blaspheming Allah. Now lie still while Kabong shows the videos or I will keep giving you painful lessons in how to stay quiet. Do you understand?”

Sidi could not speak as yet so he nodded his head with enthusiasm. John showed him the evisceration and bleaching videos until Sidi’s open mouthed terror changed to sobbing pleas for mercy. Dabor added the one ingredient to his pleas Nick took instant umbrage to as Sidi claimed to be an ignorant tool of what was going on and had no knowledge of the port or hotel.

“Oh my, Dabor,” Nick said. “You are definitely in need of our demonstration illustrating how little we care whether you lie, plead, or give out half-truths. When we get done with you, believe me, you’ll want to help and cooperate completely beyond anything you’ve ever done in your entire shitty life. You had a small window in which to avoid a dose of reality. That window is closed. We’ll transfer you to the chair we’ve picked out. Payaso and Kabong will now move you gently into place for your reeducation process. They will also hold your chair so it doesn’t move while I open you a bit for a small cleaning.”

Gus and John moved Dabor to a plain chair in the room where Gus duct taped him around the chest and upper arms tightly to the chair while John duct taped his ankles and calves to the chair legs. Gus added a final taping around Sidi’s thighs below his groin, anchoring his lower body into place too. They then held Dabor’s chair in unmovable grips so he could not so much as twitch. Nick showed Dabor his scalpel which led to a screaming episode only the deep eight inch cut from Dabor’s sternum down shut off momentarily. His intestines began to bulge outward with the welling of blood.

“There we are,” Nick said. “I’ll take Kabong’s place while you get the cleansing action in your head.”

Nick and John traded positions. John administered the bleach in dripping action which seeped into and around the gory wound. Dabor screamed until even his breath gave out allowing only wheezing open mouthed attempts at sound, so high pitched as to be almost beyond human hearing range. When he passed out, Nick rinsed the chemical away before bringing Sidi back into consciousness. Dabor returned with renewed screams mixed with pleadings he would do anything Nick wanted. The Unholy Trio waited for Sidi to calm down. When the man’s tortured features began to focus once again, he realized the silence around him meant only a lull in his interrogation.

“What? What is it you want from me?!”

His captors remained silent waiting to hear if Sidi tried to plead ignorance once again. That miscue would have led to a second bleaching. Such was not the case. Dabor waited for a response, his mouth working, but only in a tightening regimen to keep words conducive to more torture from popping out, and to endure the pain still ripping through him.

“I think you understand now we know you are no ignorant dupe merely following some imaginary leader’s orders one at a time,” Nick explained. “We know you and those two couples you’re in touch with at the Boston Harbor Hotel have big bad plans for causing pain, anguish, mass destruction, and terror to innocents you murderous bastards don’t give a shit about. Dabor, my new helper, you will now be working to prevent anything of the sort from happening.”

Nick could tell his knowledge of events and people shocked Dabor. He watched the man closely as he continued his warmup. “We also know you have teams to transport the fertilizer bombs. Those we will have you bring here on any pretext we deem feasible. We know getting the couples to come here would be like sending them a warning. We’ll work on that after we get all the sorrowful story of poor Isis loving Dabor caught in a web of terrorism. Let’s get to your cooperation part.”

Nick nodded at John who approached Sidi with the bleach container. Sidi screamed.