Brick walls surrounded me on all sides as I shuffled in the wicker chair I was tied to. Feet bound together, hands bound behind my back, my body shivered as I tried to get comfortable. Water dripped from corners of the walls and moss grew from different sections, as I tried to roll my shoulders back and forth to rid them of the tension that coursed through them.

  I chuckled to myself as I shook my head. I sure as shit didn’t see this coming.

  I had thought all my troubles would be over; that once I had sent the message to Claire everything would be OK—but how wrong I was. It appeared my troubles were just starting, and I didn’t see a way out of this mess. I no longer knew who I could trust, which meant I no longer knew who I could turn to for help.

  Which made escape, or the prospect of escape, as likely as me flying to the nearest moon.

  A steel door slid open in front of me and Gregory strode in holding a cup and saucer, while the goon who had shot up The Office carried a chair behind him. The goon placed the chair six feet away from me, and Gregory took his seat there with a flourish.

  He looked me over before taking a sip from his cup and placing it back on the saucer.

  “Where are my clothes?”

  He ignored me and continued to sip from his cup.

  “I take it you like to talk to men tied up and naked. I’m surprised, Gregory, I didn’t take you for that kind of man.”

  “I had hoped it wouldn’t come to this,” he said, shaking his head sadly, “I had hoped you would have delivered the data-stick as promised to the space station and then once done, you would now be back in your office doing whatever menial task we set you.

  “Instead, you were captured through no fault of your own, but nevertheless, you were captured, which placed a major risk on me, the board and the company just to recover what you lost.”

  “Recover what you lost? You mean by having this asshole next to you shoot up the bar I was in, nearly killing me and everyone in it?”

  Gregory looked up at the man next to him and shrugged.

  “Mr X’s methods are… extreme, but he gets results. The board has decided it was safer to terminate any threat to the business, which involved you. I battled for your cause, you understand? Because your dear wife would have been so upset, but they refused to listen to me.”

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  I looked into his eyes and couldn’t believe what he was saying, but there was something else there I couldn’t decipher.

  “Mr X?” I said with a raised eyebrow. "What are we in? A Bond movie?”

  “My real name is of no concern to you, maggot!”

  “I’m hearing that a lot lately, must be something I’ve done.”

  Gregory sighed as he stretched his neck out and rolled his eyes. “This is getting tedious! You will tell us where you have kept the data-stick, otherwise we will be forced to hurt you.”

  “What makes you think I’ll tell you anything? After I’ve told you what you need to know, you’ll just kill me.”

  “If you tell us then your death will be painless. If you don’t, then Mr X here shall torture you till you beg and plead for mercy, then he will torture you some more, then depending on how he feels, he may keep on torturing you or he may give you the death you so desperately want. Either way, it doesn’t really matter to me.”

  “You’re different from how you are in the office. Where are all the motivational speeches? Where are the threats? Where is the dickhead boss I so know and love?”

  Gregory shrugged and drained the cup he was holding, before he fixed me with his gaze. “That’s just a mask I have to wear for the office, someone I must be to climb the ever-growing ladder of success.

  “Inside I am as dead as you. I really don’t care if you live or die but without the data-stick I won’t be able to pay my bills, I won’t be able to afford the lifestyle I’ve come accustomed to, I won’t be able to retire in another ten years. If I lose the data-stick I’ll be like you, worthless, because no other company will touch me with a barge pole after Xcorp spreads the word about me.”

  He got up from his chair and walked away, handmade Italian leather shoes tapping against the stone floor.

  “It could have been you here instead of me, I hope you remember that.”

  He turned around to face me and shook his head. “No, it couldn’t. The reason you got on the ship instead of me was because I knew it was likely to get attacked. That’s why those mercenaries were on board; I heard wind of something taking place and I chose not to risk my life. Also it was Claire’s birthday, which I couldn’t have missed.”

  “What does my wife have to do with this?”

  Gregory laughed as he looked at me as if I was the world’s biggest idiot. “Did it never occur to you that your wife was sleeping around? The late nights, the unanswered calls, the cold marriage?”

  It had but I would never admit that to him.

  “Claire and I have been seeing each other for years; she’s my mistress. My bit on the side. My cheap thrills when my wife won’t put out. She does things I would never dream of asking my wife. Filthy things. In all honesty, I wanted to get rid of her years ago, but she fell pregnant with our first son and then threatened to go to my wife, which I couldn’t have. After the second came along I knew I had to keep her sweet.

  “But we all have sacrifices we have to make in this life.”

  “No, my sons,” I said in a hoarse whisper.

  “Trust me, I’ve taken the tests; both those little bastards are mine, unfortunately. Wish they won’t but hey, what you going to do?” he said, turning back around and leaving the same way he came.

  “No, my sons,” I whispered once more as one of Mr X’s fists smashed me in the face.