Chapter 23 - 27
Blurry pieces coalesce into an even blurrier image, consciousness splicing into sight like sudden sharp light. I lift my head, turning my face skyward at the dangling bulb above my head. The single source of light in a room submerged in the depths of darkness. I am seated on a metal chair, unrestrained and yet fear chains me to it like tangible tethers.
No windows. No natural light. I must be underground.
The fact that I sit unbound scares me more than being restrained. The grim confidence, a ghastly certainty that even if I tried to run... find a door... an exit. There is nowhere out for me. All because I was following my father? Why would someone care? Why would they protect him like that?
A distant rattle seizes my attention. A heavy door opens, followed by marching footsteps. No more than two men. And I’m right. One Caucasian male and a Japanese man step into the pool of light, leaving the door wide open, light pouring inside at the entrance.
"Usually, I’d do the whole interrogation and torture spiel," says the white guy. "Who are you? Who do you work for and why did they send you? But we already know who you are and that’s the only reason you’re alive."
Dread slips in a shiver that shudders through me.
"Miss Du Pont, can you tell us what gave you the motivation to stalk your own father?"
I want to answer, but terror sows my lips together.
His patience exceeds with the span of an exhale. "Don’t think because of who you are that I won’t do what I have to, in order to get you to talk."
My blood turns to ice.
He reaches for his back pocket. I gasp, flinching back, pressed against the chair, gripping the edges of the arms. He pauses to look at me with ample amusement. The man draws out my phone with exaggerated slowness. He wiggles it in the air in emphasis before he pockets it again.
"The last number you called. A burner phone. Untraceable. Why’s the mayor’s daughter talking to someone using an untraceable burner phone?" he asks as a demand.