Intelligence Kills

Chapter 2

Two-

I flinched, listening to the screams going on just a level above me. Earlier this morning, Akithro had come down the stairs to see if I'd found anything. I'd searched all night for a random name. I found a homeless man and told Akithro the man's name. Within minutes, Akithro gathered Roylar and Arlo with him to grab the man. It had been an hour since they had returned. They were already deep into the torture sessions. Already I was regretting what'd I'd to hat man. Hopefully he would be put out of his misery in a few days or less.

I paced my room anxiously for an hour. I hadn't seen Mace or Akithro or anyone since they'd brought the man in. I could almost see what they were doing to him. I could almost hear what they were saying. Wait... Seeing and hearing what was going on was easy. I put up my helmet but another thought crossed my mind. What about using a small screen on my wrist cuffs to see? I didn't always want to have to use the helmet. I thought about the screen for a second before it transformed into a small rectangle on my wrist. I watched in amazement as it finished forming.

I didn't realize how much I was capable of. I thought about the room above my head. I checked out the blueprints in my head of the mansion. They were most likely in the interrogation room. That was a "No, really," sorta situation. I hacked my way into the camera's system. What I saw made my head spin and my stomach start to churn.

The man was attached to a chair. His eyes were rolled back into his head as he screamed from agony. Akithro was holding a bloody blade. Across the man's arms were bloody gashes that were deep. His left leg was cut halfway off, dangling by the tiny bit of muscle that hadn't quite been severed through. His left hand was completely disconnected, lying on the floor in a bloody mass of flesh and bone. I was trying hard not to throw up. This is what they wanted me to do?

"Why were you breaking into our systems," Akithro snarled. He held the blade against the man's right hand. The man shook his head, whimpering. He struggled to pull his hand away but he was strapped to the chair.

"I don't know what you're talking about! Please, Lord Shlark, I don't know," the man screamed. Akithro's lips pulled back into a sneer. He pressed the blade down harder and a thin line of blood appeared on the man's wrist.

"Too late to lie now. We've already got proof that you hacked in," Arlo said coldly. She nodded to Akithro. He was about to press down the blade but he stopped. I realized that Accord and Mace were both in the room, witnessing the display of power and twisted sickness in the heads of the Seven. Akithro looked at Accord.

"Accord, why don't you do the honors?"

Excitedly, Accord grabbed the knife. He brought it down hard on the man's wrist. A sharp scream later and another hand joined the one on the floor. The cut was not clean like the left was. The right was jagged and flesh hung off. I was really getting sick now, holding back the spasms that my stomach was going through. I stumbled to my bed and sat down, trying to breathe correctly.

I was just getting back to normal when I heard something going on on the screen. Cathro raced into the room, breathless and seriously confused. Akithro glared at him.

"We're in the middle of something, Mr. Heath, if you don't mind," Kret said pointedly. She glared at him but there wasn't a response other than the words spat out in a quick rush that made my heart rate speed up.

"There's another hacker watching the cameras right now. I can't trace or get into their system," Cathro said breathlessly. Akithro looked up at the cameras furiously. He cursed under his breath, something inaudible before turning to slice off the homeless man's head. I lost it right there, throwing up in my mouth. I forced myself to swallow. There couldn't be any evidence that I'd seen the torture session. Akithro wouldn't believe that I'd contracted a mysterious case of the stomach flu because it was impossible for me to get sick.