Truth Stealers (Thief's Signal: Book 1)

26

"Ahh, now we remember!" Drigs' voice came from an unseen speaker, excited by Nimio's revelation.

For, staring back at him from the other room were two other people, tied on two separate chairs just like him. They knew exactly whom he was too.

"What a family reunion this is!"

"Jag," his father said with sad eyes, "I'm sorry son."

Nimio's face contorted with pain. "No!" he shouted. The memories were flooding back. "No! No!"

His mother looked at him with guilty pity. "We shouldn't have ever roped you into this," she said. "You don't deserve this."

Nimio strained his muscles. "No!" he was shouting compulsively now, overcome by fear and memory and the pain of everything.

"Shut the fuck up," Drigs said. But Nimio wouldn't stop; he was too far gone now. "I said shut the fuck up!"

An electric shock bolted through Nimio's body, sizzling his skin. He fell silent, stunned.

"Now, every time that you do something against my rules, your parents get another dose of Dragon's Curse. You understand what that means, right? Their body cells go into rapid decay, and their blood is poisoned. All the while, stimulating the part of their brains that feel pain."

Nimio moved his mouth, but no sound came out. He remembered. He remembered everything. His parents had worked for the Regime, and hoped to separate themselves when they had a child. They had kept it secret from him for his whole life, up to the point that he actually began working unknowingly for the Preachers. But their past eventually caught up with them. All Drigs had to do was interrogate them, and he had an in to the Preachers' facilities.

Then he captured Nimio. He tortured him. He brainwashed him. He hurt him to the point that he was willing to forget everything that he used to be. And so he did.

"What's going on in that little head of yours? Jag?"

"I never worked for the Regime," Jag muttered.

"Ahh, now he understands! Finally, we can get to work."

A small part of the side wall slid open, and Drigs stepped into the room with a twisted grin on his face.

"I was never called Nimio," Jag said.

"Nimio was my finest piece of work," Drigs said smugly, walking closer to Jag.

"After I broke your identity, I made a new one for you. One more...obedient towards me."

Jag's face went hot, "you used my parents to lure me in, then you used me for them to give you information."

Drigs looked down at Jag. "Exactly. Then I sent you back to the Preachers with agent Hejenfrey, whom you would have known as Illgis. He was to make sure that Jag never came back. He made sure you fulfilled your new role as Nimio, as my slave. And it worked out. Well, except for that little bump in the middle where my men had to detain you."

Jag's mother spoke up, "you have what you want now. Please, you don't need us anymore."

Drigs faced her. "And what would you have me do? Let you be free? With all the knowledge about the Regime's operations on this planet?"

Now Jag's father replied, "No," he said, defeated. "Just spare us a quick death."

Drigs paused, then smiled. He looked up at the metal arm hanging over Jag. "Now where would be the fun in that?"

Jag's fighting spirit was slipping away, slowly being replaced by the acceptance of his inevitable fate as Drigs' plaything.

"You bastard!" Jag's father shouted. "You twisted bastard!"

Drigs swivelled sharply on his heels.

"What did you say?"

"You damned delusional bastard!" Jag's father shouted again, but his act was strained.

Jag understood what he was doing; he no longer saw a future for his life, and so was trying to provoke Drigs into taking it there and then.

"Oh," Drigs cracked his knuckles, strolling over to Jag's father's chair. "Perhaps I might have more fun with you. See, I know exactly what you're trying to do, old man. And there is no way in hell that I am granting you a quick death now."

Then the wall exploded.

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