White Phosphorus [Spec Ops: The Line x Laughing Jack]

Interrogation

Captain Martin Walker awoke in a dimly lit room. He sat in a metal chair with his hands zip-tied to the armrests and his ankles bound to the chair legs. Standing across from him was a man with pale, white skin and long, greasy hair. Walker noticed the man's arms were freakishly long compared to the rest of his body.

"You're CIA," Walker assumed.

"Right to business, like a true Delta Operative," the man snickered, "I believe what you meant to say was 'Welcome to Dubai!'"

"Your bosses want to know what happened to the Damned?" Walker spat, "Tell them to go ask the corpses. The ones with my bullets in them."

"I don't really answer to anyone," the man giggled, "The Agency lets me do as I please."

The man stepped forward. Walker could see he was wearing a baggy, striped clown outfit. The outfit wasn't bright and colorful; instead it was monochrome and dirty.

"I go by the name of Laughing Jack," the man introduced himself, "Nice to meet you."

Laughing Jack smiled, revealing a mouth full of sharp, black teeth.

"I'm not scared of you," Walker said.

"My face is frightening to most, but I know you, Captain Walker," Laughing Jack said as he disappeared into the shadows.

Walker heard him pick something up in the dark.

"Instead you are haunted by the face of a woman. One of many you burned alive with White Phosphorus!" Laughing Jack exclaimed.

The entire room was suddenly illuminated in a harsh, bright light. Walker yelled and closed his eyes. When he opened them, the light had receded into a white flame in Laughing Jack's hand.

Laughing Jack closed his hand and the light vanished, leaving the room almost completely dark.

"I could cut out your organs and force you to watch as I burned each one of them with a tiny White Phosphorus charge. You could see them melt away, just like the fifty civilians you killed at the Gate."

Laughing Jack held a long knife. He walked up to Walker and slid the point of the knife under the chain holding Walker's dog tags.

"But I won't," Laughing Jack decided, "Any run-of-the-mill spook can torture you. I find the process barbaric. I prefer to specialize in psychological torment."

"You're wasting your time," Walker spat.

"You know why I'm wearing this ridiculous clown outfit?" Laughing Jack asked, "It's so that kids will trust me. They let me into their lives, and then I infect the minds of their parents. If I wanted to, I could make your wife murder your son back home. No one would believe her that I tricked her into doing it, and she would be committed to a mental ward."

Instead of a knife, Laughing Jack now held a handful of wrapped hard candies. He unwrapped one of them and placed it in his mouth. He swallowed the candy whole and grinned, once again showing off his razor-sharp teeth.

"But I won't," Laughing Jack said, "I've filled an entire carnival with the bodies of children. And I don't want your kid. I want you."

"You spooks have your heads shoved so deep in the sand," Walker said.

"Infecting the mind of a protective mother is nothing compared to what happened to you," Laughing Jack explained, "You hallucinated conversations with a dead man and were convinced to kill an entire battalion of friendly forces. Not to mention the civilians you burned alive."

Laughing Jack was now holding a portable radio transmitter.

"There is a sinister entity with much greater power than my own," he said.

Laughing Jack extended his hand.

"And you're going to lead me to them."