Resurrection

"No Thumb drive." He lied.

The slightly bigger of the two men ignored Michael while he wheeled a rickety office chair squealing across the floor to Mandy bringing them eye to eye. "Mrs Bates let me explain something to you." He spoke in a terrifyingly open and honest manner. "We will hurt your husband, bit by bit till you tell us everything we want to know." He nodded gravely and held her eyes without blinking almost daring her to look away so he could initiate the pain he proffered. "The only way you can help him is to tell us what we want." He didn't smile and he didn't give her the impression that he enjoyed any of this. He looked and behaved like he was at work, about to strip an engine or hold a meeting.

"Don't tell them anything." Gasped Michael. "We're dead already. They can't afford to let us live. Not after this."

If the man was angry or put off, he made no acknowledgement. "Your husband was badly injured and he is now better thanks to you correct?" He didn't wait for an answer. "Talk now Mrs Bates or watch us slowly but surely put him back where he was a year ago!" He leaned in slightly. Not enough to make her pull back but enough to force her to focus on him. "Where is the thumb drive, Mrs Bates?"

She shook her head. Her mouth was dry and she couldn't talk. She tried to find some saliva to lubricate her dry unresponsive tongue. "I, I don't know!" She managed.

"They're going to kill us Mandy" Michael's voice rang loud and true. "They're going to kill us regardless."

"the man she had begun calling Number One in her head paid Michael no heed. He didn't even deign to look at him. His eyes held hers in thrall and bored into her skull. "I'm going to ask again Mrs Bates. Where is the thumb drive?"

She thought furiously. There were billions at stake if Hexalidomine was launched equating to massive profits. if it wasn't launched, then the huge expenditure which had already reached almost a billion Euros would be lost.

Moreover, Hexalidomine was touted as primary treatment for breast, lung and colorectal cancers which were seen predominantly in black populations at a rate of three-to-one vs. all other population groups and this was the group with the highest cardiac side-effects. Hexalidomine was most toxic to the patients it would be treating the most.

Michael was undoubtably right, they would kill them.

One noticed the flash of realisation cross her face and misinterpreted it. "Tell us now Mrs Bates."

She started by shaking her head but already Number Two The one she let with scratches on his face walked up to Michael and brutally pressed a stun stick to his chest. A scream escaped Michael's lips as a the electricity coursed through him making him arch. It switched off after a long while and Michael collapsed. It sounded like he was coughing when she realised he was laughing.

"Is that all you've got?" He taunted them. Two wasn't as tightly controlled as One and he let him have it again and for a much longer time. When he finished it was obvious that Michael had pissed himself and had bitten his inner cheek or tongue judging from the blood dripping out his mouth.

He laughed once more this time sounding a bit demented. "You've got nothing!" He scoffed and then the electricity had him in its hold one more time. This time instead of collapsing after the current was switched off he remained arched and then went into a series of spasms that were unending. His eyes rolled back into his head and a low keening sound came out of his throat and then he started vomiting.

"He's having a seizure!" Screamed Mandy impotent to help him in any way. "Help him, help him!" Michael's tonic-clonic seizure was unending. It went on and on while she screamed and cried.

Their captors, were momentarily unsure on how to react. One thought quickly realising they'd miscalculated. The man most probably knew where the thumb drive was and had goaded them hoping for a quick death. He had understood that there was no way out for him and the woman. One now faced the challenge of getting him back to normality so he could extract the information they needed. After all, they were professionals.

"Where's his Medication?" He asked the woman.

"I don't know." She almost shrieked. "It was next to his bedside table. Let me help him! Let me help him. He could die." He considered her request for a moment. "Cut him loose she begged. He'll drown in his own vomit."

"Ok. Help him." He relented as he cut her loose over the objections of his partner. At her instructions they cut Michael from the chair and laid him on his side. Kneeling next to him, she opened his mouth and checked his airway to clear it. He had bitten his tongue and cheek and his mouth was full of blood and vomit. He was unconscious but breathing normally.

"It will take some time before he's awake." She told them. They weren't happy especially the second man but she convinced them he needed his epilepsy pills. They cable-tied her wrists and ankles back to the chair and cable tied Michaels wrists even while he lay on the floor as an added precaution. Then, they both left the room and she heard them talking to a third person on the other side. And then footsteps going up stairs. Someone had gone to find Michael's medication.

The bright directional lamp they had shone in their eyes earlier was off and she sat with only the dim light spilling in through the ancient cracked and damaged door to illuminate Michael's prone shape on the floor as she considered their plight. It was obvious that someone in the company had monitored their activities and had decided that the risk they posed had to be eliminated. Her mind led her to one possible person and that was Robert. "Oh, God. Please let it not be Robert', she prayed. Not the man she had trusted with so much for so long.

But it was! He walked through the rickety wooden door separating their prison from the rest of the building, silhouetted by the back light but she knew it was him.

"Hello Mandy." His voice was a low rumble like distant thunder. The kind of voice that belonged to the night, after too much bourbon and too many cigarettes yet with a promise of pleasures still to come.

"You bastard!" She spat her fear and hate like vitriol but he stood unaffected by her verbal onslaught. "Michael's almost dead!" She didn't know why she said that. Clearly they would both be killed once the thumb-drive had been recovered. Perhaps she was appealing to Robert's friendship with Michael or maybe she was appealing to what they had once shared.

He walked up and squatted in front of her running his fingers caressingly over her cheek. "Michael will die." His intonation was flat and final. "But you can live Mandy! Promise me that you will be mine and I'll save you!"

"Do you have no pity, no remorse?" She wailed hoping to find a chink in his hard façade. "You're prepared to kill people, people you know and claim to love."

He looked at her unmoved by her words and unrelenting in his resolve. "It's not me Mandy. Well, not just me. This comes from the top. I'm at the bottom of this food chain." He tried to caress her face again even though she violently shook her head from side to side to avoid him.

"Money before lives!" she spat out bitterly. "And Michael and I are what?" Her voice trembled with fear and indignation. "Collateral damage to your gravy train." By now her emotions had overwhelmed her and she was crying with fear and anger.

"I can save you Mandy, I can!" He was so close that she could see his face even in the light that shone from behind him leaving him mostly in shadow. His expression was hopeful yet there was an undercurrent of something else. He's not sure, she realised. He wants to save me but knows that it might not be possible. "Remember the plans we made, before..."

"That was before Michael was hurt." She said with an air of finality

Number Two, the scratched, cruel one as she thought of him, walked in insolently. "She ain't gonna budge." He grinned in anticipation. "But, I'll have my fun with her before I kill her husband." He gave Robert a sideways glance. "And no mistakes this time!"

"Nooooo!" it escaped from Mandy's mouth in a horrified wail as the reality of Michael's car-jacking and head wound hit her. "What did you do? Robert, what did you do?"

"I did what had to be done, to protect the company! All those jobs. Michael wasn't as clever as he thought he was and left his electronic fingerprints all over."

"Stop pandering to the bitch" Snarled Two. He already had plans for that one.

Robert turned to give Two a piece of his mind but it wasn't to be. He found himself on the end of a hard fingertip tapping on his chest. "You're not in charge here." The shit eating grin directed at him was underscored with a reptilian stare. Number Two relished sticking-it to the wealthy over-opinionated asshole. Orders from above were to take care of everyone and anyone who posed a threat and Neuman wasn't necessarily immune.

Robert didn't know that and wasn't taking kindly to the finger tapping his chest. He captured it and bent it back painfully. "Don't fuck with me little man!" He snarled and backhanded him across the mouth. Number Two spat blood and grabbed the knife they had used to cut the man and woman loose earlier.

"Nobody, hits me!" he waved the knife around and lunged at the surprised and flat-footed Robert who danced away looking for a weapon.

"Back down, little man!" Robert spoke in a commanding tone but his worry was evident.

"Our orders from the top are to eliminate you if you become a problem." Laughed Two with contempt. "And right now you look like a problem." He lunged cutting through Robert's shirt and marking him with a shallow cut across his ribs. Robert responded with a punch to the face and Two wished he had a gun with him, but only his partner was armed. Well, so be it!

He lunged again and Mandy screamed in fear. Even the night's prior events hadn't quite prepared her for the unleashed violence she was witnessing with Robert's life on the line. Compared to the raw confrontation in front of her, the previous few hours had appeared almost dream-like and unreal.

"Look closely bitch!" Snarled Two. "After a finish with your boyfriend here, I will be fucking you and you'll do anything possible for me to spare your life." He lunged again and Robert trying to jump backwards, tripped on some broken furniture and his arms flailed to keep his balance. Two took the opportunity and stabbed hard, The long blade sunk to the hilt in Robert's stomach, who cried out and fell on his back.

The knife stayed stuck in Robert's body. There was no blood yet, that would come as soon as the blade was pulled out. Two bent down to retrieve the knife for a second strike when the unexpected fury that was Michael landed with the overwhelming power of a man with everything to lose and just one chance to save himself.

No-one had noticed that Michael's was awake from the time Robert arrived. Then with little warning the two men were locked in their duel of death. Mandy's eyes were glued on the unfolding violence and he was all but forgotten lying in a fetal position on the filthy floor.

Michael assessed the situation based on what he had heard and what he saw before him. He had recognised Robert from the moment he had started talking to Mandy.

'Do not miss the chance...' Sang his inner voice and he knew he had to act.

Time slowed down to a crawl. All extraneous thought disappeared and his focus narrowed like a predator going for the kill. He pulled the two interlocked cable-ties on his wrists as tight as he could with his teeth and standing up raised his hands above his head and then jerked both down and across his waist as hard as he could like he had seen in a You-Tube video and felt the plastic snap. He leaped forward praying that his legs would hold and grabbed the Stun Stick from the table.

Two, heard the crackle but surprised and confused as to the implications opted to try pull the knife before turning to face the danger coming for him.

He wasn't fast enough.

Michael's fury would not be denied and with a viciousness he didn't know he had, jammed the stick to the back of Two's head. The current buckled Two off his feet and he fell down twitching at the current coursing through his head. He lost control of his bladder and his bowls simultaneously as Michael mercilessly kept the button depressed and held it to his head. He wasn't sure how long it was but eventually he became aware that the batteries were running out until with a final crackle it stopped. He stepped carefully around him to Robert who was looking at him pleadingly. He gave him a grim smile that promised more pain and possibly death and kicked him in the head with all his strength knocking him out and Michael patted him down till he found his phone. There was signal and he dialled 911.

At his feet Two was still, his brains were probably scrambled and more importantly, he was out of the fight but Michael was taking no chances so finding the bag of cable ties he double cuffed his wrists and ankles. While he was doing that he finally got through to the operator and explained their situation twice.

He was almost immediately contacted by a mobile number to which he dropped a pin of their current location and he was also told to leave the phone on. He placed the phone in a dark corner and pulled some rat eaten cardboard boxes over it to keep it hidden, then went to cut Mandy loose. She in turn was looking at him with a mixture of relief and awe. She came free just as they heard footsteps coming their way.

One, had searched through all that they had taken from the house. It took him some time but he had gone through everything more than once and eventually he found the small box of pills. He smiled grimly with some satisfaction that things were back on track as he started shoving everything he had pulled out back into the Honda when his eyes caught a glint on the floor between the passenger seat and the centre consol. He moved the seat and extracted a branded promotional pen. He started to throw it back when he realised that the top incorporated a built-in USB thumb drive. His smile became broader as he realised that he had most likely found the prize. He flipped it in the air and caught it with quiet elation as he finally started making his way back.

As he neared, he noticed the dead quiet and he frowned. Why was it so quiet? His instincts warned him that something was amiss. He erroneously attributed it to Robert. It was clear that he was in love with the woman and would try save her but their orders were to ensure they had found and destroyed all the incriminating evidence and made the Bates' disappear whilst arousing the least amount of suspicion.

He trusted his instincts which led him to considered Robert as the joker in the pack, but they had instructions to terminate him as well if necessary, but only if absolutely necessary. He pulled out his pistol and entered the room cautiously only to be caught viciously by a chair leg across the face. He felt his nose crunch but it wasn't his first rodeo and he fought-off the sudden pain and swung the gun around to Michael who was looking surprised after his first strike had not put One down.

Suddenly the woman was on him scratching, biting punching, kicking. She held onto his gun hand pulling it away from her husband. One, pulled the trigger and the sound was muffled by the contact of the muzzle to her body her eyes went wide with disbelief but she didn't let go. He fired again and this time he saw pain and shock wash across her face and her hold on his arm faltered.

Michael snarled an inhuman sound and brought the chair leg down again this time catching One with a sickening thud on the head. It left him stunned but his self-preservation still made him twist loose from the woman and bring the gun up to Michael but it was already too late. Michael's rage and fear lent him super-human strength and he brought the chair leg down on One's head once more this time feeling the bone give, but he wasn't finished. He hit him over and over and over till One's head was a bloody pulp hardly recognisable as human.

He kicked away the pistol as he ran out of the adrenaline and collapsed next to Mandy. She was alive but going into shock. He cradled her and used his hands to put pressure on her wounds but it wasn't enough and her blood welled through his fingers and formed a dark pool on the floor around them.

"I'm sorry Michael." She whispered. He tried to hush her but she wouldn't be denied. "I'm sorry I couldn't love you enough. I gave you everything I had." She struggled to breathe. "But you were leaving, Michael." Tears were running down her face. "You were bored with me or with someone else and you wanted a divorce and you broke my heart." She closed her eyes and he feared she had died but she hadn't at least not yet. He was trying to understand what she had said but it wasn't coming together in his mind. He tried to rearrange the words in his head without success.

"You broke my heart Michael." She was running out of strength. "I tried to fill the void you left in my heart with Robert. But he wasn't enough. Nothing could ever be enough"

She turned her head with difficulty to see his face. "I have loved you with all I have Michael." Her body sagged in his arms. "I wish I could have loved you more."

He was left destitute by the absolute truth of her words. She wasn't the betrayer. He was. He had betrayed her even if he didn't remember, but she did. His chest exploded with pain and he found himself crying harder than he had ever done before. He leaned in and kissed her lips. They were cool and unresponsive and he felt guilt and regret wash over him like a cold ocean wave leaving him numb and floundering in his pain and begging her to hold on.

When the cops finally arrived, they walked into a lake of blood. They found One first with his head caved-in, his blood having run on the bare concrete floor, joining Mandy's, creating a sticky black pool in which a bereft Michael was singing to Mandy a half remembered ballad from Don Maclean.

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Chapter VI: A Grey Dawn

Bruno Rossi was pissed. "How is it that the FBI, and Interpol get to take over the investigation and are hogging all the glory, when it was CPD that started the original investigation, were first responders and made all the arrests!" Cold coffee splashed out of a ceramic mug onto the wooden conference table as he slammed down his hand.

State attorney Kim Foxx held up her hand to try slow down his tirade but Rossi was having none of it. "We have two kidnapped victims who were tortured - in the CPD jurisdiction. An attempted murder from last year in Chicago by the same people..." He stopped to grab a breath. "There's a woman in hospital. Two perps injured, one badly, and a third perp dead." He glared around the room. "To say nothing of a criminal case against an international drug company!"

"We have a mountain of evidence including testimony from the Bates' and it looks like Robert Neuman's lawyer is trying to cut a deal so how did we get cut right out?"

Rossi's Captain, the Commissioner, and the Cook County's State Attorney, Kim Foxx with no less than four of her ADA's in the meeting had heard it all before and as much as she'd have loved to hold onto the case it had all the makings of a Federal and international investigation and already the Department of Justice had informed them that they had a horse in the race and even the White House had climbed onto the band-wagon. The Foreign Affairs Committee had been briefed and the Swiss Ambassador called in for a consultation.

Rossi looked despairingly at the representatives from the FDA and the FCSC. This was big. Bigger than anything they had expected and the fall-out would cross international boundaries to say nothing of global consumers reaction, who were already sceptical about big Pharma companies and what they perceived as excessive profit taking. They were about to be incensed over this latest scandal.