She opened her eyes.
At least, that was the intention. Due to how swollen her face was, she merely achieved to squint with one eye. She looked around herself and noticed she was in a white room. She startled and tried to stand up, but her muscles protested to her sudden movements and she collapsed again.
An acute pain ran through her rib cage, right leg and shoulder. She had, at least, one quarter of her ribs broken. Her leg was also broken at an awkward angle, and her shoulder was dislocated, possibly shattered.
She bit her lip with such strength that she could taste blood in her mouth. She waited for a few minutes that felt like hours for the pain to subside. Her head was spinning and many times she fought the rising bile. Her body finally went back to a state where she could bear with the pain and her mind began to work.
First, she had to see in what situation she was in and what she could do.
She was in a white room, no windows, no sound, no nothing, just the white door that she knew would open from time to time, or maybe never. She cursed inwardly. From all the torture methods she had to end up in, the one she hated the most was the white room.
It wasn't as if she hadn't been in the same situation before, so she quickly calmed down and focused on her breathing. Which was a hard task because of the pain in her ribs. Ok, so her surroundings were the worst possible, she couldn't do anything about it.
Next, she had to assess her body.
No need to think about her rib cage, there was nothing for her to do. She moved to her shoulder; fine, she could work on it. With great difficulty and some painful groans, she put herself in a position with which she could put her shoulder back in its place.
A shuddering crack, more pain and a loud scream later, it was back in place – luckily not shattered. She tried to move it a bit, but desisted as it was still painful. She waited for some minutes or hours more, she didn't know, before she could move it without the dizzying pain.
Then, her leg. She looked down at it, with the only eye she managed to open, and grimaced at the sight. It was going to be even more difficult and painful than the shoulder, that's all she could think about. She leaned with all the care of the world and touched the knee.
Great, no jutted or broken bones, just some adjustment to it like the shoulder needed. She breathed deeply numerous times to prepare herself for what was to come.
Her throat almost tore with the screaming, tears rolled, and then she fainted. She regained consciousness when she felt someone was in the room. She opened the eye that was less swollen to look at the person.
"I must say I'm impressed." The person praised – a man from the voice – in Russian. She groaned. Why was it always the Russians?
The target from her latest mission was some madman from Poland. However, on the way back, they were ambushed. As a trained agent, her priority was to let her guardian escape. After all, informants didn't have the same training as them and were more important.
An informant could also ask for reinforcements, if they even cared about asking for them. Some just let their agents die. Either way, her informant, Eddie, was the only one of that could escape from being captured.
The question was, what did Russia have to do with the Polish man? Was it some sort of agreement? Were they looking for revenge? Was it some hidden organization in the country? Or were they even Russians? They could be talking in Russian to confuse her and hide their identity.
Many questions and thoughts crossed her mind in the span of seconds.
"I must be the impressed one, to end up in a place like this again." She replied in Russian, her voice was hoarse and she was grateful for that. That way, they wouldn't be able to track her down by her voice. She didn't care about them seeing her face as she could always change it.
The man laughed.
"That's why I'm impressed. All people thrown here begin to despair in a few hours, but you are as calm as if you're strolling in a park. You even fixed your shoulder and leg." He said with amusement in his voice.
"Well, I'm flattered, and I could accept that stroll in the park." She grinned. The man laughed again.
"Ah, truly, you're perfect. I could almost make you get out of here and make you mine, but that's impossible. You have two options, get out of here alive or dead. All you have to do is answer some questions." The man, who was wearing some sort of white suit that covered his entire body, approached her and crouched right in front of her, placing a hand on the left side of the rib cage. She grimaced from the pain. "Why did you kill Niemczyk?"
"Revenge." She replied. But it seemed that that wasn't the answer he was looking for because he pressed her rib cage. Her face twisted, but she wasn't going to give him the pleasure of a scream.
"What kind of revenge?" He asked. He obviously didn't believe her, yet for the sake of seeing her in pain, he followed her game.
"He killed my parents." She said in a low voice as she focused on the place he was pressing.
"A noble revenge indeed, Irina, or should I say Rei?" Rei squinted her eye, remaining silent. "You thought we didn't know about you?" He chuckled. "Well, sadly that is all we know about you. Dear Rei Lee, I really love how you play the cello. You are the type of person one doesn't easily forget. It was such a delight to find you in Newcastle. How long has it been? 10 years? You are such a mystery; unknown whereabouts for 10 years. That's why I looked for information about you. You know what I found?" Ignoring him proved to be difficult for her. "Exactly! Nothing! Isn't that strange? 10 years you disappear and then puff! You appear out of nowhere. Don't think I have some sort of fetish or fixation. No, I'm just a fan. A fan that is also your enemy. You see, I met your parents." Rei's eye widened.
The man laughed.
"Ah, yeah, but curiously, they disappeared 10 years ago, too. Such a coincidence, or maybe not, if we take into account the information I got from them. Though, it wasn't much, I have to say. We just got the name of the organization, but not where it was located. Your people are really cautious; they even killed their agents while being interrogated by us. You are such sneaky little people. They infiltrated into my people just to kill your parents, and then that man killed himself! I was angry Rei. You've been ruining my business with my partners because they're found dead and nobody knows who killed them. See where I'm getting to? Niemczyk was but a trap to get you. Life is a bitch, isn't it? First your parents, now you. I can even say it is unfair. Guess that's enough idle chatter." The man stood up and exited the room.
Rei didn't move. She didn't even want to think. She didn't have to think at all, actually. Everything was crystal clear now!
This man got her parents 10 years ago and tortured them for information that they provided, probably in the verge of death. She didn't even want to imagine what type of torture they were submitted to. It must have been very brutal and gut clenching, there was no doubt about that.
She felt a little betrayed knowing Shadow was aware who they were dealing with, and they didn't even thought of giving her that bit of information. Of course, there was nothing she could do against a whole organization, but at least, she would have kept an eye on someone who might have been following her; like the man.
She sighed. It didn't matter how much she thought about it, there was nothing she could do about the past. Being at his mercy, she considered the present was more important.
The man came back in what appeared to be hours; time just wasn't the same in a white room, she knew it by experience. He crouched in front of her and this time he showed her a photo. Her heart stopped when she saw it. Her mind went blank. This time, instead of looking at him, she closed her eyes defeated.
"You know what this means, right?" He asked with a smug tone.
"What do you want?" She asked back, not opening her eyes.
"Oh? Not even going to fight? No threat? No nothing? Well, this is a bit disappointing." He lamented.
"Stop the chatter and just say what you want." She spat.
It wasn't that she didn't want to fight, she just couldn't, not when they were threatening her with a person she didn't want to involve into anything that was her life. In the photo, she was talking with Judd, the day she played in the bar and he followed her out.
No matter how cold blooded she was, her working style impeded her involving outsiders. She had never done it. She hated it. Because, if she ever ended up in a tricky situation, like the one she was in, then she had nothing to worry about.
"I'm going to give you two options that will most probably end your life. One, you can tell me everything about Shadow and end up like your parents, or, you can work for me and most probably be killed by them for your betrayal. Which one is it going to be? You are playing with his life; well, with yours too, but I guess you are trained to die, so you are playing with his life."
She kept silent. Not moving, thinking or even breathing. She really was trained to die at any moment because that was her job, to risk her life. So, what was there to think about? She smiled. A crooked smile. An insane smile that would make anyone shiver, and then she laughed. A maniac sound that resonated in the room.
"Just kill me. I will end up dying anyway. Kill me. He will be an unfortunate casualty. Not that I care. He looked for me, not knowing what he was getting into, so that's his problem. Better kill me because I won't say a shit, and I won't work for the likes of you." She let out a steady breath and just waited for what had to come.
And it came.
A kick in her rib cage ripped a scream from her throat, the air from her lungs, and made her spat blood on the white floor. Then, it was just what she expected, but they made sure to give it slowly.
She went from being dragged and tortured in one room to then being given water for her continuous survival, then, again being thrown into the white room for days, or what seemed like days.