6. Chapter Six.

Dimitri

I waited for the man who was chained and bleeding in front of me to tell me the truth as I sat in a chair within the cell, stroking my hands back and forth over my chin.

“I will ask only once again before shooting you in the head.” In spite of his bleeding, I spoke to him calmly.

Even though I’ve been through it many times, the odor coming from him was beyond anything anyone had ever experienced. I made every effort to hold my tongue.

“L-like I told you, I’m on vacation here,” He unfortunately lied for the umpteenth time.

I sighed before requesting my guys to get the documents and read it out for him to hear, “Your father is based in the nursing facility of Hatfield in Maryland, your sister lives in the hills sides of Seattle Montana luxury estate with her husband and adorable daughter, while your wife is currently...,” My words were abruptly interrupted.

“Wait, wait, wait—please don’t hurt them.” He made a statement.

“If you foolishly decide to lie to me and refuse to tell me why you followed me and my men, then I cannot guarantee their safety. However, I will uphold my promise not to harm your family if you do tell me the truth.” Before quickly shutting my mouth, I asked.

“Will you swear to me that you won’t take my life?” He pleaded.

“Unfortunately, I cannot guarantee that I won’t kill you, but I can guarantee not to cause any harm to your family.” I addressed him.

“For a while now, my boss David has been keeping an eye on you Vikings. He doesn’t necessarily view the mafias you’ve developed relationships with as allies, therefore the fact that you do makes him feel threatened.” He stopped to catch his breath before continuing.

“He had me follow you here so that I could bring back word on your dealings and what you’ve been up to. He basically wanted to know if you're planning some sort of attack on his mafia while he’s not.” In the end, the man admitted.

“How many of you are there? And are you the only one David has sent?” Pondering for a few seconds evidently thinking before mumbling a yes clearly lying.

“No, there was another as well, but I presume he might have perhaps escaped your hands and has now reported back to David about everything that he might have possibly seen.” He indicated to me.

He was unaware that the other was genuinely dead.

“Please don’t have me go back there, if my boss finds out that I’ve disclosed anything to you then he’ll more than likely kill me, and I have a daughter that depends on me.” He implored.

“Your boss is a cunt, as I had already predicted. rather of voicing his inquiry in front of the Vikings mafia family. I’ll deal with him, but in the interim, I need you to provide me with some information. My family has sent me here to take care of a little issue, one involving a full container of my father’s drugs going missing three weeks ago. Have you heard anything about this, Santiago?” I pressed him.

“N-no.” He fumbled, turning aside and trying valiantly to appear cool, but in reality, he looked guilty in every way.

“Fortunately, I can tell when you’re lying to me, you’re breathing has heightened, your eyes are twitching, and you immediately tensed as you heard my inquiry and started weeping once more. Do you find it difficult to remember things, Santiago? Is it that you require assistance to jog your memory?” As his head swayed back and forth, I questioned him.

I motioned to one of my men as I stood up, stepping away from Santiago to make room for one of my men who approached carrying an ECT machine.

“Do you understand what this is? It’s an ECT machine; during an ECT, a small amount of electrical current is delivered into the patient’s brain while they are under general anesthesia, but we’ll skip the anesthetic for the time being.” Before going any farther, I informed him about him.

“The entire brain, including the regions in charge of mood, appetite, and sleep, experiences a seizure as a result of the current. We decided to evaluate whether electroconvulsive therapy genuinely works because clearly you are suffering from memory loss; if it does, we will be able to swiftly and considerably lessen the terrible symptoms of your memory loss. I told him and gave the order to my men to carry on.

Santiago hurriedly spoke up just as my man was about to send him to the hereafter, and I quickly intervened to stop my men from having their way with him.

“Are you willing to reveal the truth?” I questioned him.

I was aware of the falsity of his statement when he once again spoke, “I don’t know, it could have been thugs who stole the container, but I haven’t heard anything about it.”

There was clearly something much greater going on here, and whomever was responsible for keeping everyone quiet and keeping everything under wraps without anyone knowing, if that was even possible, was pretty skilled at it.

It would have been easy to find evidence or even traces if thugs had taken a container worth ten million dollars US, they would’ve been out seeking buyers and I would’ve easily gotten information of it, but this was undoubtedly something much bigger. These were person’s highly skilled in the task of making things disappear.

Since we had allies all around Asentrix, no one could have simply entered this territory and taken our shipment without anybody being aware of it, but I was beginning to have my doubts about this.

Men were prepared to put their lives in danger to uphold this anonymity, which was starting to worry me. It’s possible that this poses a threat to my family and me.

The sooner I was able to determine where that ten million dollars was and retrieve it then the quicker, I could get back home and make arrangements to cripple that threat towards the Vikings.

“The other day, when I questioned your boss David about the shipment, I realized right immediately that your boss had lied when he claimed not to have known anything about it. I believe you know the answer to my query, but you won’t share it with me, which perplexes me. Santiago.”

“Are you prepared to put your life in danger in the same way that the others did to keep such a secret hidden?” He was silent as I asked him a question, likely considering what I had said and whether it was worthwhile to die for.

“You don’t understand the devastation of what’s going on.” He heaved perhaps willing to finally speak on the matter.

After being tortured for days by my men, he has been the only one I’ve so far been able to break; the two others who were there before him preferred to die rather than even utter a word.

“And I’m currently working to find out what that is. Why are persons prepared to sacrifice their lives for something so unimportant as a dispute that might be easily rectified, allowing everyone to return to their normal lives? Just speak what you know, Santiago; that’s all there is to it. You don’t have to die.” I provided him suggestions.

“You see, Vikings, if I tell you, both my family and I will be dead, so it’s not that simple. Here, things just underwent a shift.” He sounded quite nervous as he spoke, and I couldn’t help but feel a little apprehensive.

“I’ll ensure that David won’t harm your family in any way. I always mean what I say.” He was trembling tremendously while I negotiated with him.

“After being pulled down, he needs to be swiftly bandaged wherever he is bleeding.” To my men who are on standby, I told.

“David? Despite the fact that my boss is intelligent, he lacks the skills necessary to have stolen a container with a US ten million value. In contrast to the Vikings, my boss would never risk doing something so crazy especially as going against the Vikings.” Santiago refuted the claims I made.

“I’m aware that your boss isn’t that smart, and he certainly wouldn’t be able to behave in such an incompetent way. Was the act committed by the Fernandez family?” He grimaced in pain and scoffed as I questioned him further.

“Even though the Fernandez family has a penchant for backstabbing, they are not particularly talented and have since learned from their last run-in with the Vikings. Additionally, I am aware that you are aware of this since, if the Fernandez family were involved, you would already be aware of it. You’re merely using me as a guinea pig to see if I’ll fabricate a lie.” In reaction to his statement, I nodded.

“I’ll be the first to acknowledge that I was trying to test you, but I can tell you’re not completely insane even though you don’t seem to be very smart, as seen by your unwillingness to explain what happened to our millions of dollars, so pardon me while I test your ability to think coherently.” My men laughed out loud when I called Santiago out.

“I merely intended to act in my family’s and my own best interests.” He made a statement.

“In opposition to the Vikings?”

“I questioned whether it would be wise to take on the Vikings or someone more formidable.” He made another statement sparking my further interest.

“A greater coalition force? Why fabricate things, Santiago? If you had stated something else, I might not have believed you to be less insane.” I frowned at him.

“As I’ve stated things have changed since you and your father last visited. That shipment was a target for quite some time now. After information got around about a US ten-million-dollar shipment, alliances outside of Asentrix began lurking around.”

“Mafias that were at least as large as the Vikings had their sights set on it. No one would ever start taking on their mafias. You could die with only saying one word.” As I had anticipated.

“I’m a very patient man Santiago, unfortunately I cannot say the same for my father who is quite impatient and trigger friendly. The dangerous is rapidly approaching, and I’m sure everyone in this entire Asentrix would loathe to see my father tackle the matter at hand.” Now, a little irritated, I hissed at him.

“The answer that you seek to your questions lies with the new territory freaks, the Russian’s, they are the one’s you're searching for Vikings, and their armies are nothing like you have ever seen before, their powerful.” He confessed which was quite more than what I had expected.

“Boss, the girl has decided and wants to see you now,” One of my men who entered the room spoke.