Behind the Curtains (New Babylon)

[Victor Wolfe]

Victor laughed heartily as the girl came back into the room; he had not expected such a straight laced person to be able to throw a punch without so much as a second thought. Still her inexperience was showing, a professional solider would not give away valuable Intel that quickly or easily. It was more than likely that he was not revealing the whole truth.

"Very impressive work, who knew that the empires soldiers where so poorly trained that they would reveal extremely valuable information after just one violent action." Victor said with sarcasm. This is why he did not take on an apprentice, too much work showing them the proper etiquette and long held skills that his career had provided to him.

"I would like a chance to apologize to that man however, he was kidnapped and probably has not eaten for a long time, and then someone waltzes into the room and beats him. There are rules even back in my homeland about how you treat a prisoner, one of those rules being that they are always fed, especially a valuable prisoner of war." Victor said with an authoritative and lecturing tone. He then began to work Omnilium into a small meal, some chicken with a salad dressing unlike anything the others had seen before.

Once the meal was prepared Victor ordered one of the servants to bring it to the prisoner who eyed it suspiciously. His hunger quickly got the better of him and he tore into the meal with clear enjoyment showing on his face. Victor used the time to create four small vials of green liquid, which he hid up his sleeves. He watched the prisoner dig into the meal feeling happy that something he had created was being enjoyed; an almost cruel smile crossed his face. He hid it away hoping that Shay would not notice what he was planning.

Once the plate was empty Victor turned to the others “I am going to do one more quick session of questions, if I learn nothing then Agnes can handle all the interrogations from now on. Also I will promise to never take another person’s life so long as I live.” Shay and Agnes both looked at Victor with suspicion feeling that it was to good an offer to be true. “I may be an assassin but I do not lie to the people that are allied with me, that includes both of you at this moment in time.” Without waiting for their response Victor walked into the room with the prisoner sitting down in the chair opposite him.

"I wish to apologize for the rash behaviour of my colleague; there is no need for us to be savages and brutalize our prisoners, I am glad to see that you enjoyed the meal and hope that it, along with this apology will convince you to cooperate with us more. You see, i think you did not reveal everything you know about this convoy of supplies.” Victor smiled in a friendly manner at the captain hoping he would be cooperative.

"I told the girl everything I am willing to tell you people, now let me go!" the captain demanded feeling angry towards the demand being made of him.

"Hm, interesting way of wording that, everything you are willing to tell? To me that sounds like there is something that you are not willing to tell us, and those my friend are the things I want to know, you see I have a little bet that I cannot afford to lose. You know how it is, you get cocky and end up betting more than you can afford to give? Also you do not want me to let you go, if I did you would be alive for about an hour." Victor said with a smirk, sitting back relaxed in the chair.

"What do you mean by that? I am a trained solider, no dune bandits are going to get the better of me!" The captain proclaimed to the disinterested Wolfe, who was now content with looking at the corner of the room. “Oh I do not doubt that you would be more than a match for ruffian scum, But with the poison flowing through your veins I give you, ten minutes to an hour depending on how healthy your body is." Victor said with a yawn.

“What poison!?" The captain began to panic, “Oh you see the salad that was served with that chicken? It’s a plant that is pretty common in my homeland, but I have not seen it growing anywhere since I came to this world. Thus I assumed that you would not be able to recognize it. It’s a wonderful little weed that gives of a present aroma, and even looks delicious. However this is all a trap as it releases a toxin that slowly destroys whatever ate it, its seeds then has plenty of fertilizer to grow from. However there is a cure." Victor flipped out one of the vials “this will destroy the poison and weaken the plant matter allowing your stomach to destroy it, or so the scholars in my world say. Now as far as I know I am the only one who knows what this plant is, and thus the only one who will be able to create a cure. I seem to be having some trouble however, I have made three vials of the cure and have not been able to make more, thus you have three chances to save your own life."

Victor finally took interest in the prisoner as he tried to lunge at him, only to fall to his knees." Oh the muscle paralysis is setting in, also I do not appreciate being attacked during a civil conversation, one chance gone" Victor smashed one of the vials against the ground causing the liquid to evaporate. “You have two more chances to tell me what you know or you become plant food" Victor said laughing all the while.

The captain looked Wolfe in the eye before spiting at him, aiming for his face, the poison caused him to keel over hitting the boot of the assassin" Fuming with rage Wolfe kicked the prisoner causing him to fall backwards, he then proceeded to smash another of the vials. “You are lucky I am a nice person, that sort of disrespect could have caused me to smash both of these."

The Captain began to scream in agony as the poison began to work its way to his nerves making it feel like he was being stabbed at every point in his body.

Victor brought his face close to the captains “you know this cure is fast acting, all you have to do is answer my question and all the pain will be over, and you will be able to live"

feeling that he had no choice left the captain gave in" There is a secret facility being used to carry out experiments in the dunes, a few hours west of here, the code to the door is one, nine, seven, seven." The captain looked into Wolfe’s eyes hoping for mercy but seeing only sadism. " Interesting information but not what I asked, looks like it’s time for you to die" Victor smashed the third vial and laughed as the hope turned to despair in the Captains eyes, a single tear ran down his cheek.

Turning to walk away Victor heard what he had been waiting for " wait, the supply convoy is a trap, all of the vehicles are rigged to explode if opened without first entering in a deactivation code on console in the vehicle that is leading the convoy, the code is two, zero, zero and five. What’s the point in keeping it a secret, I am as good as dead anyway."

Victor smiled " see was that so hard, all you had to do was say that from the start and you would not have to undergo all this, next time though do not wait until the last moment, not all interrogators are as kind as I." Victor revealed the forth vial forcing its contents down the captains throat. “don’t throw your life away so readily, some people only get one" Victor smirked as the captain passed out from the stress of the situation.

Victor re-joined his colleges on the other side of the glass a satisfied look on his face. "So looks like I can keep doing what I do, that is why you leave things like this to the professionals, and as agreed I will not kill him, after all it goes against my code of honour to kill other people’s prisoners without their permission. However this does mean that I in theory saved your life, unless either of you are fire and blast impact proof? Shall we go and see what goods await us at this convoy, it must be stuff they do not want us to have if they go to such lengths to protect it."