Page 78 of Defiance
Paul shrugged. “He doesn’t need to. And since you’re only present as a courtesy, you’ll need to get out of the fucking way and keep quiet.”
Aaron scowled but walked over to the wall and leant against it. Logan nodded to him, hoping he took it for the “I’ll be okay” he meant it as.
“Cole.” Paul walked over to him and clapped a hand on his shoulder. Cole hadn’t taken his eyes off Logan since he’d walked in. “I’m going to talk you through an HRU interrogation, step by step. I know you’ve been on the receiving end when you first got here, but you need to realise it’s just a job. Nothing personal.”
Cole snorted, and Logan winced. “If I was interrogating one of my friends or family, then it’d be pretty fucking personal, wouldn’t it?”
Paul shook his head. “That’s why we do this. I know Logan’s neither of those things.”
Logan bit the inside of his cheek.If only you knew.
“But you need to treat this as a job. Whoever sits in that chair becomes a target, and your only purpose is to extract information. Regardless of who it is.”
“Right.” Cole met Logan’s gaze, and for a split second the doubt and fear he saw there threatened to overwhelm him, but then it was like Cole closed the shutters. “Where do we start?”
* * *
Logan’s headsnapped to the side, making him bite the inside of his cheek with the force of the punch. He tasted blood on his tongue, but the cut was already healing.
Cole stepped back, shaking out his hand, frowning down at it.
“Still not used to the healing yet?” Paul asked.
Cole shrugged. “I guess not.”
“If Logan were human, then this would be an effective technique. You’d have to cut back on the amount of force used, of course, but generally humans either give in after the first few hits or not at all.” He gestured to Logan. “But as you can see, no matter how hard you hit Logan, he’s going to heal.” Paul spoke matter-of-factly. “Of course, you can break bones, which take longer to heal and hurt like fuck.” He walked around to stand in front of Logan. “But we also have something else we can use.” Pulling out the syringe from his pocket, Paul handed it to Cole.
“What’s this?” Cole took it from him, handling it like it might explode any second.
Logan tensed, unable to stop himself. The memories from the cavern weren’t buried nearly as deep as he wanted them to be.
Paul pointed at Logan. “Inject it into Logan and see.”
“Fuck, no.” Cole shook his head. “I’m not injecting him with some mystery liquid.”
The room fell silent.
Shit.
Cole might not have realised, but he’d essentially refused Paul’s command. And that was going to piss him off.
Paul came up behind Cole and put a hand on his shoulder. “The liquid in that syringe will force Logan into a half-shift and keep him there until we inject him with the antidote.”
Cole grimaced.
“Being kept in that state for a significant amount of time is incredibly painful and affects a shifter’s ability to focus. as I’m sure you remember. If left in a half-shift long enough, they’ll be begging you for the antidote.”
“And you want me to inject it into Logan?”
“Yes.”
Logan looked up, meeting Cole’s worried gaze. He wanted to tell him it was okay, that he had to do this, but Paul was watching.
“Can we hurry up and get this done?” Logan grumbled. “I have things to do this afternoon.”
Paul raised his eyebrows. “Didn’t think you’d be so fucking eager since you know what’s coming.”
I’m eager to get out of this fucking chair.
