The sight and taste of Otto’s brain caused Manzak to panic. Instead of shooting back or fighting Payne like a man, he scrambled to his feet and tried to run away, an attempt Payne thwarted by putting a bullet into the back of his left knee. Just like that he crashed to the ground like a bat with a broken wing, an image that seemed kind of fitting.
In truth Payne was tempted to finish him off right there. Hell, it would’ve been easy, maybe even pleasurable. A quick shot to the dome and he would’ve been done. The only problem was all the questions that still danced through Payne’s mind. They needed to be answered before Manzak could be eliminated. That’s why Payne jumped on his back and frisked him for weapons, finding a knife and a SIG Sauer P226 service auto.
‘Hey, Dick! How ya doing? Not too good, huh?’
Manzak responded with a shriek that rose above the roar of the nearby flames.
‘That’s it, let it all out. You got a boo-boo on your knee, didn’t you? Well, you should’ve thought of that before you tried to blow up my friends. You see, that made me very angry.’
He screamed again, this time directing several vulgarities at Payne.
‘Yeah, yeah, yeah. Curse it up. That’s always a good idea when someone’s pointing a gun at you. Oh, speaking of guns.’ Payne glanced at Boyd and noticed that he was sitting on the ground, half-shaken. ‘Hey Doc? Don’t even think about going for Otto’s rifle. I’ve got the peripheral vision of a housefly and two handguns to work with.’
‘Fear not. My hands are bound behind me in some kind of elaborate knot.’
‘That’s a Payne special. You aren’t getting out of that without a knife.’ Payne glanced at Jones and noticed him giving a thumbs-up. ‘You’re able to walk, aren’t you? Why don’t you stumble over to D.J. and ask him to cut you free? I don’t want to dull this blade before surgery.’
‘Surgery?’
Payne gave him a hard look, one that told him he should know better. ‘Sorry. Doctor/patient confidentiality. It’s between Manzak and me.’
‘Ah, yes. How silly of me. Perhaps it would be best if I left the operating room.’
Payne kept his eyes on Boyd until he reached Jones. At that point he was able to relax and focus on Agent Manzak, who was still writhing in agony underneath Payne.
‘You know, Dick, I almost hate to admit this, but I’ve wanted to hurt you from the moment we met. I don’t know what it is about you – maybe it was the way you blackmailed me into helping you or maybe it’s because you just blew up an exquisite automobile. Whatever the reason, I thought you should know I’m gonna enjoy every minute of this.’
Grinning sadistically, Payne showed him a stick that he’d found on the ground. It was no more than six inches long, yet it was the perfect size for what he was about to do.
‘I once talked to a POW who said the most pain he’d ever experienced in his entire life was from a simple piece of wood. Hard to believe, huh? But if you think about it, I’m sure you can imagine some vicious and barbaric possibilities for a stick like this. Can’t you, Dick?’
Manzak didn’t want to, but his mind naturally focused on the most horrendous things he could think of. His eyes being gouged out. His eardrums being punctured. His anus being violated by the world’s largest splinter. Crippling acts that would scar him for the rest of his life.
And that was the reaction Payne was hoping for.
Back when he was training for the MANIACs, he learned one of the most effective ways to get information from a prisoner wasn’t through torture but rather the foreshadowing of torture – the act of planting a psychological seed in someone’s head, then waiting for panic to set in. If done right, some people would literally piss their pants long before they were touched. Of course mere threats wouldn’t work on everyone. But Payne figured anyone who traveled with a bodyguard would crack quicker than Humpty Dumpty in a mosh pit.
‘Hey, Dick,’ he said, ‘you’ve read my personnel file, right? So I’m sure you realize I’m fully capable of making a Dick-kabob. You know that, don’t you?’
Manzak grimaced and nodded his head.
‘Very good! Now all you have to do is keep answering my questions, and there’s a chance I’ll let you live. However, if I get the sense that you’re lying to me or you choose to remain silent, I’m going to show you the Vietnam stick trick. Understood?’
He nodded again.
‘OK, let’s start with some easy ones. You know, just to help you get into the flow of the game… How’d you know that we had Boyd?’
‘Your car. We put a sensor under the Ferrari. We were able to follow that.’
‘Bullshit!’ Payne threw a savage punch into his kidney. ‘Remember what I said about lying? Now tell me how you found us.’
Manzak gasped for air, yet somehow managed to answer. ‘I just did.’
‘No way! Even if you tracked the car, there’s no way you could’ve known we had Boyd. How’d you know we had him?’
‘The airport… we had a man at the airport… When we saw your beacon there, we had him investigate… just to make sure you weren’t leaving the country… He went outside and saw the girl… That’s when he notified us… from the airport… I swear!’
Payne was tempted to smile – Manzak had broken easier than an antique teacup – but he knew it would ruin the mood. For this to work, he had to maintain the austere glare of an executioner.
So he said, ‘Where else did you have men? Were you following us the entire time?’
‘There wasn’t a need. The beacon did it for us. We just followed you from afar.’
‘Dick, Dick, Dick. I find that so hard to believe.’ He took the chunk of wood and pressed it against Manzak’s neck. ‘You didn’t, for instance, have someone in Orvieto?’
‘No,’ he cried, ‘I didn’t have anyone in Orvieto. That’s the last place Boyd would be!’
‘Man, I’m so disappointed in you. I wanted to christen this stick on an important question. But if you keep lying, I’m gonna have to use it now.’
‘I’m not lying!’ he shrieked. ‘I swear to God I’m not!’
‘So your men weren’t in Orvieto?’
‘No!’
‘And you had nothing to do with Barnes’s death?’
‘Who the hell is Barnes?’
‘Donald Barnes, the American who was killed yesterday in Saint Patrick’s Well. Ring a bell?’
‘Yesterday? I swear I had nothing to do with that. That wouldn’t make sense. The police presence in Orvieto was already too high. Why would I want to bring more?’
It was an interesting question, one that Payne wanted to examine at length. However, he knew the Milanese police were probably on their way, meaning if he didn’t hustle, he wouldn’t have a chance to get to the information he really cared about.
‘So, who do you work for? And don’t say the CIA, because I know that’s bullshit!’
Manzak remained silent, so Payne slammed his elbow into the back of his head. It was his way of helping him reconsider. ‘Don’t make me ask you again! Who do you work for?’
‘I’ll never tell,’ he screamed in Italian. ‘Ever!’
Payne grinned in victory, even though he had no idea what he’d shouted. The truth was, his choice of language revealed a lot. ‘So, is that your native tongue? It sure sounded natural to me.’
Manzak realized his mistake and tried to wriggle free. Payne stifled his movement by slamming his face into the ground with another blow from his elbow.
‘I’m getting bored with this, Dick. I think it’s time for you to make a decision that’s gonna affect our session. Is it time for the truth or the twig? You decide.’