The Plot Thickens (Peerless Crew)

[Deleted]

Achilles thought to himself as he stood there in his tactical gear, sans weapons.

"So this is the new job... I get to be a mercenary, better yet, I get to be a captured mercenary."

Achilles stood there popping his knuckles and awaiting them to either bring in the other guy, or bring him to the other guy.

"What's the deal with this other guy? I wonder what he's done to warrant this operation. Oh well... pretty soon it'll be time for me to earn my paycheck."

"Where are they...what's taking so long?"

As he stood there thinking and then talking to himself, he thought back to boarding the ship. Thankfully, his room was of a decent size with enough room to store his stuff.

He set down his foot lockers one at a time and emptied out their contents. First he took out the two collapsible garment racks out and hung up all of his outfits.

After putting up all of his clothing, equipment and gear, he pressed his clothing, shined his boots and then went to an empty cell in the brig. That lead to Achilles being where he is now.

[Roger Davis]

The Peerless was closing in on their first lead, but Davis was playing the long game. This wasn't an easy contract, and not just in terms of basic risks. Knox knew it. That's why he hired out to the Peerless instead of just sending his own guys. That's why the pay was so great and so many resources were available. No, Sweethome was just another step on a long road just as Santo had been before that. They'd only find Lee at the end of the road, and by then he'd be weak enough to take down.

They hadn't even followed up on this first bit of intel and already Roger was playing for piece number two. "James Black" he called himself. He'd serve well enough and no one would feel bad about beating the guy senseless. That was the plan after all. Toss the big tough guy into the tank with Corvey. Give him the same harsh beating Patricio got his first few days; don't even ask questions or ask questions with no answers. By the end of it hopefully he'd open up to his cellmate and really spill his guts. And if that didn't work? Well, Davis had one other plan up his sleeve.

"Let's go." Davis ordered as he opened Black's door and then led the short distance to Patricio's cell. Vitale and Desmond were both there waiting. They seemed even more eager to beat up this new stranger than the slaver they already had in custody, Desmond in particular. Black had his hands zip tied and then was roughly pushed through the door while Davis once again took his leave and left the interrogation to his subordinates.

[Deleted]

Vitale looked away from the console on the bridge and wiped his eyes, then checked his watch. Davis had said forty five minutes, he had about three left. Vitale had spent his first spare chance checking into their new hire, but he hadn't gotten very far. For a man who claimed to be such a badass, his record was pretty weak, almost no active service records, and zero commendations. No war time to speak of, no special notations of marksmanship or leadership training, hell... if it weren't for the look of the man, you'd swear he'd been a paper pusher with this record. It did show him as active duty once upon a time, but that had ended just weeks ago, when his status had been switched to traitor, and he apparently when out on his own. But he was also a double illegal, as he had no formal license to carry mercenary work in this system either. Not that Vitale's own license was legit, but at least he had fake documentation, rather than none at all.

No, whatever this man had been, it was pretty clear that it wasn't much in the military. Hell, maybe they'd been had, and the guy was just blowing a bunch of smoke up everyone's asses about his service jacket. Wouldn't have been the first time. And it also wouldn't be the first hire to not be a legal merc around the systems either. Neither Vitale nor Gunn were strictly legal, and word was that Davis wasn't even allowed inside the perimeter orbit of Paquin, and according to Nate, that had cost them a few jobs for some feminine friends. Vitale had never been hired by a Companion before, but according to Nate, when a fellow ruffs up a member of the guild, the guild hires out for revenge. At least the negotiations sounded nice. But this James Black was nothing like he'd made himself out to be earlier, and he stood military all the time, that whole 'At Ease' stance, the one that doesn't say your relaxed? Yeah, stood that way the whole time Vitale had seen him. Vi checked his watch again, then stood up and shut his search down. Nothing, a big fat pile of stinking nothing. Ollie seemed sure that the guy was full of shit, and had never served in the military, just another wannabe. But Vi wasn't as sure, he'd been in the Alliance, and had seen the special forces tat's the Black carried before. Those wings didn't come easy, and if he was just a wannabe, then that was some serious "Playing the part". And the guy himself was nothing short of a giant, certainly seemed like the Alliance's type. No, Vi was pretty confident that he just missed something, so he'd sent off to the Syndicate tech nerds for some technical help. Too early to push the easy button? Perhaps, but how much you know about your crew is important, he'd let Davis know later.

He owed Desmond thirty plat though, Dez had said that anyone with special forces wouldn't have public files. It appeared that was correct.

Tali found Davis in the halls with Desmond already en' tow, and rolled his eyes as they headed off to the cell where their new prey was waiting. Dez had a grin on, and Vi slapped a twenty bill in his hand, and told him he'd pay the rest later. They got the big arrogant sonofabitch out of his cell, and wandered him down to Corvey's cozy little cottage. When the door opened, Corvey looked just like they'd left him, with a little extra sweat and fatigue. Dez handled the big tough d-bag, while Vi closed the door, before turning to Patty and gigantor. Patty looked pretty much like he normally did, and it was too early to tell for the tanned, shaven sasquatch here. "Well," He said as he got himself comfortably propped up against a small tray-like table, "We had some extra guests aboard the ship, so everyone gets a new roommate." As he said it, it was a pleasant tone, and eerily out of place. "So. Patty, meet Gigantor, and Gigantor, meet Patricia. You two are in here cause your practically brothers, both of you used to work for the man I want to find, and both of you have offended very close friends of mine. Now, Gigantor. Patty here has already done me a solid," As he said this, he was speaking to James directly, but he nodded in Corvey's direction as he made his statement, and also gave him a smug smile as he complimented him saying, "So he's kind of in my good graces. Why don't you follow his good example, by telling me something I don't know about Cobalt, or Marcus Lee."

James Black looked up after having himself tied to his chair tightly, and honestly looked confused. Not in a scared sort of way, but an openly audacious one instead. "Who?"

Vitale shook his head, and turned to start pacing slowly, "Iiiiii don't know partner. I feel like we just went through that song and dance right there, a few days ago. Ask Patty here, it wasn't as fun as it was advertised to be."  Vitale said it like a somber game show host, letting his words be slightly exaggerated in the way that people who are being intentionally corny do.  Black looked to Corvey, and gave a distasteful sneer, then looked back to Vi.

"What is it that you want to know?" Black said, with a very not Spanish accent, so much for step one...

Regardless, Vitale blankly stared at him, and then wiped is eye in irritation, "What I said, something I don't know."

"I don't know what you don't know."

"Then just start talking, and I'll tell you when we get to a part I like..."

Black looked around as though he might laugh, and then said condescendingly, "Well, actually, I don't know the man. Why don't you ask your girlfriend?" He was implying Desmond with the turn of his head of course. Vitale pursed his lips and nodded his head up and down in silence. After a minute, he gave a look that might have implied, Hell, why not? Then he signaled to Desmond, and the beatings began in earnest.

[Deleted]

Then

"I'm telling you Vi, if he was Spec Ops, he's not gonna have public files. You're going to find exactly Feh Feh Pi Goh.*" Vitale shook his head, "I'll find somethin'! I'll bet you thirty plat I find something before we go for the next round!" Desmond couldn't help but grin as he shook Vitale's hand, "Almost hate to take your money brother." Almost was the prime word in that sentence. Almost.

Now

Desmond had spent his time away working in the armory, he still had a few weapons to put the finishing touches on, he was finally almost finished with the prototype for the minigun with the underslung grenade launcher and shotgun. Smiling to himself he locked it away before heading off to meet up with the captain and Vitale. Dez wasn't sure if the captain knew about this toy he was building, and if he didn't he wasn't going to mention it. As long as his other work got done, Davis wouldn't care. It's not like Desmond was misappropriating funds in order to built it after all, he was using either his own funds or funds straight from the Syndicate. Sometimes it was good to have someone writing checks for you, especially when that money seemed to be limitless.. He wondered what else he could get out of them for the ship, he'd have to remember to ask Davis about it after he was finished with the minigun.

Desmond arrived at the cell first, followed shortly after by Davis and the new guy. Vitale showed up not long after and put a twenty in his hand, stating he would get the rest later. "Damn straight I will. Don't forget where your ammo comes from." Desmond couldn't keep the grin off his face in that moment, but Desmond wouldn't do anything to Vitale's ammo, the smith needed someone to test his more dangerous weapons after all right?

Davis took his leave and Desmond zip tied James Black's hands behind his back before marching him into the cell and Vitale started on his spiel. Desmond zip tied the big man's hands and feet to the chair while Vitale went on about needing more space. Was the gunhand ever out of hot air to spew out? Somehow the smith doubted it, but when it came to Patty, that actually seemed to help. The slaver seemed to have formed a mild fear of Desmond, not that the smith blamed him, he'd watched one of the videos and he had even scared himself a bit with what he'd done. But he didn't regret any of it, the man was the lowest form of scum and deserved more than Desmond was going to be able to give him. Maybe they'd find a mine with poisonous gasses to lock him in for the remainder of his short days in the 'verse.

Vitale called him Gigantor, they were having WAY too much fun doing this than they should be having, he'd have to remember to get a psych eval after this whole thing was over. The big man didn't seem to understand the whole, 'we need him to think you speak Spanish off the bat.' Thing and was doing nothing more than making their job more difficult, was he stupid? Maybe he really wasn't black ops after all, no one could be this stupid and do a job like that... Then again, they were dealing with the Alliance after all, the very people that had taught HIM how to make bombs. They probably were that stupid after all.

Desmond decided however that Black was probably stupider, which was fine with him, the man seemed wrong anyway. But when he made a comment about himself being Vitale's girlfriend, well, that didn't sit well with him. Desmond sighed and barely waited for the go ahead from Vitale to go straight for his right kidney with a solid punch. His next kidney Desmond used his knee almost as hard as he could. Dez like to think he was good at what he did, he'd been in more than enough fights in his day, and he'd been able to knock out Patty pretty much whenever he wanted. He had to give Black credit though, he had more muscle on him than Patricia did.

That didn't stop Desmond though, Vitale had made a crack about him having an anvil for a fist. He decided to give Black the same opinion. Each punch landed in a sensitive spot, he didn't have to try to make it look like he was hurting Black. Walking around the table and looking down at his knuckles, he glanced up at Black. "Maybe after you wake up, Patty-cake can tell you what he went through at my hands. If you don't have brain damage." With that Desmond kicked Black in the solar plexus hard enough to push the chair back on it's hind legs, and then tip over. The big tough guy started coughing and gasping for air, and he was lucky that Desmond didn't do more. He needed to go somewhat easy on the big guy, so instead he picked up the chair and patted the man on the shoulder. There would be no working with him after this job.



OOC: Feh Feh Pi Goh - Baboon's Ass Crack

[Deleted]

After his initial trouncing had gone on long enough for Vitale to actually start feeling bad for the smartass, he decided to call Desmond off, just as the man did it himself. As Dez backed up, Vitale started talking again, as usual, calm, reserved and chillingly out of place. "So, where were we? Ahh, yeah, I remember now, you were going to tell me about the two of you's friend," Vitale said, whirling his finger in the air as though he was conjuring up the answers. Here was an interesting moment for Black, Vitale had told him before that he'd be asking questions that had no answers. He didn't say what, and Black didn't ask. It wouldn't have mattered if he'd have asked, as Vitale wouldn't have told him anyway. He did however reinforce the fact that for Patricio to trust him, he'd have to receive an epic beating. And for now, he hoped that the man was prepared mentally for that, because at this point it was going to be served for lunch whether Black wanted it any more or not. Vi just hoped that this whole plan yielded fruit sooner rather than later, and they could airlock Corvey and move on to bigger fish. Hopefully the great white himself, but that sounded more and more every day like it was a long ways off.

Black opened his mouth to say something, but seemed to rethink it, then said, "So what's your big plan here? You two gonna beat it out of me?"

"Beat what out of you, I thought you didn't know the man," Vitale asked turning the man around on himself.

Black smirked a that one, but kept it on point, "You just going to keep hitting me until I tell you somethin?"

"Well I don't want too." Vitale leaned back, and got comfortable, then lit up another of Nate's cigarettes. After he had that done, he continued, "How about you Patricia? You want to add to anything you told me before?" Patricio seemed to shiver in cold sweat all of the sudden, his many bruises, not to mention his mauled hands and other abrasions had hardly started to heal, Vi was pretty sure they'd kill him if they went to work on him again so soon. His body needed the rest, but his mind had to stay fearful. Vi turned back to Black. "Waiiit a minute." He scrunched his eyes suspiciously, "You trying to sidetrack me Black?" James seemed to think it over, and then gave in to his shoddy attitude.

"Your not very good at this are you?"

There was that perfect English again, and perfect even as in resonating scholarly... you know the kind, the kind that say's I don't speak Spanish as a native tongue... It irritated Vitale that the man wasn't following that particular order, as it was one of the very foundational conditions of his being hired on. He narrowed his eyes as he took a shallow drag of the cigarette, looking at him over the edge of his fingers as he did so, then Vi answered him with his own question, one which had better have a good answer. "Not very good at what?"

Black smiled, he had all the answers planned, and was practically reading them from a template, "Not very good at this interrogation thing."

Vitale's eye twitched a little, and he exchanged a look with Desmond, then turning back to James, he bit the bait, "How do you mean?"

"You don't get information by beati..." James started to say, but Vitale's lack of patience with the BS spewing before him had already signaled for Desmond to swing away. Another quick round of that, and Vi opened it back up for discussion.

"You were saying..." Vitale said with a sneer.

Oh but James Black had more. And here and now, where he decided to lay it all out was the worst possible place and time. "I was saying that if you beat a man to a bloody pulp, you run a strong risk of causing irreparable damage to the victim." Vi could now see red, who's side was this guy on, they wanted to scare Corvey, not give him confidence. Take a beating, show your like him, appeal to his camaraderie. There was a plan here, and a damn good one. Vi was pretty sure Davis hadn't asked for any advice, and he swore it was like every word the Captain had uttered had gone into one ear, and passed straight out the other. Still, even with the look of amusement completely gone from Cordoba's face, Black thought he'd just continue, like this was all a big game. "Crushed larynx, bruised wind pipe, maybe even permanently damaging the voice box. Then your looking at, at least a four to six week healing time in a sick bay before you have a chance to ask your subject any other questions. Now... that's no way to run an interrogation." Who knows that? Why would anyone know that? Vitale had been looking for crap like that to use, and he hadn't found it. Who was this guy? Black sniffed his momentary self doubt, and seized the worst opportunity. "You wanna start over?"

Vitale snapped, "Who you think your talkin to!" Vi marched up to him, tossing the stupid cigarette aside, and grabbed him by his collar, "I don't need you to fuckin speak! You can finger paint the Gausi Gǒu Shǐ in blood when we finished for all I care!" Black was actually sneering, Vi lost his control of himself, and slapped his hands from the big guy's shirt, then kicked him in the chest as hard as he possibly could, slinging Black back to where he'd been only a moment before. As he stalked over the man, he flashed his eyes at Corvey with a stare of death in them, then turned all his concentration on the giant. "Ya got somethin else ta say?"

Black for his credit, was physically very tough, all good attributes pretty well ended there. "If your gonna keep goin with this, you should know I'm right handed..."

Vi stood up straight and whirled around yelling with his hand in the air, "Is That Right? Desmond Go Another Round, He Ain't Had Enough!" He stopped long enough to point at Dez and add in, "I Don't Want You To Stop Till Ros Has To Gausi Bring Him Back... And Don't Touch His Perfect Hóu Jiānyín Right Hand!" After he had stepped back enough for Dez to come in full force, Vitale decided that Corvey had seen enough empowering speeches for one day, and with one clean left hook, knocked the man out.

[Deleted]

Desmond sat back and started rolling a coin over his knuckles while Vitale talked, he'd seen it in every cheesy movie there was, a thug in the background rolling a coin over his knuckles before torture was used. He was hoping the subtle threat wasn't lost on Corvey, then again the bruises on his knuckles were probably enough to remind Corvey that he was only hanging on by a thread as it was. Of course Desmond was going to have brand knew bruises on his knuckles now, Black was pure muscle. Too bad his brain wasn't one of those muscles, he seemed to be only digging himself down into a deeper and deeper hole. Everytime he opened his mouth he caused more and more trouble for himself, didn't his mother ever teach him common sense? Desmond wanted nothing more than to just shoot the man in the head and call it done. He wouldn't do it however. Not without good reason.

"You're not very good at this are you?"

Desmond's eye twitched, they were doing a rather good job actually. They'd gotten plenty of information from this man, and in only a couple of days too. No, they were doing a good job here. Dirty work, but they were doing it the right way. Besides... Desmond hadn't gone near his throat. They needed Corvey to be able to talk and Desmond wasn't stupid, crazy sure, unbalanced maybe, but not stupid. He was going to do everything in his power to make sure that Corvey feared him, that whenever the man saw him he would shudder and want to do anything that Vitale asked. Desmond was going to become Corvey's nightmare. By the time they were done with Corvey, if they were gonna let him live anyway, they would have had a permanent mole within Cobalt.

"You don't get information by beati..."

Vitale signaled at Desmond, and so he circled the big man, every blow that landed was in a sensitive spot, even a big tough guy had to cringe at this. Dez didn't just use his fists either, knees and elbows were viable options and could hurt more than a fist. And though he did normally avoid hitting the head to avoid brain damage, he did smack Black upside the head a few times. Just to show him how much of a dumbass he was being, though maybe he'd hit Black hard enough to cause brain damage already. Even after this second beating the man wouldn't shut up.

Everytime he opened his mouth he spewed more and more luh suh out, Vitale was getting just as angry as he was. As evidenced by the fact that the gunhand went straight for Black ad grabbed him, Desmond stayed where he was and didn't bother interfering, Black had earned every bit of what was happening now. Especially as Vitale kicked the man as hard as he could and knocked him over again, Dez would normally have cracked a joke, but he didn't think now was the time. So instead when Vitale turned on him and gave him the go ahead, Desmond simple gave his most sadistic grin.

Desmond went to work on Black, making sure that the beating was as brutal as possible, right up until Vitale knocked Corvey unconscious. At that point, Desmond knelt down by Black and spoke, "You're not very good at this are you? You do get the whole, get him on your side right? And you should have been speaking with a Hispanic tone to your voice. Are you stupid?" The man started to reply, but Desmond waved it off, not letting him reply at all, he didn't want to hear more luh suh. Instead he drew his knife and flipped it around so the stun gun side was facing black. "This is gonna hurt, but it's just a stun gun. You claim to be a big tough guy." A simple push of a button later, along with a blast of electricity, and James Black was unconscious.

[Deleted]

Vitale watched Desmond for the short, yet oh-so-sweet time that passed before he quit swinging. But he did quit, and Cordoba had to bite his tongue literally to stop from all out ordering his equally statused peer to keep goin, and screw orders. Black might have gotten the message when Desmond told him in his face what the exact problems were, but who knew? Tali had thought that the mission was obvious when they'd hired the giant. Thankfully, the nerve racking voice of the prick was silenced before he could say anything else thanks to a little taste of Matheson's engineering. After it was done, they just stood in silence for a minute, both of them, staring at the unconscious asshole on the floor...

Vitale hadn't wanted to just outright hurt a man in a very long time. Not killing mind you, no, he'd done that less than a week ago, that was part of his job. Torture? No, again, that was part of the job. It's okay to enjoy your job, even if its torture. In his case, Vitale's real victim here was Corvey, and he was no victim. Don't believe it? Go ask the family of any of the girls the prick has sold into slavery. No, there was some joy to be taken in taking a man like Corvey's pride. But Black. Now, as said, it had been a while since Vitale wanted to hurt a man, just to hurt them, no money, this would be free of charge. Last free swing he'd taken... had to have been at least a year ago, some dude had knocked his drink out of his hand for chatting up said dude's girl. Even then, he'd only responded in kind. This guy... God in heaven! Vitale wanted to just keep swinging until he broke something, primarily his own fist, and Vitale's fist was in great condition.

Desmond finally looked up from the questionable thing on the floor, and looked towards Cordoba. Vi looked back at him for a minute, then shook his head slightly, and managed out, "This guy man..." When he decided any further words may well result in his job being lost for killing a crew member, Vitale just turned to the door, and marched off.

Dez hollard after him, "Where the hell are you going?"

"I Don't Know," Vi yelled back angrily, "To Get A Drink Or Break Something Of Blacks..." When he opened the door he paused, just long enough to decide, and even though he never turned back to look at his partner, he finished his statement anyway, "Whichever I find first..." Then Vitale stormed off down the hall, his head in a fury. As he was nearing the fork in the road, the left way leading to a drink, the right leading towards a reprimand for destroying another's property, he passed Davis who was on his way down. The Captain started to ask him something, but Cordoba practically yelled as he passed his employer, "I Don't Want To Talk About It!"

He got to the end of the hall and stopped, breathing hard in frustration, then looked towards the decided route, and turned left.

[Roger Davis]

Roger was in the middle of explaining again to Lewis for the third time about Killer Keller now being Abigail Gunn. Pretending nothing changed wasn't a viable option, and as much as the captain didn't want to go around spreading personal stories and associated secrets there really was no hiding it. Why was Keller confined to quarters under guard and now half the crew call her by a different name? Oh, no reason.

The only person that plan might have worked on was Lewis. Sitting in the galley for this talk after Chuck and Luther had both attempted the same, the captain now was giving a final attempt. It soon became clear that it was denial more than anything. Sure, Lewis wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer and he might not have caught on to Keller having two names all of a sudden, but being told outright was a different matter entirely. No, Lewis and Keller were close. Both were new hires aboard the ship, but they'd been together for years and it wasn't just a professional or casual relationship. Gunn had helped Lewis and looked out for him over those years and he wasn't blind to that. It was hard to believe that the person he thought he knew was a lie.

It was during the early stages of his realization that the pair was interrupted by angry footsteps down the hall. The captain immediately rose and moved toward the sound, the hallway aft toward the brig. As he got to the juncture in the hall, there was Vitale storming his way past. Roger opened his mouth to ask what the hell had happened, but the merc just moved right past and yelled that he didn't want to talk about it. Since when did beating up two bound men become unbearably frustrating?

"Matheson." the captain said as he quickly entered the brig. His tone was a little elevated as a response to Vitale's earlier. "The hell happened?" he then asked as he saw both "prisoners" were now unconscious, big tough guy included.

[Deleted]

Desmond looked up at Vitale for a few moments before the gunhand looked over at him. They stayed like that for a moment, simmering in their mutual anger at the sorry excuse for a human being laying unconscious on the floor, and the unconscious dirtbag in the chair next to him. No amount of cleaning would ever make this room better after they were done here, they might just have to tear the floor and walls out and build a new room in here all together. Desmond would volunteer to do it himself if he needed to, it was the only thing that would remove the taint of stupid from this room. At least he thought so, he might just be alone in that thought. Whether or not that was true however was another story.

"This guy man..."

Desmond shook his head and looked back to Black before spinning the knife in his hand and sheathing it once again, the sheathe sitting next to his revolver holster at his hip. That was when Vitale marched right out of the room, "Where the hell are you going?" The smith called after him, "I Don't Know," Vi yelled back angrily, "To Get A Drink Or Break Something Of Blacks..." When he opened the door he paused, just long enough to decide, and even though he never turned back to look at his partner, he finished his statement anyway, "Whichever I find first..." Dez couldn't help but hope he went for the second option, he'd even offer to help, maybe provide an explosive or ten for it. Nothing that would damage the ship, but Black's possessions would be next to useless afterwords. Even resale value would be nothing.

Dez stood after a few moments and exited the room, leaving the door open for the moment, he wasn't going far. He didn't think they could get out of their zip ties anyway, but he wasn't going to take any chances, his hand was on his gun. Before he turned his back on the door, he made sure the recording software was up and running, both audio and visual. He might want to refer back to some of this, maybe see if he could get a hold of Mai again and have her tie this in with Black wherever he went. Or some of the Syndicate tech nerds, they'd probably get a laugh out of this. After a second he entered again and started examining the room, making sure the cameras and microphones were well hidden. No use to have them if they could be seen.

"I Don't Want To Talk About It!"

Dez turned to look down the hallway as Vitale stormed off, going for option two and getting the drink instead. Desmond was disappointed. Davis entered the room and asked him a question, interrupting his disappointment for the moment. Dez sighed, thinking over the answer. "Captain, whatever rock we pulled this one out of." He stated kicking Black's chair, which was still laying on the floor. "We need to put him back under it, and then put a planet on top. Surround that planet with black holes, and the black holes by Reavers." He motioned at one of the cameras, then started in again.

"He's doing nothing but making light of this, telling us we're doing it wrong. He's not speaking with any form of a Spanish accent, and then he goes on to say that beating him and Corvey is not going to get information. Captain, you do great work. You expect nothing less than our best in return. This piece of luh suh, is nothing short of useless. If he's Black Ops, he's the worst gorram Black Ops man I've ever seen. Any team he worked on was humped from the get go. Please tell me I get to shoot him as part of the job."

[Roger Davis]

"We don't kill innocents." Davis replied immediately. "Certainly not innocents that are on our payroll." That would be a harsh severance package. Things aren't really working out around here so we're going to have to let you go. *Bang!* That's not how one did business. The mercenary life was dirty but it wasn't THAT dirty.

"Rome wasn't built in a day." the captain continued. "Give the man time. The interrogations are a show. The real info comes during the lulls." He was trying to look on the bright side, hoping that Black actually knew what he was doing and that he was just being obstinate because he thought it would make Corvey trust him faster. With luck the two would wake up dazed and start talking in Spanish about how their captors were all idiots or something. Or Black would just screw up the entire operation...

"He's a punching bag, Matheson." the captain added after looking down at the big tough fifty year old on the ground. "Any misstep is another reason to lay into him." As if he needed any more. Desmond was an artist of sorts when it came to this, and Black aggravating him was the motivation for his performance. "Whatever he does, we can use it to our advantage." Black was a pawn to be used and dropped. He shouldn't have been able to rile two seasoned men so easily.

[Deleted]

"Didn't say anything about killing him Captain, just wanna shoot him." Desmond felt he needed to correct that right away. He didn't want to kill innocents either. "However if that option ever comes up, then I volunteer." Dez sighed and shook his head, scratching the back of his head for a moment before straightening his hat. "I sure as Hell hope you're right Cap'n." He doubted it, but Davis hadn't let them astray so far, so for the time being he'd continue to have faith in the captain. Besides, Davis had more interaction with Black than he had so far. At least when it comes to a briefing. Still, something wasn't sitting right in Desmond's gut, it just wasn't right with him. Finally Desmond motioned for Davis to follow him and he stepped outside the cell, then closed and locked it.

Desmond played back the audio from the session, skipping the sounds of the beating and going straight to the words. "See what I'm sayin' sir?" It was all he could say, he was getting angry again just listening to it. It took him a few deep breathes to calm down again, soon he was going to need to blow some shit up to calm down. Rio would enjoy it. She would probably help, in fact he needed to remember to get some tattoos the next time they had shore leave... Well, he was now calm. There was that.

"We'll make it work captain, don't you worry about that. I'll probably enjoy this far too much... But hey, we'll make it work. By the way, there's gonna be no working with this man after this though. At least not on my part." It would be rather difficult for Desmond to work with someone who tortured him anyway, there would be friendly fire the very next time that they were in the field. It would not be a pretty picture, and it would probably not be unexpected.

[Roger Davis]

Desmond began to backtrack. Whether he actually needed to clarify his true meaning or was merely toning down the growing aggression inside him was yet unknown. The offer to kill the man if the time ever arose seemed to erode whatever assurances were made that death was not Desmond's intention with the previous comment. "Noted." Davis replied though it was hard to imagine a case where they'd need to kill Black.

Matheson then played back the tape to emphasize the story. Black indeed had been uncooperative... pompous with his words and not including any subtle attempts they'd discussed to cozy up to his cellmate. However Vitale and Desmond had handled it well, as expected. Attempts to bring down his captors had been met with well timed comebacks, threats, and physical contact. If anything it would reinforce to Corvy that resistance was futile and the big tough guy would learn that his remarks would be met with physical punishment as well as quick witted verbal replies.

"I know you will." Roger replied to the assurances that they'd make it work. "And I don't expect he'll be staying." Big as he was, Black was middle-aged and over the hump not to mention a pretentious asshole. Even if there wasn't going to be the bad blood with the men who tortured you, he wouldn't have been a good fit nor necessarily useful beyond being a bullet sponge or in this case a human punching bag. "He'll be off the ship as soon as he outlives his usefulness, whenever that might be."

"You," he then said changing tone and subject, "should probably get some rest. We'll be back in the thick of it tomorrow or the next day." Davis could rely on Desmond so unfortunately he'd been running him ragged between a late night operation on Santo, an all-nighter interrogation, then another interrogation that next day, and here an interrogation the day after that not to mention his normal duties aboard ship. Rack time, a good meal, a trip to the doc, time for personal prep for the next op... hell, you could probably add vacation to that list. The only person being run around more was Vitale but at least he didn't have an armory to look after as well.

[Deleted]

Desmond nodded as Davis spoke, at least the captain had faith in them to get the job done. Which was probably why the man had them taking care of it. At least he and Vitale were a good team, they complimented each other's skills. Though if they ever had to do this again, he'd try and see if they could switch roles. His fists were starting to hurt, if he kept this up he was sure that he was going to break a knuckle or two. In any case, he was about to go and catch some rack time, maybe he'd go and get some breakfast from Jeri first. Was it breakfast time? What time was it? Space had that effect on ones mind.

Dez nodded, "You got that right captain. Food and rack time sound good right about now, I'll head to the kitchen then get some rest." Popping his neck, he turned and checked the lock again. No sense in leaving anything to risk, if Black really was former black ops, he'd probably be able to figure his way out of zip ties. But that room was only able to be opened from the outside right now, Desmond had played with the lock. If anyone other than one of the crew, excluding Black, tried to open it. Ten thousand volts of electricity. It was quite.... Shocking.

Dez waved to Davis, "See ya later captain, call me if ya need me." He stated before heading off toward the kitchen. Food, then sleep. Or food and sleep at the table in the galley.