16. Quitting Time

Sneakers guys were back in the morning. Or maybe it wasn’t morning. Mateo had no idea what time of day it was and hadn’t for weeks. They were the same guys as yesterday, and ... the whole thing was a blur, but didn’t they not back up the guy who wanted to mess him up? He wasn’t sure. But if it was them he hoped they hadn’t changed their minds.

He considered fighting them, but that impulse didn’t really get up to speed before they’d cuffed and hooded him.

He was so scared, weak with fear of where they were taking him and what they might do now that they were getting impatient, and also so done. He was done, he was out of options, and he didn’t care. Like a tube of glue he used to use on the job, two thin liquids that set into rock-hard adhesive, those two emotions started to set and harden into something new.

It was Monocle Man again, when the bag was pulled off, with Short the good cop (ha, yeah right!) and that other guy Goodacre or whatever, as usual.

Monocle Man eyed him and Mateo realized he was just plain mad and it was showing in his glare back.

“I quit. I fucking quit. I’m done. I’ve told you everything you’ll believe and it doesn’t matter what you do now because that’s it, I’ve told you everything you’ll believe and I’m sick of making shit up. I quit. I’m done.”

He was. Stephens eventually bowed out, and turned it over to Captain Short, since he had talked to Short so easily two days prior.

This tactic failed, Short reported in exasperation a few hours later.

“Dead silent, now. Frightened, certainly, but not a word out of him. Like a switched-off radio. I’ve no doubt our impatient young friend could make him say something, for all the good that would do.” He flung himself down into a chair. “Commandant, this is a bloody mess.”

“I am all too aware. I am going to transfer him to a cell with a window, and issue him higher-quality rations. Hopefully that will return us to the position we were in before the War Office decided to poison the well with threats of torture. If he keeps silent—“

He shrugged.

“I’ll see to it,” Short said.

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