1 Chapter One

The elevator dinged and a couple of seconds later it's door slowly opened revealing the twentieth floor to the person inside.

Slowly and gracefully the man left the elevator and walked through the hallway.

The rhythmical clicking sound as his shoes stepped through the floor was echoed in the suspiciously silent floor.

The man himself was dressed elegantly. His fitted suit, his perfectly styled hair and the expensive tablet on his hands, could easily make you guess that he was the CEO of some multi billion company.

But one look at his hard knuckles, the coldness of his eyes and the way he was grinding his teeth could make you second guess yourself.

Taking a corner to the right, the man walked a few steps until he stood in front of a metal door.

All the way from the elevator until he reached the metal door, he had encountered no one. The whole floor seemed to hold no essence of life. This explained the pin drop silence that one was even able to hear the wind blowing silently through the windows.

The man typed some commands on the tablet and all of a sudden there was a short but loud mechanical noise from the metallic door that broke the monotony of silence in the hall.

And the door slowly opened.

Before even entering the room, the man was hit with the awful odor of piss, sweat and blood.

It seemed as though the man was perfectly used to the smell since neither did he show any signs of discomfort nor even a slight twitch of his nose.

The room was dark. So dark that one could close and open their eyes but get no difference.

Back to his tablet again, the man typed some command.

A piercing bright light filled the room but the man did not even blink.

He was used to this.

The floor of the room was filled with blood, both coated and fresh. Even though there was proof that someone tried cleaning the room often, the person did a terrible job, which maybe was intentional.

To cause trauma.

At the left corner near the door was an old wooden table. On the table were tools. At first glance you would pass them as maybe mechanical tools or even surgical equipments but those were tools specially made for torture.

In the middle of the room was a chair and someone on it. His arms and legs were tightly tied on the chair with another rope passing tightly through his stomach.

The man looked severely beaten. His clothes were now tattered and bloodied that one could not even guess the exact colour of his shirt. His face was full of blood and marks, from both punches and knives. His mouth hanged open with both saliva and blood drooling from his mouth. He had no shoes nor socks on, making him step on the cold and wet floor bare feet.

Despite all those injuries and discomfort, this man was asleep.

Patience was a virtue that the man in a suit seemed not to have. Anger started brewing rapidly in his chest making him to clench his fingers into a fist.

The fucker is sleeping while I am desperate for information! He cursed.

With all the strength he could gather, the man with a suit landed a punch squarely on the other man's lower jaw.

A sickening crack of bones could be heard followed by a loud thump of the chair plus the man  falling  and then a stream of curses from the now awake man.

"What the fuck man! Couldn't you wake me up like a normal person?" The man that was now down groaned complaining, blood and saliva freely flowing from his mouth to the floor.

The man in a suit said nothing. He just went over and lifted the man plus the chair into their previous sitting position.

Now that the other man was awake, he looked worse. Only one of his eyes was opened. The other one was swollen shut and bloody. A few of his front teeth were missing and his nose did not seem to be at the right place.

"Tell me who the fuck did you sell our information to." The man in the suit demanded in an authoritative voice.

"Don't think i am a fucking kid, Mr. Storm," The injured man on the chair chuckled. "I know you will kill me the moment i give you even a clue." He talked surprisingly well despite the uncountable number of blows to his mouth.

Storm looked at the man with his cold eyes. With his experience he knew the man was afraid, that was for sure, but he was more afraid of them than him. Getting information from him would be harder than he thought.

It is time for a fucking threat.

"David, if you don't tell me what i want to hear i will go after your family and bring them here and kill them one by one in the most gruesome way as you watch." Storm said, meaning every word. He was tired of playing games.

With his working eye, David looked at Storm for a moment then let out a short scoff. "Good thinking Mr. Storm, but you are far too late. They already have them."

"Tell me who they are and i will help you get them back." Storm tried another tactic.

"Did you forget the part where if i tell you then you will kill me in the blink of an eye? No. I will tell you over my dead body." David declared.

David was no fool. He knew these people did not give any fuck about him. To them he was nothing more than a puppet,  after they have extracted as much information as they needed then he was as good as dead.

It is better to die with all information that to die after giving them out, right?

"So you want to die? I would gladly fulfil your wish." Storm gave him a sadistic smile and approached him, like a predator approaching its pray.

But this time the prey is tied, has nowhere to run.

When Storm took the last step near David his hands reached his neck faster than a bullet and he clutched him as hard as he could.

David could do nothing other than bulge his eyes out of his sockets as he struggled to fight death. His trachea was blocked, no air was coming in or going out. His trials in kicking and throwing his hands became futile. The ropes were doing their job well it seems. The only thing he could do was move his shoulders left and right but it was of no use.

Storm coldly looked at the man that was about to die at his hands. As much as he wanted to finish the job, he needed information.

When David had finally given up the fight, his shoulders still and no longer moving and his heart now beating at a lower than normal pace while counting the last beats,  he unhand his neck.

David feeling his wind pipe free a again greedily took in air from both his mouth and nose which resulted to loud coughs and made him to spatter blood and saliva all over the already dirty room.

"Tsk, tsk... Did you really think i would just give you a merciful death?" Storm flashed him a sick grin.

"Oh, please don't be over dramatic and spit on my suit. It is quite expensive you know." He continued while rolling his eyes when David continued to cough his lungs out.

On the other hand David was too terrified to talk. He had literary been taken to the dead and back in the worst way possible. His neck was burning while his hands were unable to sooth the pain. The pain was too much that his tears involuntarily slid down his cheeks.

How did David end up here, you might ask.

David was once a normal youth in Jimbo city. He was an expert in the tech industry and had the papers to prove it. He worked comfortably in a small firm as their computer engineer.

He had a family, just him and his wife though, but he was satisfied.

But then one day he got a letter from a secret government organization asking him if he was willing to work for them.

The deal was too good plus he was happy to work for the government.

He accepted.

The organization seemed to have done some research about him since they knew about his prowess in the tech industry and computers in general. He was given the head position in the tech department and he became a crucial man in the organization.

But not all things have happy ending it seems. Being the head of IT came with many responsibilities as well as threats.

The organization was formed to capture the most dangerous criminals of all and with all the information he had about the organization, David became a target.

One year down the line his wife was captured and to retrieve her they needed information. Information that was crucial to the organisation. Information that if he had asked for permission to use for saving his wife he would have been slaughtered there on the spot.

So he did the illegal. Stole the information and gave the enemy in exchange for his wife.

Who wouldn't have done that for their family?

Devlin knew what he had done was wrong. Very wrong. He knew how traitors and criminals were punished and he readied himself.

His only way out was through the information he was having and there was no way he was giving it out before knowing he was not going to die.

After all, no one wants to die.

"So, are you ready to talk or should i make you? I can do this all day long." Storm said with his threatening voice.

In reality, Storm was so terrifying that a normal man would have by now spilled everything out, but David was to far gone to care.

"Give it your best shot, see if i say anything." David said in a hoarse voice, and to add fuel to the blazing fire, he spit blood and saliva on Storm's precious suit.

Storm smirked coldly while looking at the spit slowly flowing down his suit.

Breathing in and gathering all his strength and anger, Storm delivered a punch after another to David's almost lifeless body like a punching bag.

David felt every punch. With no way to defend himself, he just closed his eyes and groaned at every hit he received. His whole body screamed pain but he swallowed it all in, with tears as the only evidence that he was indeed feeling pain.

Storm stopped when he saw David starting to pass out. From the amount of blows he had thrown, Storm was sure all his ribs were broken and the only thing keeping David together right now was his beating heart.

"You would rather die, huh?" Storm spat out.

"Finally! You figured it out! It didn't take you long at all." David said sarcastically, each word giving him unbearable pain.

Those words fueled Storm's rage but he kept himself in check. Just a slap right now would successfully knock out David. And he needed information. Just a word was enough.

"Thank you for your time. I asked you nicely but you have refused to answer." Storm said taking out a handkerchief from his pocket and cleaning the blood on his hands and his suit.

Is he going to kill me?

Don't they need the information anymore?

Fear crept in him as questions bombarded his head.

Goodbye wife. I love you.

David was ready to die, after all he was in so much pain that death to him would be highly welcomed.

"I am going to call someone. Someone who does not know how to play nice." Storm flashed him a weird smile with his eyes still cold.

"Who?" David found himself asking.

Storm walked slowly walked towards him and bent down near his ear. David flinched and closed his eyes expecting another blow or worse but instead Storm breathed slowly in his ears and whispered, 

"Peril."

After processing what Storm said David busted out laughing. He laughed and laughed until his ribs hurt, not from injuries but from his cracking.

"I didn't know you are this funny Mr Storm! Threatening me with a myth. Peril is not a person but just stories to scare kids, and last i checked no one named Peril worked for us. I was the IT manager, remember?" David said in a mocking voice.

"This is a fucking secret agency, you naive boy, get that in your head. There are things that even you were not allowed to know." Storm chuckled darkly.

"As for Peril, you are lucky you will see her before you die. Many have dreamed of having a glimpse of even her hair but died before. Take that as a parting gift." Storm parted David's shoulder and left, the metallic door automatically closing after him and the light switching itself off.

It can't be true.

She can't be working here.

But deep down in his heart David knew it might be possible.

This was a government secret agency after all.

The merciless slayer.

The lady from hell.

Peril.

God, please let my death be quick. David prayed silently in the dark with a slight shiver.