Rentboy

men in the room could be the same men he had confronted on his doorstep. It had happened
    so quickly he never got a proper look at them, but judging by the way these men swarmed him and
    took control of him so quickly, they were obviously ready for him. Two of them pinned his arms
    behind his back and handcuffed him while the others cuffed his feet. In a second Edward was helpless
    and being carried downstairs to the kitchen.
    The bread and meat from his unmade sandwich were where he had left them. He was dying for a
    cup of tea. At a gesture from Maputwa, the men dragged the large kitchen table away from the middle
    of the room.
    The Ugandan placed a kitchen chair in the middle of the flagstone floor. He pointed at it, and at
    once the men fastened Edward to the chair. The steel ankle cuffs were removed, and his legs were
    secured to the chair legs with plastic handcuffs. Likewise his hands were tied to the sides of the chair.
    The kitchen he had always found so inviting had become a torture chamber.
    It was the most terrifying and surreal situation he had ever been in, and it was made stranger by
    the fact that all the men, including Maputwa, wore dark suits as if they were at some sort of
    diplomatic meeting at the UN. He had not anticipated the suddenness of this attack and the
    helplessness of being overpowered and restrained.
    “Now, Dr. Atherton.” With his arms folded over his broad chest, Maputwa stood before
    Edward, smiling down at him. “You know what I want.”
    Edward met his gaze. “You want to kill people with my pesticide.”
    “Yes.” Maputwa laughed again. “I hear you are a genius. Would you like to work for me? You
    would enjoy untold wealth.” Thunder crashed loudly overhead. “You could live in a country where it
    is warm and sunny much of the time.”
    Scattered laughter issued from the men standing about the kitchen. One of them had taken the
    packet of cold meat from the table and was eating it directly from the plastic wrapping.
    “No, thank you. I would rather keep my integrity,” Edward said.
    The power of the arm that shot out, cracking Edward across the face, sent his head snapping
    back. Caught unawares, his tongue crushed between his teeth. Blood ran from his mouth even as he
    wondered if his vertebrae had fractured.
    “You will lose your life if you do not agree to cooperate very quickly.” Maputwa took a step
    back, refolded his arms, and smiled. “Let us begin again. I hear you have an excellent memory. That
    you are a genius. You will give me formula for the lethal form of Lintrane, and I will let you live.”
    The ringing in Edward’s ears made it impossible to think. There was a gash in his tongue where
    he had bitten it. The taste of blood was sickening, and he feared his jaw was dislocated.
    When the pain subsided slightly, he attempted to move his lower jaw from side to side. It still
    moved, but his tongue was swelling from the bite. When he spoke, his words sounded thick. “I don’t
    care to live with that on my conscience, so kill me if you must.” Like birds winging through the skies,
    images flew through Edward’s brain. His mum and dad at his funeral. Nik telling her kids about Uncle
    Edward who had died heroically. Fox living with another man, not even remembering him.
    Through the kitchen door a short, stocky figure strode. “Don’t be a fool, Atherton. You are taking
    the high moral ground right now because all you have suffered is a slap to the cheek. You will be
    praying for death by the time these men have finished with you, and you will have told them all they
    want to know anyway, so why not get it over with?” In one hand Dr. Howard held an iPad, and with
    the other he dragged a chair over to sit about six feet from Edward. “I have in here the data on the
    safe form of the pesticide. You will tell me what alterations to make, and I assume Mr. Maputwa will
    let you go.”
    “Your career will be over.” Edward’s speech sounded oddly slurred like that time he had
    smoked marijuana.
    Without opening his mouth Howard chuckled deep in his throat. The sound was so smug it made
    Edward want to punch him. In fact, he had wanted to punch him for a long time.
    “My career is just beginning. I am going to Uganda to live and work in my own lab, all funded
    by Mr. Maputwa. He will lead Uganda within the next year with my help and yours. If you had not
    changed the Lintrane and then refused to give me the original compound, you could have gone on