The Project 04 - Black Harvest

last long. Everywhere he goes is swept three or four times a day."
    "Steph could help," Nick said. "She's hanging out with Lucas and Lucas works for Hood. Maybe he can find something out."
    "What if Hood is part of this?" Harker said.
    "He doesn't strike me as someone who'd get in bed with Lodge. He doesn't like Lodge, he's ambitious, he wants Lodge's job. That might work to our advantage."
    "If you're wrong it will tip our hand."
    "What hand? If I were Lodge, I'd have figured out who was behind Texas. I'll bet a year's pay he knows it was us."
    Everyone thought about that. Nick's ear began itching. He tugged on it.
    Selena pushed hair away. "Lodge won't take it lying down. He's got to move against us, do something."
    "I know what I would do." They turned to Korov. "I would seek information. I would not ask nicely."
    "How would you get it?" Harker asked.
    "From one of us."

CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR

    Bright lights came on. Two large men brought a chair into the cell. Stephanie watched them. The chair was made of heavy wood. The seat was cut out in the middle, like a child's potty training chair. This chair was full size, with leather straps fixed to the arms and legs. Stephanie tried to hold down her fear. A third man entered, carrying an aluminum case. He reminded her of a bank clerk from a black and white movie about the Depression. He was short and balding and small, prissy looking, with a prim brown mustache and a pinched chin. He wore a vest and round, steel rimmed glasses. His lips were pursed. He eyed her with indifference. It chilled her.
    "Strip her. Put her in the chair."
    The men came over to her. One of them wrapped his huge arms around her while the other unshackled her from the cot. She struggled and tried to bite him.
    He punched her in the stomach. She doubled over. They ripped off her clothes and tossed them aside. They carried her squirming to the chair while the prissy man watched and smoked a cigarette. They sat her in the chair and tied her down with the leather straps and left the room. A minute later they came back carrying a table and a box. They set the table down by the chair with the box on top of it.
    "That's all." The third man dismissed them. "Close the door behind you."
    "Yes, sir." They left the room. The door clanged shut. She was alone with the prim man.
    He smiled, an unpleasant smile. "In this room we are going to get to know each other."
    "Fuck you."
    "No, not that. Something much more...intimate."
    He hummed to himself and laid the aluminum case on the table. He opened it. The lid contained a row of rubber topped vials, three syringes, swabs, alcohol and something in a tube.
    From the bottom of the case he took out a white cloth bundle. He unrolled it and placed it on the table. It contained a polished scalpel, a narrow forceps of surgical steel, a set of three different kinds of pliers and an assortment of odd shaped pointed probes.
    He opened the box. It had a large car battery, wire leads and a smaller box with a dial.
    Steph's breath came faster. It was just a battery. How much pain could he inflict with a battery? She could handle it. She told herself she could handle it. What did he want? Who was he?
    "Let me explain why you are here. I advise you to speak civilly to me. Understand?" His voice was quiet.
    Her lips were dry. "Yes."
    "You are going to tell me about Demeter. How did you know about it?"
    "I don't know what you're talking about."
    "Yes, they always say that. Of course you know what I am talking about. Please do not waste our time together. You are Stephanie Willits. You work for a covert unit called the Project. You found out about Demeter. I want to know how."
    Steph was silent.
    "Cat got your tongue? No matter."
    The man seemed to be coming alive as he spoke. A light sheen of sweat covered his forehead. His eyes darted over her naked body. He took a syringe from the case, selected a vial of clear liquid, filled the syringe, squirted a bit into the air. Her upper and lower arms were clamped tight to the chair. He probed for a vein, swabbed the spot with alcohol and injected her. In a few seconds she felt a rush of heat over her body. Her pupils dilated. The room was suddenly too bright. She felt something else.
    Sexual arousal.
    "Interesting, isn't it?" he said. "The effect lasts about an hour. Our Chinese friends developed this as an aphrodisiac. Of course, they use a much smaller amount. It has other applications with a dose like yours. Let me show you."
    He leaned