In The Shadow Of Death

Ice seemed to enter Yohena’s veins at the intonation of the word ‘thing.’ Even after he leaned down to him, Yohena merely stared at him fatuously.

It was in that odd frame of mind that he walked away from Yohena and turned his back on him. The yellow face looked very gaunt, and his mental faculties seemed to acquire an abnormal keenness.

"Is that fear that I smell about you?" He asked.

"What is it you want from me?" Yohena intoned hoarsely, and try as he may he could not suppress the trembling in his voice.

He turned around slowly. "There is a compact disk – this thing. You have it and I want it!" His voice snapped like the crack of a whip.

"This is mere nonsense! I demand you release me. You have made a terrible mistake. I have no idea of what you are talking about."

The leather-clad man snapped his finger. He turned his eyes upon Yohena momentarily, only to look away again in the direction of the big man. As though in anticipation, the man moved with the grace of a big cat, opened the black bag, and extracted several elongated acupuncture needles.

In that same instant, the driver wrenched opened the neck of Yohena’s shirt, ripping it from his body.

"The needles in his hands are products of the civilization of our close neighbor, the Chinese, a race whose genius I prostrate myself in meekness. Yet, the skill in which they used them is a thing of beauty. I pride myself on beautiful things." He then accepted the needles. "I shall try to do them justice. Have you anything to say?"

Yohena felt the truly first hard pangs of panic welling up in his chest. He found he had an overpowering urge to spill his guts out to this man, but the acute loss of face would involve not only him but Nakada as well. He determined it was too high a price to pay. "I have nothing to offer you," Yohena finally replied, his fists clenched; he was quite rigid.

One needle was placed on either side of Yohena’s neck. There was a slight penetration beneath the skin and into the muscles affecting articulation and respiratory functions at a precise location with expert skill.

"I can give you pleasure or cause you great pain," the man said. "I want to know where the disk is--and I want to know now!" Slowly he rotated the needles back and forth between his thumb and forefinger.

Yohena felt a sudden sharp pain like he’d never felt before, it ricocheted in his head. It was a pain that he never thought a human body could endure--a pain that seared to the core of his very soul. His mind dangled on the threshold of insanity. His breath came in short, choking gasps. He could not scream, he could not move, yet his muscles created spasms throughout his entire body. The sensation of a hot iron poker wore on his nerves. Had he been given a choice he would have preferred the ancient Japanese tradition of seppuku – hari kiri. This was a sacred ritual, and the samurai dedicated himself to this honorable end. Unlike those great warriors, his courage temporarily failed him; he tried to succumb so that the pain would cease. Somehow he managed a gut-wrenching scream and the veins hardened in his neck like giant thews on an oak tree.

His tormentor leaned forward to him again, studied his strained face for a moment, then took a stiletto from the forearm sheath beneath his sleeve and ran the slim blade across his chest. Slight pressure with the blade left a thin cut followed by a line of blood. Then he made another tiny slit along his neck, splitting a vein and letting the fluid ooze down his neck. Yohena’s body went into convulsions, almost slipping into shock. He started to fade into unconsciousness.

"One quality that you possess that I truly admire my friend, is your courage. But it is senseless for you to die when it is not necessary. Simply give me what I ask and I shall let you live."

He slapped Yohena’s face several times. "No, no, no! Tst, tst, we can not allow you to pass out. Not yet, anyway." He brought him around by briefly easing his pain through control of the acupuncture needles. "Give me the location of the disk!" He barked, with renewed anger – renewed venom.

More needles in Yohena’s neck paralyzed him. Pain was beyond him, he grit his teeth to keep from biting off his tongue. "I know nothing," he declared in his mind, his lips trembled, but he made no reply.

The dark eyes again looked into his, afire with a positive hunger for truth. "You took the disk. What did you do with it?"

"I am merely a scientist. I do not know anything." He said between clenched teeth, his head quickly filling with madness.

"Such a declaration is worthless. I suppose you will declare that you do not know Seiji Nakada?"

"He is my friend. I do not know more than that." The words tumbled from his lips, but not like they were his own. An act as simple as swallowing brought him great pain. His precious life fluids gradually slipped from his body like hot lava from an open pit inside a volcano.

His tormentor clenched his teeth. Insane anger flooded his mind. "Hold his head!" He commanded, upon removing the needles from his neck.