69

Herr Paulus smiles grotesquely.

"Dr. Spillane, are you still with us? You seemed to drift off there for a few moments. It would be no good at all if you passed out before we even got started!"

He reaches into the right-hand pocket of the long leather coat draped over his chair and extracts an evil-looking set of steel knuckle-dusters. He lays them on the table in front of you.

"Some of my fellow professionals in this line of work prefer to carry a broad and eclectic range of tools for, shall we call it, information gathering. But I have found that this is all I need.

"So now, Dr. Spillane, this is what you must do. You must tell me your story; tell me all about the breastplate, how you found it, how you acquired it, and anything you know about its powers. If you tell me everything I want to know, I will not need to use my little friend here. But if you hold out, expect no mercy. Are the rules of our little game clear to you?"

Your mind is racing. You still don't know why the Nazis want these six artifacts, but his questions suggest the Nazis themselves don't know as much about the artifacts as they'd like. If you give away your information, you will be protecting yourself from injury, but you may be helping the Nazis with whatever sinister scheme they are cooking up.

On the other hand, you know that at some point, when you get the chance, you are going to have to break out of here and put an end to all this. If you allow yourself to be tortured, you may find yourself suffering permanent debilitations that could make you less effective at that time.

The best option might be to trick Paulus or give him some information but keep silent about the breastplate's powers. If he suspects you are not cooperating, however, he will torture you.

How do you want to proceed?