Second Captive

The captive who was hanging in the room alone soon had a neighbour in the next room as another person was captured.

The person who was captured next was the same person who he had been meeting up with each time.

Butch made use of the phone that had been taken away from him to contact the other person to arrange a meeting saying that some new information could be provided.

Extracting information from the first captive who had approached Puck had been much easier since he did not have any experience with being put under various torture methods.

Some of the extracted information ended up being used toward helping Butch and the others luring out the other contact before putting him into a similar situation in the room that was next door.

Another figure was hung up similarly while many bruises and cuts covered their body.

A few days had passed ever since they had been brought to the room and they looked quite pale after losing some blood and not eating or drinking much during that time.

He had just undergone some severe torture as several nails were missing from his hands while one of his fingers had already been removed. "Alright... I will talk! Just please stop!"

The man finally gave in to the torture after a couple of days of it which was a lot longer than the other person who gave in right away.

He spoke in a rough tone of voice which carried his tiredness and the dryness of his throat from all of the screaming and lack of water.

Another figure was inside of the room with him and when he spoke, the large figure moved toward a table that had many tools set up on it neatly.

A tool was placed back down onto the table before the figure turned back toward the captured man. "Speak."

The captured man looked fearful of the person in front of him so he started to speak up right away. "I... I am just a middleman. You know... a broker. I broker deals for others... I set up meetings... I even stand in for others to set up various tasks."

The other person who was in the room nodded in response to his confession but did not seem too moved by everything that was revealed. "This is not so interesting. Maybe I should just move on to the next method."

While there had been some suspicion that he was the person behind the scenes or was working with them, the revelation had helped to confirm that whoever was behind everything had been having others do the work for them.

From how everything had happened so far, the profile matched a lot since most of the current events required a decent level of manipulation or resources.

Whenever something had gone wrong, it usually involved someone betraying them as a result of them being offered a deal that was too tempting to pass up on.

Those who had betrayed the gang so far along with the other gang that was involved in the previous incident had resulted in people turning on their allies so there had to be something big that would tempt them to do that whether it was promises of power or wealth.

Sometimes there were even cases where other forms of manipulation were used as something they once did in the past was being used against them which caused them to leak out information or do more damaging things to the gang.

The person or people behind everything seemed to be quite well-versed in making others do their dirty work while they remained in the shadows and avoided most of the danger.

Even the current events resulted in there being others that were taking part in a task to target Puck using one person who was the person who was tasked with approaching her while another worked as the broker or middleman.

It was quite easy to figure out that the broker had used one of their contacts to carry out the task once they were told about what was required of them.

The main thing that needed to be learned about it all was whether the broker had met with the client and any other information that could be helpful.

The broker looked dispirited but he kept talking in the hope that he would not have to endure anything else. "You should know that in my line of work... I cannot reveal my clients and what they ask of me.

This is my livelihood and this line of work has many rules that cannot be broken. If the trust is gone then I can no longer work with anyone ever again...."

He saw the figure of the other person turn away heading back toward the table which caused him to panic some more. "Wait! But.... I did not say that I would not speak! Okay? I did not take any names and even if I did, they were probably fake."

The broker saw that the words were not working as he wanted so his voice became more hurried as he tried to explain. "I may not know who they are but I can give you the contact of them.

I was introduced to the client through a contact I have known for some time. I have done a couple of things for them since then but I never found out much about them. I received cash in envelope payments each time and sometimes the person I met was different."

The figure stopped moving before turning to face the broker. "I want a name."

The broker gritted his teeth before showing a look of resignation. "He goes by Joe 'the Butcher' if you have heard of him. I can help you with meeting him if you let me..."

His words were interrupted a moment later as the large figure closed in on him and then started beating him again.

The hoarse screams of the broker rang out from within the room as they tried to keep bargaining for their life and forgiveness but he was denied both.