(Author's Note: I have endeavoured to make this story as readable as possible without people having to know or read the previous Wolf stories on Literotica. However, feel free to go back and read the others. And if you want, leave some feedback too, it's greatly appreciated...)
*
The room was cold, bare, windowless, uncompromising: perfect for interrogation. An unshaded bulb hung from the ceiling, struggling and failing to cast away the bleak shadows in the corners, and the furnishings consisted of a simple metal table and a simple metal chair, both bolted to the floor. The heavy iron door behind the chair had locked with a unnerving sound of finality as it closed shut, leaving the air in the room stale and fetid, and the single inhabitant of the room alone with her thoughts.
She was a woman in her early thirties, with long, shoulder-length chestnut hair and matching eyes that stared forward, as if genuinely interested in the random cracks in the brick wall opposite her. She sat in the chair, her wrists bound by leather straps to the arms of it, her ankles bound in identical fashion to the front legs of it. She swallowed, long past panic, more accepting that her current predicament wasn't some terrible nightmare, that it was painfully real.
A shiver ran through her, uncontrollable. Upon her arrival at... wherever she was... her captors had removed the hood and cuffs they'd put on her, and made her strip out of her own clothes, in favour of a thin pair of baggy white flannel trousers with a drawstring at the waist, and a loose top barely held together by a few buttons, with no underwear or footwear provided. Her nipples had peaked from the cold to an almost painful degree, and she had to struggle to keep her feet from touching the stone floor.
But the effort to do that was nothing compared with the last handful of hours. She was exhausted, hungry, afraid, and needed to use the toilet – but she knew that she would not soon receive relief for any of these things.
Behind her, the door opened, but she continued to stare straight ahead, waited and watched as a nondescript young woman in a pressed olive-drab uniform and skirt carried in and deposited a chair on the other side of the table, before departing, never acknowledging the room's occupant. Another moment, and another uniformed person, a man this time, guided in a metal trolley with squeaky wheels, leaving it at her side. Now she glanced at it; the top shelf held a tray with a number of syringes and bottles.
The woman started as the man undid the buttons on her shirt and opened it up, exposing her, a little. But he made no comment, didn't molest her, showed no emotion in fact, leaving her like that. She kept silent, however, having already been struck in the back twice with a nightstick for speaking.
Now someone else stepped into the room, striding purposefully around to take the seat opposite her, setting out a sheath of papers in front of him. He was a big, broad-shouldered man in his late forties, with an elephantine girth, and a moon face whose lunar resemblance was accentuated by the craters and pockmarks upon it. He wore a creased and crumpled olive-drab uniform like the others, but with more decorations on the epaulettes and the chest, and it looked to be a size too big for him once he sat down. Jowly flesh hung over the high collar, and he removed his peaked cap and set it beside his papers, revealing a shock of greasy black hair. She had long since lost track of the time, but he looked like he'd been woken up and brought here to deal with her, and wasn't at all pleased about it.
Not that she thought her situation here could get much worse.
Now he looked up at her, sniffing distastefully from his pug nose, his English faltering but functional. "My name is Major Piotr Roshenko of the Glavnoe Razvedyvatel'noe Upravlenie. As you are not Russian, that will mean nothing to you, but we deal with matters of military intelligence." He turned over a page, frowned at some details, then continued. "The normal procedure at this stage is to let the prisoner lie as much and as elaborately as they want, let them get it all out of their system, let them think they are convincing us. Then we begin to grind away all the lies in the crucible we provide here, grind them away until all that remains is the pure, unadulterated truth.
However, my superiors are expecting a preliminary report today, and my head hurts. So let's skip past any lies you might wish to weave. You are Samantha Brennan, a British citizen and member of an eco-terrorist group called World Wolf Watch-"
She blinked. "We are not-"
"-And you are involved in the deaths of several members of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, and of a civilian team in its employ."
Her mouth was dry. "I want- I want to speak to the British Consulate-"
"That will not be possible. You now reside in the Aryekhi, a facility that is part of my country's contribution to the Global War on Terror. Unlike the Americans and their Cuban camp, however, we are more successful at hiding its existence, and its inhabitants, from the outside. In fact, only three people in the world know your identity and that you're here, and they're all in this room."
"Then when- when will I be released?"
Roshenko leaned forward, thick stubby fingers pressing into the tabletop. "Miss Brennan, I must be honest with you. You will not leave here alive. Nor will you die anytime soon. And your life here will never be easy, certainly not as easy as you might have known it. But there are many ways to live here, and your co-operation can ensure you live in a way that is not too unpleasant." He looked up to the aide near Sam, and nodded.
She watched as the aide readied a syringe. "I'm not- I'm not a terrorist."
"Truth or not, Miss Brennan, that declaration will not spare you."
Now she went silent, tried not to flinch as the aide drew back her shirt even further, baring her left breast, shoulder and upper arm completely. She watched her skin prickle from the cold and fear as the aide rubbed an alcohol-soaked cotton ball on her bicep, then injected her with an amber-coloured fluid. She looked back at Roshenko. "What- what's that?"
"It's called diosethanine, a new mixture provided by the Americans, though I suspect we are being used as guinea pigs. Unlike previous truth drugs, it also suppresses the creative centres of the brain as it dampens inhibitions, proving more efficacious in helping the subject provide the unadulterated truth, as opposed to some bastard mixture of fact and fiction."
"You can't do this to me! I have rights!"
He regarded her, then rose from his seat and walked around to her. Resting his ample rear against the table, he looked down at her, reached out and stroked her hair, ignoring her attempt to pull away. His hand dropped to her breast, idly played with the nipple. Then he dipped down further, beneath the waistband of her trousers, touched her bush, her labia, his expression to his casual violation of her body insouciant. Closer now, he murmured in her ear, "I have no patience to indulge your denial of your position here." He took some skin between thumb and forefinger and twisted until she winced. "Do you think you can get past that to an acceptance? Or shall we move you into a cell for half an hour with the rapists?"
Fighting back the pain and humiliation, she shook her head. "I- I accept..."
"Good." He removed his hand, wiping his fingers on the sides of his trousers as he returned to his seat, as if nothing had just happened. His stubby fingers now sought out each other, embraced as he folded his hands before him. "You will soon start to feel relaxed, more receptive."
A shudder ran through her, and her chest ached, as if she wanted to hyperventilate but was being prevented, smothered. "P-Please cover me up."
"No."
"I've- I've done nothing wrong..."
"Miss Brennan, I have seen the aerial pictures of Tsyerkovolk. It looks like it was devastated by a
tactical nuclear device
, with no traces of radiation or chemical explosives. You were the only survivor."
She knew that already, shaking her head; it felt thick, as if she had a cold. She wanted to cry, but felt too numb, and not from the drugs or the fatigue. Her spirit had been ripped from her, ripped from her and cast into the darkness, never to be found again. Like her body, in this place, with only an interrogator for company.
"You mentioned a name when you were first arrested: Fenris. What is this, an organisation? A code?"
For the first time in a long time, Sam wanted to tell a stranger. Tell him everything. Maybe because it didn't matter anymore. "A name."
"Who is it? An associate?"
She glanced down, staring blankly at nothing. "A lover."
"Indeed. And where is this man?"
"I never said he was a man." She raised her head again, wishing she could cry. "And he's dead."
*
The Corinthia Nevskij Palace Hotel was one of the newer five star hotels in the heart of Saint Petersburg, Russia's "Northern Capital", the result of the renovation of two historic 19th century buildings on the city's main boulevard, Nevsky Prospect, retaining its classic facade, but reshaping the interior into a fine blend of concentric lights, gleaming brass fittings, curved glass ceilings and sumptuous galleries.
For Samantha Brennan, who had spent the previous several months of her life seven hundred kilometres south in the wilds of Belarus, this felt like Paradise – even the awful vol-au-vants and snacks on the tables now lining the conference room. And all she had to do was give a lecture at the International Wildlife Symposium on behalf of her organisation, and look pretty enough to attract the monetary interest of those among the sea of tuxedos and suits, Russia's
biznesmeny
, who were looking to practice conspicuous consumption on an extravagant scale, driving flashy Western cars, sporting expensive clothing and jewellery, and frequenting stylish restaurants and clubs that are far beyond the reach of ordinary Russians. Of course, she missed Mikhail, but he no longer needed her help-
Samantha...
Sam pushed aside the thought that slipped into her mind like a hand around her waist. She moved a little uneasily in her new imported black gown, an elegant number with three-quarter length sleeves and a V-neck that provided more cleavage than she had displayed in a long time. She had never been one for glamour, and she felt as unsteady in things like this as she was in her new high heels. But she recognised that she was an asset to the World Wolf Watch, and was not ashamed of schmoozing or trading on her looks to help achieve her ends.
Samantha... Beloved...