Chapter Text
Kaz Brekker awoke to a slap. The pain was sharp against his cheek and the sound of the skin on skin contact ricocheted against the walls. He let out a gasp as shock and confusion with overwhelming panic set in. A man stood in front of him. Old..ish. To Kaz he was old, but realistically, he was only 35. Not a recognizable face, but something about him seemed familiar. He wore a brown suit with red loafers. His shoes almost looked comical if the man hadn’t just hit him. Kaz was tied to a chair and with his hands bound behind the back. His legs were also tied to the chair legs. The man looked almost affectionately at him. A kind look in his eyes. But Kaz knew whoever this man was, he wasn’t kind in the slightest. He scowled at him.
“Hope that didn’t hurt you too much!” The man said with a smile. Kaz didn’t respond. He noticed that there were two men standing by the only door. The room was glamorous otherwise. This man was rich. The gold-plated desk ends didn’t evade him. Maybe he could get out of this with a couple of those treasures. But he didn’t want to be too optimistic. He was still substantially disoriented.
“Hm.. I’m really going to need you to talk. I’d appreciate it if you worked with me.” The man said. This in turn made Kaz even less partial to saying anything. He grimaced at the man and didn’t utter a word.
“Let’s not get off on the wrong foot, now.” The man said, sitting down in a chair opposite of Kaz. “I’m Hunter Kirkley. Do you remember me? We met a few months ago.” Kaz just stared at him. “Well,” he continued, “I sure remember you. You make quite the impression, you know. Anyway, I remembered a few days ago that you had a run in with a client of mine that just recently disappeared. I wanted to be sure that you have nothing to do with his absence.” He put his hands out for Kaz to begin speaking. Kaz sighed.
“What client?” He croaked.
“Mr. Weybrood. Recognize the name?”
Kaz shook his head. “No. Why’d you have to kidnap me for this? You could’ve just asked.”
“Well you see, Mr. Brekker, I discussed it with my men and we don’t exactly trust you. I figured you wouldn’t just hand over any information so..” He signaled behind him and Kaz looked expectantly. Hoping for some stacks of cash. Instead however, a man walked up with a plate of some..seeds? Kaz wasn’t exactly sure.
Kirkley set the plate down in front of Kaz. “Know what this is?” He asked him. He didn’t give Kaz enough time to answer before he told him. “They’re flax seeds. They grow beautiful flax, have you seen it? They grow around here in the summer.” Kaz looked bored. Kirkley cleared his throat. “Would you like some? They taste very good.” He smiled eerily. Kaz almost cocked his head to the side. His brow knitted into a hard line.
Kirkley took a handful from the plate and pushed them to Kaz’ closed mouth. Kaz kept his mouth tightly shut. A couple of the seeds spilled out of Kirkley’s hand down Kaz’ shirt and lap. “Come on now.” Kirkley said, forcing Kaz’ mouth open. The sensation of a hand over Kaz’ mouth filled him with dread and made him shiver, it didn’t help that small seeds were being shoved into his mouth. He choked slightly and slammed forward and spit the seeds all over Kirkley’s hand and then Kaz really was covered in the flax seeds mixed with his spit. He felt a metallic taste in his mouth. The seeds tasted odd. Kaz worried that he had just been poisoned by some sort of coating on the outside of the seeds. Kirkley was enraged and Kaz thought he would hit him, but his anger faded away and he looked calm again. “Didn’t like them?” He asked calmingly. Kaz opened his mouth to offer a snide comment when Kirkley slapped him across the mouth. The sensation was familiar, but the act caught Kaz off guard. Now he really tasted metal, but this time he knew the origin was blood.
“I will get my information out of you. Wanna know something about those seeds?” Kirkley asked him with a smirk. ‘Oh here we go’ thought Kaz. Now he was going to find out that the seeds were poisonous and he had about ten minutes to give Kirkley his information or he’d be dead. He felt saliva fill his mouth and spit onto the floor, a mixture of his spit and blood soaked into the expensive looking carpet below. Kirkley made a disgusted expression. “They’re coated with a little drug known as sodium thiopental. Know what that is? Kaz didn’t respond. “I’m beginning to think the bastard of the barrel doesn’t know anything. I expected a lot from you, but you’re not even talking. Just some little kid, huh?” He laughed.
“It’s a poorly effective truth serum.” Kaz spat.
“Hm, yes. It is.” Kirkley smiled at Kaz’ response. “The stuff coating these seeds is however extremely effective. I had it made by my favorite materialki. Very chemically active, ordinarily they work so well they’re highly toxic upon consumption. But I had you given a vaccine to help with that.” Kaz’ stomach churned. “Shall we test their effectiveness? Would you like to call my bluff?”
“No.” Kaz said without thought. Shock crossed his face briefly before he steeled himself.
“Was that you or the serum?” Kirkley asked with a grin. “What did you do with Weybrood?” he said more seriously.
Kaz tried to hold back a response, and it took considerable effort. “I-” He clenched his teeth violently. “I had my men kill him.” Kirkley raised his eyebrows. “Did you really? What for?”
“He went after my own.” Kaz said. He was afraid at how well the truth serum was working. He wanted to cover his mouth-no, more than that. He wanted to rip off his mouth. Shove his hand down his throat and tear out his vocal chords.
Kirkley sighed. “Well, that truly is a shame, isn’t it? I wanted to use him more.”
“Want to play around some more?” He asked and Kaz felt terror. He was going to find out all he held dear and he was going to tear it from him. Kaz should’ve forgotten about his feelings for Inej long ago. She doesn’t need to be hurt by stupidity such as this. If he had a God to pray to, he surely would have. “Is your name truly Kaz?”
“Yes.” He answered immediately. Relieved it was such a stupid question.
“Curious. I thought most crime bosses made up their names,” He tapped his chin, then he stood up. “Alright. You can stop pretending you’re still tied up.”
Kaz let the binds he was holding behind the chair to mimic the look of being bound fall to the floor. He quickly went to uniting his legs. “What do you want with me?” He asked when he was finally able to stand.
“Nothing, that was all. I figured you would never be honest with me, so now I have the truth.”
“Are you serious?” Kaz asked with a certain threat in his voice.
“Very much so. I mean, it was also nice to have an experiment for the serum.” He said grimly, “The shit hasn’t seemed to wear off and it’s posed a few challenges. Obviously, it’s kind of dangerous. I had no idea how your body would react. Countless of my men have had seizures induced by it.”
Kaz swallowed thickly. “It doesn’t wear off?” He asked.
“Hasn’t happened yet. But hey, you let me know, hm?”
“Never.” Kaz hissed, bringing his shoulders up to the man, trying to stand tall and threatening. “Where is my cane?” He questioned.
“Ah yes, I knew I was forgetting something.” Kirkley signaled to one of the men behind him. The man momentarily exited the room and a few seconds later returned with Kaz’ cane. Kaz grabbed it immediately.
“How old are you?” Kirkley asked.
After a moment of hesitation where Kaz was losing an internal battle to himself, he said, “18.”
“Oh my you’re so young! And to think I hit you twice!” Kirkley exclaimed.
“I’ve been through worse.” Kaz growled.
“Hm I bet you have. Make sure you don’t tell anyone about the whole.. Truth serum thing. I can’t say that’s information you really want out. But maybe you can figure out what to do. You’ve gotten by this long on your own.”
Kaz was almost thunderstruck by how stupid this man was. Funny to think Kaz even thought he was a threat. He walked over to a table with lots of golden silverware littered all about it.
“You may go now. Truly though, for science if you find you have any certain reactions you should really tell someone.. For the greater good.”
“I know nothing of the greater good.” Kaz said plainly, walking towards the door. The men stepped aside to let him out.