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Mercifully, the beating finally stops.
Aldon groans and shakes his head, trying to clear the ringing in his ears. Slowly, his dim surroundings come back into focus, though the harsh light of the single bulb swinging overhead isn't helping. He's still in the basement, still bound to a hard metal chair, still facing down two thugs trying to get him to talk.
His tongue gingerly prods his lip where it's split, bleeding, and already swelling. His jaw is throbbing. The rest of him is also sore and bruised—he's not sure if there's any part that's not—and the awkward angle of his hands pulled tightly behind him and cuffed to the chair isn't helping.
Ignoring his uncomfortable position for the moment, Aldon tilts his head to crack his neck and squints up at the two men standing opposite him. One, the human embodiment of a brick wall, has no expression in his eyes as he wipes blood from his knuckles. And if Brick Wall is twice Aldon's size, the other goon is half his size. And twitchy. It's an odd pairing that Aldon would probably have commented on if not for the fact that he's struggling to keep himself present right now.
"You sure you don't want to talk?" Twitchy asks, looking up from where he's been fiddling with his phone. "'Cause I got ways to make this real unpleasant."
Aldon smirks. "I think you already achieved that. You put me in a room with this guy's body odor." He tilts his head toward Brick Wall.
Brick Wall grunts. "He's stalling."
"Yeah," Twitchy agrees. "Maybe this'll speed things up."
At first, Aldon expects the guy to reach once more for the cattle prod leaning against the wall, and he steels himself for more torture. But then Twitchy grins and turns his phone so Aldon can see the screen—and the picture of a tiny pig.
Aldon's heart drops into his stomach, and he immediately tenses, though he tries his best not to show it. A million scenarios run through his head, none of which are good. Something like fear starts clawing at his stomach, cold and desperate. "…What is that?" He tries to sound unaffected.
"Yeah, recognize that, don't you? That's your little piggy." Twitchy's grin is even wider now, and he leers at Aldon as he turns the phone back around and starts tapping at the screen again. "What's his name… Porkchop?"
Aldon clenches his jaw but doesn't respond.
"Ah, right, Hamsteak," Twitchy corrects himself with a snap of his fingers. "If you won't talk to save yourself, at least think of the pig."
"I'll never give you what you want," Aldon says finally, the words hissing out from between his teeth. He's wracking his brain, trying to figure out a way out of this whole mess, but there are no feasible escape options in front of him. His wrists are long since raw from trying to get out of the handcuffs, and there's nothing in easy reach to pick the locks. Plus, even if he manages to get free, the only door is on the other side of his captors. And even if he gets through them, there are who knows how many others in the building he'll have to fight through to find Hamsteak. And that's if they haven't taken the pig elsewhere already.
He's been in seemingly impossible situations before, but this seems like another level.
Twitchy nods once. "I thought you might say that." He hits a button on his phone, and the sound of a call ringing comes through the speaker.
Twisting against his restraints only causes the metal to bite deeper into his wrists, but Aldon still yanks at them, trying to find some slack that he might have missed before. He knows what's coming and hates how his blood runs cold at the idea. Hamsteak won't understand why he's being hurt—he'll just be scared and in pain—and the very thought of it makes Aldon want to snap the cuffs and murder both men in front of him with his bare hands.
If only he could.
And then the line connects.
"Do it," Twitchy says.
The sound of a pig grunting, then suddenly squealing, echoes through the phone.
"No!" Aldon yells, but to no avail.
The pained squeals keep coming, then slowly trail off into a whimpering snort.
Aldon winces at the thought of what Hamsteak must have just gone through. His mind's spinning, trying to focus, trying to come up with a way to get out of this, but he can't.
Too much time passes before Twitchy lifts the phone closer to his mouth. "That's good for now," he tells the person on the other end. "Now," he says, turning back to Aldon, "how about the location of that witness, hm?"
"Just how much ground can one little pig cover in thirty seconds?" Luke mutters under his breath. The rest of the team is right behind him as he rushes through the door marked 'Ballroom 1.' He growls in frustration when he realizes just how huge the room is. "Now where is he?"
He hears the squealing just before he spots the back end of a tiny pig disappearing underneath the tablecloth covering a table against the far wall.
"There he is!" Luke shouts, waving a hand toward the table. "Hamsteak!"
As if understanding his name, the pig peeks out from behind the folding table leaning next to the one he's just run underneath. However, the sight of a large human thundering toward him has the opposite of Luke's desired effect. Hamsteak immediately turns tail and rushes for the far side of the room.
There are too many hiding places, and they don't have time to waste. Definitely not as much as this looks like it's going to take.
"Get him!" Luke bellows.
The team immediately scatters to try to catch the loose pig. Unfortunately, the shouts and pounding of multiple feet prompt Hamsteak to panic even more. Soon, shiny pig hoofprints cover the floor as Hamsteak runs back and forth, somehow evading every single attempt to catch him.
"How is he so fast?" Emma shouts in frustration, her hands closing around nothing but air as he darts between her legs.
Hamsteak squeals as if in response to her question.
Luke also just barely misses snatching the animal up as it runs past him.
"Come here, you little troublemaker!" Roo dives for Hamsteak as the little pig darts past her but misses him and slides across the floor a few feet. She slaps a hand on the floor in frustration. "Does anyone else realize that we are literally trying to catch a greased pig?" she shouts.
A moment later, Luke grins as he notices Hamsteak has stopped in the far corner, near a stack of tables. If he can move in close enough quickly enough, Hamsteak won't have time to dart away, and Luke will be able to catch him.
Moving slowly but purposefully to avoid startling the small pig, Luke tries lowering his tone to a voice generally reserved for kindergarteners. "I know, I know, you're scared." He spreads his arms wide and low and very cautiously starts toward where Hamsteak has his back to the wall. "But we just want to take you to your dad before he spills state secrets to his interrogator."
And then, with only about a foot between them now, Luke lunges forward to close the rest of the distance.
Hamsteak darts to the left and evades him yet again.
Luke crashes into the wall and yelps as his shoulder impacts with unforgiving plaster. "Think of national security, Hamsteak!"
"I don't think the pig cares about national security!" Roo yells.
"Sure he does!" Luke objects. "He lives here too, doesn't he?"
"He's a pig!"
Hamsteak squeals as he runs between Luke and Roo, causing the two humans to turn quickly but not fast enough. They nearly bump heads but avoid each other at the last second.
"Guys, can we just focus on catching the pig? We're ten minutes into 'just grab him real quick'!" Emma shouts from the other side of the room, flipping a table on its side. "Here, help me with this. We can funnel him into a chokepoint. His legs are too short; he can't jump these."
Luke grins and nods, rushing over. "Good thinking. Just like that op we did in Bosnia." He grabs two tables and heaves them over at the same time.
"Well, except that was international smugglers and this is Aldon's pet pig, but sure," Emma replies, brushing a loose strand of hair from her eyes. "Same thing." She furrows her brow with effort as she scoots the upended furniture closer to the wall. "Now come on! We don't have a lot of time! Aldon is literally being tortured for information right now, and who knows how much longer he can hold out?"
"Ah, Aldon's a tough guy," Luke replies. "He'll be fine."
Aldon is not fine.
He's staring past the phone in Twitchy's hand, where another gut-wrenching pig scream is playing over the speakers. His eyes are glassy, his jaw clenched. I'm so sorry, buddy… he thinks.
"You know, you can end this now," Twitchy urges, his tone a strange combination of encouraging and icy. "Just say the word, and the pig lives. All we want to know is where the CIA is keeping that witness, and we'll let him go."
Aldon swallows hard. His thoughts are warring between keeping state secrets secret and caving to save Hamsteak. The sounds coming through the speaker are visceral and twist his stomach into knots as he can't help but envision what might be happening to the little pig right then.
He'd gladly give his own life to protect the best interests of the United States. That's the vow he'd made years before when he joined the agency. But Hamsteak? Hamsteak's only crime was trusting Aldon.
And now Aldon is letting him down.
Slowly circling the prisoner, Twitchy stops behind the chair and then leans in closer until his mouth is next to Aldon's ear. "Do you really want to be the reason Hamsteak dies scared and alone?" he asks quietly.
Aldon clenches his jaw and stares straight ahead, not giving the man the courtesy of a glance. "When I get out of here, I'm going to kill you," he growls, funneling all of his rage into the threat. "And it's gonna be slow and painful."
Waving a hand dismissively, Twitchy scoffs, "One problem I see with that." He reaches down and yanks on the chain to prove his point.
Despite his best attempts, Aldon can't hold back a sharp yell as his arms are pulled backward. His vision goes fuzzy, and the sounds around him start to dull. He feels himself falling forward, stopped only by the painful pressure on his shoulders.
Just when he thinks he can't take it anymore, Twitchy drops the chain roughly and then walks back around to stand in front of Aldon. "Stay with me," he says harshly, slapping Aldon's cheek with an open palm.
Aldon sucks in a breath and winces at the sting of the blow, which is apparently enough for his interrogator.
"Now, what do you think?" Twitchy asks as soon as he notices Aldon's paying attention to him again. He tilts the phone in his hand back and forth in thought. "Maybe I should just give my guys the go-ahead to make us some bacon. Maybe a whole breakfast-for-dinner thing. What do you think? Bacon, some sausage, maybe pickled pig feet for a snack later? Sound good?"
No answer seems right, Aldon thinks glumly as he slumps forward, panting heavily as sweat rolls down the side of his face. His wrists are throbbing and his shoulders feel like something might've torn, but the pain is nothing compared to what he's feeling for Hamsteak. But he's helpless to stop whatever the men holding them might do next… other than reveal a secret he's sworn to keep to his death.
There might not be a way out of this one.
From where he's been standing to the side, hands in front of him as he watches Aldon's interrogation, Brick Wall straightens and drops his arms to the sides. He takes a step closer to the door, catching Twitchy's attention.
"What is it?" the smaller man asks, turning.
Suddenly, they all hear a thump from the other side of the door, followed quickly by another, then the sound of a pig squealing.
But this time it doesn't sound like it's in pain. It sounds… angry? But not hurt.
Aldon tilts his head, trying to put the pieces together.
Brick Wall moves to reach for the doorknob.
A single shot rings out.
The pig screams.
And then the door flies open, narrowly missing Brick Wall's face.
"Can someone please explain to me how he got away from three highly trained special agents?" Luke pants as he pounds down the hallway after Hamsteak.
Unfortunately, said hallway is long and straight—perfect for a speedy little pig to race down at top speed.
"Look, it's not my fault the door got left open," Roo retorts from just to his left. "I was distracted trying to catch the little porker to begin with."
Ahead of them, Hamsteak shows no signs of slowing.
Emma grunts in frustration. "We're running out of time!"
"How do you say, 'Calm down, we just want to save you from getting turned into sausage' in pig?" Luke asks.
And then suddenly, Hamsteak takes a corner the humans haven't seen yet. It's so quick that he's out of sight almost before they realize what's happening.
"How is he so fast?" Luke exclaims, feet skidding as he takes the sharp turn behind Hamsteak. The others don't fare much better; Emma grabs the corner with one hand to help turn her momentum, but Roo barely avoids hitting the wall.
Up ahead, Hamsteak squeals almost gleefully as he ducks under an overturned room service cart.
The three agents put everything they have into the chase, but Hamsteak's still faster. He barrels forward and takes another corner, still squealing as if protesting being followed so closely.
Luke's in the lead, just slightly ahead of Emma and Roo, so he rounds the corner first—and then stops so hard he nearly trips over his own feet. But then just as quickly, he pulls back and throws out his arms to stop the other two.
"What?" Emma pants, letting go of her dad's arm that she'd instinctively grabbed when she'd run full-force into it. She winces, gulping for air.
Roo's just behind her, looking just as annoyed at being held back and just as winded.
Shaking his head, Luke puts a finger to his lips and gestures with his head toward the corner Hamsteak's just disappeared around.
All three peek around simultaneously to see a pair of armed guards stationed just a few yards away near a closed door. They're at a perpendicular angle to the corner, so they don't see the three heads now in view. Instead, the men are watching Hamsteak, who's now leisurely strolling toward them as if he wasn't just running a marathon ten seconds prior. However, they don't seem too eager to shoot the animal; instead, they just watch as he slowly meanders closer.
In unison, the agents pull back out of sight.
"That's gotta be where they're keeping him," Roo whispers.
"Yeah," Emma nods. "And that's our welcoming committee."
Luke takes a breath and makes a decision. "Right," he says, looking at Emma. "You grab the pig. We'll take the guards."
"Got it," she nods.
Roo pulls out her sidearm and double-checks the slide. "Let's go."
On Luke's signal, they round the corner as one. Luke and Roo move to take down the guards as Emma rushes for the pig.
Hamsteak lets out an angry squeal and runs between her legs.
Luke rushes up and punches one of the guards in the throat before he can bring his weapon fully to bear on the agents. Then he yanks a stun gun from the guard's belt and uses it on him.
Meanwhile, Roo's a step behind but manages to knock the other guard's gun aside just as he's pointing it at her. It goes off, putting a round through the wall opposite them.
The sound of the gunshot sends Hamsteak into a panic, and he lets out a long, high-pitched scream. Then he turns and runs straight for the door.
"He's too scared! He's gonna—" Emma breaks off as Hamsteak headbutts the door and sends it flying open.
Seeing that Hamsteak has paused after hitting the door with his head, Luke seizes the opportunity and dives for the pig.
He misses.
Startled out of his momentary disorientation, Hamsteak runs into the room squealing as Luke tumbles in right behind him.
There's a flurry of movement by the door that Aldon's sluggish brain can't track.
But then, suddenly, Luke jumps up, waving Hamsteak over his head while the pig squeals and kicks its legs. "We found the pig!" he shouts triumphantly.
Aldon blinks.
But then he notices Twitchy's attention is fully absorbed in the chaotic scene unfolding and decides to take advantage of the distraction.
Lashing out with his foot, he manages to catch the short man right where it counts.
"That's for the pig," Aldon grunts.
The goon lets out a scream that rivals Hamsteak's and folds, dropping the phone as his hands reflexively move to cover his injury.
Which is just what Aldon's waiting for, and he jerks a knee up to catch the man's chin when it comes into range.
Twitchy immediately goes down, groaning in pain.
"And this is also for the pig," Aldon adds, kicking him squarely in the face so the man falls back, unconscious. Nodding in satisfaction, Aldon drops back in the chair, letting out a sharp breath as the pain of everything hits him all at once.
"Aldon!" Roo shouts, then turns to face Brick Wall, who's almost on top of her now. She socks him square in the stomach, then her face crumples in pain. "Ow! What are you, a human tank?"
Brick Wall sneers, but then his eyes bug out and he freezes up as the snapping sound of a taser fills the room.
"Nice," Roo remarks, giving Emma a nod as the other woman drops the taser. When Brick Wall teeters in front of them for a moment too long, Roo follows up with a right hook to the jaw, and the man crumples to the floor like a sack of potatoes.
With their foe out of commission, Emma rushes over to Aldon. "Aldon! Hey! We got you! Are you okay?" she asks as she brushes his hair away from his forehead to inspect his injuries.
Eyes half-closed, Aldon blinks up at her. "I'm fine. Just a little… What are you guys doing here anyway?"
"Saving you, stupid," Roo replies. She retrieves a key from Twitchy's pocket, then moves to the back of the chair. "Oof. Your wrists don't look so good, buddy."
"Yeah," Aldon groans. "I'm pretty sure at least one of them is dislocated. Ah!" he yelps. "Careful back there!"
"Sorry," Roo says quickly.
"Stop, I'm fine," Aldon protests, moving his head away from Emma's hand. "Get that light out of my eyes. Where's Hamsteak?"
"Right here, Aldon." Luke joins them then, Hamsteak tucked under his arm securely. "Don't worry. He's safe."
Hamsteak snorts.
Aldon lets out a deep sigh, visibly relaxing at the sight of the little pig. "Hey!" He lets out a choked, half-laughing breath. "You're okay. You're really okay."
"He's fine," Emma assures Aldon, grabbing his chin to finish checking his eyes. "He got away from those goons, and we've been chasing him around the whole building."
Roo huffs out a chuckle. "That pig owes me a massage." A metallic clicking sound follows her words. "There!" she says triumphantly.
The cuffs fall off. Aldon immediately curls forward with a groan, cradling his injured wrist as Emma steadies him.
"Are you okay?" she asks.
"Yeah, sure." Aldon takes a deep breath and braces as Emma reaches for his arm to help him up. He hisses in pain as he bumps his injured wrist but pushes on until he's mostly upright.
Roo watches him doubtfully. "Can you walk?"
"Sure," Aldon responds again. He tilts unsteadily on his feet for a moment, then takes a step—and immediately folds.
"If you prop me up," he adds quickly.
Meanwhile, Luke has retrieved the phone from the ground next to Twitchy. He scrolls through the open screen with his free hand. "They were playing recorded pig screams," he reports. "All fake."
Roo makes a face. "Probably downloaded off some deeply messed-up corner of the internet."
"Must've had to resort to that when they lost their hostage." Luke nods.
Aldon groans. "Unbelievable."
"Hey, but you still held out," Roo says, nudging him with her shoulder.
"Ow—" Aldon nearly chokes. "Don't do that!"
"Sorry." She winces sympathetically.
"Right," Luke says then, glancing around. "We need to move. Reinforcements could be inbound. Emma, help him on the left. Roo, you're on the right. I'll take point."
The team makes their way out the door as quickly as possible, half-running, half-limping. They hustle down the dim hallway—Luke leading with Hamsteak under one arm and his weapon raised, Roo and Emma flanking Aldon, who's moving mostly on his own steam but clearly in pain.
"Just a couple more turns," Luke calls back quietly. "Aldon, can you make the stairs?"
"Ask me after," the injured agent grunts.
Suddenly, just ahead, a door slams open. An armed man dressed just like the two who had been guarding the room where Aldon was being held steps out, then stops in his tracks when he sees the group approaching.
He lifts the rifle slung around his shoulders. "Hey!"
Luke, Roo, and Emma simultaneously draw their sidearms and fire.
Hamsteak squeals.
The guard crumples mid-shout.
Luke frowns down at Hamsteak, who's now fighting desperately to get free. "Next mission, I vote for a team with fewer pigs."
Hamsteak just snorts.