Page 59 of Hot Intent

Dr. Doe’s mouth curved up sardonically. At a gesture from Doe, the future lie-detector tech retreated into the corner out of Alex’s line of sight.

Not that it succeeded in intimidating Alex. He would hear the guy coming long before the guard could lay a finger on him. He might absorb the blow, or he might move to block it depending on how the interrogation was proceeding. Either way, he had control of that element of the game.

“What brings you to Guantanamo, Dr. Peters?”

“I’m afraid I’m not at liberty to discuss that with you, Dr. Doe.”

“Who do you work for?”

“I gave a contact number for my boss to the MP’s earlier. Feel free to call Doctors Unlimited and verify my identity for yourself.”

Interestingly enough, John Doe’s mouth tightened slightly. So. Doe had been in contact with the CIA already. Which meant the fuckers in Langley had told this jerk to go through with this interrogation. What thehell?

“What kind of tests were you running in the hospital’s lab, earlier?”

“I can’t discuss that.”

“Can’t or won’t?”

Alex answered politely, “Let’s just say it’s not on the approved list of conversation topics and call it good, shall we?” After all, there was no sense pissing this guy off more than he had to.

Doe leaned forward and planted his hands on the table to match Alex’s. “Just so we’re clear, you’re not getting out of here until you talk. I’m a specialist. You will tell me what I want to know before I’m done with you. I’ll respect your decision if you choose to resist me, but any…discomfort…you experience will be purely your choice and not mine.”

This guy knew he was a spy. Knew the kind of training Alex had undergone. And Doe still thought it was possible to break him? The bastard had a big surprise coming.

Alex leaned forward and stared the guy directly in the eyes. He spoke slowly, enunciating each word clearly. “Try me. I dare you.”

And those were the last words he spoke. For the next hour, Doe pummeled him with questions, taunts, and outright threats. For the most part, the guy disguised his growing frustration well. But Alex was better. By subtle nuances of expression, he conveyed his amusement and contempt for the man’s efforts to make him talk.

Finally, Doe threw up his hands. “You leave me no choice. We’re going to have to drug you.” The bastard said that like he was relieved to have gotten to this point. Were those his orders all along? Put on a show for Alex that culminated in drugging away his inhibitions until he spilled his guts to this guy?

Warning bells clanged wildly in his head. Of course he hadn’t told the CIA everything about himself during his simulated interrogations last year. He’d been trained from the bloody cradle to be secretive as hell.

So. His employer still didn’t trust him, huh? He supposed he shouldn’t be surprised. But it still pissed him off.

Did the folks back at Langley seriously think he was going to break under drugs? He was fully trained in how to resist the effects of interrogation drugs—unless they’d developed something new that they planned to try out on him.

Mentally, he frowned. The clandestine services usually tested new toys on enemy combatants and not their own assets.

In the mean time, he needed to deal with the asshole in front of him. He let a flash of derision over the idea of being drugged show briefly in his eyes and then resumed his deadpan expression.

Doe reeled back in his chair. The guy wasn’t sure what he’d just seen, but it was giving the man pause that Alex seemed totally unimpressed by the threat of psychotropic drugs.

“Who are you?” Doe burst out.

No need to answer. His identity had already been established well before either of them set foot in this room. His ploy now was to occupy this man for as long as possible. Good lord willing, Doe was the only interrogator on this, the non-prison side of the naval base. Keeping him occupied in here meant he wasn’t messing with Katie.

Where was she, anyway? A few minutes alone with lie-detector boy, and he would’ve had the kid telling him where she was. The key would be to get rid of Dr. Doe for a while. To that end, Alex stared blandly at Doe’s continuing antics and flatly refused to be provoked into any reaction whatsoever.

Finally, Doe shoved back his chair and stormed out of the room. Aware that he still had an audience—future lie detector tech in the corner—Alex didn’t alter his position by a centimeter.

“Dude, you really ought to talk to him. It only gets nasty from here,” the guard murmured.

Alex didn’t bother to acknowledge the guy. Whether the remark was scripted or a genuine warning, he didn’t know and could care less. He merely closed his eyes and worked through a mental relaxation exercise.

By his reckoning, it would be dawn, soon. Lie-detector guy would go off shift. If he had to guess, Dr. Doe would replace him with a bruiser of a guard trained to hit stuff very hard. Not thatit mattered. He knew how to deal with that type, too. Pain was a transient thing, blocked easily enough.

Doe stuck his head into the room and barked an order at Lie-detector-kid. Something about taking him upstairs to Room 10 and preparing him for medication. Going straight to the mind-altering drugs, were they? Good call. He was actually surprised, though, that Doe didn’t give himself the satisfaction of watching a thug beat the crap out of him, first.

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