Page 191 of Toxic Temptation
“Please, please, please?—”
I rotate the knife and apply the tiniest bit of pressure. A thin line of red blood appears beneath the blade, all the more colorful because of how pale and clammy his skin is. Lambert screams high and shrill, the sound bouncing off the walls.
“Pathetic.” I raise the scalpel and examine the bead of blood on its edge. “Really, Doctor. Grow some balls.”
“Okay!” It comes out as a terrified sob. “Okay, I’ll talk!”
“Smart man.” I set the scalpel aside and haul him upright. “Those degrees weren’t for nothing after all.”
He leans on the edge of the desk, legs dangling, head slung low on his chest. Blood still trickles from his nose and cheek.
“I don’t know many details,” he stammers. “J-just… whispers. Messages.”
“What kind of messages?”
“Encrypted emails. They started coming a few weeks ago.” He touches his cheek gingerly. “Someone saying a section of your organization would continue operating in the organ market. That you were still doing business under the radar.”
My blood goes cold. “Who sent them?”
“I don’t know! I swear, I don’t know.” He raises his hands palms up. “I thought they were from you!”
“If they were from me, my name would be on them, you fucking moron.” I step closer, close enough to smell his fear. “I don’t do business in the shadows.”
“I didn’t know that. I just… I do what I’m told, okay? I just always do what I’m told.”
“Do what you’re told?” I laugh in his face. It’s not a pleasant sound. “Nobody’s forcing you to steal organs, Lambert. Nobody’s making you violate your oath for money. You do this for your own good. Don’t pretend you’re a fucking victim.”
He can only shake his head mechanically from side to side. “We all do what we have to do to survive.”
I snatch up his wrist and shake it in front of him. “This Rolex doesn’t seem like mere ‘survival’ to me, Doctor. It seems likegreed. It seems like youlikestepping on corpses to get the shiny shit you want.”
His chin juts out defiantly. “And your watch doesn’t say the same?”
Pavel takes a step forward, but I stop him with a raised hand.
“You’re right,” I tell Lambert. “I turned a blind eye to this operation for too long. I’m complicit in every death, every stolen organ, every family destroyed. But now, I’m going to shut it all down. Along with everyone who profits from human misery.”
“Please, Mr. Krayev, I’m sorry?—”
“Stop groveling. It’s embarrassing.” I step away and turn my back on him. I’m sick of looking at his sniveling fucking face. “As of right now, you work for me. Directly. No intermediaries.”
He gulps. “What do you want me to do?”
“Not a fucking thing different.” I turn around again so he can see just how serious I am. “You will continue doing exactly what you’ve been doing. Answer the emails. Keep the operation running.” I lean against the far wall, crossing my arms. “But every message gets forwarded to me. Every transaction. Every piece of communication. If you withhold so much as a single fucking comma, I’ll know, and I’ll carve the shape of it out of you myself.”
He’s somehow even paler than he was when I first burst in here. “What should I tell them?”
“Whatever you normally would. Right now, we maintain the status quo.” I push off from the wall and get in his face one more time. “But listen to me, Benjamin… If you try to play me, if you eventhinkabout crossing me, I’ll make what happened here today look like a love tap. Are we clear?”
“Y-yes. Yes, sir, I mean.”
“Good.”
We’re done here. I turn and head for the door. Pavel and Osip fall into step behind me.
We don’t speak until we’re outside, the sunlight blistering in our faces after the nauseating artificial lighting of the clinic.
“Christ,” Osip mutters, fishing for his cigarettes. “You were making French toast this morning. You were smiling. You werehumming.And now… Now, you’re…this.”
