Page 93 of Headcase
“Who are you losers? Did they send second string Navy SEALS after me? I hope you aren’t trying to ransom me for money or anything. It’s all tied up in crypto,” he said with a weirdly high-pitched laugh.
“No, we’re the men sent to kill you,” Asa responded, tone bored. “We just wanted you awake in case you have any last words. It was the least we could do.”
Freddie rolled his eyes. “Just put a bullet in my head and be done with it.”
“Sounds good to me,” Jericho said.
“The world is going to mourn me and all of my charity work.”
“This guy’s a fucking tool,” Adam muttered.
“The world knows you as the guy who pays off his sexual assault victims.” Noah sneered.
“Alleged,” Freddie retorted with another high-pitched laugh.
Zane’s heart twisted. Gage had died for this? Because of this man? “The world is going to know you for what you are. A sick, twisted narcissist who kills people for sport.”
That brought Freddie up short but only for a moment, then he was laughing once more. “You’ll never prove that.”
“Our analyst is going through your system with a fine-tooth comb. Sure you’re as squeaky clean as you think?” Noah asked.
Freddie shrugged, his face growing pinched. “Whatever. It’s all a game. This is all a game. None of this is real. You’re all sheep.”
Zane stumbled back, his words sinking in. “Jesus. You really believe that? Are you really this fucking delusional?”
Freddie looked at Zane like he was pathetic. “Delusional? Do you know how many of the world’s greatest minds believe none of this is real? That this is just an elaborate game and the only way to win is to unplug?”
“As one of the world’s greatest minds,” August said, “I can assure you, they, like you, are fucking stupid.”
“Your friend, Jerry, is currently rotting underground, slowly starving to death, so I’m sure he’s hoping you’re right,” Asa said. “Maybe when he dies in a couple of weeks, after writhing in pain, you two can compare notes on the other side.”
Freddie shook his head, like he mourned the loss. “Jerry was a master game player, but he got too involved. He got off on it. He didn’t understand how truly transcendent my game was. I was freeing people. I was their fucking savior. When they were dying, it was me they were praying to, me they thanked for freeing them.”
“Holy fuck, please, can we just kill this guy?” Adam asked.
Asa turned to Zane, blocking him from Freddie. “We’re not going to get any remorse or apologies out of him, Lois,” he murmured, putting an arm around him. “I think we need to just…put him down. How do you want to do it?”
Zane’s blood boiled as Freddie began to whistle a jaunty tune like he was on a Caribbean cruise. “Painfully. Slowly. I want to know he died screaming.” He looked at the others. “I’m open to suggestions. This is your area of expertise, not mine.”
Avi looked at Asa, eyes widening, grinning like a kid on Christmas morning. “Oh, please. Oh, please. Oh, please. Can we? Can we, Asa?”
Zane looked between the two of them. “Can we, what?”
Avi looked at Zane with a maniacal glee that would have chilled him to the bone if he hadn’t seen that same expression mirrored often on Asa’s face. A face he loved. “What do you know about keelhauling?”
“Keelhauling? Like what pirates used to do?” Zane asked.
“It was actually made popular by the British Royal Navy,” August said conversationally, dropping an arm around Lucas’s shoulders.
“What’s keelhauling, exactly?” Noah asked.
Avi turned wild eyes on Noah. “Basically, you tie a rope to your victim, weigh him down just enough to reach the keel, then drag him beneath the boat from one end to the other, slowly letting the barnacles tear him to pieces. It’s like waterboarding meets death by a thousand cuts. Only at the end of our keelhauling, he’ll meet with a fast moving blade and become chum for some hungry sharks.”
Noah wrinkled his nose. “Gross. Sounds messy.”
“Sounds time consuming, and we promised to be home before the girls wake up for their three o’clock feeding,” Lucas said to August.
August glanced at his watch. “It’s barely nine-thirty. We can keelhaul this guy and still have the jet back in time for their feeding. I promise.”
