“Oh, we’re not done, sweetness, that was just act one. Who sent you?” He walked over to the bar and took another swallow of his martini.

“What? Nobody… Is this a role-playing game? Because I’m not too good at those…”

“Yeah, right.” He grinned nastily. “So what’s your name, sweetness?” He paced back over to the wall and yelled in her ear, “Who. Sent. You!”

“Ow!” She tugged harder at her wrists. “I’m not having fun, I want to go home now. Untie me, dammit!”

“Sorry, sweetness,” he stepped to the side wall and slapped a switch, “act two’s a command performance. Now, you tell me who sent you and your real name, or act two’s gonna be real fun for me and no fun at all for you… unless you’re into that sort of thing.” His voice sounded oddly hollow. “Who sent you?”

“I’m… I’m Sarah Eileen Johnson,” she stammered, eyes about twice their normal size, “and I’m a legal secretary for Sinclair and Burke’s. Nobody sent me, I swear to God. Uh… please let me go. If you let me go now I promise I won’t tell anybody ever, everything will be all right, please… please let me go!” She blinked rapidly, probably at the changed sound of her own voice.

“Can’t do that, sweetness.” He walked back for more of his drink. “Not safe for me. I’m real big on self-preservation. Obviously you aren’t. Oh, you may notice we sound funny? Little side effect of the electronic damping. Gags and interrogations don’t work together. So you go ahead and scream as loud as you want. Then again, I guess you’ve probably heard a similar system before. Who did you say sent you?”

“Nobody! God, I’m sorry, mister, I don’t know who you think I am but I’m just a secretary, I don’t know what you want! Please, please just don’t hurt me…”

“Okay sweetness, looks like we do this the hard way. Groovy.” He walked over to the end table and picked up the phone. “Sam? Can you come up here? I think I may need a professional… Yeah, you have a slightly more… dispassionate touch. Okay. Well, I might as well get started… yeah, I’ll leave some for you.”