Interrogation

Bright light strikes his vision as he slowly opens his eyes. He lifted his arm to block the ceiling light. Jason looks around. It looks like he's in some kind of basement. He sees someone in a white coat busy preparing an IV bag. Jason tries to wake up. He suddenly felt pain all over his body. He looked at his torso. There are stitches and bandages. His left leg was also wrapped around in a bandage.

Zed: "Slow down there big guy, those stitches are going to break if you move that much." said the guy in the white coat.

Zed: "You know, you remind me of the guy who I operated on when I'm still working at a hospital in Massachusetts. He kind of looks like you. Tall, muscular, and hairy. And just like you, he's also a fugitive. Back then I was asked to operate on him after he got shot trying to get away from the police. 3 bullets on the back and one behind his head. I know I need to work hard to keep the guy alive. When the surgery started, I asked all of my assistants to go out of the room. They complied since they know I need to be left alone if I really want to go all out. Well, that's what they think. The truth is, I want them to go out so they can't stop me doing what I already planned to do to the guy. I gave him a couple of different drugs to keep the guy awake but also made him unable to move. One of those drugs also made his nerves more sensitive. After giving all of that, I start to open his stomach, cut his intestine, pick his eyeballs, and do all sorts of other bad things to him until the pain takes him away. In the end, my coworker found what I was doing and I lost my medical license because of it. I never regret what I did. For doing it to someone who injured hundreds of innocent people and killed a few of them, I think I made the right choice." The man walked towards Jason while pushing a medical tray. After he got close, he changed Jason's iv bag.

Zed: "Sorry to make you hear me blabbering. It's just a habit of mine that I can't really get rid of-"

Jason suddenly grabbed the guy's neck.

Jason: "Who are you? Where the hell am I?" Jason asked.

Zed: "Crrkk- relax big guy, I don't want to harm you kkrr-my name is Zed, I'm a doctor- arkk- you're at my house-"

Suddenly, the basement door opens. A bunch of Russian men came in with their guns. They quickly point their gun towards Jason.

Glavy: "Let him go Jason." said a woman behind all of the Russian men while she exhales her smoke. It's ma'am Glavy.

Jason didn't comply, he still grabbed Dr. Zed's neck.

Glavy: "Dimitri-" Glavy quickly said. One of her soldiers quickly shot Jason's hand making him let go of Zed.

Jason: "argh!" Jason groaned.

Glavy: "Still pretty hard to work with aren't you? I guess you haven't changed at all."

Jason: "What are you waiting for? Why don't you just fucking end all of this right now?!"

Glavy: "What are you talking about Jason?"

Jason: "You want to kill me don't you? You want to get revenge for what my brothers did to your men a long time ago."

Glavy: "Revenge? I never recall you did anything bad to us, Jason. If what you mean is that incident, then it's all just a misunderstanding."

Jason: " ... What?"

Glavy: "Your gang didn't kill my men Jason. The people who you killed back then are just my associates. I didn't really think you've done anything wrong since I actually hate those people. If those people were my men, you and your gang would definitely be gone a long time ago."

Jason: "Then what reason do you have to massacre all of my brothers?"

Glavy: "We are not the one who massacred your gang, Jason-"

Jason: "I don't believe you! If you didn't do it then how can the culprit be in your hotel?"

Mario: "The guy you chased at the Hotel isn't Glavy's men ... He is my men." someone behind ma'am Glavy speaks out. He walks in front of everyone towards Jason.

Jason: "Who are you?"

Mario: "Name's Mario. I'm the one who is responsible for massacring your gang."

Jason: " ... you two work together?"

Mario: "Glavy didn't have any involvement in this. I was the one who solely ordered my men to do it."

Jason: "Why?"

Mario: "Do you know what your gang did to my men?"

Jason: "No, I don't."

Mario: "How about the deal your gang made with my men? Do you know anything about that?"

Jason: "What deal?"Jason looks confused.

Mario: "Your gang asked us to steal this thing from a museum in the south. They were supposed to give us the rest of the payment for stealing that thing yesterday. When it's time to finish the deal, It turns out your gang doesn't have the money and instead they shoot my men and take the thing from us. I lost 5 good men that night and one of them is my right hand. In this type of business, I'm sure you already know what consequences you'll get when you mess with someone."

Jason realized what happened to his brothers.

Jason: " .... You shouldn't have killed them ... They were just trying to get me out of death row."

Glavy: "You are on death row?"

Jason: "It's because of our last job. It went haywire and we ended up getting caught by the authorities. We were all going to jail and one of us will be sentenced to death. But, the chief police gave us a way out."

Glavy: "The chief police? You mean chief Mel?"

Jason: "Yes, He's the one who ordered us to steal that thing from a museum in the south. If we can't bring him that thing yesterday, everyone will be going to jail, and I would end up being strapped to a lethal injection bed. But if we can, all of our charges will be dropped and all of us will be free."

Glavy: "So you and your gang used someone else to clean up your own mess? What a way to go."

Jason: "I didn't know my brothers were going to ask someone else to steal the thing. I was in Jail the whole time. Chief Mel put me there to prevent us from running away since he knew we wouldn't leave someone behind."

Glavy: "Still, your people shouldn't have dragged us into your problem." Glavy said.

Jason: " ... you're right."

Mario: "Do you know the reason why Chief Mel needs that thing?"

Jason: "I don't know, he never tells us why he needs it."

Glavy: "Jason, were you the one who told the cops that my men killed your buddies?"

"Yes, I am the one who told them."

Ma'am Glavy looked at Mario. Mario just gestured to her like 'see, I told you we weren't the one who caught you in this mess.'

Glavy: "Well then, I and my men are done here. I'll leave this problem to you, Mario."

Mario: "Ok." Glavy and her men leave the room. Leaving only Mario, Zed, and Jason in the basement. They all looked at each other.

Zed: "Should I get out too?" asked Zed.

Mario: "Up to you Zed, do you want to help this man again and take out the bullet from his arm?"

Zed: "I would probably do it if he doesn't strangle me."

Mario: "How about it, tough guy? Can you not strangle our doctor here so he can help you?"

Jason: " ...you're not going to get rid of me?"

Mario: "I have no reason to kill you. You didn't know what your brothers were doing. It wasn't really your fault." Mario grabs a chair and puts it beside Jason

Mario: "Well, even though you guys bring this to yourselves, I should probably apologize for what my men did to your brothers. But what's done is done. I lost my men, and you lost yours, rather than fighting each other, why don't we work together to investigate what that police chief is trying to do and bring him down with it?"

Jason didn't answer Mario's question. He is kind of surprised that Mario would ask him to work together to bust Chief Mel.

Mario: "I'm not going to stop you if you want to go on your own. But let me remind you that every button in this city is looking for you. And not just that, someone had already put a 100k bounty on your head."

Jason: "There's a bounty on my head?"

Mario: "I guess there's someone out there who wants you dead other than the police. Right now, every criminal in this city is looking for you too. Do you really want to go solo with all of that?"

Jason thinks a bit, wondering who wants to kill him, other than Chief Mel.

Mario: "I'll leave you some money if you want to go alone." Mario leaves a couple of hundred dollar bills on a table.

Mario: "But If you want to work together, then stay here and don't go anywhere until you get well. It would be a problem if anyone finds out that you're here." Mario said as he got up from the chair.

Mario: "I'll leave him to you Zed."

Zed: "Don't forget to bring my money." Zed said.

Mario gives Zed a thumbs up while leaving the basement.

Zed: "Now, Big guy, could you kindly not strangle me again so I can help get that bullet out of your arm?"