The Takers, стр. 37
He had marched him out of the flat as naked as the day he was born, stripping him of his masculinity, pride, and fear factor for anyone who was watching.
They stepped over the unconscious bodies of his crew members.
The man had stuffed Leon into the boot of a waiting car and as he turned to ask why, Leon saw the man swing the gun and that was it. The next part of his memory was waking up in this room, with no clue of where he was, what the man wanted, or what was going on behind him.
But Leon felt that fear again.
Whatever it was, it wasn’t going to be good.
As the toxicity began to tickle the back of his throat, Leon coughed violently, the sting in the air causing his eyes to water, the need to rub them almost as unbearable as the chemical aroma wafting around them.
He shook violently, trying to loosen his grip.
It was hopeless.
Panic began to settle in.
‘Fuck, man, just let me go, aight?’ he begged, feeling as pathetic as he looked. ‘Please, this shit is burning.’
At that moment, Sam turned from his makeshift lab table and stepped across the grotty kitchen, hoisting a plastic box from the stained, cracked tiles that zigzagged the floor in no discernible pattern. He walked to the other side of the small table, Leon’s eyes locking onto him with a mixture of resentment and fear.
It didn’t matter.
With a casual sigh, he offered Leon a smile before reaching into the box with his gloved hand and pulled out a pair of protective goggles, followed swiftly by a face mask.
‘What the fuck is this, bruv?’ Leon pleaded, shunting his body violently in the chair, causing the towel to drop and take away his final modicum of modesty.
‘You’re going to tell me where you’ve taken the girls your crew snatched,’ Sam said calmly, looking beyond Leon to the plastic vat sat on the counter. The kitchen was tacked onto a bare living room, one of the few safe houses Sam had acquired over the previous six months. While each criminal hideout was brought down brick by brick, he took a slice of their money to purchase small safe sites around the city for refuge. Each one was stocked with a couple of automatic rifles, pistols, grenades, and enough money to disappear. He had no intention of doing so, his war on the organised crime that was rotting the city like an unkempt tooth was just beginning.
But this small property sat above a back-alley mechanics just outside of Harlesden, where people looked the other way and didn’t come running when people screamed for help.
Which, judging by the terror on his face, Leon was fully aware of.
Sam could only smirk as the man tried to cover his fear with false bravado.
‘You’re a dead man, you hear me. My boys will be here soon and they gonna take you apart. Then find your wife or your gal and gonna tear that ass up!’ Leon kissed his teeth, his lip lifting to reveal a gold tooth. Sam allowed the empty threat to sit for a moment, before pulling his mask over his airways and stepping back across the small kitchen, returning quickly with a large container. The container was made of Teflon and inside it, the steam slithered upwards, a cloud of toxic gas. Leon struggled for breath as Sam placed it on the table before speaking through his mask.
‘Leon, this here is a vat of strong, hydrochloric acid. It’s incredible what you can pick up from B&Q if you know what you’re looking for. Now a concentrated dose of that, mixed with bleach, makes this an extremely toxic and harmful acid. You would know … you have your crew throw it at people just to get into your inner circle, right?’
Sam took the silence as Leon’s acceptance of that fact. The tear rolling down his stubble covered cheek was his appreciation of how much trouble he was in. Sam didn’t have time to play games.
‘Now I know you arrange to have girls taken and you took one two nights ago. Fifteen, brown hair.’
‘I don’t know any young bitch,’ Leon offered meekly. Sam rocked him with a hard right, the impact causing his jaw to shake like a maraca.
‘Her name is Jasmine,’ Sam said sternly. ‘Now I don’t have time to mess about here, Leon. So you’re going to tell me where I can find her otherwise I’m going to put you through more pain than you have ever thought possible.’
Leon looked at the murderous vat of acid before a treacherous moment of machismo filtered through. The pointless display of power from someone used to being in control.
‘Fuck you.’ The following ball of saliva he spat in Sam’s direction was the exclamation point. Sam didn’t hesitate. Using a small, Teflon jug with a spout, he carefully dipped the edge into the makeshift tub and pulled it back, his jug heavier.
He gently trickled it over Leon’s naked thigh.
As he roared with pain, the skin instantly began to sizzle, the acid burrowing its ferocious path through the protective layers as it tried its best to pass through him. The smell of burning flesh began to overpower the heavy smell of chemicals and Leon shook in agony as the muscle of his leg began to reveal itself, the skin disintegrating like a burnt piece of paper.
The pain was unbearable.
Sam added to it with a hard slap to the face.
‘Where is she?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘Where?’ Sam slapped him again.
‘I don’t fucking know, blad,’ Leon spat.
Sam trickled another few droplets onto his other thigh, the same cries of pain accompanied the same smell of burning flesh. The chair rocked back and gravity took over, welcoming the squirming, naked man with a hard thud. As Leon squirmed in agony, Sam stepped forward,