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and give you . . .  some incentive? But don’t worry. She won’t be alone. For every day you don’t talk I’ll bring someone down here and torture them until they die. Your daughter may be first, but your wife, your friends, your neighbors. I’ll keep going until every trace of every person you’ve ever met is ripped in the most horrendous fashion possible. I’ll even let you watch.”
    “What do you want?” he spat more than spoke.
    “What do I want? I want 1,035 families to have their husband and fathers come home. I want those 1,035 men to live long and happy lives and never see a day of battle again. What I’m going to settle for is you telling me who you work for, exactly what they wanted you to do, and for you to do everything just as I say.”
    “The . . .” he hesitated, not taking his eyes off the tool that the King was playing with in his hands. “The Council paid me five year’s wages to run messages. I carried the messages of the battle plans to the Black-Wings and White-Horns so they would double their troops and be in place to catch the resistance.”
    I knew it. Dogs like them should never be allowed to show their face in public. “Good. That wasn’t so hard to say. You see, now your daughter has a chance of living, doesn’t she? But you know we’re not done.”
    “What else do you want? All I did was run the messages. I don’t know anything else.”
    “What I want you to do next is pen out every detail you can remember while you wait here for your precious den of scoundrels to come rescue you in an attempt to save their own skins. Then, I want you to kill the man who hired you and return to me. He’s going to try to kill you anyways since I didn’t, so my telling you to do this is a favor in and of itself. Then, I want you to report back to me if you are still alive when all is said and done. If you do everything exactly as I have told you, your wife and kids will want for nothing and live happily with me at the castle.” The King smiled again, putting down the twisted, spiked tool and walking towards the exit. He didn’t have to wait for a reply; he knew the soldiers answer. He was just lucky the soldier didn’t know that he would never have hurt anyone no matter what the outcome had been. Control what they see and you can control what they believe is true. A lesson he had never had to use in an interrogation before.  
    “Yes, Your Majesty,” The soldier responded as the King walked out the door, unsuccessfully repressing the grit in his voice. The King knew the soldier was smart enough to realize the wife and kids living with him wasn’t a reward. It was a punishment. They were prisoners to guarantee his loyalty. Damn these men for making me even utter these threats.
     
    Robert :
     
                  Gravel crunched  under the tires of Robert’s car as he turned his car into the driveway that led up to his home. It wasn't much in the way of houses, but it was more than enough for him and his daughter. His salary as one of the leading programmers at a major game company kept them both extremely comfortable, but he had never been one of the types of people that believed in opulence just for the sake of it. Sitting up on a slight hill, the two-story house was one that was mistakable for any other in the hundreds of similar subdivisions throughout the country.  The well-manicured lawn and neat rows of nicely-trimmed hedges blended in with the house next to his, and the one next to that, and so on.
                        Bringing the car to a stop and turning off the ignition Robert grabbed his travel mug from the center compartment and stepped out of the car, reached into the back seat, and slung his laptop case over his shoulder. These late nights are gonna kill me, he thought as he walked up the path that lead to the front door. Behind him, the sun was just beginning to peak over tops of the houses across the street and provided a momentary