Chapter 259: Mind Games

Terry paused for a moment, thinking of how he could explain what had happened, then said, "Sir, although I can explain, it'll be difficult to believe. So it's better if I show you what happened, instead. Can you bring my computer from the house? There's a video of the entire event." He was trying to avoid explaining at all.

"No need to wait—I brought them all with you," Arieh answered, then took out his phone and called someone to bring the computers that had been taken from the house.

During the wait, Terry asked, "By the way, why isn't she waking up?" He tilted his head toward Katrina, whose head was still hanging down.

"Ah. She'll be asleep for a while, as the dosage of our tranquilizer was the same for her as it was for you. So it'll take her longer to come out of it. Don't worry, she'll wake up in a few hours... but that'll be the least of your problems if you don't give me a reasonable explanation for your failure." As Arieh was speaking, the door opened, and a man brought in a thick laptop. Terry immediately recognized it as his.

"Tell me the password," Arieh said after he received the laptop and turned it on.

"Why don't you untie me first? It's very complicated, and I memorized it by rote muscle memory and not my mind," Terry said, struggling against his bindings.

"So you can try pulling the same shit on me that you pulled on Rina? I'm not an idiot, like that bitch. Just tell me the fucking password," Arieh coldly said. He was almost like a completely different person, judging from his tone.

Terry immediately told him the password, as he knew that if he played any more games, his punishment would only be heavier.

Arieh successfully entered the password on his second attempt and immediately navigated to the location the video files were stored in at Terry's direction. He played the videos and audio recordings, silently watching and listening to everything that had happened; it took him more than half an hour to comb through all of them.

"It seems your failure really wasn't your fault. Those bodyguards were just better than the thugs you hired," Arieh said, prompting a sigh of relief from Terry, who thought they were in the clear.

But that feeling of safety was thrown out of the window when Arieh continued, "But you still spent more than fifty million of my own slush fund for your failure. I need a result that can justify the loss of so much money... what do you have in mind to soothe the pain of my loss?"

Arieh didn't care that everything that happened during the assault could be considered an act of god or force majeure, and couldn't accept the loss of so much money... or at least that was what Terry thought as he said, "Although it wasn't our fault, we still should've been prepared for something like that. I hope you can give us another chance, as the survivors of our first attempt are still waiting for further orders. Since they've already been paid, they can't turn me down, and we can come up with a better plan for when she returns." He hoped his plea would be accepted, because he knew that if it wasn't, they would be in for a good old torture session.

"No need for that," Arieh said, then paused, causing Terry to almost have a heart attack before the Rothschild heir continued, "But there's indeed a way. I want you and her to personally lead an operation. If you succeed, I'll consider your debt paid."

Terry could only helplessly reply, "I'll definitely accomplish the mission."

"When she wakes up, someone will be here to brief you on the mission," Arieh said, then stood up and left the room, closing the door behind him. The two people left inside were still tied to chairs.

'We survived,' Terry thought. That hadn't been assured, since they had been captured. And although he could have fought back and threatened Arieh with the evidence they had set aside for just that occurrence, that would be considered something of a nuclear option that would only guarantee his destruction while not having much hope of harming Arieh.

A few minutes passed with nothing happening in the room, then Katrina shook her head. She had started waking up from the tranquilizer gas Arieh had used on them.

"Are you alright?" Terry asked as she raised her head with a groan. It sounded like she had received a thorough beating.

"Where are we?" she asked when she completely came to and realized they were bound in a room she didn't recognize.

"I don't know. All I can say is that we're in one of Arieh's black sites. He's the one that captured us...." Terry detailed everything that had happened while she was sleeping.

"Shit," she said when he finished his summary of the events, as she knew that they were only alive because Arieh wanted them to do another job. His investment in them hadn't gone well so far. "But we can make it like our failure never happened if we accomplish the new mission," she continued, trying to calm herself. She knew that, since the moment they had been captured, there were very few things they could do to help themselves. As they had been taken from inside her so-called 'secure' basement without them even realizing that they were being attacked, things were looking grim for them.

Their capture meant they had never been safe and had always been watched, which didn't make her feel very good at all. But despite that, she tried to hide her displeasure, as she was sure they were being watched. "Did he tell us what he wants us to do for him?" she asked.

"Not yet. I think he was waiting for you to wake up so he could tell us both," Terry answered as he eyed the girl with love in his eyes.

Seeing that, Katrina felt frustrated. She didn't know whether to feel happy or upset for her man to be watching her with those eyes. Plus, their relationship would be used against them, so she tried to warn him with her eyes. Terry caught the glance and understood her warning, so he tried to change the way he was looking at her. But he knew it might have already been too late, and they had just handed Arieh more leverage to use against them.

As if what he already had wasn't enough.