Chapter 30

"No... I didn't do it..."

The sight of the kid sitting across from him at the iron table in the interrogation room was almost unbearable to look at. He cried like a child and shivered violently, his hands and feet bound to the iron chair with handcuffs.

The interrogation hadn't even started yet. All that had been done was to tie him up. A little more intimidation and he would probably wet himself.

"Aah!"

All Leon did was pick up the pliers on the table. The rat sent by Little Jimmy was so weak that just that action made him scream, shaking the chair and deafening the room.

Leon's mouth twisted as he stared at the spy in front of him.

This is an insult. How could the rebel leadership have underestimated him so much as to send an untrained kid to infiltrate his ranks?

If they were going to send someone, they should have sent a worthy opponent.

It was humiliating to have been played by such a low-level insult. The fact that he had been infiltrated by a mere rookie was true.

But who could have imagined that they would send such a weak and incompetent spy to the core military facility, the domestic intelligence department and the interrogation room?

He couldn't even remember his fake identity information. He was a complete moron who had probably graduated at the bottom of the class from the rebels' 'brainwashing school.'

"Do you know this?"

Leon gave the idiot in front of him a lesson that would soon become blood and flesh, in words he could understand.

"After the so-called 'revolutionary government' came to power, the unemployment rate skyrocketed and the country became even more impoverished."

Leon leaned back in his chair and tapped the edge of the table with the pliers.

"You talk about equality. Is making everyone poor the kind of equality you guys envision?"

The kid didn't seem to be listening to his kind lesson. His pale gaze followed the pliers, trembling.

"Revolution."

Leon sneered as he stared at the kid.

"You're just a gang of thugs."

The self-proclaimed revolutionary was pitiful.

The kid, 'Fred Smith,' showed no sign of anger even as Leon insulted the revolutionaries.

"That driver."

"..."

"You were pale and shaken, thinking you knew him."

"..."

"That old rat didn't give the proper information until the end... Now I see it was your fault?"

"That, that's..."

"Did you think you could save him? Were you afraid he would kill you if you didn't?"

For this rookie to be scary. As soon as he finished speaking, Leon exchanged a smirk with Campbell, but the smirk quickly disappeared from his face.

"Four people died in the recent raid. Two were left crippled."

"..."

"Because of the information you leaked."

"No, no, I didn't do it. I, I'm just a kid, as you said. I, I'm so stupid, I didn't do anything."

The kid, who had been silent when Leon insulted his group and ideology, suddenly started talking. It seemed he was really as stupid as he claimed, admitting he was a spy.

"The crime is very serious."

He was clueless. A coward who would vomit at the sight of blood. A little intimidation and he would spill all the information he knew. Leon decided to use a simple method instead of complicated tactics.

"At this rate, he'll be in the prison camp for a couple of days..."

Leon trailed off and nodded at Campbell, who was sitting next to him.

"Execution, I think."

Campbell's firm answer made Leon nod, and the spy's face turned even paler.

"I, I didn't do it..."

The kid, like a child, started sobbing, opening and closing his mouth as if he had something to say, and then began begging for his life.

"P-Please, s-save me."

"Maybe. I don't know mercy."

Despair spread across the kid's face.

"But I do know how to make a deal."

Despair quickly gave way to hope.

Leon mentally assessed the kid, who was pleading with a disgusting, tearful gaze, ready to do anything.

Is this kid a key figure in the rebels? Does he know where their base is? How much can he fill in the gaps in the leadership information? It might not be likely, but there's no harm in trying.

"So, Fred. Is Fred your real name?"

The kid nodded quickly. It was funny how he, who had come to betray, had turned into a well-behaved dog in an instant.

"The longer you drag this out, the more valuable your life will become."

So, don't resist and just spill the beans.

"I want to settle some old scores with Little Jimmy, man to man. Where can I find him?"

The kid's eyes flickered slightly.

"...I, I don't know."

At that moment, Leon's indifferent expression changed.

He knows the location of the base. This kid, who seemed like a nobody, turned out to be a big catch with key information.

"I don't have much patience."

Leon tapped the desk again with the pliers. The kid, who had watched the driver's fingernails being pulled out and vomited, would surely be intimidated by this.

"Please, rather something else..."

Something else... There are many other things. Let's start with something small and save Little Jimmy's information for last. What should I start with?

Leon looked at Campbell and asked.

"The Little Lis recently came to Winsford."

"That's right."

But the spy only blinked stupidly at the name 'Little Lis.' It occurred to Leon that this was a nickname the military had given the woman, so the kid might not know it.

"Jonathan Ridley Jr.'s brother. The last of the Ridleys."

The kid's face drained of color again. The way he lowered his head and avoided eye contact was obvious.

He knows.

Leon didn't hide his satisfied smile.

"I have a lot to talk about with the Ridleys, too. I want to know why they've been stirring up my territory like rats."

At that moment, the kid's chest heaved more violently. He twisted his body, bound to the chair, showing even more discomfort. Leon curled his lip in a long, twisted smile.

He knows why the woman was sent here.

I thought sending a rookie was an insult, but it was a favor. It's like they sent a cabinet full of valuable information without even locking it.

Did Jimmy Blanchard Jr. want to quit being the leader of the rebels? Maybe he wanted to become a country farmer like Jonathan Ridley Jr., abandoning his parents' expectations.

"Hand over the Ridleys, and I'll save your life. Lying won't work."

"That's... absolutely not..."

"Then the deal is off."

With a loud thud, the chair Leon was sitting in fell backward. As he stood up, the kid flinched.

Leon roughly threw the pliers on the table and took off his officer's jacket. As Campbell stood up to hang the jacket on the wall, he unbuttoned his cuffs and neatly rolled up his sleeves.

The kid, who had watched this routine before, knew what was coming. He shook his head and wailed, sensing his fate.

"Please..."

"Alright, now I'll give you the training your commander didn't."

As Leon picked up the pliers from the table, the kid curled his hands, trying to hide his fingernails.

"Training to get used to pain. When the day comes and you're pierced by dozens of bullets, you'll thank me."

"Please! I didn't do anything!"

The kid was still stubborn, spouting meaningless words.

"Someone else leaked the information..."

Then he suddenly stopped, dropped his head, and started to sob.

"Then who did? The ghost of the annex?"

A short, twisted laugh escaped Leon's lips.

"Do you remember the driver you leaked information about? I tied him to the chair you're sitting in and pulled out his fingernails one by one."

As the spy imagined what was about to happen to him, his face drained of all color, and he started to shiver violently. As he began to vomit, Leon frowned.

"Ugh, black, black, black..."

"You remember, don't you? That's right. You threw up in that corner that day. The maid had a hard time cleaning it up. I'm warning you, don't throw up this time. I don't want to clean up your mess until the last day."

He tapped the pliers lightly, like a whip, and walked around the table toward the kid. With each step, the kid writhed and twisted the chair.

It's useless.

"Aaaah!"

Just one step away, the kid started screaming. He would probably reveal the location of the Ridleys before the pliers even touched his first fingernail.

"No! I didn't do it! I didn't do it!"

"Hold him."

As expected. As soon as the soldiers behind him grabbed his wrists, the kid started talking.

"Sally! Sally Bristol!"

The name that shouldn't have been said burst out with a scream, and the hand tapping the pliers stopped.

"...What?"

From that day on, Leon Winston became a pitiful dog, infatuated with the maid, no, the spy.