Chapter Four
James just shook his head and followed Bane all the way to the basement, into his playroom.
Bane laid Spencer down on one of the tables.
He took the cuffs off from behind him then brought his hands out front and recuffed them.
Reaching up, he brought down a cable with a hook on it.
He walked over to the winch and began pulling the man up.
He stopped only when Spencer was hanging freely and his shoes didn’t touch the floor.
Spencer groaned as he woke up. He opened his eyes and became frantic when he tried to stand but his feet found air and no ground. He tried to make noise but because of the tape he couldn’t.
Bane grinned. “Oh, pardon me. Let me help you.” He ripped the tape from his mouth, causing Spencer to yelp in pain.
“Holy fuck man, that hurt.” Blood dripped from his mouth as he demanded, “What the hell is your problem?” Then he looked around the room, his eyes widening as he saw the tools of Bane’s trade hanging on the walls. “Where am I? What is this place?”
Bane crossed his arms over his chest and studied him for a moment, then he opened his arms. He spun around and viewed the entire room. “This is my place, my playroom if you like.”
“And just who the hell are you?” Spencer’s eyes widened as he stared at Bane.
Bane walked to where he was hanging then he leaned in close. “I’m the one you tried to blow up earlier tonight. Maybe you know my name? People call me Bane.”
Spencer’s eyes widened and he shuddered as a drop of sweat rolled down his temple. “Bane Jessin? Are you fucking kidding me?”
“Oh, you have heard of me then?” Bane stepped back and nodded. “That’s a good thing.”
“Why is that?” Spencer asked fearfully.
“Because you must also know what I can do.” Bane growled. “You and me are gonna have a little chat. If you lie to me, I will make you regret it. If you try to pass the buck, so to speak I will make you pay for it n blood. So right now, you have a choice to make Mr. Wagner.”
Spencer trembled and asked, “You know who I am?”
Bane smiled but his eyes were still cold. “Yeah, I know who you are and you know who I am. Now that the introductions are over, maybe we can begin our little chat.”
“What do you want to chat about?” Spencer asked weakly.
“Well, my first question is why did you plant a bomb in my car?” Bane growled.
Spencer looked confused as he replied, “I didn’t, I swear.”
“I got you on dash cam putting a bomb on the engine of my car,” Bane insisted. “We were at your brother’s place when you came out of the trees and put a bomb onto my car engine.”
Spencer’s face visibly paled and he looked sick. “T-that was your—car?” His voice broke and he turned almost green. “I d-didn’t know whose car it was. I-I swear I didn’t.”
Bane crossed his arms over his chest and glared at him. “And you didn’t care either, did you?”
Spencer now looked puzzled as he frowned. “How is it that you are still alive? That bomb should have smoked you and everyone in your vehicle.”
Bane nodded at him. “It almost did just that but my vehicles have special safety guards in them. That’s what saved our lives but it won’t save yours.”
Spencer stared at him for a long time. “What do you want from me?”
“I want to know why you thought you could attach a bomb to my car and blow me and my friends all to hell?” Bane told him in a conversational tone. “I mean that is just so personal and you don’t even know me.”
Spencer shook his head. “You were in Jasper’s house and from the looks of it you trashed it and he wasn’t even home.”
Bane smiled. “How did you know he wasn’t home? You didn’t even come inside, nor did you ask us why we were there.”
Spencer paled when he realized he knew Jasper wasn’t there. “I just knew, ok?”
Bane shook his head. “Don’t start lying to me or trying to pass off the truth. Because you will tell me the truth.”
Spencer snapped his mouth shut and just glared at him. Or he tried to glare but the man’s eyes held too much fear to really do that convincingly.
Bane walked over to a cabinet and using a key he had in his pocket he pulled the doors wide open. As if shopping for supplies, Bane looked at all the tools of his former trade.
James just raised an eyebrow at the fact that he had even more torture tools.
Spencer could see the stuff in the cabinet as well. His eyes widened at the sheer amount of deadly items there. “What’s all that?” he whispered.
Bane turned and opened his arms with a dramatic flair.
“Meet the tools of my trade.” He moved his hands over the items with some odd kind of familiar pleasure.
“You may not know this but everything in this cabinet can be and has been used to find many secrets.” Shaking his head he admitted, “I can’t take all of this with me when I have to travel for work, so I’ve packed the best of my tools in one small bag. ” He leaned over and grabbed a duffle.
He carried it back to a chrome medical table in front of Spencer. While flipping the latch, Bane closed his eyes briefly as he took in the smell of leather from opening the bag.
First, he laid a leather roll on the table.
He paused for a moment then he slipped the roll open and it held a selection of very sharp knives.
“I do have to say that I take great pride in this collection. Why? You may ask? Well, first of all, I call it my Genghis Khan's collection. And secondly, I made all of them with my own hands. That’s right you heard it here. At one time, I made the most prized knives and swords in the world.”
Jame stared at him in surprise as no... he did not know this.
Spencer again dripped sweat along his face as he stared at the gleaming handles. He seemed to not hear Bane’s comments at all.
Bane removed one knife out of its sheath. The blade shimmered in the light and everyone in that room could see it was very sharp.
James nodded at the perfection of the knife. “Nice,” he murmured.
Bane turned his head and nodded. “I made sure it would be. It’s sharp enough to cut you and you wouldn’t even know that you’d been sliced by it until you saw the blood.
” He laid the knife down on the table. “But I prefer this one.” He lifted another blade from the roll.
It was shorter but just as sharp. “It’s better for hand to hand combat and the handle is custom made to fit my hand. ”
Spencer Wagner said not a word as he looked perplexed by this strange killer who stood and “chatted” with him about knives like they were old buddies.
Meanwhile, Bane seemed to enjoy this setting as he spoke about one of his heroes, “You see, Genghis was responsible for the deaths of an estimated 40 million people. So even I could never achieve such a number.” He snorted a little.
“However, he was also intensely loyal and generous to his followers. His ruthless tactics were highly organized and multi-faceted. I will shorten this lesson with the two approaches that you need to be concerned with, Spencer.”
The man hanging from the chains looked lost as he kept staring at the knives.
“Whoo-hoo, Spencer!” Bane called to him and snapped his fingers.
He blinked his eyes rapidly then swung his round-eyed gaze over to Bane.
“As I was saying,” Bane continued. “Genghis Khan's first strategy in dealing with the enemy was the Surrender or Die Ultimatum. His standard approach was to demand absolute submission. If a city surrendered without a fight, it was usually spared and its people were incorporated into the empire. Then his second strategy was Strategic Terror. If a city or kingdom resisted, his retribution was absolute. His Mongols often massacred entire populations to eliminate potential threats and force neighboring regions into surrender out of fear.”
Spencer kept his frightened gaze on Bane now as he seemed to become utterly mute.
Bane slowly shook his head. “I see that you do not understand what I am attempting to explain.”
James stepped forward a bit closer to them and stated it plainly, “Mr. Wagner, your choice here is easy to understand. Tell Bane everything he wants to know or...” He shrugged his shoulders.
“Face...” He pointed at the gleaming knife in Bane’s grasp.
“The Genghis Methodology. I suggest you choose to live.” James then took a step back.
Bane turned his head and smirked at James. Spencer couldn’t see his smirk, however. He really liked James’ participation in this chat. Cane nor Orrin ever remained with him when he intended to torture a criminal.