#74

Lefty will walk through into the first chamber; the sliding door in the bar of the Zorro Club will slide shut behind him, leaving him in darkness. However, in the darkness, he'll hear the sound of a treadmill, and what sounds like bubbling, as well as someone struggling. Suddenly, lights will snap on. As they do, an extruding wall-segment will push a man out onto a treadmill: Wilhelm. Before him, at the end of the treadmill, will be a computer terminal; the treadmill will be taking him away from the computer. In turn, the treadmill will be hooked up to a computer, on the other side of a wall of glass, which will be the side that Lefty is on. The computer will appear to control the treadmill.

The computer within the treadmill chamber will be hooked up a retracting platform in another room: in this one, Esau will be bound and gagged, and over what will seem to be a pit of boiling fuel. The premise will make sense to Lefty right away; he'll have to use his computer to stop the treadmill, allowing Wilhelm to use his computer to save the other two. But this won't be all. As Lefty will be taking all of this in, the wall behind the treadmill will slide open—revealing long, thin spikes. If Wilhelm stops running, he will die. Lefty will begin to sweat as he dives at his computer, and Wilhelm starts running.

There'll be text on the screen: “Sinister – if you can solve the riddles displayed on these terminals, your men will be allowed to go free, as will you. This first puzzle requires Mister Wilhelm's ingenuity as well. Good luck.

“Your first riddle will be: A Spanish man wants Italian water. What is it that he'll have to buy?”

Okay. Maybe it will have been a bad idea to have made fun of how obvious the name “the Zorro Club” was. Lefty won't really know Spanish as much as he'll have remembered. The answer could well be some sort of word in Spanish or Italian; which will be bad for him.

He'll try “Italian water”. Maybe it'll just be something stupid like that; but it won't be. It's now that he'll notice a thirty-second countdown in the lower right-hand corner of the screen. The sweating will get even worse.

“Water bottle.” Nope.

“Passport.” Nada.

“Guidebook.” Nay.

Um. Um...

“Tour guide.” No.

“Italian money.” No. Fine. “Euros.” No. It's something he has to buy.

Ten seconds.

Um. “Waterskin”?

No.

He won't be able to do it. He'll run to the glass, to both of them, and apologize. He'll apologize as hard as he can. And he'll get no response.

The treadmill will suddenly accelerate to an absurd extent; and Wilhelm goes flying backwards. Lefty won't be able to look. He'll cover his ears as Esau screams, plunging into the boiling fuel.

Within a few seconds, it will all be over.

He'll look back at the computer, which will now display the answer: “He will have to own the Tiber.”

A second later, Lefty's fist will smash through the screen. What sort of worthless motherfucking answer is THAT?! It doesn't even make sense with any sort of theme! What's it supposed to mean, anyway? “Tiber-own”. That's just nonsense.

Fox will cheat. He'll know this, now. And that'll meant the boys probably won't make it.

But he'll find Fox. He'll find him, and he'll make him wish he had a fate like this. Boiling fuel? Spikes?

Those'll be chump deaths next to how much agony Lefty'll put 'im through.