Chapter 23 Part 5
"Now that we are a little closer, I think it's time to get some things straight. For one thing, whatever it is in your hand you are going to drop. For another thing, unless you want to start drawing air through the new ventilation in your throat, you are going to back down, and you are going to tell any and all of your friends to do the same."
The man did not immediately release his grip on the object, but a further press of the blade into his throat obliged him to. Sal glanced at the object as he kept the knife in place.
"So you intended to immobilize me with that antique, did you?" asked Sal.
The man grunted in reply, and swallowed hard, the movement of his Adam's apple pushing into the blade and drawing a slight trickle of blood.
"I've changed my mind. Go ahead and pick your little device back up." Sal instructed.
The man looked momentarily confused.
"I said to pick the mother fucker up," Sal shoved the blade even tighter into the man's throat, and what was a trickle of blood was fast becoming a torrent.
The man complied, and Sal kept the knife firmly placed. "Now then, use it on yourself, and if you try anything funny I swear to God I will cut your fucking head off."
The man's eyes widened. "I can't...can't..."
"You got something you want to tell me, because my knife here believes you can, and you better."
"Not an immobilizer. Injector and immobilizer," the man stammered.
"Well well, is the injector lethal?" Sal inquired.
The man didn't reply.
"I guess we are going to find out," said Sal. "Use it on yourself, or get used to your neck having plenty of space on top of it."
The man dropped his shoulders and looked resigned. At the last possible second before using it on himself, though, he tried to make a swipe at Sal. Sal staggered back from the man just in time, and managed to catch his arm. Since the swing was so wild, and because Sal had moved so quickly, he was able to use the momentum of the man's own arm to slam the circular device with the minuscule spike protruding from it directly into the man's chest while it remained in his hand. The man looked down slowly at the device protruding form his chest. Then he began to become frantic as the realization of what had happened began to dawn upon him. He moved his arms and hands to get it out of himself, but it was too late as the device had begun to burrow into his flesh like a tick. It sucked down hard into him, and the man hit the ground as he let out an anguished cry. His cry was cut short, though, as presumably the immobilizing part of the device took hold. The man's eyes told Sal all he needed to know. the injector was not fatal, but it would have been kinder if it had been. Right now, in the man's blood stream were a multitude of nanobots being injected with one object in mind--to inflict as much pain as possible. They would go to the brain centers responsible for the perception of pain and physically re-wire it to simulate something like being slowly roasted alive. More than likely, by the time the injector was done, the man's mind would be broken.
