Even Roses Have Thorns

Chapter Twenty-One: Vixere fortes ante agamemnona (literally, brave men lived before Agamemnon; which is to say heroism exists even if it's not recorded) Part I

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Simon Tam had an excellent sense of the amount of time that was passing. This was not usually the case; he often lost track of time under the pressure of surgery, due to his level of absorption with his work. Here, it was different: here, there was nothing on which to focus his mind but the pain he was in, and how long it had been going on for. He could track the time, despite the interrogators lies, and attempts to confuse him; he knew roughly how long it would take to inflict a certain level of damage, and he could track reasonably precisely how long it had been since he’d last had food or water thanks to the symptoms he was presenting, adjusted, of course, for blood loss and ambient temperature. It was somewhere around the end of the second day, or start of the third day since he’d been arrested. Around forty-eight hours without food or water, without sleep (though he had passed out, finally, once today).

His mind debated the benefits of waiting longer. Part of his brain suggested waiting another several hours, just because forty-eight was significant number of hours. It might look noticeable. Another part reminded him that his clock wasn’t that precise. It was at least forty-eight hours; it could as much as fifty-four hours already. He sighed. ‘Okay,’ he decided. ‘Next beating, we try out our plausible lies.’ For a man in his situation, Simon’s spirits were reasonably high. He was certain that they hadn’t caught Kaylee, because he knew they wouldn’t have hesitated to use her as leverage. He was reasonably certain that his lies would work. ‘Fingers crossed, nice arraignment cell here we come.’ He’d been able to hold out. The rest was up to Serenity.

It was those thoughts that kept his heart from being overwhelmed when the interrogator returned. He arrived with a group of guards; Simon knew what that meant – a beat down before the finessed cutting would begin. He tried to work out when the best moment to break down would be – but it was really hard to concentrate given the savagery of the attack.

It was the kick to his ribs that decided matters for him. “God damn it!” That was the fourth rib they’d broken in two days.

“He speaks.” The interrogator noted aloud. The guards stopped beating on him.

‘Kind of hard to talk when you’re screaming,’ Simon thought snidely, but had learned about half way through yesterday that it was best to keep those thoughts to himself. He groaned, “Fast burn rocket shuttle.” He wished that he'd had to at least try to make his voice sound pathetic.

“River Tam?”

“Yes.”

“Destination?”

They both knew that there was only one possible destination. “Belleraphon.”

“Dr. Tam, where is Serenity?”

“Don’t know.” Simon groaned again. “Never did.”

“I don’t understand.”

“We left weeks ago. Thought the warrants were quashed.”

“I see.” The interrogator spoke to the guards. “Take Dr. Tam to a holding cell.” They didn’t even bother to suggest Simon walk, just dragging him out behind them as they left.

The interrogator’s young assistant turned to him. “A holding cell, Sir? I thought we were going to arraign him?”

“We were, Donna.” The interrogator sighed. “We wanted him to prosecute for his crimes, and to help catch his sister. The brass want him to tell them how he trashed their security and to act as bait for his sister. Arrived a couple of hours ago. You guess where this is going?” He posed the question rhetorically, then continued. “Hell, we were lucky to have him long enough to get a lead for the investigation; not that there will be much of an investigation in a likelihood from this point.”

The girl nodded, thinking that she understood. “Once she got to Belleraphon – she could be anywhere by now.”

“I know, but that’s not why. The brass seem pretty certain that they’ll be able to locate River Tam easily enough, now that they have Simon Tam.”

The girl blanched in sympathy. “Is there even going to be anything left to arraign when they’re through?”

“Probably not."

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