Sandman (Unknown Identities #3) Read Free Page B

forehead, dripped down his broken nose. Before Galloway could recover, Sandman grabbed him by the ear and forced him to the floor. Galloway’s cuffed wrists pulled the table over with him.
    “ Where is the hostage?” Sandman demanded.
    Galloway grinned. “What hostage?”
    Sandman planted a knee in his chest, squeezing the air from his lungs. “You don’t know where you are. Let me enlighten you. This place isn’t on any kind of map, which means the rules do not apply. If you cease to exist here, no one will care. No one will know .” He shifted the pressure of his knee, let Galloway accept that he was about to feel the desperate pain of a rib piercing his lung. Easing back he repeated the question.
    Galloway ’s eyes went wide, rivulets of blood tracked across his face, pooling in his ears. Sandman gave him a shake. “Tell me now and I might let you survive.”
    “ They won’t let you kill me. I’m too valuable.”
    Sandman shook his head. “The only thing of value you have is her location. Share it or die.”
    Still Galloway hesitated.
    “Ten.” Sandman dropped a hard fist onto the man’s battered nose.
    Galloway screamed.
    “Nine.” He boxed Galloway’s ears. “Eight.”
    “ Stop! Please.” Tears mingled with the blood on his face, creating a macabre mask.
    “ Location.”
    “ I –I don’t know.”
    Sandman raised his hand like a blade, poised to strike.
    “ It’s the truth.” Galloway cringed. “I don’t know. I hired a guy.”
    “ Who?”
    Galloway shook his head. “Don’t know. It was an online contact. I gave him instructions and money and he delivered the pictures I needed. Gave him a bonus.”
    “ When and where is she supposed to be released?”
    Galloway ’s eyes shifted, his gaze darting away from Sandman’s face. Sandman suddenly knew the truth… Galloway hadn’t planned to release Renata at all.
    “ Ah, damn. She was the bonus,” he said, pushing to his feet. He swore and kicked Galloway in the side just for the hell of it, hearing the satisfying crack of bone as the ribs gave way. “Give me something.”
    “ She’s in the states,” he said through gritted teeth. “I think.”
    “ Mighty big country. Or hadn’t you noticed?” Sandman pulled his pistol, aimed it at Galloway’s midsection. “Something useful , asshole.”
    Galloway rattled off an email address. “It’s all I know, I swear.”
    It would have to be enough. He plugged the information into his phone.
    “ He might already have a buyer.”
    Livid at the mere idea, Sandman stomped hard on Galloway’s knee and walked out, nearly colliding with Messenger in the hallway.
    “ What do you think you’re doing?” he asked, planting his hands on his hips.
    “ My job,” Sandman replied, loosening his tie. “You want the hostage. I’m expediting the process.”
    “ I’ve never known you to be so… impatient.” Messenger peered around him, taking in the scene inside the interrogation room. “It was my opinion that the program could use a man like that one.”
    Sandman disagreed one hundred percent, but his opinion would only fall on deaf ears.
    “So fix him up, train him. Adjust him,” Sandman said loud enough for Galloway’s ears. “But I sure as hell wouldn’t ever trust him.”
    “ Of course not,” Messenger agreed in his typical unflappable tone. “Not at all like we trust you.”
    His blood still running hot from pounding on the prisoner, it took significant effort to withhold the reaction he knew Messenger expected. He managed not to rise to the bait, or puke on Messenger’s gleaming shoes as the image of putting down one of UI’s best operatives last week replayed in his mind.
    UI operatives were separated out at different stages of training. Once they entered the second and third echelons of the program, they rarely encountered their peers, Messenger was careful about that. Still, some names stood out even in a does-not-exist system. John Noble had been a legend among the few