“Now move away from the door,” the same voice barked.

Knox and Stone retreated to the back of the cell.

The door was opened and what happened next was only a blur.

Five body-armored men with face masks poured in carrying two huge inch-thick Plexiglas shields. They hit Knox and Stone hard, slamming them against the stone wall. Pepper spray hit them both in the eyes, even as Taser shots paralyzed them. They went down, wanting to claw at their eyes, but with limbs electrified stiff as a corpse and cuffed hands that wasn’t an option. They were stripped of their clothing, lifted into the air and hustled down the corridor. Thrown in a shower, they were hit with blasts of water, which at least helped ease the agony of the eye spray.

Picked up again, they were carried to a room that had two steel slabs covered in what looked to be urine and feces. They were smashed down on these hard cots and put in five-point restraints. Before the guards left they were Tasered once more.

“What the hell was that for?” Knox managed to scream as the current pounded him.

A guard with one stripe on his sleeve hit him in the mouth with his fist. “Not obeying orders. This ain’t like other prisons, old man. This is Dead Rock. Don’t know what prison you come from but you get no warnings up here, boy. No damn warnings. And just so’s you know, I can Taser your ass just for the hell of it. ’Cause my old lady didn’t blow me, or ’cause my dog shit on the rug.”

“I work for the CIA.”

“Sure you do. Hey, fellows, we got us a spy right here. Bet your friend is KGB.”

He walked to the next slab and smacked Stone in the face. “You KGB, Grandpa?” The guard reached a gloved hand down to Stone’s crotch and squeezed. “I asked you a question, old man.”

Stone didn’t say anything; he just looked at the guard, remembering every detail of his face through the clear mask. And he suddenly recognized him too. He was one of the men with the baseball bats who’d beaten up Danny and then come after him. This was the third one, the coward who’d run for it, but Stone had still managed to nail him in the back with one of the bats.

“You ever tell your buddies you ran out on them?” he said quietly as the Taser sting wore off.

The guard gave a nervous, hollow laugh under the burn of Stone’s gaze, glanced at the other guards and took his hand away. As he was leaving the room with the other guards, Stone managed, despite the restraints, to turn his head just enough to keep his eyes on the fellow. Then the door closed.

“I guess they’re trying to break us quick,” groaned Knox.