The spy's frantic nodding echoed in Keigh's silence, the dim room swallowing the sound as if even the walls feared to make noise.
Keigh didn't speak right away.
He simply turned, dragged a chair across the concrete floor, and sat down directly in front of the restrained man. The scrape of metal on cement set the spy's nerves on edge.
"Let's start again," Keigh said quietly, elbows resting on his knees. "You were hired to follow Nara. By whom?"
"I...I don't know his name," the spy stammered. "I only received instructions."
Keigh exhaled slowly through his nose. It wasn't anger. It was calculation.
He glanced over his shoulder.
Damon stepped forward silently, placing a metal case on the small table beside them. The click of the latches snapping open made the spy flinch.
"I told you everything...." the spy tried.
"If that were true," Keigh said with icy calm, "you wouldn't be sweating like a sinner in church."
He took a cloth from the case and a small clear vial, pouring it carefully, deliberately.
The spy's eyes widened.
"What....what is that?"
"A motivator," Keigh replied simply.
He lifted the spy's arm, lightly, almost gently and pressed the soaked cloth to the skin. The reaction was instant. The spy gasped, body jerking, a strangled cry tearing free.
Keigh didn't raise his voice, didn't hit him or threaten him. He waited until the man's breathing turned ragged and desperate.
"Try again," Keigh murmured. "Who hired you?"
"I...I can't..."
Keigh placed the cloth on the other arm.
The spy screamed.
"Who," Keigh repeated, unmoved, "hired you?"
The man broke.
Cracked under the quiet pressure.
"T...The Alarics!" he choked. "They're the ones! They hired me!"
Keigh's gaze sharpened. "Why?"
"T–The Alarics!" he cried. "It was the Alarics! They wanted… they wanted information on her. And if possible..." His voice faltered. "....to make her uncomfortable. Rattle her. Make her slip somewhere."
Keigh stilled.
"And why?" he asked.
"I don't know all of it, I swear.....I just know they said she was… 'an obstacle.' That she was getting too much of someone's attention."
Keigh's eyes darkened.
He knew exactly whose attention. A long, heavy silence filled the room. He dropped the cloth to the floor and stepped back, reassembling his calm like armor.
"Keep him locked up," Keigh said to Damon. "No contact with the outside world. I want a full background check, his employer, every job he's taken in the last three years."
Damon nodded. "Yes, sir."
Keigh paused before leaving the room.
"And Damon?"
"Yes?"
"Double Nara's protection. Quietly. No one gets near her, not even a rumor."
He left the room without another glance, but the tension he carried with him was lethal.
The Alarics had made their first move.
And Keigh…was about to make his.