Treatment

When David regained consciousness he found himself bound and gagged. It took a moment for his eyes to adjust to the dim light in the dark room. Before he was fully aware of his surroundings, he felt a hard fist smash into the left side of his face. In the moment that his face exploded in pain, he heard the creaking weakness of the old wooden chair he was apparently tied to.

"So you survived the treatment," said a heavily accented voice. From what David could tell, that voice belonged to the the man who had hit him, a man whose features were shrouded in darkness. "We were unsure as to whether you would ever wake up again."

David's eyes now focused more clearly. He looked directly at his attacker, who then reached for his mouth to remove the gag. "It would have been a shame if you had died. After all, you do have information that we would like to have. But, I suppose, had your life faded away, it would have been no great loss."

The man in the shadow briefly walked away, returning quickly with another chair. He sat down across from David, finally revealing his face in the light. David recognized him as the target of his mission. This man, Ken Paik, was highly influential in the North Korean government. David was to abduct him and bring him to the right people, so that they could ask him the right questions. But something went wrong.

Everything that had happened in the past 24 hours was a fuzzy memory at best. The intelligence that David had acquired had turned out to be incorrect in certain spots. This faulty intel caused his mission to seemingly fail. It caused him to be the one who was captured. It caused him to have to endure "the treatment" as Paik so eloquently referred to the torture that he had been through.

David remained silent as Paik stared into his eyes. He wasn't ready to turn over any national secrets just yet. In fact, he was just getting his second wind. Behind his back, he silently tested the strength of the ropes that bound him. "Leave us," Paik said over his shoulder to the large figure standing behind him.

At this point, David knew he had his out. It would be nothing to break this rickety old chair. It would take no time at all to grab Paik and use him as a human shield and make his way out of this place. Paik smiled at his victim. David smiled right back, knowing it was only a matter of seconds before Paik would have to undergo his own treatment.