Behind the curtain (M/M)

[EzraMarubayashi]

Evan woke up feeling sore and groggy. He soon realized he was hogtied on the floor but had no idea of his exact location, or how long he had been there. The blindfold made him feel all the more uneasy. When he focused on the sounds, he first assumed to be alone in some cell, for the place was silent, then, a sigh made him change his mind. Who was this person? Was it a guard? He tried to peel the blindfold off by rubbing his head against the floor, half expecting a kick in the guts, but he continued undisturbed until his left eye was free.

After adjusting to the light coming through the barred window, Evan saw a male figure on the other side of the room, near the door. He was tied up and blindfolded, just like him, though the young man was shirtless. He looked grubby, probably beaten, which explained why he didn’t move. Only his breathing confirmed he was still alive.

“Are you ok?”, Evan asked after a while, as he started to roll and contort to approach his cellmate.

“Who’s this”, the other guy responded, moving his head, trying to locate the source.

“I’d tell you, but they’re probably listening. Call me Bob”.

“Of course”, the other guy chuckled and then coughed a little. “Since I’ve got no more secrets left, I’ll go with my real name. I’m Reiner”.

“That bad, uh?”.

“Worse. I was expecting them to finish me off. I don’t know what else I can tell them!”, Reiner shouted the last part to the room itself.

“How long have you been here?”.

“Who knows? Days”.

“I don’t think I’ve been here that long”. Evan thought of asking Reiner if he had seen him in the cell before, but then remembered the blindfolds. He crawled closer to the guy’s face and started to help him take the blindfold off with his teeth, after letting him know.

“That’s better”, Reiner said, and then he did the same to remove Evan’s blindfold completely. “I wish we could do the same with these ropes, but if they come in and catch us red-handed, things can get nasty”.

“So, you’re a soldier or something?”, Evan asked. A look on Reiner’s body was enough to know that he used to work out.

“Field agent” Reiner answered after what seemed like a painful sigh. “I was supposed to meet my contact on the Triumph Square, Friday afternoon. That son of a b&tc# must work for them”.

“No!”, Evan cried. He was the contact. The boy was expecting someone would come to his rescue when he didn’t show up, but this wasn’t a movie. He scolded himself for treasuring such childish hopes. “The square was crowded, and I was waiting for you there, at the cafe. They must have put something in my drink. That’s all I can remember before waking up here”.

“I thought you’d be older. Is this your first mission?”.

Evan felt scalded by the way Reiner said it. Was he blaming him for the whole shit? He was on the verge of retorting in an unflattering manner when the doubt assaulted him, was he really to blame? He was sure to have taken measures, yet, there he was, trussed up in a dungeon. They were expecting him. Hell, maybe he blew his cover as soon as he got to the city. The stewardess! Damned! How could he fall with the oldest trick in the book? Of course she was interested in him! He was no James Bond. He didn’t want to believe that the guy in front of him was about to die because of some stupid mistake he made, that’s not what he signed up for.

“Listen, I’m sorry, I gave them all I had, who am I to judge? Maybe it was me, maybe I got careless. Ah, they train you to resist, but I just broke!”. Rainer, then, turned his head to avoid eye contact.

“Hey, it’s OK, anyone would have”, Evan said, trying to comfort his mate, even though he didn’t know what the other guy had been through. He just didn’t want to face the fact that he might have put a noose around both their necks. He could not let that happen, they had to do something. “We have to get out. Work with me”.

“What are you doing? They could come back any minute”.

“They’re gonna kill us anyway, aren’t they?”.

Evan moved closer to Reiner, till their bodies touched, parallelly, then turned his back on him. Reiner did the same and waited as Evan fidgeted on his knots. It was a long time before the younger guy gave up and asked his mate to give it a try. However, it was useless, they had been expertly tied up and didn’t make any progress. In an act of desperation, Evan struggled with all his might, only to find that the more he pulled, the tighter the bondage became. Finally, he stood still, panting.

“Ever been tied up before?”, Reiner asked.

“A couple of times, during my training, but never this tight. And even then, I never escaped”.

“I don’t think you were meant to. They were just preparing you for something like this, except you’re never actually ready”.

Both guys remained silent for a while. The only sound was that of Evan mildly trying to escape from time to time.

“I’m next, right?”.

“Probably, although I don’t know what else you can tell them. They must have your key and the blueprints, and they already know about Munich, about General Husch, and about the other agents headed to Berlin”.

“What? They didn’t tell you?”, Evan asked, excited, then continued whispering. “The plan was changed, they’re not going to Berlin anymore. General Husch is meeting "The Comrade" in Warsaw, while the agents go to Dresden. My key is from a locker in the train station”.

“That’s great news! You cannot let them know that. Follow my story”.

Reiner explained to his mate the version he had told the enemies, with Evan memorizing every word. The boy had finally regained some hope, not everything was lost after all. After an hour, the door opened again, and two officers picked Reiner up by the arms and dragged him out of the cell, as he yelled. Evan was frantic. He thrashed around as much as he could in a futile effort to save his mate, but he could only watch as the shirtless young man was taken away and the door was closed once again, sure that he would never see him again.



The bound man was put on top of a table in a room far enough from the cells. A tall man showed up and started to work on the intricate bindings.

“You really love your work, don’t you?”, Reiner chuckled.

“You must love what you do, otherwise, what’s the point?”, The tall man answered with a smirk.

“All right, check on his information. In the meantime, we should keep him sedated. There’s no need to make it even harder for him”, Reiner said while he waited patiently to be released.

“I’m taking it that you won’t kill him either”.

“Agent Evan Anderson, British intelligence, age, nineteen, fresh out of the academy. He’s just a kid”, Reiner commented, overlooking the barely four-year gap between them. He had lived so many things that it felt like a lifetime for him. “Dump his drunk ass on the alley next to the house of that cute stewardess that fell for him. He could use some vacations after this. Are you untying my hands or what?”.

“I was thinking, we could try to get more information from his contact, and these are some beautiful knots to waste”.

Agent Kilian Hämmerli, East Germany intelligence, age, twenty-three, interrogation expert. His job could be hard, but somebody had to do it.

[cj2125]

That was a nice short story! Loved the twist in the ending!

[Headmistress]

Poor Evan.

Oh, well, at least the kidnappers went easy on him and weren't too hard on him .

Good story. Thank you for sharing it.

[harveygasson]

Nice twist

[Xtc]

Well written and quite compelling. Thanks.