One hour later, they reached an abandoned farmland with a large shed at one corner which was probably used as a garage for tractors and other farming machinery. The moon was full and it cast a silvery glow over the open wasteland before them which was studded with rocks and overgrown with weeds. This field was a part of a much larger agricultural area which was abandoned a long time ago and was several kilometers from any kind of habitation. They drove along the side of this field until the car was right outside the shed. Silky and Milky helped them move the unconscious Nitish inside the shed and then volunteered to keep watch and stayed outside.
Inside was pitch black. Ashwin and Rina turned on their powerful flashlights. The rays of light ran through thick suspended particles of dust. They took 15 minutes to map out the shed with their flashlights. The floor was concrete and worn out in most places. The walls were mossy and the roof had several holes and looked as if it would fall down any second. At the far corner of the shed there were poles, ropes, large rollers and other random rusty machine parts. The place was infested with several rats, cockroaches, spiders and flies.
"Wasn't there a more disgusting safe house anywhere else?", Ashwin asked sarcastically.
"This is the best we could do given the tight schedule.", Rina said. "This was closer than any LFI black site in Gramyll."
"Never mind. Such places are actually helpful to intimidate the subject while using 'enhanced interrogative procedures'."
In one corner of the room, the two walls that met at that corner conveniently had hooks on them just above the floor. They tied Nitish's feet to one of the hooks and his hands to the other such that his body lay in the supine position on the floor acting as the hypotenuse of the right angled triangle formed by the 2 walls and his body. Ashwin placed his flashlight on the ground a little away from this set up pointing towards Nitish. It cast a eerie glow on Nitish's body. Ashwin and Rina stood a on either side of the body in the shadows.

20 minutes later Nitish began to stir and his eyes opened slightly. He moaned and tried to sit upright but found that his hands and feet were tied.
"Stay where you are.", Ashwin said loudly, his voice echoing throughout the chamber.
He then grabbed a fistful of Nitish's hair and pulled it downwards towards the floor, pinning his head to the ground. His eyes widened and his lips quivered. Rina pulled out the photograph of Nitish taking cash from the unknown man.
"Who is this man. Tell us everything you know about him."
Nitish swallowed hard and said,
"Why? Who the hell are you and why am I here?"
"None of that matters. Just answer the questions or else the consequences will be severe. And unlike you, we do not make empty threats.", Rina responded.
Nitish had regained his senses by now. "Ah, I see.", he said, "You kidnapped me from the park to interrogate me? Who are you? LFI?LOCI? Rarely found honest Gramyll police?"
Ashwin let go of his hair and punched him hard in the face. That was especially painful as the back of his head hit the floor. He howled in pain and his nose began to bleed.
"We are not playing around, kiddo.", Ashwin said.
After a few seconds, Nitish regained composure. "You are messing with the very wrong person. You have no idea what I am capable of. Let me go or else you both will end up wishing that you had never crossed paths with me. I have very powerful and influential connections."
"I do not think Listan qualifies as 'very powerful'.", Rina said.
"Who said anything about Listan?"
"Cut the crap man, we all know that you and your organization is a puppet of the Listanis. You claim that you want a free Gramyll and the moment it becomes free, it becomes a puppet state of Listan."
"That is exactly what you are, a puppet, a pawn.", Ashwin said. "The Listanis are not going to come here and rescue you. They will just find another person to replace you. They have left you to die. Pawns are the ones who get sacrificed in war. Your best way is to co-operate with us and we will let you go if the intel you provide is accurate and useful. Throughout the years the Listanis have never attempted to save you when you found yourself in a pickle. What did save you was the Lucremesian law, politics and the bureaucracy. "
"Now back to the point.",Rina said. "who is this man."
Nitish was silent for a full minute. Ashwin brought out a pair of cutting pliers and held Nitish's left ear with it.
"How about now?", Ashwin said.
Nitish looked startled as he felt the cold metal against his ear but was still silent. Ashwin gripped the cutting pliers firmly and yanked hard. He distinctly heard the crunch of muscle and tissue ripping apart. Nitish let out a bloodcurdling scream that must have frightened even Silky and Milky who were standing outside. There were tears in his eyes and he was desperately thrashing around trying to free himself.
"That was to let you know we are not playing around.", Ashwin said.
"Alr....Alright, I.....I'll talk.", Nitish said in broken voice. "Please.....give me some water first."
"Oh yeah sure.",Rina said. "Open your mouth."
Nitish obeyed and Rina immediately pulled out a taser and tased his neck for a full two seconds which was long enough to cause pain but not long enough to cause him to pass out.
His entire body became rigid and stiff. Tears began flowing from his eyes and an uncontrolled secretion of saliva from his mouth was initiated. That was enough to crack him. He only played around with politics for a living. He wasn't a soldier trained to withstand torture.
A few seconds later he came back to normal and said in a husky voice, "I said I would talk, what was that for?"
"To confirm that whatever you say will be true.", Rina said.
"Yes I promise...", he said, stopped in the middle to spit blood and continued, "Whatever I say from now will be the truth."
Ashwin and Rina both were internally very satisfied seeing him in this state. They did not feel the slightest sympathy or remorse towards him as they knew he deserved the suffering. He who tried to promote separatism in the country while being payed by an enemy nation to do so was lying helpless at their mercy. This was not the first time they had done such a thing and it definitely won't be the last. The use of lethal force was of course illegal but that is what the enemies take advantage of. Once law, courts, bureaucracy and criminal rights are taken out of the equation, it becomes a lot simpler to punish terrorists.

"That man never gave me a name.", Nitish said. "He contacted me via the dark web. Yes he is from Listan and was going to pay me to make the threat video and carry out other separatism tasks."
"You had never seen him before?", Ashwin asked.
Nitish shook his head.
"What was his dark web id?", Rina inquired.
"RollingStone."
"And your id and password?"
"ShortCliFF and wiFIQerk respectively."
Rina nodded once and went away to contact LOCI HQ with this fresh intel.
"While we are at it....", Ashwin said, "Why don't you politely tell us where and when the attack is?"
Nitish's face contorted into a scared expression and the tearfully stammered, "No....No I have no clue, sir. I was just payed to make the threat video and that's it. I have no idea whatsoever about the rest of the plan.", he said.
It was shocking how a few harsh actions had completely changed the countenance of this man. Ashwin pulled out a pair of bolt cutters and placed them on Nitish's big toe.
"I thought you had had enough of all this.", Ashwin said.
"Please.... I told you ..... I have no idea.", Nitish said as he began whimpering and crying again.
Just then Rina returned. Ashwin got up and both of them walked outside to talk. They sent Silky and Milky inside to watch Nitish. "I spoke to Sanjay and he asked the techies to figure this thing out. The conversation between the two accounts suggests that Nitish is telling the truth. That man was indeed there to pay him for his job and they have had no previous contact. They are trying to hack into this RollingStone account and find who else he has contacted. The main thing is that RollingStone messaged Nitish earlier today and asked him to meet him tomorrow at 10 am at a place three hours from here. We can send Nitish there, follow him and get this man."

Ashwin's face lit up upon hearing this. "Awesome, but that means we have to sleep here tonight.", he sighed and added, "I was really hoping to get back to Merrowall and hit the cricket club tonight to get some physical activity to relax my mind. Anyway, I do not think any restaurants will be open now, let us just live off the emergency rations we have with us."
"No need for that, a strike team from a local branch of LOCI will be coming here and they shall provide food, sleeping bags and stuff. They shall also carry out the mission of picking up this RollingStone fellow."
"Great."