Week 26.2 – Good Cop, Bad Cop

Previously: Twain was being interrogated by Biryukov, the bald Russian, and Yi Fan. And now…

As Yi Fan drew her hand back to slap Twain again, Biryukov intervened. “A word, please,” he said in Russian.

They drew back near the door. “This is a most fascinating situation,” Biryukov said. “Everything is backward. He should be terrified, but he is not. He seems confident that he can get out of this predicament. And when I showed him the mask, the physical evidence of his wrongdoing, he became even more confident. He tried to hide it, but there’s a secret behind the mask that he thinks will save him.”

Yi Fan looked at the golden mask on the table. “You want me to make him tell you about the mask, then.”

“Yes, of course,” said Biryukov. “But that’s not the really fascinating thing. The really fascinating thing, the one that I’m dying to get to bottom of, is that even though he’s not afraid, you are. And I have never sensed fear from you before. Why is that, I wonder?”

Before Yi Fan could come up with a retort, Biryukov had turned back to the prisoner. “Ask him about the mask again,” he said, running his fingers along its edges. “What is it for?”

[blockquote type=”blockquote_quotes” align=”left”]“Tell me something he’ll believe, or I’ll have to start doing things worse than this.” She grabbed the little finger on his right hand and yanked it back, hard. Twain screamed as bone snapped…[/blockquote]“Tell me about the mask,” Yi Fan said in Mandarin.

“Tell him I’m an archaeologist, chasing down an ancient legend,” Twain said. “I found the mask in a cave.”

“That’s not the truth,” Yi Fan said. “Where did it come from, really?”

“Just tell him what I told you,” Twain said.

“Not for him,” Yi Fan said. “For me.”

“Why?”

“Because when I met you for the first time, the future you, he was carrying that same bag you carried the mask in.”

For the first time, Twain’s composure slipped a little. “Um, okay. I’ll tell you, but it’s a long story. I’ll tell you when we’re alone, promise.”

“He says he found it in a cave in the hills,” Yi Fan told Biryukov in Russian. “”He’s an archaeologist.”

“He’s lying,” Biryukov said. “It’s neither Chinese nor Russian. I’d guess South American of some sort, though I’m no expert. Ask him again: what’s it for? And be persuasive this time.”

Yi Fan set her face in stone and walked around the small table. She bent low over Twain. “He knows you’re lying,” she said. “Tell me something he’ll believe, or I’ll have to start doing things worse than this.”

She grabbed the little finger on his right hand and yanked it back, hard. Twain screamed as bone snapped. Yi Fan grabbed him by the hair. “Tell me!”

“Let me put it on and I’ll show you,” Twain said.

When Yi Fan relayed the request, Biryukov said, “Of course not. It’s obviously a trick.”

“Then let him put it on,” was Twain’s reply.

Biryukov was intrigued by this. “Interesting. I wonder what it does, that it serves his purpose no matter which of us wears it?”

“There’s only one way to know for sure,” Yi Fan said.

“Yes,” Biryukov agreed. “You put it on.”

What’s Twain’s plan? Join us tomorrow for the next suspenseful episode!

To read from the beginning, click here…