Keating sat on the bed and read books intently. The noisy sounds outside did not affect him at all.
It was noon now, about five hours had passed since Verak was taken away. Based on his past experience, this young man who had been his roommate for less than a day might have encountered something unexpected.
Because no prisoner has ever been able to last so long in the interrogation room.
The prisoner was usually tortured by Lecter for half an hour, and would be on the verge of collapse within an hour. Then he would be taken back, and the same time would pass the next day, and so on until Keating compromised or the prisoner compromised.
Those who did not come back for two hours basically never came back. New prisoners would be replaced as soon as possible to take care of Keating's daily life and continue the task of asking about the whereabouts of the gold.
Verak has not come back for a long time, and even missed the meal. Needless to say what that means.
Since Keating had seen too much, even if he concluded that Verak was dead, he would not feel any fluctuation in his heart.
Verak was just a passer-by to him.
If nothing else goes wrong, there will be hundreds of such passers-by. Some of them can be transferred to other cells in time to save their lives, and some will collapse completely after being tortured again and again, ending up with the same fate as Verak.
Just as Keating was waiting for the next roommate to be arranged to come in, the outside suddenly became quiet, and then there was a commotion. When he turned to look at the door, he saw two prison guards dragging the inhuman Verak over.
"Hey!" The cell door was opened, and two prison guards threw Verak in, then locked the door and left.
"How are you?" Keating asked with concern when he saw Verak's appearance.
Verak, who was thrown in, collapsed on the ground, closed his eyes tightly, turned his head to one side and remained motionless. Only the slight rise and fall of his chest proved that he was alive.
Seeing that his hands were bloody and bloody, his chin and collarbone were full of hideous wounds, and he was almost unconscious, Keating put down his book and called the prison guard over: "Aren't you going to send him to the infirmary? His injuries are serious!
"
"He refused himself." The prison guard explained, shrugged and left.
Rejected yourself? Isn’t this seeking death?
Keating looked at Verak again. This was the first time he had seen a prisoner brought back alive by Lecter for five hours of torture. What was even more surprising was that Verak seemed to still have a smile on his face.
What happened?
"Why don't you go to the infirmary?" Keating asked, "In a place like this, if the wound is not treated in time, the infection will quickly worsen. Even if Lecter doesn't trouble you, you will lose your life because of the aggravation of the injury.
of."
"...It's...nothing." Verak's mouth moved and he said two words intermittently.
Keating found it unreasonable: "Do you want to live or not? If you can't hold on anymore, suicide is more painful than this. If you still want to hold on, why refuse treatment?"
"...Heh." Verak didn't have the strength to speak, so he hummed in response.
Of course he wanted to live, otherwise how could he have persisted for four or five hours with the double-headed fork pressing against his chin and collarbone.
"First... let me... sleep... for a while..."
There's a reason why Verak gave up on treating his wounds.
At noon, Lecter couldn't wait to return to the interrogation room. When he saw that Verak had dropped the paper covering his face to the ground and was still holding on with his head raised, he was so excited that he screamed. He even screamed for Victor.
As Lark applauded, he came up with a new way to play and made an interesting little deal with Verak.
As long as Verak is willing to give up treating his wounds, Lecter can tell him the latest information from the Equality Society.
Lecter thought he had grasped Verak's lifeline. He knew very well what Verak wanted, so he made full use of everything. While lifting Verak's desire for life, he also increased the load on his body, making the pleasure of torture unprecedented.
height.
Since the separation of Lezeinli and Boyne, Verak had lost contact with the Equality Society for four or five days.
While under house arrest in the Ministry of Security Building, he and Boyne tricked Rock Shriver, the person in charge of the Reef. The angry Rock Shriver would go on to take revenge on the Equality Society. He could not imagine it, and he did not dare to think about it.
The enthusiastic Equality Society in the distance was his biggest motivation to survive in the dark prison.
Now the opportunity to learn about the Equality Society unexpectedly appeared, and Verak really couldn't find any reason to refuse.
Moreover, Dymans Prison is almost isolated from the world. Even a person at the level of the warden is delayed in getting the news. It is even more difficult for a person who has cut off all contact with the outside world to get the news. If he misses it, he may be in trouble.
There is no way to know the situation of the Equality Association anymore. And if he agrees, he might be able to continue trading in the future and continuously learn about the situation in Lezein.
So not only for the present, but also for the future, Verak agreed to the deal and gave up treating the wounds. Only after enduring the torture tomorrow can he go to the infirmary with tomorrow's new injuries and get treatment from the doctor.
As for how much the wound would worsen due to the hot weather and bacterial growth, he had no intention of thinking about it until Lecter told him about the Equality Society.
Lecter was not surprised by Verak's answer. He helped Verak remove the torture tools diligently and thoughtfully, and told him the current situation of the Equality Society.
Just as Verak expected, the infuriated Locke Shriver used unprecedented intensity to arrest the recalcitrant members of the Equality Society. As long as they were discovered by them, regardless of whether the members of the Equality Society resisted or not, they would be immediately charged with "possessing weapons."
Killed on the spot in the name of hurting innocent people.
In just a few days, multiple strongholds of the Equality Society have been destroyed, and more than fifty members have been killed.
But even so, the Equality Society remains active.
Mass-printed copies of "Equality" were stuffed into the cracks of windows and doors of every house. Small protests occurred frequently. Every night, several small-scale gun battles broke out irregularly in various places.
Because people are panicking, the government is paying more and more attention to it.
Now there are less than ten days until delegations from various countries arrive, and the opening ceremony of the World Expo is less than half a month away.
If the rebellious parties are not dealt with by that time, the government will have only two options.
1. Cancel the World Expo.
Second, continue the World Exposition despite the bad influence.
No matter which choice they make, the price will be unbearable for them, and the dream of the Bressi Republic to demonstrate its national power will be shattered.
They now have no choice but to list the Equality Society as their number one enemy, and give the Ministry of Security and the intelligence organization 'Reef' a deadline to completely quell the riots within a week at all costs.
Therefore, the atmosphere in Lezeinli was very serious, and a war seemed about to break out.
Knowing that the situation of the Equality Society was not optimistic, but that it had managed to withstand the crackdown by the Bressy government, Verac felt sorry for the comrades who had sacrificed their lives, and at the same time he also had some confidence in his heart.
If the Equality Society is just suppressed blindly, it means that their situation is very critical and they are unable to fight back. If they don't withdraw from Lezein as soon as possible, they will have to wait to be wiped out.
But now, although they have suffered tragic losses, they are also swimming upstream, expanding their influence, and fighting back and forth with the Brexi Security Department! This shows that Boyin's original plan has hope to come true!
The Equality Society has really grown.
From that innocent child who was hiding in Tibet, trying to use reason to persuade the government to change the system, he grew up into an adult who dared to fight the government head-on, made the government feel scared, and sometimes had no way to do anything to them.
If the idea can really be spread through the World Exposition, then the Equality Society will be strong just around the corner. When the torrent of awakening hits, how can the plutocrats stop it?!
Verak, who was feeling tired and about to fall asleep, was filled with excitement when he thought of this.
"Don't sleep to death."
Hearing Keating's voice, Verak thought to himself:
Absolutely not.
——
"Uh..." Verak slowly opened his eyes.
As he regained consciousness, the overwhelming pain hit him, and he almost fainted from the pain again.
"Huh...hiss..." He didn't know whether it was because he adapted quickly or because the pain just came on for a moment. After gritting his teeth and carrying it for a few seconds, he no longer felt the unbearable pain.
He had been lying on the floor and slept for a long time, and now the back of his head was hurting, and his back was sore and painful.
He glanced over at the bed and found Keating sleeping.
In the afternoon, when the prisoners in other cells went to work, Keating would take advantage of this extra quiet time to rest and wake up before dinner at 8 p.m.
He is still asleep now, which means it is between two o'clock in the afternoon and eight o'clock in the evening.
Deducing that he had been in a coma for several hours, Verak straightened his head, raised his arm and looked at the injury on his hand. After being pinched by the thumb clamp, except for the thumb, his other eight fingers were all red, and some of them were red.
The skin was peeled off and there were bloody scabs in some places.
"Well..." Verak felt a little heavy.
He tried to make a fist with his open hand, but his fingers froze after just a slight bend and could no longer move.
As for the neck, the condition is not much better than that of the hands. In addition to turning his head left and right, Verak can't even tilt his neck forward or back, as if his head is nailed to the floor.
The wounds on his chest and chin were no longer felt. Verak reached out and touched them and found that they were also scabbed.
Scabs are also a good thing. The cells on the ground floor are quite stuffy and the wounds can easily fester. Once they fester, it would be a fool's errand to heal them in an environment like a prison. At least the scabs won't bleed now.
It is not easy to get infected.
After a while, Verak twisted his body, moved his bones, and sat upright by relying on his abdominal strength. While exerting force, his muscles also pulled on his wound, and he suddenly grinned in pain and groaned.
.
Keating woke up when he heard the noise, saw Verak sitting up with wounds all over his body, and sighed: "Your willpower is really strong."
"Your previous roommate shouldn't be as serious as me, right?" Verak said.
"Why do you say that?"
"If they were tortured as hard as me every day, you would have had more than 500 roommates in the two years you lived here." Verak laughed, supported the ground with his elbows, and knelt tremblingly.
Then stood up.
Keating sat up and took out the water glass: "Drink some water?"
"My hands are useless now, please feed me." Verak walked to Keating and squatted down with his arms hanging down.
"Look up," Keating said.
"I can't raise my head anymore." Verak smiled bitterly, "I can't move my neck at all now. I can only lean back."
"Alright."
Keating sat on the bed, and Verak leaned half-leaning beside the bed, being fed two sips of water.
"Now it's you who will take care of me..." Verak smiled bitterly.
"In return for not nagging you and using all kinds of outrageous means to force me to find out the whereabouts of the gold." Keating wiped Verak's mouth with a handkerchief.
"So many roommates haven't asked before, and I can't think of a better way. Asking you is completely meaningless." Verak couldn't get on the bed, so he simply sat on Keating's bed to rest.
Keating said nothing more about this meaningless matter and asked the question he was concerned about: "Why didn't you go to the infirmary?"
"That lunatic said that as long as I give up going to the infirmary today, he can tell me the latest news he knows about the Equality Society." Verak was still frightened when he thought of Lecter's crazy face, "Of course I can't miss it.
Given the opportunity to obtain information about the Equality Society in this secluded place, I agreed to his request."
When Keating and Verak first met, they heard Verak briefly explain the reason why he was arrested and the organization behind him called the Equality Society: "So how is your organization now?"
"Not bad, at least I won't be at the mercy of others like before." Thinking that equality would make the government anxious under the leadership of Boyne, Morais, Chloe and others, Verak felt an inexplicable sense of pride.
.
"Then I don't need to worry about you." Keating looked at Verak kindly.
Verak knew what Keating meant.
He was afraid that he wouldn't be able to hold on, but after seeing his performance today and finally knowing that his companions were well, he was completely relieved.
The fact that he persisted in enduring the inhuman torture today represents his inner tenacity and strength.
Knowing that your companions are well means seeing hope.
The combination of these two things that are extremely rare in prisons, although not enough to create an invulnerable soul, is enough for Verak to face it calmly and not be easily defeated by the storm.
"There is still a long way to go..." Verak did not remain blindly optimistic. "Tomorrow will be a new round of tests for me, and it will be the same for them in the Equality Association."
Keating said: "You are fighting alongside them."
"I feel the same way, even though we have lost contact." Verak agreed with Keating's words.
Keating stared at Verak's neck for a few seconds: "What's wrong with your neck?"
Verak told Keating all the torture he endured.
"come over."
A pair of warm hands placed on Verak's shoulders, rubbing his shoulders and neck to relieve his stiffness and pain.
"Thank you..." Verak turned his back to Keating and thanked him.
Keating controlled the intensity very well, making Verak feel a rare sense of comfort: "Hold on, young man."