Page 214 of I Will Break You

“Would you like a reminder of what happens if you fail to answer my questions, Mr. Stills?” I ask.

“I work for X-Cite Media.”

There are a hundred questions I could ask about the organization, but I want to get back to my little ghost. Harlan won’t die until my operatives have extracted every useful piece of informationabout the firm that makes the snuff movies. Putting those aside, I focus on my most pressing concerns.

“What’s the name of your boss?”

He swallows. “I only have his code name.”

“Which is?”

“Delta.”

Adrenaline surges through my veins, and my nostrils flare. “Where can I find him?”

Harlan shakes his head. “I don’t know.”

“Elaborate.”

“He hasn’t visited the house in over a year, and he only communicates to me through emails.”

“Why?”

“I…” He gulps. “I think he could be overseas.”

My gaze darts to the polygraph, which shows no signs of deception. If Father lives in another country, then that might explain why he allowed his family to die and failed to attend the execution. It means tracking him will become all the more difficult.

“Where does he live?”

“He didn’t say.”

“Then where does he work?” I snarl.

“I don’t know. I swear to God. Delta didn’t recruit me, it was Nocturne.”

Camila and I exchange glances.

“And who,” I ask, “is Nocturne?”

Harlan babbles his entire life story, starting from graduating from Alderney State University with a Masters in Cybersecurity, before being recruited by a man named Nocturne to develop a platform to offer users time-limited content streaming.

He talks about state-of-the-art digital rights management mechanisms, including watermarking to trace the source of leaked content and enforce copyright protection. Fascinating stuff, but useless.

“Jenson, please help Mr. Stills get to the point.”

“Okay!” he yells. “Nocturne started off making BDSM porn, but he ran into cash flow problems. The market has changed. No one wants to pay to watch dominatrixes kick men in the balls. Hehad loans to pay, and that’s when he went into partnership with Delta.”

I nod. We’re getting somewhere, finally.

“They switched from female dominants to men in charge, which sold better, but Nocturne still couldn’t cover his interest payments. Delta offered to pay off his debts in exchange for taking ownership of X-Cite Media.”

“Nocturne is in contact with Delta?” I ask

“Yes,” he says. A second later, he screams.

I glance at Camila, who shrugs.

“Why would you lie about that?” I ask, my gaze wandering to the polygraph screen.