Setting the stakes!
I could tell she meant it. Which meant that either she was crazy (a Hershey agent was worth a lot more alive than a retired mercenary trying to rusticate), or I didn’t know what was going on. Either way, I needed to come up with a smart response, something that showed I was on top of the game, and ready to roll with the punches. The one I settled on was the traditional “Huh?”
“There are better places for explanations,” Mahota informed me as she did that ‘irresistible force’ trick with her hand again, blocking me from reentering the kitchen. “But this area will do for a quick interrogation.”
That gave me a moment of unease until I realized she meant the guy giving his lunch back to the ground — and a somewhat larger one as she blithely pulled him to his feet, then shoved him against the wall. She didn’t crack the bricks doing it, but that was still a lot of upper body strength for one normal-sized gal. Strength enchantments don’t come cheap; then again, if anybody could afford them, it’d be the Hershey Consortium.
“I do not have time to play stupid games, and I care even less about your life than you do,” she informed him, one hand on his chest, and the other loosely gripping his neck. “I only wish to know one thing: was it your cult’s own idea to try to kidnap Ms. Deckard, or did somebody pay you to do so?”