Maybe something else will.

The door opened and Sam was legitimately delighted to see Rocky. She was so happy to see her captor she want to give him a kiss, but she knew that he didn't take kindly to physical affection so she stayed sitting on the bed.

"Hey Rocky! What's up?"

"Hello Sam," Rocky replied gruffly. "We know your owner never makes you do anything unless he wants to communicate something to us. So what is this supposed to communicate?"

"Oh, Rocky," she said with fake disappointment. "Can't a girl just be in a good mood?"

Rocky leapt across the room and grabbed her throat. Sam knew immediately that it wasn't intimidation or some kind of psychological tactic; his face was inches from hers and there was **** in his eyes. She was continually grateful for the euphoria that drove fear and suffering from her mind.

"You have mocked us and toyed with us for months and it ends today," he told her in a shaky voice. "You are going to tell us what we need to know or I am going to kill you."

"I believe that's a false dichotomy," she squeaked through her impeded airway. He increased the pressure, cutting off her ability to talk and breathe completely.

"Enough jokes, bitch. You keep saying you can't send messages to your owner, but you need to figure it out."

Sam's vision was getting dim around the edges and her extremities were tingling. She let out a choked gurgle and he released her. She dropped back onto the bed, coughing and wheezing and sucking in great lungfuls of air. Rocky made a final statement before turning and leaving the cell.

"At midnight tonight, if you haven't answered our questions, you fucking die."

"Hey, buddy." Sam stood as Bullwinkle entered the room. She crossed the room to hug him, then sat back on the bed. Just as he had every day for weeks, Bullwinkle opened a folding chair and sat down.

"Hi, Samantha. How are you feeling today?"

"Great!" she said with a broad smile. "Same as every day. How are you?"

Bullwinkle took off his glasses to wipe them on his shirt. "Same as every day. Frustrated. Sam, is there any way I can talk to just you? Without your boss's influence?"

She grinned. "I told you, you are talking to me. There's no 'just me' anymore. Can I talk to just your conscience or just your depression? Of course not."

He nodded. "Ok. I get it. So help me understand more about your organization."

"You mean my cult? Or was it a terrorist cell?" Sam asked, referring to Rocky's disdainful terminology. "The one that espouses no spiritual beliefs and has never harmed anyone?"

Bullwinkle nodded. "You'll have to forgive my colleague. He's a bit harsher than I am."

"You're the torturer, though. How funny is that?" she asked with a chuckle.

"To be honest, most torturers would probably make great therapists. It's not just about listening to people's words, you know. It's about reading body language and tone, understanding what makes someone upset and what makes them feel safe. Looking for little vulnerabilities in their psyche that you can heal or exploit. That only works on people with normal psyches, of course."

"Of course," she nodded. "So why the therapy routine? What makes you think your good cop act will get any more from me than bad cop in there?"

He spread his arms. "Would you believe me if I said I was curious?"

"You know, I would. I also know that this is a tactic, but let's be honest - it's gonna fail, just like the rest. But you seem a lot more engaged now than you ever were with the car battery. Besides, how could you not be?"

He nodded. "Good, good. I'm glad. Now, I know you said you don't regret what happened to you. Let's try an exercise - try to imagine what your life would be like if it hadn't happened. What do you think you'd be doing right now?"

She thought for a moment. "Probably working a desk job somewhere. Hard to say. Why?"

"You don't ever wonder about how your life might have gone differently had you not given up so much of it to your leader?"

She smirked. "Nice try, but I'm not going to implicitly confirm how long I've been under his influence. And he doesn't wonder about it very often, so neither do I."

Bullwinkle's face took on a strange look briefly before he asked a follow-up. "So how much of the old Sam is really left? If you can't even ask yourself things independently, are you really still Sam at all?"

"I can and do ask myself things, but they're usually based on my environment. For example, I've been curious about you. That can't possibly be from the boss, since he doesn't know anything about you."

"What would you like to know?" Bullwinkle asked.

"A name would be nice, but I understand if you don't want to tell me. I'd like to know if you have any loved ones or anyone important to you, but to be honest I won't trust any answer you give me." She spoke calmly and politely, as though ordering a dish at restaurant rather than interrogating her kidnapper.

"You can call me Daniel. And I do have important people, but that's all I'll tell you. I'm not lying, but I won't tell you more than that."

Sam sat forward, her eyes suddenly keen and insightful. "Thank you, Daniel. I also have some feelings about you that I am certain don't come from my boss..."

She began playing with her hair and the agent was shocked to realize that she was trying to be seductive. In the past, she would moan loudly and orgasm every time her mysterious leader did, but aside from that she showed no interest in sexuality.

"Where is this coming from?" Daniel asked, his eyes wide.

"You know, Daniel, we all have certain needs. I have food, water, shelter, and the contentment that my leader is beaming into my head day and night. But there's something else I've been really craving... something that I think would be mutually beneficial..."

Daniel straightened up. He was far too professional to let this filthy, bedraggled prisoner seduce him. "What's that?" he asked.

"A shower," she said with a laugh. "I'm filthy. If you just give me a few minutes to wash up, I'll do any sex act you want. Mutually beneficial, right? Trust me, it'll be better once I'm clean."

Daniel grimaced and stood. "Goodbye, Sam. See you tomorrow."

"I'll look forward to it!" she replied with a grin and a wave.