"What are you going to do with me?" he asked, his voice high pitched and faltering.
I continued untying him, letting the possibilities of the situation fester in his head while I strapped him to the chair. I knew my silence would be much more unnerving than any words right now, and I let it work for me. He shuddered as the last buckle snapped into place.
I stood back, as if admiring my handiwork, and his eyes followed my movements frantically. I looked at him, my face expressionless, my eyes cold.
"Tell me about Jack," I suggested.
Surprise crawled across his face, followed by bewilderment. Then understanding dawned.
"This is about the girl, isn't it? Well, I don't know where she is - she got away. Came damn close to killing me too, the little bitch. I know the address of the place she's holed up in, though. I can give it to you, but you'd better hurry if you want to get to her first. I gave that address to Jack last night, and he seemed keen to extricate her, if you know what I mean. He could be there now." He looked at me expectantly, as if he thought I should thank him. I didn't. Instead I left him tied to that chair and climbed the steps and opened the trapdoor and stepped out into the barn. I took my phone out of my pocket and dialled Fergus.
"S'up brother?"
I spoke rapidly. "Jack knows where Rebecca is, Fergus, and he may be planning to attack any minute. You know what to do. I'll be back as soon as I can. I need to finish my conversation with James here."
"Thanks for the heads up. We'll sort things out from this end. By the way, I managed to pinpoint Jack's mobile number by tracking James' calls over the past few days thanks to Eric's phone and my spectacular skill with all things hackable. I should be able to locate his base in another few hours. See you later." He hung up.
I replaced the phone in my pocket and headed back into the underground room, once again shutting the door behind me. James must have heard at least part of the conversation because he'd reverted to looking puzzled.
"You are going to tell me everything you know about Jack," I said coldly.
"Do you know what Jack is?" he asked me, enunciating slowly, as if he were speaking to a small annoying child.
"Yes. How many vampires does he have with him?"
He paled. "So you do know. I'm glad. Now you'll understand why I can't tell you anything."