He was confined to a single metal chair. His hands were zip tied to the arms of the chair. The chair was uncomfortable as any metal chair might be. But that was about it. He was perfectly fine otherwise.

    The room he is inside is a damp concrete box with a single metal door. There was a single light above him that was flickering in and out. It was not the most uncomfortable environment he has been in before. For a torture room it was very mediocre.

    Two men opened and walked in through the metal door. They were dressed like a pair of gangsters. Very generic with the gold metal chains and visible gang tattoos. They each had something in their hands. One of them is wearing baggy jeans and has a hammer in his hand. The other one with a loose dress shirt has garden shears in his hands.

    "You are going to tell us everything you know. Or I am going to take this hammer and start smashing your fingers until they are a bloody paste, yeah. Do you understand?" Baggy jeans asked him with an accent that he could only describe as slum slang.

    Jace looked between them before shaking his head, "okay you have it completely wrong. You can''t just immediately threaten a person and question them. First you start off with torture then you start interrogating."

    The pair of gangsters looked at each other in confusion.

    Jace then nodded at their respective weapons. "Next off, you can''t use those things. They might be good if you have nothing else on hand, but shears imply you will be removing limbs or appendages. But if you cut off an appendage without having someone ready to stop the bleeding they will just die. Then there is the hammer." Jace just shook his head.

    "Whaz wrong with my hammer?" Baggy Jeans asked in confusion while Loose Dress Shirt frowned at his garden shears.

    Jace shrugged his shoulders, "it is just so generic. Besides, the pain caused from it does not linger that well. I mean you can break limbs and crush fingers but that is about it. Tell me you were at least going to hit me in spots that are sensitive."

    Baggy Jeans looked embarrassed as he shrugged, "maybe."

    "You weren''t were you?" Jace shook his head. "If you are going to come at me you have to come at me with the idea you are going to distribute the maximum amount of pain. More importantly, you have to realize that I am a person."

    The gangsters exchanged a look of confusion, "what does being a person have anything to do with this? We can just cut you until you talk."

    "No you can''t." Jace huffed and shook his head. "The idea is to cause pain with the least amount of damage. Basically you want to prolong the… interrogatee… victim… captured individual?"

    "I think interrogatee works." Loose Dress Shirt spoke up for the first time. "Or victim from an outside point of view." He tossed his shears onto the ground.

    Jace nodded, "okay, like I was saying. You want ot prolong the interrogatee''s life while still inflicting torture. If you cut him up or cause other damage that causes them to bleed it will just cause him to go unconscious and then die."

    "So how do we do that?" Baggy Jeans asked in exasperation.

    "Oh let me show you!" Jace responded with a smile. With a swift kick of his leg he broke Loose Dress Shirt''s leg at knee. The man screamed bloody murder while Baggy Jeans was stunned. Jace slipped his right hand out of the zip tie, the zip tie easily snapping under his strength. He reached forward and grabbed the hammer out of Baggy Jean''s hand.

    Jace quickly flipped the hammer in his hand. Then he jammed the claw-end of the hammer into Baggy Jean''s knee. He screamed in pain as his hands went to the hammer that was sticking out of his leg. Jace pulled his other hand, snapping the other zip tie with ease.

    He reached over and grabbed Loose Dress Shirt by the head. He quickly pulled up and to the side, earning a quick crack and snap that silenced the man''s screams. Jace tossed the man''s body to the side, focusing on Baggy Jeans who began pulling the hammer out of his knee.

    Jace yanked the hammer out of the man''s knee and out of Baggy Jean''s hand. With his other hand he pushed Baggy Jeans into the chair as he was grabbing at his bloody knee.

    "I apologize but I will have to demonstrate quickly otherwise-" Jace stopped mid sentence as the simulation suddenly froze. Then after a few seconds he was in the white hexagonal space again. Then the man that he spoke to before he entered the pod spoke to him.

    "Sergeant Steel, it has not even been an hour. I understand you already have a strong grasp of torture techniques. But the whole point of this exercise is to survive through being tortured. Not to escape and try to torture your would be torturers." The man sighed and Jace just shrugged in response. "We will start you in on the next simulation. Thankfully the restrictions on you will be greater for the rest of these."

    —-------------------------------

    "I see that Sergeant Steel is already on the second simulation. Should I assume that he broke the first one?" Director Fenrir asked as she stood in the center of the Project Tartarus surveillance hub. Usually the video monitors consisted of cameras that ran throughout the section that the candidates of Project Tartarus were confined to. But at the moment they were all watching the candidates while they were in their simulations.

    "Yes ma''am, he would have broken the record for breaking the simulation if he did not take the time to confuse the program." One of the people responded with a chuckle.

    "Well that was expected." Fenrir sighed while shaking her head. "Was there anything else of note, or anything else we expected that did or did not happen?"

    "Specialist Nina Diaz had to be pulled out temporarily when she realized what the training consisted of. She suffered a panic attack while in the simulation and had to be pulled out. We are waiting for her to recover and undergo a psych evaluation before we put her back in. We already have her marked to undergo the special training regimen that you suggested." One of the techs told her.

    "That is within the expected parameters. What else happened?" Director Fenrir dismissed the news, fully expecting that. "I am sure there has been at least one or two interesting bits we never expected."

    "I have a few people that are having trouble with being interrogated. But for the most part it is people we have pegged as weak willed. All has been within parameters aside from one B-Rank. He has been talking and has not stopped talking since the his torture began." Another of the techs told her as he looked over his shoulder.

    Director Fenrir raised an eyebrow in surprise. "What has he been saying? Anything that would get him washed out of the project?"

    "No, it is mostly just gibberish. Nothing that would be considered revealing. At the moment he is talking about the different ways to cook a tomato. Should I make a note in his file for future reference." The tech asked.

    Director Fenrir chuckled in amusement, "yes, specifically write that he is talkative even while he is being tortured. Have the candidate''s assigned technician adjust the simulations appropriately to account for the candidate''s malfunction."

    "Yes, ma''am!" The tech spun around and started doing what she told him to. S~ea??h the n?velFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

    "I have another S-Rank breaking the first simulation." Another tech spoke up pointing to one of his screens. On the screen was Dahlia Dakota, she was smashing one of the interrogators'' heads repeatedly into a wall.

    "Okay… start her in on-"

    "I have an S-Rank breaking it as well." Another tech called out.

    "Same here!" A third tech raised his hand.

    "Well shit." Director Fenrir took a deep breath. "After they exit the simulation give them their four hour break then start them in on the next simulation. That goes for anyone else that manages to finish early." After a moment Director Fenrir realized something, "Except for Sergeant Steel, only let him take a break when he is near the twenty hour mark after breaking a simulation or finishing one."

    "Understood. I think all of the S-Ranks except Specialist Diaz are going to end up speeding through the simulations." One of the techs responded. "Should we alert Commander Eelson to the changes so he can plan classes and assignments accordingly?"

    "Yes, inform Commander Eelson." Director Fenrir confirmed and turned to leave the room but stopped. "Actually, tell the commander to consider sending Sergeant Steel in with Specialist Diaz through one of those simulations. It should help slow him down and help her cope."