It's better to conquer them than to command the steel torrent

Chapter 136 | Rest in peace
When Shank walked up to her, Grishena looked up at him, her blonde hair disheveled.

"It's you?" she said weakly. "I don't know much. Just kill me."

This is also an ambiguous statement, mixed with the truth of 'single-line contact' to interfere with the interrogators, and her so-called 'not many' is also a vague word.

Monica stepped forward, grabbed Grishena's hair, and sneered, "Still unwilling to give in? Then let me see how long you can hold out!"

Soon, several interrogators surrounded her, put towels over her face, and began pouring water on her.

Waterboarding is probably the most common and effective form of torture, as it causes the person being interrogated to feel like they are drowning and suffocating.

At first, the person might be able to resist by holding their breath, but once they choke on water, the water droplets entering their respiratory tract will irritate their bronchi and lungs. The person being interrogated can only struggle desperately, in extreme pain, and often loses consciousness within minutes. During this process, they may even lose control of their bladder and bowels.

Shank saw that Grishena's eyes were filled with despair and pain, and she quickly lost her spirit.

However, Monica didn't care about any of that and immediately asked someone to find a way to wake her up so she could continue watering the plants.

This scene made Shang Ke somewhat uncomfortable.

Killing and torture are not the same thing. Psychologically speaking, taking a life cleanly and decisively is much more 'normal' than trying to torture and inflict pain in various ways.

She coughed intermittently, "I don't know... I don't know anyone else... The only informant I contacted was a man at the district post office... a tall man with blue eyes..."

One of the female agents present turned her head to indicate that this was definitely true.

Three weeks ago, the Second Division did attempt to arrest a suspicious person working at the post office, but the person resisted fiercely and they were unable to capture him alive.

Considering that Ivan Ross's agents stationed in Budapest mostly maintained single-line contact and knew almost nothing about each other, Monica felt that she couldn't pry any valuable information out of Grisana, but she was still somewhat unwilling to give up.

So Monica signaled to continue the torture, as a way of venting her anger.

Upon seeing this, Shang Ke couldn't help but grit his teeth and gasp.

No wonder they say women are more ruthless when they hurt other women; some of their methods are things men could never come up with. Now he's seeing it for himself. He sighed inwardly.

"So can we be sure that the remaining spies in Budapest have been eliminated?" he asked.

“Shang, I can only answer you ‘maybe.’ At least in the past week, apart from her, we haven’t found anything suspicious,” Monica replied, pointing to Grisana.

Shang Ke nodded.

He saw the interrogators fiddling with tools—pliers, bone saw, scalpel, and so on.

Huh? What do you want?
He said in a deep voice, "Hmm... what other information can this woman possibly get out of me, like code words or special symbols?"

"They should be gone. We figured out the codes and markings when we interrogated the others last month."

"Then just execute them. It feels like you've gone from interrogation to torture."

Upon hearing this, Monica realized she had some perverse tendencies and stopped the torture.

The group went over and untied the battered and bruised Grishenna. She looked particularly pitiful, barely clothed, and collapsed helplessly on the blood-stained ground.

Shank realized he had no physiological reaction to the scene—it seemed he wasn't perverted enough.

"When do you usually carry out executions, Major Sabo?"

"Usually the next morning."

"Let's move it forward today and hand it over to the military police officers and soldiers."

Monica, confused, hesitated for a moment before agreeing, "Okay, as you wish." A group of military police accompanied Shank, and he took a first-aid kit from one of them, took out a morphine injection, and tossed it to Grishena.

He sighed and said, “Kate Grischna, we have confirmed that you are an agent of Ivan Ross’s intelligence service, posing a serious threat to Hurricane in Budapest, including but not limited to instructing the bombing of military targets and spying on deployments. Your espionage is not protected under international law. Considering that Ivan Ross is at war with Hurricane, you will not be extradited. In my capacity as acting commander of the ‘Hunyat’ Gendarmerie Regiment, I sentence you to death by firing squad. You have no right to appeal, and the execution will be carried out immediately.”

Shang Ke quickly finished reciting the standard, formulaic lines, then half-squatted down and asked, "Say your last words."

With trembling hands, Grisana picked up the painkiller needle, removed the protective cap, and inserted it into her skin.

"Thank you..." Her eyes revealed a complex emotion, and she regained a glimmer of hope, as if she had been relieved.

After a long silence, she said weakly, "Tell my grandmother that I'm sorry I haven't been able to go back for so long. My job is good and I earn a lot... The money I sent should have arrived. Tell her to use two thousand rubles to pay off her debts first, and then use some money to treat her eyes at the Orel Eye Clinic. Don't worry about the medical expenses. I miss her so much... Her address is Orel, Volkovsk town, next to Lev's bakery, Grishin's house."

The transcriber who was taking notes couldn't help but look up at Shank and Monica.

The latter's gaze remained indifferent and unmoved.

The former's breathing became slightly heavier, and he said calmly, "This letter will be sent out through the Red Cross via a neutral country. Well, I don't have time to wait any longer."

Then, several military police officers came over and lifted her up.

Shang Ke ordered the soldiers who came with him, "This is the enemy agent who pointed out the coordinates of the regimental headquarters. Select five of you to be executed."

As they passed each other, Grishena forced a smile and whispered, "Thank you, God bless you."

Soon, Grishena was escorted out of the basement and brought to the wall of a factory building on the ground floor.

The soldiers tied her hands and feet and made her kneel facing the wall.

Ten meters away, five Mannlicher rifles were pointed at her back.

"shooting."

"Bang bang bang-"

After a series of gunshots, five bullet holes and a pool of blood appeared on the concrete wall.

Grishenna's body collapsed limply to her side on the ground, twitched a few times, and then fell silent.

"Rest in peace," Shang Ke murmured, gazing in that direction.

He walked out of the basement, preparing to take a car to the division headquarters.

Monica sensed a hint of disappointment in him and couldn't help but follow up to ask, "Shang, you seem to feel sorry for her?"

"Perhaps," Shank said slowly in a deep voice, "but to you Huns, she is a hateful spy, and I don't like to be generous with other people's money."

“I hope this damn war ends soon,” Monica spat angrily.

The end? This is just the beginning.

Shang Ke took a deep breath to calm himself down and changed the subject, saying, "You should also hurry up and resume your normal missions. Technical reconnaissance is indispensable. I hope you will strengthen your signal monitoring of enemy regimental units. It's still unreasonable that we haven't identified the numbers of one-third of the enemy units."

“Okay, we’ll do our best.” Sabo-Monica saluted him, then sincerely praised, “Shang, you’re becoming more and more like a commander.”

Shank gave an awkward smile and a helpless look, then said earnestly, "You said the same thing last time. I said I could only command the Royal Guard, and then, not long after, the commander of the 'Hungati' Gendarmerie Regiment was killed by artillery fire."

So, dear Major Sabo, please stop jinxing!

(End of this chapter)