Situation Room. Jack Mars

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СКАЧАТЬ Li had been waterboarded before now, and in all likelihood, it was the Chinese government that had done it.

      Suddenly Li’s mouth opened in a scream. It was a silent scream, his jaws opened to their full extension. It somehow reminded Luke of a werewolf howling in agony during the bone-breaking transition from human to canine form. Except there was no sound. Almost nothing came out of Li, just a low gagging sort of noise deep in his throat.

      His entire body was stiff now, every muscle tensed as if the electrical current had just gone up ten notches.

      “You were a traitor,” Luke said. “An enemy of the state. But you were rehabilitated in prison. Torture was part of the process. They made you into an agent, but not a valuable one. You’re one of the expendables. That’s why you were out here in the field, and that’s why you had cyanide pills. If you got caught, you were supposed to kill yourself. There was almost no way you wouldn’t get caught, right? But you didn’t do it, Li. You didn’t kill yourself, and now we’re the only hope you’ve got.”

      “Please!” Li shouted. “Please don’t do it!”

      The man’s body shook uncontrollably. More than that. A smell started to come from him, the thick humid smell of feces.

      “Oh my God,” he said. “Oh my God. Help me. Help me.”

      “What’s going on here?” Ed said as he returned with the watering cans. He made a face as the smell hit his nose. “Oh, man.”

      Luke raised his eyebrows. He almost felt sympathy for this man. Then he thought of the more than a thousand dead, and the many thousands who had lost their homes. Nothing, no negative life experience, could justify doing that.

      “Yeah, Li’s a mess,” he said. “He’s a trauma case. Looks like this isn’t his first time around with waterboarding.”

      Ed nodded. “Good. So he knows the drill already.” He looked down at Li. “We’re gonna do it anyway, you hear me, girly boy? We don’t care about the smell, so if that’s your game, it didn’t work.” Ed glanced at Luke. “I’ve seen this before. People try it because they think that the smell is so rank we won’t want to go forward. Or maybe we’ll take pity on them. Or whatever.” He shook his head. “The smell is nasty, but I’ve never seen it work. We wouldn’t be here if we were the sensitive type, Li. I’ve smelled men after they’ve been disemboweled. Believe me, it’s worse than anything you can push out the regular way.”

      “Please,” Li said again. He said it quietly now, almost a whisper. His body was shaking out of control. He hung his head and stared at the floor. “Please don’t do it. I can’t take it.”

      “Give me something,” Luke said. “Give me something good, and then we’ll see. Look at me, Li.”

      Li’s head hung even lower. He shook it. “I cannot look at you now.” His face made a grimace, a mask of humiliation. Then he started crying.

      “Help me. Please help me.”

      “You better give me something,” Luke said. “Or we’re going to get started.”

      Luke stood ten feet away and watched him. Li was slumped over in the chair, his head low, his arms tight behind his broad back, his entire body trembling. There was no organization to it – every part seemed to be doing something different and unrelated to every other part. Luke noticed now that the crotch of Li’s jumpsuit was wet. He had also pissed himself.

      Luke took a deep breath. They’d have to get somebody in here to clean this guy up.

      “Li?” he said.

      Li was still facing the ground. His voice sounded like it was coming from the bottom of a well. “There is a warehouse. It’s a small warehouse, with an office. An importer of Chinese goods. In the office, everything is explained.”

      “Whose office is it?” Luke said.

      “Mine.”

      “It’s a front?” Ed said.

      Li tried to shrug. His body jittered and jived. His teeth chattered as he talked. “Mostly. It had to be somewhat functional, or else there is no cover story.”

      “Where is it?”

      Li mumbled something.

      “What?” Luke said. “I don’t hear you. If you play with me, we’re going to do this the hard way. You think Ed wants you off the hook? Think again.”

      “It’s in Atlanta,” Li said, clear and firm now, as if telling it was a relief. “The warehouse is in Atlanta. That’s where I was based.”

      Luke smiled.

      “Well, you can give us the address, and we can fly down to Atlanta. We’ll be right back in a few hours.” He put his hand on Li’s shoulder. “God help you if we find out you’re lying.”

*

      “Nice job, Swann,” Luke said. “I couldn’t have asked for better if I had written the script myself.”

      “Did I ever mention I was in the theater club in high school? I played Mack the Knife one year.”

      “You missed your calling,” Luke said. “You could’ve gone to Hollywood based on what I saw in there.”

      They moved down the concrete walkway toward the waiting black SUV. Two men in FEMA jumpsuits had just exited the SUV and gone into the cabin. Luke glanced at the surroundings. All around them were fences and razor wire. Behind the closest guard tower, a steep green hillside rose up toward the northern mountains of Georgia.

      Swann smiled. “I tried to put just the right note of moral indignation into it.”

      “You had me fooled,” Ed said.

      “Well, it was real. I didn’t have to act. I’m really not for torturing people.”

      “Neither are we,” Ed said. “At least, not all the time.”

      “Did you do it?” Swann said.

      Luke smiled. “What do you think?”

      Swann shook his head. “I was gone only ten minutes before you came out, so I’m guessing that you didn’t.”

      Ed clapped him on the back. “Keep guessing, data analyst.”

      “Well, did you or didn’t you?” Swann said. “Guys?”

      Within minutes, the three of them were back on the helicopter, rising over the dense forest and headed south to Atlanta.

      CHAPTER SIX

      10:05 a.m.

      United States Naval Observatory – Washington, DC

      “Congressman, thank you for coming.”

      Susan Hopkins reached out to shake the hand of the tall man in the sharp blue suit. He was United States Representative from Ohio, Michael Parowski. He had prematurely white hair and squinty pale blue eyes. Fifty-five years old, he was handsome in a rugged, Marlboro man sort of way. Blue-collar born and bred, he had the big stone hands and the broad shoulders of a man СКАЧАТЬ