Part 25 (1/2)
”And you think it means...”
”The negotiations are in trouble and she knows it. Why else would she bother climbing into that G.o.d-awful oven of a tower? She was picking out her playthings. And I've been picked.” Jamie sucked air in an effort to soothe her agitated gut and resumed working her hands, alternately fisting and stretching them.
Until that morning, no one had seen Shoo Juh in the three weeks since news of the truce talks broke. The prisoners regarded her absence as a sure sign that the talks were for real. Now, two days after the Red Cross interviews, Shoo Juh had returned. And that smile. Not good. Not good at all.
A glance at Donato told Jamie he remained skeptical. She tried again. ”Sir, if Shoo Juh's back, then there can't be much time left before everything goes to s.h.i.+t.”
”We don't know that,” Donato said. ”You need to calm down, Lieutenant. You need to act like a leader and calm down and help everyone else calm down. Understand?”
* 205 *
”No, sir, I don't understand. I don't think we should calm down.
Not now. Not ever 'til we get our a.s.ses outta here and back to our own people.”
Donato stopped walking. ”Dammit, Gwynmorgan.”
”Sir, once the last of the Red Cross people go, I'm toast. We've all got our shots now. Our supplies of antibiotics and antifungals. They're finis.h.i.+ng up today, right? Leaving tomorrow morning.” Donato shrugged an affirmative.
”I can't-” Jamie worked her hands faster now, kept her face away from Donato. ”I can't do it again. I-I'd rather be killed escaping.”
”Lieutenant, I don't want to hear this. Nothing has happened.”
”That's exactly right. We're still here. Shoo Juh's still here. They'll still shoot us like Cavanaugh if we try to leave.”
”You'll attempt it no matter what I say, won't you?” Jamie didn't reply.
”How many want to go with you?” Donato asked.
”Haven't talked to anybody about it. Probably a lot more today than yesterday.”
It took Donato a while to speak. ”I'm a mistake, you know.”
”Sir?”
”I didn't just get captured. The Zhong kidnapped me. Very daring.
But I was the wrong guy. They wanted the brigade G-Two, but the d.a.m.n fools couldn't figure out the difference between a man wearing a brown oak leaf and a woman wearing a black one. h.e.l.l, I'm not even intel. I'm the world's original fobbit screenwiz. Supply all the way. I'd been on this h.e.l.lhole island about six hours when it happened. Couldn't even tell the Zhong where the latrines were, much less anything about intel ops.”
”Guess that's the good news.”
”All I want to do is get the h.e.l.l home so I can resign my commission and go to work for my father-in-law like I should have four years ago. I think our best bet is to wait out the truce talks. But Shoo Juh interrogated me, too. And I don't want to ever be in the same room with that woman again.”
”You and me both, sir.” Okay, so he hasn't actually denied me permission. That'll do.
n.o.body knew it, but Jamie had acquired the first tool of escape the day the Red Cross showed up in the yard. As one of three POW * 206 *
officers, second behind Donato, Jamie'd been ordered to select a crew of prisoners to do the actual work of erecting the tables for the Red Cross people to use during prisoner interviews. When the Zhong guard standing next to her pulled out a handkerchief to wipe sweat off his face, she glimpsed a pen fall unseen from his pocket.
She worried, even then, about Shoo Juh lying in wait, setting her up. But she placed her boot over the pen anyway, kneeled down anyway to retie her bootlaces, retrieve the pen, and hide it. Bent to eighty degrees, the metal clip on the pen's cap would suffice as a torque wrench.
Of course, Jamie still needed a pick. Can't practice without a pick.
And G.o.d knew she needed the practice. Almost three weeks of North Carolina's ministrations had helped her hands regain some dexterity, but would she still have anything like the subtle sensitivity so essential to coaxing open a lock? A paperclip, a paperclip, my kingdom for a paperclip.
v ”LT ma'am, wake up.”
”Come on, North Carolina, that ma'am stuff has gotta go.” Then Jamie opened her eyes. Sun hasn't risen yet. ”What's up? What time is it?”
”Zero-five-thirty.” North Carolina's face kaleidoscoped from uneasiness to excitement to fear. ”The major just found out the Zhong commandant's coming to make an announcement.”
”Coming? You mean here, to the cells?”
North Carolina nodded. ”Before first muster. Before they unlock the doors.”
Oh s.h.i.+t. ”When?”
”Fifteen minutes. Zero-five-forty-five. Whaddaya think it means, LT?”
”Dunno, North Carolina.”
v ”Only temporary.” Thus did the Zhong commandant's announcement begin-and end. He sprinkled ”only temporary” into the * 207 *
middle a couple of times, too, but it didn't make his news any easier to hear: The truce talks had been ”recessed.” He offered no specifics; worse, he said the four remaining Red Cross people would be required to stay in Malihud ”to protect their safety.” For how long? ”Jin chee,” came the ambiguous reply-soon.
The POWs whispered about hostages. Yet because of the Red Cross presence, and perhaps especially because of the senator's presence, the Zhong behaved as if successful negotiations were inevitable and imminent-beginning shortly after the commandant's announcement, when the cell doors were opened only a half hour later than usual.
”Yeah, sure,” muttered Jamie. ”They gotta pretend, don't they?
Otherwise they've brazenly kidnapped an International Red Cross affiliated United States senator who's supposed to be safe here. Safe and free to leave when she d.a.m.n well wants.” Donato nodded. Others nodded. But by day's end, only Jamie wanted to talk about it anymore.
”Bao?” she spouted. ”That means protect, defend. What do the Red Cross people need to be protected from? What does Senator Hillinger need to be protected from? The PIA maybe? Does that mean the Zhong can't control the PIA? Or are they using the senator to-”
”Hey,” Donato said. ”Maybe it's just about the mudslides and washed-out roads.”
”Except that-”
”Enough, Gwynmorgan.” Donato glanced around the cells. The last of the POWs were returning and behind them the guards had started the lockdown ritual. ”Don't push it.”
Jamie understood. n.o.body wanted to preserve Saint Eh Mo's truce talks regimen more than she did. The cells unlocked during the day, the POWs enjoying unrestricted access to the yard. Food and medicine still coming. The Red Cross team continuing its work unhindered out of its small office in the camp's administration wing just on the other side of that heavy door in the yard's wall. The guards pretending to smile. And the interrogation chambers still vacant.
Hardly more than twenty-four hours after hearing that the truce negotiations had been suspended, the POWs' fears eased and they'd reached consensus: The breakdown truly must be temporary-or else the old draconian security would already have been imposed again. The brief spike of interest in escape waned once more.
But not for Jamie. It's all about time. If the talks don't get back * 208 *
on track, they'll let the Red Cross people go, they'll nasty up camp security, and the rest of us could be stuck here for years. G.o.dd.a.m.n, there's so much I don't know, so much I can't even begin to guess. How long before it all goes to s.h.i.+t? And where the f.u.c.k am I going to find a paperclip?
v ”Think I could melt down a toothbrush handle with a lighter?” Jamie asked North Carolina during their usual afternoon perambulation of the yard.
”Ma'am?”