Part 48 (1/2)
”We've hidden absolutely nothing,” Carrera a.s.sured her.
Gathering her soiled dignity about her representatives of major cosmopolitan progressive organizations like Amnesty were used to more respect respect! she walked in the direction indicated.
Irene Temujin first heard the screams when she reached a point about one hundred meters from the separately walled compound. She began to hurry. The guards at the gate attempted to bar her way until Carrera signaled that it was all right for her to enter. Once past that inside gate, the screaming grew oppressively loud.
A row of five gallows, wire nooses hanging empty, stood just inside the gate. They were low structures, each with a stool underneath, obviously intended to let their victims strangle rather than to mercifully break their necks. Temujin almost retched at seeing them.
Worse was the stink. As soon as Temujin entered the adobe building nearest the gate her nostrils were a.s.sailed with the mixed smell of feces, p.i.s.s, blood, and burnt pork. Once again, a guard made as if to bar her way until Carrera signaled that she was to be allowed in.
Once inside, she saw four men, their arms bound behind them, hanging by those arms from meat hooks attached to the wooden beams of the ceiling. The men's heads hung low, the very picture of abject misery, while their toes barely touched the floor.
”Would you like to record their faces?” Carrera asked genially. When she didn't answer immediately he walked up to the nearest of the hanging men and, grabbing him by the hair, lifted his face for the camera.
Temujin was so shocked she didn't even wonder at Carrera's arrogance in showing her all this horror. Doesn't realize I'm from Doesn't realize I'm from Amnesty? Amnesty? Or that I have Or that I have pull pull around the globe around the globe?
”Be sure to get this, gentlemen,” he told the camera team. ”Ms. Temujin will want it all recorded.” He did the same with each of the others.
”Irene, would you like to see the rest?”
Normally tawny face gone white with horror, the woman gulped and answered, ”Yes.”
In the next cell, a small room showed a half naked man bound to a metal chair. Wires led from a field telephone to the floor where they were lost in a ma.s.s of wires. Wires also were attached directly to the prisoner's genitals. A Sumeri, in the uniform of Sada's brigade, asked questions of the bound prisoner. When answers were not forthcoming, another Sumeri sitting at the table began to turn the crank on the field phone. The bound prisoner screamed and writhed piteously. There was a puddle of urine on the floor. A smell of overripe s.h.i.+t escaped the cell's small window.
The next cell showed a man on a wooden table. Another interrogator asked questions while an a.s.sistant played a blowtorch over the far side of the prisoner's leg, furthest away from the door. The screaming was absolutely hideous and nauseating. There was an overwhelming smell of burnt pork.
Temujin turned and began to storm out. Before she made it she bent over suddenly, adding the smell of her own vomit to the sickening stench that pervaded the facility.
Babel, Hotel Ishtar, 21/7/461 AC Carrera had provided an escort for Irene all the way to Babel. ”It would never do,” he explained, ”for you to be killed in my ZOR.” At least once we've accepted you in and a.s.sumed a sort of tacit responsibility. At least once we've accepted you in and a.s.sumed a sort of tacit responsibility. The escort had consisted of two light wheel vehicles and a heavier truck with a tarp pulled over it. Fernandez had volunteered to serve as escort officer. The escort had consisted of two light wheel vehicles and a heavier truck with a tarp pulled over it. Fernandez had volunteered to serve as escort officer.
Once back at her hotel, Temujin had wasted no time in calling for a press conference. At that, she had made her statement and shown her video of the horrors being perpetrated near Ninewa. She called, forcefully and sincerely, for, ”This illegal occupation to end.”
At about that time, Fernandez walked into the back of the large press room containing hundreds of reporters. He had a fairly large armed escort with him. Temujin, closing her prepared statement, wondered for a moment if they were here to arrest her. She pointed and started to say, ”There's one of the torturers-” when she recognized the face of one of the armed men standing by Fernandez's side.
Oh, s.h.i.+t, she thought. she thought. The b.a.s.t.a.r.ds. The b.a.s.t.a.r.ds.
She didn't need to say it. As one the a.s.sembled media types turned around and saw for themselves.
The man to whom Irene had pointed had appeared on the film she had just shown. He appeared on the film not as one of the guards or interrogators, but as one of the ”victims,” the very first one hanging with his arms behind him, as a matter of fact. (For, unnoticed by Irene, another rope had run from the bound hands to encircle his waist under his clothing.) Despite the current highly amused smile, the face was completely recognizable. So were the faces of every other man in Fernandez's escort, every man who had ridden to Babel in the back of a tarp-covered truck, every man who had been seen under ”torture.”
Yet here he was, here they were, free and armed. That meant...
The reporters turned their questioning faces back toward Temujin who sat there, dumbly.
”If she'd seen nothing,” Fernandez shouted over the hubbub, ”she'd still have reported the same thing. It's her business business to find torture in the world. It's so much her business that she didn't even think to question the show we put on for her. I've got to ask you people, how stupid are to find torture in the world. It's so much her business that she didn't even think to question the show we put on for her. I've got to ask you people, how stupid are you you that you would a.s.sume accurate reporting from a woman as gullible as that you would a.s.sume accurate reporting from a woman as gullible as that that?
”Now, if any of you would like to talk to the ”victims,” they're at your disposal.”
Camp Balboa, Ninewa, 22/7/461 AC ”Patricio, that was just mean! mean!” Lourdes chided as they watched the television in the three bedroom adobe bungalow the troops had put up for them. The party, Carrera and Lourdes plus Sada and his wife, sat on the floor on cus.h.i.+ons. Ruqaya, Sada's wife, had shown Lourdes how to make a first cla.s.s kibsa, kibsa, which sat mostly eaten (with fingers) on a tray in the middle. which sat mostly eaten (with fingers) on a tray in the middle.
Carrera couldn't answer at first; he was laughing too hard.
”He was perfectly correct to do this, Miss Lourdes,” Sada insisted. ”Prestige drives these people, that and their perks. Humiliation is what they fear the most. That woman is personally crushed, probably forever. Her entire organization is humiliated. Patricio has pulled the incisors of a major enemy.”
”It was really Fernandez's idea,” Carrera submitted, humbly, though it was a hard statement to get out through his laughter. ”Frankly, I couldn't believe that she'd be stupid enough to fall for it, that anyone anyone would be stupid enough to fall for it. The tricky part was collecting the special effects, the blood and s.h.i.+t and such, to make it seem real. Fortunately, one of the mess halls had some pork we could burn up with a blowtorch. And the ”victims” and ”interrogators” had already been rehea.r.s.ed.” would be stupid enough to fall for it. The tricky part was collecting the special effects, the blood and s.h.i.+t and such, to make it seem real. Fortunately, one of the mess halls had some pork we could burn up with a blowtorch. And the ”victims” and ”interrogators” had already been rehea.r.s.ed.”
”Those were important, Legate Patricio, but she saw what she expected to see,” Sada explained. ”She made herself herself fall for it.” fall for it.”
”It was still mean mean,” Lourdes insisted.
”But it was clever clever,” Sada's wife, Ruqaya, answered, sipping at her tea.
Hospital Cerro Ancon, 23/7/461 AC If I were truly truly clever clever, thought the doctor, I'd have thought of this myself. It's just amazing what a young girl looking on or helping can do to move progress along I'd have thought of this myself. It's just amazing what a young girl looking on or helping can do to move progress along. The doctor smiled indulgently as young Private Mendoza walked with difficulty, true, but he walked walked with one arm over the shoulder of the lovely young girl who came to see him every day. Her arm was about his waist. with one arm over the shoulder of the lovely young girl who came to see him every day. Her arm was about his waist.
”This is so hard, Quelli,” the boy said, ”and I'm too heavy for you.”
”Nonsense, Jorge. Did you forget I'm a farm girl, not some soft, city-bred wilting flower?”
Mendoza had wondered what she looked like. At some level he knew it could not matter to him so long as he couldn't see. On the other hand, looks or not she was shaped shaped right. That, he could tell from the press of her tiny body against him and the times they walked with only his arm around her waist for support. right. That, he could tell from the press of her tiny body against him and the times they walked with only his arm around her waist for support. G.o.d, is she shaped right! G.o.d, is she shaped right!
The pair reached as far as they could in the physical therapy and prosthetics area. Marqueli guided Jorge in a half-stumbling turn and they began the return promenade.
”I heard Legate Carrera and Duce Duce Parilla have decreed a Parilla have decreed a beca beca” an educational scholars.h.i.+p ”for all seriously wounded or decorated veterans,” Marqueli said.
”Something to think on,” Mendoza agreed. ”But I've only got a high school education. And then there's the farm to think about.”
”Well, as to the farm,” the girl answered, ”you really don't need to worry about it. Your mother told me over the phone that she's found someone to work it for her.”
”I know...but that land's been in our family for over four hundred years. It doesn't feel right having someone else work it.”
Marqueli understood that call of the land. Her family, too, had been ranching the same patch for as long as Mendoza's. Indeed, she'd checked the local histories and birth records and discovered that they'd both had ancestors who'd ridden with the semi-legendary Belisario Carrera in his war against Earth. The reason reason she'd checked, though, had been to find out degree of consanguinity. They were, it seemed, roughly seventh cousins...though it was more complicated than that as there was more than one link. The reason she'd checked she'd checked, though, had been to find out degree of consanguinity. They were, it seemed, roughly seventh cousins...though it was more complicated than that as there was more than one link. The reason she'd checked that that ...well...that was for later. ...well...that was for later.
In the interim, there was the torture of Jorge learning to walk to see to.
SS Hildegard Mises, Yithrabi Coast, 23/7/461 AC Relatively few people were actually tortured on the s.h.i.+p. For most, a tour of what was available was generally sufficient. While Jorge and Marqueli worked out his new legs, and Irene Temujin wallowed alone in the abject misery of worldwide embarra.s.sment, other people arrived at a s.h.i.+p registered to Balboa and currently coasting off of Yithrab. The s.h.i.+p was unremarkable, a freighter with nothing much to distinguish it on the outside except for what appeared to be a helicopter platform. An IM-71 helicopter sat on the pad, but only for so long as it took to disgorge five tightly bound men and a woman.
They were prisoners. They'd had all the due process anyone might expect, however, and been found guilty of numerous war crimes to include failure to meet the requirements for legal combatancy. They were illegal illegal combatants, in other words. combatants, in other words.
Identified as outsiders by the men of his brigade that Sada had spread out as ”watchers,” four of the men had been grabbed from a safe house set up by Sumer's dictator in the days before the invasion for just such a purpose. The other two were the homeowner and his wife. All six had been captured in a raid by the Cazador Cohort, aided by some Sumeri guides from Sada's brigade.
The prisoners had been taken, in secret, to another safe house, this one controlled by Sada's men. There all six had been court-martialed, separately, in camera in camera and sentenced to hang. A mullah Carrera had asked Sada for, ”An honest mullah, one who will stay bought.” and two of his a.s.sociates had approved the penalty as fitting under Islamic law. Fernandez had given the mullah six gold drachmae as a reward, to be divided as the mullah, Ha.s.sim, thought fit. and sentenced to hang. A mullah Carrera had asked Sada for, ”An honest mullah, one who will stay bought.” and two of his a.s.sociates had approved the penalty as fitting under Islamic law. Fernandez had given the mullah six gold drachmae as a reward, to be divided as the mullah, Ha.s.sim, thought fit.
The executions had been duly announced, along with the notice that the bodies had been cremated and the ashes scattered against the Day of Judgment when Allah could rejoin their atoms or not, as he saw fit. Instead of having been executed, however, the six were taken at night in a sealed vehicle to the airfield inside the camp and loaded aboard the helicopter. This had then flown them, also in secret, to the s.h.i.+p, the helicopter skimming the waves and even venturing into Farsian airs.p.a.ce to confuse radar.
Gagged with duct tape, none had been given a chance to talk with each other since their capture.