Ibrahim wasn’t convinced that the American would break. However, he didn’t offer his unsolicited opinion. The only answers Siriner accepted from his people were “Yes, sir,” and “I’m sorry, sir.”
“Yes, sir,” the master-at-arms said.
“Mahmoud,” said Siriner, “I’ve heard that there are women prisoners as well?”
“Yes, sir.”
Siriner looked back at Sadik. “Select a woman to watch the torture. She will go second. I want this vehicle working for the next part of our operation. It may help us guide the infiltrators.”
“Yes, sir.”
Siriner dismissed his master-at-arms. He turned back to Mahmoud and Ibrahim. “Mahmoud. I see you wear Walid’s ring.”
“Yes, sir. He gave it to me before he—left us.”
“He was my oldest friend,” said Siriner. “He will not die unavenged.”
Siriner walked from behind the desk. His expression was a strange mix of grief and pride. Ibrahim had seen the expression before in the faces of people who had lost friends or brothers, husbands or sons to a cause that was equally close to them.
“As we expected, Syrian Army troops have begun moving to the north. Mahmoud. You’re acquainted with the role that Walid was to have played in the second phase of our operation?”
“I am, sir,” Mahmoud replied. “Upon his return he was going to relieve Field Commander Kenan. Kenan is going to lead the raid upon the Syrian Army outpost in Quteife.”
Siriner stood in front of Mahmoud and peered into his eyes. “The raid is vital to our plan. However, Allah is merciful. He has returned you to us. I see in that a sign, Mahmoud al-Rashid. A sign that you and not Kenan are to take Walid’s part.”
Mahmoud’s tired eyelids raised slightly. “Commander?”
“I would like you to lead the Base Deir group to Quteife and then Damascus. Our man there awaits the signal. Set out with the others and I will give it.”
Mahmoud was still surprised. He bowed his head. “Of course, Commander. I am honored.”
Siriner embraced Mahmoud. He patted his back. “I know you must be tired. But it is important that I be represented in Damascus by a hero of our cause. Go and see Kenan. He will give you your instructions. You can sleep while you wait for the Syrians.”
“Again, sir, I am honored.”
Siriner moved over to Ibrahim. “I am equally proud of you, Ibrahim.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“Because of your role in the day’s victory, I have special need of you,” Siriner said. “I wish for you to remain with me.”
Ibrahim’s mouth fell at the edges. “Sir! I would like to be allowed to go with my brother!”
“That is understandable,” Siriner said as he hugged Ibrahim. “But I need a man who has dealt with the Americans and their van. This is not a question of courage but of efficiency.”
“But commander. It was Hasan who spoke—”
“You will remain here,” Siriner said firmly. He stepped back. “You drove the van from Turkey. You may have seen something that will prove helpful. And you have experience with machines. That in itself is more than many of my soldiers have.”
“I understand, sir,” Ibrahim said. He looked narrowly at his brother without moving his head. He fought hard to conceal his disappointment.
“I will have a talk with the Americans,” Siriner told him. “For now I want you to rest. You’ve earned it.”
“Thank you, sir,” Ibrahim replied.
Siriner looked at Mahmoud. “Good luck,” he said, and then went back to his desk. The men had been dismissed
Ibrahim and Mahmoud turned smartly, then returned to the tunnel. They stood there facing one another.
“I’m sorry,” Ibrahim said. “I belong at your side.”
“You will be even closer,” Mahmoud said. He touched his chest. “You’ll be in here. Make me proud of you, little brother.”
“I will,” Ibrahim said. “And you be careful.”
The men hugged for a long minute, after which Mahmoud walked deeper into the cave to meet with the field commander.
Ibrahim walked toward the makeshift barracks, where he sat on an empty cot and removed his boots. He lay back slowly, stretching toes and leg muscles which were happy to be free of their burden. He shut his eyes. Ibrahim was aware of the soldiers trooping past him, toward the cells.
Siriner would have a “talk” with the Americans. He would torture them. They would break. And then their leader would have nothing to do but help the other Kurds run the computers and drive the van.
It wasn’t glorious. He wasn’t even convinced that it was useful. But he was tired and perhaps he wasn’t thinking clearly.
In any case, he hoped the American did break. He wanted him to capitulate, to cry out. What right did any foreigner have to interfere with the fight for Kurdish freedom? And to take the life of a fighter who had displayed compassion as well as heroism was unforgivable.
He listened as the grates creaked open, as two prisoners were pulled out, as the others shouted from their cells. Their cries were like a campfire on a cold night, warming him. Then his mind drifted to the events of the past day and visions of the storm they would unleash before this day was through. He thought of his brother and the pride he felt for what he was about to do. And the warmth settled over him like a blanket.
THIRTY-FOUR
Tuesday, 11:43 a.m.,
the Bekaa Valley, Lebanon
When she was a young girl, Sondra DeVonne used to help her father Carl as he worked in the kitchen of their South Norwalk, Connecticut, apartment. By day, he managed a fast-food hamburger restaurant on the heavily traveled Post Road. By night, he mixed ingredients by the bowlful looking for a custard recipe which would taste better than anything else on the market. After two years, he came up with a soft ice cream which his wife sold on weekends at Little League games and carnivals. A year after that, he quit his job and opened an ice cream stand on Route 7 in Wilton, Connecticut. Two years later, he opened his second stand. A few months before Sondra joined the United States Air Force, he opened his twelfth Carl’s Custard and was hailed as Connecticut African-American Businessperson of the Year.
Watching her father at night, the ten-year-old girl learned patience. She also learned dedication and silence. He worked like an artist, intense and unhappy with distractions. Sondra always remembered the time he’d gotten so much powdered sugar on his face that he looked like a mime. She’d sat on the small, butcher-block kitchen table for nearly sixty full minutes, turning the crank of the ice cream maker and swallowing back a laugh. Had she succumbed, her father would have been deeply offended. For that long, long hour she kept her eyes shut and sang silently to herself—any top-forty tune that would keep her mind off her dad.
This wasn’t her small kitchen in South Norwalk. The man in front of her wasn’t her father. But Sondra had flashes of being small and helpless again as her hands were pulled behind her and cuffed to a waist-high iron ring. In front of her, on the other side of the cavern, Mike Rodgers’s shirt was cut off with a hunting knife. His arms were pulled up and handcuffed to a ring which hung from the stone ceiling of the cavern. His toes barely touched the floor. As an afterthought, the man with the knife cut a bloody pencil-mustache over Rodgers’s upper lip.
In the glow of the single overhead bulb, Sondra could see Rodgers’s face. He was looking in her direction though not at her. As the blood ran in streams into his mouth and down his chin he was focusing on something—a memory? A poem? A dream? At the same time he was obviously marshaling his energy for whatever lay ahead.
After a few minutes, two men arrived. The first one held a small butane blowtorch. The blue-white flame was already lit and hissing. The other man walked with an imperious strut. His hands were clasped behind him and his pale eyes shifted from Rodgers to Sondra and back again. There was no remorse in those eyes, nor lust. There was just a sense of cold purpose.
The man stopped with his back to Sondra. “I am the commander,” he said in a rich, thinly accented voice. “Your name does not matter to me. If you die, it does not matter to me. All that matters is that you tell us everything you know about the operation of your vehicle. If you do not do so quickly, you will die where you are and we will move on to the young lady. She will suffer a different punishment”—he looked at her again—“a far more humiliating one.” He looked back at Rodgers. “When we are finished with her we will move to another member of your group. If you elect to cooperate, you will be returned to your cell. Though you murdered one of our people, you did what any good soldier would have done. I have no interest in punishing you and you will be released as soon at it can be arranged. Do you wish to tell us what you know?”