‘Do any of you want more?’ whispered the newest prisoner harshly, crouching, turning, his height still apparent. ‘You are fools! If it weren’t for you idiots, I would not have been taken! I despise all of you! Now, leave me alone! I told you, I must think!’
‘Who are you to insult us and give us orders?’ screeched a wild-eyed post-adolescent, a harelip impeding his diction. It was all a scene out of Kafka—half-crazed prisoners prone to instant violence, yet nervously aware of more brutal punishment from the guards. Whispers became harsh commands, suppressed insults screams of defiance, while those who spoke looked continuously towards the door, making sure the babble beyond covered whatever they said, keeping it from eavesdropping enemy ears.
‘I am who I am! And that is enough for she-goat fools—’
‘The guards told us your name!’ stammered another inmate, this one perhaps thirty, with an unkempt beard and long, filthy hair; he cupped his lips with his hands as though they would stifle his words. ‘”Amal Bahrudil” they yelled. “The trusted one from East Berlin and we’ve caught him!”… So what? Who are you to us? I don’t even like the way you look. You look very odd to me! What is an Amal Bahrudi? Why should we care?’
Kendrick glanced over at the door and the agitated group of prisoners talking excitedly. He took a step forward, again whispering harshly. ‘Because I was sent by others much higher than anyone here or in the embassy. Much, much higher. Now, I’m telling you for the last time, let me think! I have to get information out—’
‘You try and you’ll put us all in front of a firing squad!’ exclaimed another prisoner through his teeth; he was short and strangely well groomed, except for unaccountable splotches of urine staining his prison trousers.
‘That bothers you?’ replied Evan, staring at the terrorist, his voice low and filled with loathing. It was the moment to establish his credo further. ‘Tell me, pretty little boy, are you afraid to die?’
‘Only because I could no longer serve our cause!’ gushed the boy-man defensively, his eyes darting about, seeking justification. A few in the crowd agreed; there were emotional, knee-jerk nods from those close enough to hear him, swept up in his fears. Kendrick wondered how pervasive was this deviation from zealotry.
‘Keep your voice down, you fool!’ said Evan icily. ‘Your martyrdom is service enough.’ He turned and walked through the hesitantly parting bodies to the stone wall of the immense cell where there was an open rectangular window with iron bars embedded in the concrete.
‘Not so fast, odd-looking one!’ The rough voice, barely heard above the noise, came from the outer fringes of the crowd. A stocky, bearded man stepped forward. Those in front of him gave way as men casually do in the presence of a noncommissioned superior—a sergeant or a foreman, perhaps; not a colonel or a corporate vice president. Was there someone with more authority in that compound? wondered Evan. Someone else watching closely; someone else giving orders?
‘What is it?’ asked Kendrick quietly, abrasively.
‘I also don’t like the way you look! I don’t like your face. That’s enough for me.’
‘Enough for what?’ said Evan contemptuously, dismissing the man with a shrug of his head as he leaned into the wall, his hands gripping the iron bars of the small cell window, his gaze on the floodlit grounds outside.
‘Turn around!’ ordered the surrogate foreman or sergeant, in a harsh voice directly behind him.
‘I’ll turn when I care to,’ said Kendrick, wondering if he was heard.
‘Now,’ rejoined the man in a voice no louder than Evan’s—a quiet prelude to his strong hand suddenly crashing down on Kendrick’s right shoulder, gripping the flesh around the bleeding wound.
‘Don’t touch me, that’s an order!’ Evan shouted, holding his ground, his hands gripping the iron bars so as not to betray the pain he felt, his antennae alert for what he wanted to learn… It came. The fingers clenching his shoulder spastically separated; the hand fell away on Evan’s command, but tentatively returned a moment later. It revealed enough: The noncom gave orders bluntly, yet he received and executed them with alacrity when they were given by an authoritative voice. Enough. He was not the man here in the compound. He was high on the totem pole but not high enough. Was there really another? A further test was called for.
Kendrick stood rigid, then without motion or warning swung swiftly around to his right, ignominiously dislodging the hand as the stocky man was thrown off balance by the clockwise movement. ‘All right!’ he spat out, his sharp whisper not a statement but an accusation. ‘What is it about me you don’t like? I’ll convey your judgment to others. I’m sure they’ll be interested for they would like to know who’s making judgments here in Masqat!’ Evan again paused, then abruptly continued, his voice rising in a one-on-one challenge. ‘Those judgments are considered by many to be curdled in ass’s milk. What is it, imbecile? What don’t you like about me?’
‘I do not make judgments!’ shouted the muscular terrorist as defensively as the boy-man who feared a firing squad. Then just as quickly as his outburst had erupted, the wary sergeant-foreman, momentarily frightened that his words might have been heard above the babble, regained his suspicious composure. ‘You’re free with words,’ he whispered hoarsely, squinting his eyes, ‘but they mean nothing to us. How do we know who you are or where you come from? You don’t even look like one of us. You look different.’
‘I move in circles you don’t move in—can’t move in. I can.’
‘He has light-coloured eyes!’ The stifled cry came from the older, bearded prisoner with the long filthy hair who was peering forward. ‘He’s a spy! He’s come to spy on us!’ Others crowded in studying the suddenly more menacing stranger.
Kendrick slowly turned his head towards his accuser. ‘So might you have these eyes if your grandfather was European. If I cared to change them for your grossly stupid benefit, a few drops of fluid would have been sufficient for a week. Naturally, you’re not aware of such techniques.’
‘You have words for everything, don’t you?’ said the sergeant-foreman. ‘Liars are free with words for they cost nothing.’
‘Except one’s life,’ replied Evan, moving his eyes, staring at individual faces. ‘Which I have no intention of losing.’
‘You are afraid to die then?’ challenged the well-groomed youngster with the soiled trousers.
‘You yourself answered that question for me. I have no fear of death—none of us should have—but I do fear not accomplishing what I’ve been sent here to accomplish. I fear that greatly—for our most holy cause.’
‘Words again!’ choked the stocky would-be leader, annoyed that a number of the prisoners were listening to the strange-looking Euro-Arab with the fluid tongue. ‘What is this thing you are to accomplish here in Masqat? If we are so stupid, why don’t you tell us, enlighten us!’
‘I will speak only to those I was told to find. No one else.’
‘I think you should speak to me,’ said the sergeant—now more sergeant than foreman—as he took a menacing step towards the rigid American congressman. ‘We do not know you but you may know us. That gives you an advantage I don’t like.’
‘And I don’t like your stupidity,’ said Kendrick, immediately gesturing with both hands, one pointing to his right ear, the other at the moving, chattering crowd by the door. ‘Can’t you understand?’ he exclaimed, his whisper a shout into the man’s face. ‘You could be heard! You must admit you are stupid.’
‘Oh, yes, we are that, sir.’ The sergeant—definitely a sergeant—turned his head, looking at an unseen figure, somewhere in the huge concrete cell. Evan tried to follow the man’s gaze; with his height he saw a row of open toilets at the end of the hall; several were in use, each occupant’s eyes watching the excitement. Other inmates, curious, many frantic, rushed alternately between the loud group by the heavy door and the crowd around the new prisoner. ‘But then, sir, great sir,’ continued the heavyset terrorist mockingly, ‘we have methods to overcome our stupidity. You should give inferior people credit for such things.’
‘I give credit when it is due—’
‘Our account is due now!’ Suddenly, the muscular fanatic shot up his left arm. It was a cue, and with the signal voices swelled, raised in an Islamic chant followed instantly by a dozen others, and then more, until the entire compound was filled with the reverberating echoes of fifty-odd zealots shrieking the praises of the obscure stations leading into the arms of Allah. And then it happened. A sacrifice was in the making.
Bodies fell on him; fists crashed into his abdomen and face. He could not scream—his lips were clamped by strong clawlike fingers, the flesh stretched until he thought his mouth would be torn away. The pain was excruciating. And then abruptly, his lips were free, his mouth halfway in place.