Acts of War

Coffey looked up at him. 'Phil?'

'Yeah, Lowell?'

'Help me up. I want to stretch too but my goddamn legs are like rubber.'

'Sure,' Katzen said. He put his hands under Coffey's armpits and helped him to his feet. As soon as Coffey was standing, Katzen released him tentatively. 'You okay?'

'I think so,' said Coffey. 'Thanks. How about you?'

Katzen turned to the mesh side of the pit. 'Shitty. Lowell, I have to tell you something. I didn't get up to stretch.'

'What do you mean?'

Katzen looked up at the grate. Rodgers was shrieking now in clipped bursts. He was fighting the pain and losing. 'Oh, for God's sake stop!' Katzen moaned. He looked down and shook his head from side to side. 'Jesus God, make them stop.'

Coffey wiped his forehead with his handkerchief. 'It's kind of ironic,' he said. 'We're in God's backyard and He isn't even listening. Or if He is,' Coffey added apologetically, 'He's got a plan that's not making much sense to me.'

'To me either,' Katzen said. 'Unless we're wrong and these other people are right. Maybe God is on their side.'

'On the side of monsters like this?' Coffey said. 'I don't think so.' He took two halting steps across the pit and stopped beside his coworker. 'Phil? Why did you get up? What were you going to do?'

'I was thinking of stopping this.'

'How?' Coffey asked.

Katzen put his head against the mesh wall of the pit. 'I've dedicated my life to saving endangered animals and ecosystems.' He lowered his voice to a loud whisper. 'I've done that through action, by risking my life.'

'You've got a streak of steel in you,' Coffey said. 'I've told you that many times. Me? I don't know how well I'm going to stand up under — under that.' He looked up quickly and then back. He leaned closer conspiratorially. 'If you're thinking of trying to get the hell out of here, I'm with you. I'd rather die fighting than cringing. I think I'm strong enough for that.'

Katzen looked at Coffey in the faint light falling from above. 'I'm not thinking about starting a war, Lowell. I'm thinking about ending one.'

'How?'

Katzen shut his eyes as Rodgers howled louder than before. It was only a short cry because the general bit it off. But it tore through Katzen's bowels. After a moment, he leaned closer to Coffey.

'When the ROC is turned on, when it's completely on, the locator will go on too,' Katzen said. 'Op-Center is sure to locate it. When they do, the military will blow the hell out of it and the terrorists with it. It won't be used against anyone.'

'Wait a minute. Are you suggesting we help these people?'

'They're burning Mike alive,' Katzen said, 'and God knows what they'll do to Sondra. By taking some kind of initiative we have a chance of living. Or at least dying with dignity.'

'Helping these bastards isn't dying with dignity,' Coffey said. 'It's treason.'

'To what?' Katzen asked. 'A rule book?'

'To your country,' Coffey said. 'Phil, don't do this.'

Katzen turned his back on Coffey. He reached up and wrapped his fingers around the grate. Coffey came around to face him.

'I've fallen way short of my potential in a lot of ways,' Coffey said. 'I can't now. I couldn't live with myself.'

'This isn't your doing,' Katzen said. He pulled himself up so that his mouth was pressed against the cool iron. 'Stop it out there!' he yelled. 'Come get me! I'll tell you what you want to know!'

Silence fell in pieces. First Pupshaw, then the hiss of the burner, then Rodgers and DeVonne. It was broken as footsteps crunched on the dirt. Someone shined a flashlight down at Katzen. The environmentalist dropped back down to the bottom of the pit.

'You've decided to speak?' asked a deep voice.

'Yes,' Katzen said. 'I have.'

Coffey turned away from him and sat back down.

'What is your group?' the deep voice demanded.

'Most of these people are enviromental researchers,' Katzen said. He shielded his eyes against the bright light. 'They were here studying the effects of dambuilding on the ecosystem of the Euphrates. The man you're torturing is a mechanic, not anyone's 'superior officer.' I'm the one you want.'

'Why? Who are you?'

'I'm a United States intelligence officer. The Turkish colonel and I came along to use some of the equipment in the van to spy on Ankara and Damascus.'

The man above was silent for a moment. 'The man beside you. What is his specialty?'

'He's an attorney,' Katzen said. 'He came along to make sure we didn't break any international laws.'

'The woman we have out here,' said the man. 'You say that she's a scientist?'

'Yes,' said Katzen. He prayed to God that the man believed him.

'What is her specialty?'

'Culture media,' Sondra said. 'Gelatinous substances containing nutrients in which microorganisms or tissues are cultivated for scientific research. My father holds patents in those areas. I worked with him.'

The man switched off the flashlight. He said something in Arabic. A moment later the grate was lifted. Katzen was pulled out at gunpoint. He stood before a dark-skinned man with a scar across his face. To the left, from the corner of his eye, he could see Rodgers hanging from his wrists. Sondra was tied to the wall on the right.

'I don't believe that you are environmentalists,' said the commander. 'But it's no matter if you're willing to show us how to work the equipment.'

'I am,' said Katzen.

'Tell him nothing!' Rodgers gasped.

Katzen looked directly at Rodgers. His legs weakened as he saw the general's mouth, which was still contorted with pain. As he looked at the dark, glistening areas of burned flesh.

Rodgers spat blood. 'Stand where you are! We don't take orders from foreign leaders!'

The dark-skinned man spun. He swung a fist hard at Rodgers's jaw. The blow connected audibly and snapped the general's head back. 'You take orders from a foreign leader when you're the guest of that leader,' the man said. He turned back to Katzen. His mood was less amiable now. 'Whether you live depends only on whether I like what you show me.'

Katzen looked at Rodgers. 'I'm sorry,' he said. 'Your lives are more precious to me than that principle.'

'Coward!' Rodgers roared.

Sondra pulled at her chains. 'Traitor!' she hissed.

'Don't listen to them,' the commander said to Katzen. 'You've rescued them all, including yourself. That is loyalty, not treason.'

'I don't need your stamp of approval,' Katzen said.

'What you need is a firing squad,' DeVonne said. 'I played your game because I thought you had a plan.' She looked at the commander. 'He doesn't know anything about the van. And I'm not a scientist.'

The commander walked up to her. 'You're so young and so talkative,' he said. 'After we see what the gentleman does know, my soldiers and I will come back and speak with you.'

'No!' Katzen said. 'If any of my friends are hurt, the deal is off!'

The commander turned suddenly. In the same motion, he slapped Katzen with a vicious backhand. 'You do not say no to me.' He regained his composure at once. 'You will show me how to operate the vehicle. You will do so without any further delay!' He slid his left hand behind Sondra's head and held it tightly. Then he seized her jaw with his right hand and squeezed her mouth into an O. 'Or will you work better hearing her cry as we use a knife to pry out her teeth one by one?'