They treated him the same way here as they had on the Chinese ship. They piped the noise into his cell at all hours on the ship, too. He didn’t know how often they fed him because they had removed his watch on the first day on board. The first few nights on the boat he’d felt sorry for himself. He’d cried and been scared and missed his wife. But then he’d gone through a few days with little food and even less sleep, and he’d stopped feeling sorry for himself. He’d willed himself on, and started praying a lot. For food, mostly.
When they did feed him, it was just a little rice and some water. Usually they emptied his piss pot, too. He didn’t even smell the stench anymore.
This morning’s boat ride had been bumpy and confusing. He couldn’t understand why the American guy, Tom, would be helping them. But Bill had been so fatigued that he’d barely spoken to him. This was the first day the Chinese had let him out of the ship’s brig since the helicopter had dropped him off a week ago. One quick ferry to the island this morning and he’d been thrown right back in a cell. At least this one didn’t rock. The relentless seas had made him dry heave.
Lena repeated herself with an edge in her voice. She said, “Hello, Bill.”
Bill spoke through parched lips. “What do you want from me? Are you going to let me go?”
Lena said, “No, Bill. I’m afraid not. No one can leave. That’s why you’re here. Because you wanted to go home. And because you had knowledge of the timing of our ARES execution that others did not. I may have been able to convince you to do your patriotic duty and stay on the island for a few more weeks. But I couldn’t have you alerting the others that the attack is planned for much sooner than they believe. If they found out, they might not see the need to keep quiet and make all of these excellent plans. And we can’t have that.”
Bill curled up into a ball, holding his knees on the floor.
“Bill, you’re going to be alright. I just wanted to come by and say hello. Pretty soon you’ll be reunited with many of the other consultants. Your work will continue. If you do well, you’ll be treated well. If you do poorly, you’ll be treated poorly. Is that clear?”
Bill sniffed, looking up at her. He then looked at Tom. “You took me here on the boat today. You are American, right?”
Tom was still frowning from his recent interaction with Lena. He said, “Yeah.”
Bill said, “How can you do this to people from your own country?”
Lena looked at Tom. She cocked her head, interested in hearing his answer.
Tom grew defensive. He said, “I’m not the only American helping out. I’m not even the only American on this island that’s helping out. It’s a new world order, bud. Better get used to it.”
Bill said, “Who else? Combs?”
Tom looked at Lena. Neither said a word.
Bill didn’t need to hear the answer. That was one of the few things that Bill had given thought to as a prisoner. He knew Combs was dirty. Ever since he had seen that disgruntled, balding excuse for an officer glaring at everyone over his clipboard and thrilled at the prospect of having authority over them — he’d known he was a strange guy. In his cell, Bill realized that he was exactly the kind of eccentric, loner oddball that got off on spying as a way to prove that he was better than everyone else. It was obvious in the way he held himself that he felt superior to everyone in the room.
Lena and Tom didn’t need to tell Bill that the Major was in on it. He knew. And the smart-ass grin on this guy Tom’s face was all the confirmation he needed.
Tom just smirked and looked at Lena. She didn’t smile back.
Lena said, “You’ll see all of your friends soon enough. Tom will be back to go over some questions with you here soon. Some details that we need. I just wanted to let you know that I expect to hear good results from these conversations. Bill — do you understand?”
Bill nodded. He would try to resist. But if they offered him food, he would probably end up telling them whatever they wanted to know. He was so hungry.
“Good.”
Lena and Tom backed up and closed the cell door with a loud clang.
They walked back toward the room filled with Chinese personnel and computer screens.
CHAPTER 10
All the forces in the world are not so powerful as an idea whose time has come.
It was lunchtime when David was finally able to speak to Natesh and Henry alone in his room. He had tried to talk to them in passing throughout the day, but with the Major and Natesh whipping the class into production mode, there was no time. He felt sick listening to all of the plans and seeing them written up in the summary document so precisely.
David siphoned Henry and Natesh over towards the barracks before they went into the cafeteria to eat. They started to ask him questions, but he shushed them until they closed the door in his room.
David said, “We need to act today — while the storm is moving in. I saw the other side. I swam there this morning.”
“You swam there?” said Natesh.
“Yeah. Listen. I saw Bill. They have him as their prisoner. I didn’t get a good look, but I’m pretty sure he was tied up. There were two Asian guys and they both had machine guns slung over their shoulders. I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say they were probably Chinese. And I saw the guy that sent me here. One of the directors at my firm. Name’s Tom Connolly. He must be in on it. I mean, there can be no doubt now, right?”
Henry said, “Oh my God…”
“Are you sure it was them?” said Natesh.
“Positive. I’ve been thinking about this. I could see how, if this were a legitimate CIA operation, Tom could be here to help out. By itself that doesn’t mean anything. But with Bill on that boat — and the way they looked. It was all wrong. Lena said that she sent Bill home to his sick wife. We now know that she lied about that. And they all looked Chinese. I’m sorry, but that’s too strange to be legitimate.”
Natesh said, “I am not as familiar with how the CIA does business, but is it possible that these Asian men are just CIA employees or contractors that they have working for Lena?”
Henry frowned.
David looked skeptical. He said, “Natesh, I think that the holes in the Swiss cheese are starting to line up. Sure. Maybe the CIA hires a bunch of contractors that are from the local regions they operate in. But that boat sure looked like the kind that is used on board Navy ships. If I was a betting man, I’d guess it came from a Chinese warship.”
Henry said, “And why do you think Lena and the Major are pushing us to get this done today so quick? Do you really think they’re worried about communications getting knocked out? Or does Lena suspect that we’re on to her? I think she’s trying to suck as much out of us as possible before the hammer drops.”
A howling wind blew in from the open window. The palm trees were starting to bend the way you saw on the Weather Channel when they did their storm coverage from down on the Gulf Coast of Florida. It wasn’t raining heavily yet, but the clouds looked vicious. There were large, violent black clouds and fast-moving, low-hanging grey ones. It reminded David of the way it looked before a bad summer thunderstorm.
Outside the shut door, David heard muffled voices in the hallway. Several of the consultants were on their way to lunch.
Natesh said, “Are you sure about all of this? I mean, I know this is highly questionable, but perhaps we should just ask Lena?”