The Darkness - Jason Pinter [97]
into his voice. "Did you just come here to confirm things
we both already know?"
"Sorry to waste your time," I said, "but Mr. O'Don-276
Jason Pinter
nell and I did some background research on you and your
squad before we came here. But we both know that what
you read in the newspapers and what you experience in
actual life can differ greatly."
"That's true. Fair enough."
"According to military records, you and three other
members of your squad were attacked by members of
Manuel Noriega's military deployment, the PDF, on
January sixth, nineteen-ninety. Is that right?"
Hollinsworth's eyes narrowed. He was no longer shifting but staring straight at me. I couldn't tell if he was
angry that I was dredging up old memories, glad that his
near-death experience was still a topic of discussion, or
furious to the point where he might rip my head off with
his bare hands.
"That's right."
"One man was killed that day. Chester Malloy." Hollinsworth nodded slowly, as his eyes softened.
"Were you close with Major Malloy?" Jack said suddenly. I turned to face him, but he was looking at Hollinsworth.
"I was," the man said. "Our whole unit, Bravo, we
trained together, fought together. I would have died for
any one of them. And I wish I had been able to. But..."
Then Hollinsworth trailed off.
"But what?" Jack said.
"I have no problem giving my life for my country, or
for one of my countrymen. But that day, we shouldn't
have been in a position for anyone to lose their life."
"Why not?" Jack said.
"We knew not to mess around with the PDF," Hollinsworth said. "A few weeks earlier, Second Lieutenant
Robert Paz was coming out of a restaurant in Panama
The Darkness
277
City. He came across a PDF squad. He was alone. Now,
any smart man or woman would have had the common
sense to know when the right time is to fight, and that was
most certainly the wrong time. We never got an official
number, but civilian reports said that Lieutenant Paz was
outnumbered at least eight to one."
"He decided to fight," I said.
"Not fight," Hollinsworth said. "See, Paz was a member of a special unit nicknamed the 'Hard Chargers.'
Their job was to actively provoke the PDF, to incite them
either to violence against American troops or Panamanian
civilians."
"Why would they do that?" I asked.
"Because until then, we had no reason to go after
Noriega. Nothing official, anyway. Lots of innuendo, and
we knew for certain he was trafficking in enough drugs
to fill the Grand Canyon fifty times over. But you can't
overthrow every dictator that's dabbling in illegal goods.
If that was the case we'd be at war with half the known
world. No, we needed something more tangible. Something we could sell to citizens back home."
"That's where Paz came in."
Hollinsworth nodded slowly.
"It wasn't supposed to go like that, though. Hard
Chargers were never supposed to travel alone. Paz just
happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and
they recognized him."
"So they killed him," I said.
"Not immediately. Paz quickly realized that things
were going to get out of hand, so he tried to run. But
because the PDF had set up a legitimate roadblock, they
felt they were justified in killing him. That's the way
Noriega spun it. Have you heard of Franz Ferdinand?"
278
Jason Pinter
"Of course," Jack said. "His assassination in Sarajevo
was the primary catalyst for World War I."
"That's right. Well, Robert Paz was our Archduke Ferdinand. Until December sixteenth, nineteen eighty-nine,
no members of the United States military had been killed
by Panamanian forces. When Lieutenant Paz was killed,
suddenly we had all the cause in the world. And on
December twentieth, the floodgates opened. We went
into Panama with a vengeance, and we took Noriega out
of power and that bastard has been rotting in prison ever
since."
"So how does this all play into Chester Malloy getting killed?"
Hollinsworth said, "Why are you so interested in this?
All of this happened almost twenty years ago and suddenly