Tom Clancy's op-center_ acts of war - Tom Clancy [41]
The flame burned the hair of his eyebrow and crept up along his forehead. Seden was about to break. Rodgers didn't want him to have to live with that guilt--if either of them survived.
"Stop!" Rodgers said. "I'll work with you."
Hasan removed the flame. He let go of Seden's hair. The Turk folded forward at the waist.
"What do you want?" Rodgers asked. It was time to change tactics. He would stop stonewalling and try to compromise and disinform.
"At first, General, we wanted you to come as our hostages," Hasan said. "But now we want something else."
Rodgers didn't have to ask what. "I will help you hide or leave the country," Rodgers said. "But I won't take you to my camp."
"We know this land. We can find it without you," Hasan said confidently. "But we will not need to. Your people must have vehicles where they are. You are going to tell them to come and get you."
"I don't think so," Rodgers replied.
Hasan walked toward the general. "If Mahmoud and I approach your camp in the dark with the colonel's motorcycle, wearing what is left of your clothes, do you think we will be stopped?"
"My people will challenge you, yes."
"But not before we get very close with our weapons. And they will hesitate before firing," Hasan said. "We will not hesitate. We cannot."
Rodgers extrapolated quickly. Firebrand Private Pupshaw might not hesitate to open fire at the bike, but Private DeVonne might. And if Phil Katzen, Lowell Coffey, or Mary Rose Mohalley were taking the watch tonight, they might not even be armed. Rodgers couldn't justify the almost certain loss of life, especially if these men ended up taking the ROC anyway.
"What guarantee have I that you won't kill the colonel and me after I place the call?" Rodgers asked.
"We could have killed you already," Hasan replied. "We could have telephoned your camp, said we found you bleeding and unconscious. They would have come for you. No, General. The fewer deaths, the better."
"The more hostages the better, you mean."
"God is compassionate and merciful," Hasan said. "If you cooperate, then we will follow His example."
"Your flood killed innocent people as well as believers," Rodgers said. "Where was your mercy then?"
"The believers have gone to the High Pavilions of the Lord," Hasan replied. "The others were content to dwell in our stolen homeland. They are victims of their own greed."
"Not their greed," Rodgers said. "The greed of generations long dead."
"Nonetheless," said Hasan, "if they continue to live there, they will continue to die."
Mahmoud spoke impatiently to Hasan, who nodded.
"Mahmoud is correct," Hasan said to Rodgers. "We have talked enough. It is time to telephone." He opened the phone and handed it to Rodgers. "Press only the redial button. And don't try and warn them. It will only lead to bloodshed."
Rodgers looked at the phone. The thought of giving ground offended him utterly. His heart told him to crush the damn thing and be done with these three. He asked himself, What will your people think if you surrender for them? If you don't give them the chance to fight or withdraw on their own? But this wasn't a question of them not having a choice. By resisting he sentenced those people to death. By surrendering for now, he might be able to negotiate the release of some of the team or disable the ROC's key technologies. At least that was something.
Rodgers hesitated as he swallowed the bile of self-reproach.
"Quickly!" said Hasan.
Rodgers looked at the phone. He reached down slowly and touched redial. He raised the telephone to his ear, and Hasan leaned close to listen.
As he did, Rodgers knew that everything he'd just told himself was nonsense. No one was going to hand him a telephone and order him to lead his countrymen into an ambush.
* * *
FIFTEEN
Monday, 6:58 p.m.,
Sanliurfa, Turkey
Lowell Coffey II was dozing in the driver's seat of the ROC when the phone rang. He awoke with