Chapter 10 - Morning of the first day
Mifune looked at the two empty seats to each side of Nishiwaki and sighed. He picked up his breakfast tray and walked over to sit down next to him. "Okay, now what?"
"What do you mean?"
"Good try but your voice is slightly harsh and your eyes are too narrow to pull off unconcern. Something has you wound up and I want to find the cause before you bring the entire garrison to tears."
Nishiwaki grunted. "After breakfast."
After clearing their trays and stacking them the two went up to Nishiwaki's office. "The Instructor left his family home yesterday morning not today; and he hasn't called in this morning."
Mifune sat for a moment and stared at the 3rd in command. "And you expected him to call in?" He started laughing and continued until he was wiping tears from his eyes. "Next you'll be telling me that you don't think he's spend anytime with Iwase on this "solitary, wandering" vacation of his." He started chuckling again.
"No," Nishiwaki ground out between his teeth. "I am not going to say that. But they aren't due to get together until Wednesday -"
"And that's tomorrow. Give it a rest Nishiwaki. Give the Instructor a rest."
The two were interrupted by a beeping from Nishiwaki's pocket. He flipped open the phone and listened. "Got it." he snapped, then punch a few more buttons on the phone. "Noda, grab Morishige and meet Mifune and me in the briefing room ASAP." He flipped the phone closed and stood up. "Lets go, someone's called in a bomb threat to the American Embassy."
************ GD **************************
Haruka was still awake when Crusader strolled into the room, once again followed by his 4 closest followers. One of them, a tall heavyset, brown-haired man fastened his eyes on Haruka and seemed to leer at him. Haruka ignored him. Better not to pay any attention to looks, threats, leers are anything like that. Crusader looked him up and down. "Well, now that you've had all night to think about it, what do you say? Cooperate and things will go much better for you. We both know how bad this can get." Haruka just sat against the wall saying nothing. Crusader let the silence grew for a few minutes. "Alright Vinny, go ahead."
He was yanked by his left arm and turned around to face the wall; then a crude blindfold was tied around his eyes. Next he was swung around to face front again and his hands were raised. It felt and sounded as if the chains were somehow looped over something so that his hands were above his head and pulled together. The motion pulled at his right arm and there was a flash of pain in his wound. Next he felt a warm trickle down his arm and knew that the wound had broken open again. It had felt warm to the touch this morning. If this kept up it might get infected. He'd have to be careful if he got feverish. He didn't want to blurt anything out while in a fever.
He gasped as a sudden blow to the stomach caught him unawares. With the blindfold on he couldn't see the blows coming. The man, probably Vinnie, played up to this; hitting him in a non-rhythmic manner, sometimes waiting almost 60 seconds before landing a blow. The beating seemed to go on forever. Not hard enough to break bones or knock him out, but enough to leave bruises that went below the surface of his skin and into the muscles. The blows hit over and over again. He wouldn't even be able to walk let alone run away when this was over. He kept his teeth clenched to avoid crying out or moaning; but the pain hung like a heavy haze over his body. One blow crashed into his face and he heard a crunch from his nose and tasted blood from a cut lip. Several times he thought it had stopped only to be surprised by a another blow. Suddenly when he had gone untouched long enough to be sure it was all over, he was hit with a hard, vicious blow to the groin. A scream whistled out between his clenched teeth and once again he descended to darkness.