Chapter 12
Murdock kept yelling as the psycho colonel poked with the cane, pushing hard to find the way through the gunshot wound, but it was more difficult than the maniac initially thought, as the tissues had started to heal, and part of the wound had scarred already when Hannibal burned it with the hot rod. Shu, however, was determined to use Murdock as a piece of meat on a skewer, and he carried on thrusting blindly until the cane appeared at the back, breaking through the tender, exit wound, with blunt force. It hardly bled at all, comparing to the initial gunshot wound, but breaking through the tissues caused a searing and excruciating kind of pain.
Murdock didn't pass out while he did that, focused as he was on staying awake to protect Face, but he wriggled and screamed his head off as it happened, shouting obscenities non-stop. When it was done, he stood still with his eyes closed, panting, loathing the man, with his head tilted to the opposite side, away from the intrusive cane sticking out of his shoulder, which he didn't want to look at or he would be sick.
Then, the sound of a helicopter filled the air, a sound Murdock could easily identify as a UH-1H Huey model, that landed nearby. Would that be Hannibal, coming to get him? But, in that case, who could be the pilot? Harlow? That familiar sound didn't last long, as the pilot killed the engine immediately after landing, and the whop-whop noises made by the rotor blades slowed down until they stopped completely.
The colonel didn't seem too pleased with the arrival, but he carried on asking Murdock questions as if he hadn't heard that noise at all.
"Now, are you going to tell me what's your real mission?"
"Do you think… I'm going to tell you shit… after you did this to me?" Murdock hissed, opening his eyes again to look at him with hatred. "I was cooperating, man!"
"Yes, you are going to tell me, because I can still do this," the psycho said, shaking the cane hard, bringing Murdock's agonizing pain to a new level, as he had done with Face.
"Aaarghh! All right!... OK… OK… I'll tell you!… Stop!" Murdock cried in between breaths, determined to buy time and stay alive until Hannibal could implement his rescue plan, whatever it was.
"So? Why are you here?"
It took him a while to be able to talk again, which he did in small bursts, in between the laboured intakes of air.
"We came… to rescue… a Super-girl. One… so special… that can fly… dodge bullets… kill dragons… and cook potato soup and phở… like an angel. She's… the general's daughter… but he thought… he was a boy. This girl… was a surprise…to us all… because…"
"What the hell are you talking about? That half-bred bitch that escaped?" Shu said, shaking the cane again. He didn't get that man, who irritated him to the moon and back while he apparently tried to be helpful and comply to his wishes.
"Arrghh!... Stop it! …Please! …I swear that's the truth!"
Colonel Shu stopped and let go of the cane, puzzled. There was something else about that strange man, and something in his voice, that told him he really believed that odd statement was the truth.
"Are you out of your mind?!"
"That's… a debatable issue… but my doctor… believe so… You can ask him," Murdock said, still panting and struggling to breathe and talk at the same time.
Colonel Shu let him recover for a little bit, and when he was about to ask him more questions, two soldiers arrived, dragging the barely conscious Lieutenant along.
"Look, your friend is here. Maybe he can help us."
"No! Leave him alone!" Murdock cried rather too eagerly, betrayed by his feelings.
AAA
The sergeant with the black eye arrived at the cell right after Tia hid the walkie-talkie back in her pocket.
"Have you finished searching?" he asked in Vietnamese.
"Yes," Tia said, approaching Face, in a defensive stance. Murdock's cry could be heard all over the prison then, and that got her on edge.
"Did you find anything?"
"No. It's clean."
Where did he put the pills then? Shit, maybe they are in his jacket. If the colonel finds them, I'm dead, the sergeant thought, angry because the colonel had scheduled a cell search right now, at the worse possible moment, with a worried expression in his face that Tia found strange.
They heard the whizzing sound of rotating blades then, when a helicopter landed outside. The sergeant knew what that meant: a visit from General Nguyen. Never good news.
"Give me a hand here. I have to take this man for interrogation," he said, shaking Face to wake him up.
"Really? He doesn't look fit for that."
"And what do you care?" he said, insisting on waking Face, slapping him gently until he started moaning and complaining, blinking as he came to.
That concern reminded the soldier of something, and he stared at Tia, intently, until he gasped.
"I know who you are! I got this because of you," he said, pointing at his black eye.
Tia panicked, and was ready to flee when the sergeant tried to calm her down, grabbing her sleeve.
"Don't worry! I won't tell! I'm trying to help them too. Colonel Shu is crazy, and dangerous. He nearly killed me because you escaped. Well done, by the way." He gave her a wink then, not showing any ill feelings but admiration. This woman has guts! She not only escaped, but now she's here, in the lion's den... Wow. "This should not be happening. These men should not be here. And neither am I. Or you."
"Was it you who gave them the pills I found under the mattress?" she said, relaxing a bit, switching to English.
"Yes."
"Pills, I need them pills," Face muttered when he heard the English words, looking at them with pleading, sleepy eyes. "It hurts."
Tia looked at the soldier, who shook his head.
"If he took them this morning, he shouldn't have any more until the afternoon."
"There are four pills missing in the blisters," she said, showing him the packs she carried now in one of her pockets.
"He shouldn't have any more then."
"I'm sorry, Face, but you can't have anymore for a while," she said, taking his good hand, and combing his sweaty fringe back. He looked feverish, with an odd glint in his eyes, but fully awake now.
Face looked up, puzzled by the way that soldier was holding his hand and stroking him, and how come he knew his nickname, until he recognized her, squinting his bruised eyes to focus better.
"Tia? Is that you?"
"Yes. It's me."
"Are you alright? I was so worried about you! Did you escape?"
"Yes. I'm with Hannibal. He's coming."
"Thank God for that!" he said with a hopeful, weak smile, closing his eyes, squeezing her hand lightly.
"Why are you here? Do you have a plan to escape?" the sergeant said.
"Yes, we are getting them out."
"Are you going to America with them?"
"Yes."
"All right. I'll help you, but only if I can defect and go to America with you. I can't stand this psycho and this rotten system anymore. If I stay, that colonel will kill me, sooner or later."
"That could be arranged, yes. Let me talk to Hannibal." She got the walkie-talkie and pressed the button. "Hannibal?"
"Yes. Everything OK?" said the concerned voice that came through the speaker.
"Yes. I'm with Face. We got the help of a Vietnamese soldier now. He wants to defect to the US with us. Is that possible?"
"Can you trust him?"
"I guess. He's been helping your men. He gave them antibiotics and painkillers in secret."
"Is that enough to trust him?"
Tia looked at the sergeant, trying to make up her mind.
"I let you escape from the truck, you know? I was a bit slow to shoot you, remember? I knew what they would do to you in here, so when you made your move, I waited a bit until I opened fire."
That was true. She was fast, but that man was aiming a gun at her, and he should have had enough time to shoot before she jumped to the roof of that truck.
"Yes, I think we can trust him," she said. "There's a helicopter here. Do you think we could use it to escape?"
"We won't have a pilot if Murdock can't handle it, but I'm considering it."
"One of the American prisoners is a pilot. Harlow," the sergeant said.
"This man says one of the POWs is a pilot," Tia said to the speaker.
"Is he? Excellent! You have to tell these men that, when the party starts, they should secure that helicopter, and wait for us, because it will be our escape route. Can you do that?"
"I guess. Shu wants to take Face for interrogation now. He's torturing Murdock already. What should we do?"
"Will you take Face to the same room Murdock is in?"
The sergeant nodded, and Tia answered "yes."
"I'm waiting for B.A; we'll be there ASAP. Let them take Face to that room with Murdock, so they don't get suspicious until it is too late, and we'll extract them together. Tell him I'm sorry, but he should hold on just a little bit longer. And remember: if you don't get him there now, someone else will, and it'll be worse."
"No, don't take me there. Please, no," Face said, shaking his head, so weakly Hannibal didn't hear him.
"Where is that interrogation room?" Hannibal said.
"Last building, main corridor, fifth door on the left," the sergeant said, close to the speaker.
"Roger that. Anything else I should know?"
"No. Over," Tia said, placing the walkie-talkie back in her pocket.
AAA
The psycho took Face by the collar, off Tia's hands, and dragged him to the post, where he sat him down heavily, back to back with Murdock. He looked so weak Shu only tied the strap around his neck, to hold him upright in place, as that was enough containment.
"Who gave you a sling?"
Shu grabbed the fractured arm, making Face gasp in pain, and when he felt the splint under the shirt, he went mad.
"And who replaced that splint?!"
"I did," Murdock said, regulating his breathing so he could talk more normally. "You contravene all the points of the Geneva Convention. Not only you torture your prisoners, you deny them medical treatment too!"
"Shut up!" Shu cried, punching Murdock's sore mouth, making his split lip bleed again. He pulled off the cane from his shoulder with a fast move then, making him groan, and waved it in front of Face. "Do you remember your little friend?"
Right then, another soldier came into the joy room quickly, looking nervous, while Tia had to make a huge effort refraining herself from taking her rifle to shoot the bastard. But she had to wait for Hannibal, or they would all get killed.
"General Nguyen is here. He's waiting for you at the office," the soldier said in Vietnamese.
"Keep an eye on them," Shu said to the other two soldiers in the room without even looking at them, leaving the bloodstained cane on the table.
"I'll tell the POWs about the helicopter!" Tia said, getting out quickly after Colonel Shu left, glad she could get away from that room and not witness any more of the abuse during the next few minutes, until help arrived in the form of an avenging angel with white hair.
When the colonel left, the sergeant followed him discreetly to listen to the conversation with the general, standing on the corridor, behind the closed door of the office.
AAA
Colonel Shu despised General Nguyen, the overweight bastard that was in charge of the red of military and estate prisons, and his superior. That visit was unscheduled, and he was sure it would not be good news. As he feared, the moment he came into the office, that man started shouting in Vietnamese, giving him a bollocking.
"When did you have the intention of telling me about the new American prisoners, Colonel Shu?"
"Today, of course."
"Our sources confirmed you came in contact with American troops yesterday, Colonel, and we still have not heard an official statement on the matter!"
For "we", he was referring to the communist government panel in charge of National Security.
"I don't know why we allowed you to keep those three POWs alive for so long, mainly for your own entertainment, but this has to stop now! Enough is enough! They should have been killed with all the others still in the country seven years ago, when the pressure from the Americans started. These men are an embarrassment to this government, and theirs, and should be eliminated before anybody else finds out about their existence. If American troops are here for them, it is only a matter of time before that goes public! They should all disappear without a trace as soon as possible, including the new ones you captured, and we'll deny all knowledge of this contact. Is that clear?"
"First of all, if I may speak clearly, Sir, you know perfectly well why you allowed this to continue under your supervision," Colonel Shu said, unable to contain his anger. That man had enjoyed many sessions at the joy room, specially sodomizing the prisoners, so it was insulting to receive all the blame now. The general looked at him, infuriated, but let him continue. "If you think it is time to get rid of them all for good, that's fine for me, but I'm interrogating them right now to find out where the other two men that came with them are, and what are their intentions. You are welcome to join us, but I think we shouldn't kill them until we find out what these men are up to, to avoid unexpected, nasty surprises."
"I'll give you one hour. If you haven't got any information by then, you'll kill them all."
"All right. I have no problem with that."
"Where do you keep their ID tags? The panel wants to keep them."
"Why? I thought you said to get rid of all the evidence of their existence."
"Yes, but the board have a pile of them in store, since the war. They may come in handy at some point to show "international cooperation."
"I have them here, somewhere," the colonel said, rummaging in some store boxes he had in that office. When he found them in a plastic bag, he handed it over, and the general put them in his pocket.
"So, who do you have in now?"
"Two guys. I haven't got anything useful from them yet. No tags, no uniforms, but they confirmed they are a Captain and a Lieutenant from the US army. A Special Forces group acting unofficially, no doubt. They carry no civilian IDs either, although they insist they are here on vacation, the fools."
"Let me see them."
AAA
Hannibal intercepted B.A's truck on the road, a safe distance away from the main, heavily guarded entrance to the compound. He got to the rear, and retracted the truck's tarpaulin cover to reveal the heavy machinegun mounted at the back. There, Hannibal saw the neat, little pile of Tia's folded clothes, and took them to the cabin.
"Keep this safe," he said, handing them to Quang, who occupied the passenger's seat.
When he handed it over, he saw the long headband hanging from the pile, and he had an idea.
"I'll borrow this. And her pendant," Hannibal said, looking in her pockets until he found it. "I need a pendant to complete the look."
Hannibal tied the headband then around his forehead, as before, and placed the pendant on his neck, which was a very tight fit.
"What is he doing?" Quang asked to B.A, puzzled.
"Hannibal, I can't stand this Rambo business! You are off your rocker!" B.A said, with zero tolerance for nonsense.
"It keeps me in the Jazz."
"Does it? The Rambo movie?" Quang said.
"Rambo is pure Jazz. You have to see the films when we get to America."
"You are nuts!" B.A cried, losing it.
"Quang, I made a mistake the last time. I waited too long, and my boys got tortured to death. I won't do that again. We are getting them out of there NOW, and if Rambo gives me some inspiration, so be it."
"OK. I'm ready. Let's go," Quang said.
"Murdock! I'm coming to get you!" Hannibal said menacingly, as Rambo did on the film.
"Oh, man... He's really on the jazz!" B.A said, shaking his head. "And that means trouble! For everybody!"
AAA
Face didn't want to be taken back to the joy room, but he understood Hannibal was right: if the psycho had ordered it, he better not try to hide from him. Besides, what was that maniac going to do now? A few more punches? Beat him up with that cane, or put it back in his wound? Sure he could stand that shit one more time, couldn't he? Hmmm… Maybe. But only that, because he didn't want to think on the other alternatives... No, Hannibal was coming; that kind of shit could not happen now!
He sighed deeply, with his eyes closed, and even that gentle movement of his rib cage hurt. Shit. How the hell am I going to do this?
"OK, take me there, if you must, before that weirdo has a tantrum," he said, trying to sound confident, but who was he kidding? It was obvious he was terrified, and they knew it.
Tia and the sergeant helped him up, as gently as they could, but he cried and groaned in pain as they pulled him out of bed. He was too weak to walk, so they had to support him all the way, as he dragged his feet behind, hissing and complaining along the corridor, cringing whenever he heard Murdock's cries. Tia apologized several times for causing him so much pain, and in the end, he had to remind her she should handle him roughly when they got there, or it would look odd that these two soldiers treated their prisoner in such a careful, gentle way.
When the colonel tied him to the post, he struggled, chocking with the strap around his neck, which was way too tight, pressing on his throat, digging on his Adam's apple as he sagged down on his seat, as he was in too much pain and too weak to sit up straight. Then, when the psycho handled his fractured arm, he thought he was going to be sick again, and he gave up, wishing he could be dead already to avoid any more pain. Then, when Murdock complained, he wanted to tell him off, but he lacked the strength. However, when Shu punched his friend, and then showed him that hideous cane, this time stained with Murdock's blood, his rage returned, and that helped him to stay awake, and focused. If he wasn't going to make it, at least he should help Murdock to survive.
When the psycho left the cane on the table and left the room, he was greatly relieved, and despite his weakness, the pain, and the awkward position against his friend's back, when the others also left the room, he used his free right hand to unfasten the strap holding Murdock's wrists.
AAAAA