It took less than an hour to cover the five-some miles to the tent without running, but the time seemed to pass in slow motion.
"He's still with us," said Havoc at one point. "At 5 o'clock, about ten yards out."
"Understood," said Roy. "Let me know if anything changes."
They saw the field tent first because it was lit up. As they got closer, they began to hear voices. Too many voices.
Havoc cursed softly under his breath as Roy called a halt and they all went to ground, Breda watching behind this time.
But their Ishvalan shadow ran full speed at the field tent, yelling a war cry.
Havoc and Hawkeye both had the man in their sights, waiting for Roy's order, but a shot rang out from the other direction and the man fell.
They all watched as another Ishvalan man, armed with a rifle, joined Fuery.
"Oh, shit," they heard Fuery say. "Are you sure?" Then, "Go get him. I'll cover you."
Roy still couldn't figure out what was going on, but at this rate if they didn't identify themselves they were likely to get shot. By their own men.
"Havoc, stay here and out of sight," he said. "Everyone else, stay down until I give the word."
"Fuery, report!" he said, standing and shining a flashlight on the ground in front of him.
"Sir! We have four Ishvalans in the tent, two adult male, one adult female, and the baby. No hostiles until this guy. Except he's not really - "
"Anyone else?"
"No sir."
"We're coming in. No casualties."
They came around to the door of the tent and Fuery's eyes went wide when he saw that Havoc was missing.
They got the same reaction from Falman when Roy repeated, "We're all here. No casualties." Though it was less obvious on the Warrant Officer's face.
Why don't we just broadcast "One missing"? Roy thought, hoping that no enemy was actually watching this.
"Hawkeye, take the watch, please. Fuery, Falman, may I ask why we have an armed Ishvalan in the tent?"
The Ishvalan looked in fear at Roy's gloves, but knelt down and laid the rifle at Mustang's feet and then scooted back and pressed his forehead to the ground.
The other two men, including the one Fuery had shot, followed suit. The woman, sitting on the ground with the baby in her lap, bowed her head and touched her forehead with a hand that had touched the ground.
Roy had seen Ishvalans curse him, beg him and surrender to him, but this was the first time he'd ever seen any of them make a gesture of respect to him. He actually had no idea what the correct response was.
"Their clan was passing through the desert from Xerxes where they were waiting out the Civil War ," said Fuery, "to East City, where they think they may have some relatives still alive. When the Fuhrer came out, they hid in their shelters and waited for him to go back. Besides these, there are two other families camped in the rocks to the northeast."
Roy wanted to talk to them, but he wanted to see their faces and they didn't look like they were going to move until he said something. "You have my permission to rise," he said, in his most regal voice. They all sat up.
After Roy had finished his interrogation and heard about the Amestrian merchant, the wounded Ishvalan asked in a humble voice, "May I see my son, sir?"
Roy nodded and the man scooted over to his sister-in-law, leaving a trail of blood. "Sir, may I look at the gunshot?" asked the Ishvalan man who had not been armed.
Roy nodded. "Me too, sir?" asked Breda. Roy nodded again.
Fuery just sat there, miserable. He didn't have the baby, he wasn't on watch and Falman was monitoring the radio.
"Sergeant," said Roy. "Well done. You protected your team from attack."
"But sir - "
"It's pretty bad," Breda said, unfortunately choosing that very moment to report. "Gut wound."
"He was unarmed," said Kain softly.
"I don't need a weapon," said the wounded man. "I might have killed you before I saw - "
Fuery's face took on a thoughtful look and for the first time Roy felt like making his own gesture of respect to an Ishvalan.
"The other blues - soldiers - will be coming soon?" said the bleeding man.
"Falman, take the watch from Hawkeye and tell her to switch with Havoc. I need someone here with on-the-ground desert experience."
"Yes, sir," said Falman, leaving the tent.
Bradley slowed his white stallion from a canter to a trot and then stopped. The black and tan Doberman Pinscher that sometimes accompanied him did likewise. Behind him, soldiers poured out of the three jeeps and took up positions facing the field tent. Which was on fire.
Roy walked up to the Fuhrer and saluted.
"Lieutenant Colonel Mustang," said Bradley. "I had heard you were out here. It appears you may have had some excitement here."
"Under control, sir," said Roy, as if he had merely dealt with a minor inconvenience. "I came out hoping to find your would-be assassin and ran into a few Ishvalan rats instead. We did manage to keep one alive for questioning. If I may?"
Bradley nodded.
Havoc and Breda came out with the wounded Ishvalan walking unsteadily between them. The Doberman showed its teeth and growled.
"I'm disappointed, Lt Colonel," said Bradley. "He looks like he'll hardly make it through a normal interrogation, let alone the more - persuasive - kind that would be needed to make him talk." Bradley looked toward the tent. "And I'll find nothing in there either, will I?"
"My apologies, Fuhrer," said Roy, bowing stiffly. "I've failed to find the assassin or any leads."
"Never mind. You may still do me a service." Bradley looked at the Ishvalan. "Tell me what you know and you'll die quickly. Keep silence and Lt Col Mustang will roast you to death slowly. He has some experience with that, I believe."
Roy nodded stiffly, face blank.
"I don't know anything," the man answered.
"Why did I know that would be your answer?" said Bradley, shaking his head sadly as if correcting a schoolboy caught cheating. "Lt Colonel, if you please?"
Roy sent a flame that gave the man the equivalent of a blistering sunburn over his whole body.
"Now, let's see if that's improved your knowledge," said Bradley.
The man trembled, but stood firm in his insistence that he knew nothing.
Bradley nodded toward Mustang, who sent another flame. This time the man fell to the ground without even crying out.
"You are insubordinate, Mustang!" said the Fuhrer through tightly clenched teeth.
Roy bowed stiffly again. "I have failed you again, Fuhrer. I don't have the fine control I had a year ago."
Bradley searched Mustang's face for clues but the eyes were dead and the face totally blank. "We will search the tent," said Bradley. "Leave, Mustang. You and all your people!"
"Sir!" said Roy, clicking his heels together and saluting.
Breda and Havoc followed him to where the others were supposed to be waiting by the jeep truck. They were there and so was a jeep, but it wasn't the one they'd come in. Instead of an open bed in the back, it had a third row of seats.
"You've checked it, Second Lieutenant Hawkeye?" he asked.
"Yes sir," she answered.
"You drive," he said. "I'll sit in front."
Havoc and Breda got in the second row, Falman and Fuery in the third.
They drove for a while in silence.
"He wasn't going to talk," Havoc said.
"I didn't think he was," Roy answered coolly.
But somehow, the voice didn't scare Jean anymore. "He knew what was going to happen and he volunteered and he wasn't going to talk. Sir."
"That's enough, Second Lieutenant," said Roy.
Heymans suddenly realized he wasn't afraid anymore either. Of any of them.
"Hav," he said. "Some things are more important than the mission. You're out of line. Sir."
"Then what chance do we have?" Jean answered. "He doesn't have any limits."
"Maybe that's why we do have a chance," said Kain.
"You realize that makes absolutely no sense at all, don't you, Sergeant?" said Riza, in a voice which somehow managed to convey that she was in total agreement with him.
She squeezed Roy's hand for a moment before putting her hand back on the wheel.
Jean saw and sat back in his seat. "You got that right, Second Lieutenant," he said.
"We're dead in the water," agreed Heymans with a sigh.
None of the exchange made any sense at all to Vato, but since Fuery didn't seem upset he figured it must be okay. He sat back against the seat and closed his eyes. It had been a long day.