Title: Don't Drink The Water, Chapter Eleven
Archive: Not without Permission of the Author
Disclaimer: "Over There" and all its characters belong to FX Networks and other entities that may have been involved with its production. No infringement of copyright is intended. This story was written for personal enjoyment and to share with other "Over There" fans.
Summary: Suspicions confirm that there's a traitor in their midst; Scream and His Squad fight to save a friends life.
Camp Freedom
Stockade
0930 Hours
Sulayman al-Fallujah sat cross-legged on his bed, eyes closed, deep in thought as he awaited the arrival of his brother, Harun. He had been told by Officer Harris that a messenger had been dispatched to Harun's home in Baqubah and that they would provide an escort for his brother to come to the base to see him. Harun would know exactly who within the KAOS organization to speak to. Despite the situation being as it was, Sulayman misguidedly believed he would be released shortly.
He heard the dull thump of boots on the ground approaching his cell and heard Harris inform him that he had a visitor. It was with great happiness that he opened his eyes expecting to see his brother before him, but his joy quickly turned to shock when he saw Rahman standing several inches away from the bars.
"Sulayman. " Harris droned. "This is Abdallah Jamshid, from the Office of the Minister of the Defense. He'd like to speak with you." Harris quickly turned away and walked out toward the corridor, gesturing for the MP to follow him.
"Sulayman, it is a most serious predicament you have gotten yourself into here," Jamshid said softly.
Sulayman continued to stare at the man in the dark glasses, crisp white uniform, official cap and highly polished shoes. "Who are you?" he whispered.
"You mean you don't recognize me? Sulayman. I am hurt," he said with a cruel laugh as he removed his glasses. "I am Abdallah Jamshid, or should I say Abdallah Rahman Jamshid, aide to General Otabi, the Minister of Defense." Rahman laughed. " What did you take me for? Hmm. Some ignorant goat herder?" He laughed again. "But, no. I must not laugh, because as I say again, this is a most serious predicament you have gotten yourself into."
It was with sick horror that Sulayman realized that he was on his own. "Where is Harun?" thinking that surely his own brother would not forsake him.
"Harun cannot help you. Unfortunately, neither can I." Jamshid took several steps closer to the bars and gave Sulayman a hideous stare.
"B-b-ba- but this is your fault!" Sulayman cried. "I did as you asked me to. I did this for our cause, for-"
"You did this for yourself, Sulayman!" retorted Jamshid. "You did this thinking only of the reward you would receive. You are a disappointment to us."
The man behind the bars sunk back down onto his bed and bowed his head dejectedly.
"I am quite surprised to hear you have been so willing to divulge the secrets of our organization. We trusted you. We brought you into the fold, treated you with respect because we thought you were a man of honor. It is sad to find out this is not true."
"I've told them nothing! Sulayman hissed, jumping to his feet. "Fazul told them everything! That is why I killed him. I killed him for being a traitor to our cause!" he said angrily, but his eyes pleaded with Jamshid.
"Really? And what will you do when they take you to Abu Ghraib and you are questioned? Or tortured? Will you be a traitor then, too?"
Sulayman's face turned a whiter shade of pale and he breathed shakily. "I see." Jamshid replied.
"I am no traitor! You must believe me! You must help me! I wouldn't tell them anything. I'll tell them Fazul was the traitor, that he tried to get me to help him and when he attacked me, I killed him. They will believe me! "
Jamshid almost laughed out loud at the man's stupidity; stupidity could prove to be a dangerous thing. Instead, he smiled. "I can see that you are telling the truth." He said, in a voice that had an almost seductive quality. "Forgive me for saying otherwise, but I had to be sure. You are a valuable asset to us, Sulayman, much too valuable to be lost. But I need some information, which only you can give me."
Just 30 feet away from the cell Harris was holding a handset to his ear. He nodded several times, ending the communication with a quick, "Yes,sir!" and placed the handset down on the desk in front of him.
"Jackson!" He hissed at the young soldier who was loitering just a few feet away from Sulayman's cell. " Get back in there! Baron wants eyes and ears in there at all times. Take notes!" He threw a pen and a notepad in the mans general direction. 'Do something worthwhile you dumbass!" The young man stooped to pick them up and sauntered back to his chair making Harris want to give the kid a good swift kick in the ass. He was in enough shit with Baron and didn't need anymore.
A thumping sound on the floor announced the return of the MP, and both Jamshid and Sulayman turned to watch him settle himself back into chair by the doorway.
Jamshid turned back to Sulayman. "Tonight, they will be moving you to another camp. Before you leave, I will send your brother to you. Go to him. He will help you."
Sulayman nodded his head and breathed a sigh of relief. "Yes. Yes, I will. Thank You."
Jamshid nodded back then turned and with a brief nod of his head he acknowledged the MP before proceeding outside. He stood beside the ancient, white Bentley waiting for his aide to open the door; his only concern was the bit of dust that had blown across his shoes and marred the highly polished shine.
Camp Freedom
Command Tent
01000 Hours
"Captain?"
"Lieutenant, come in. Sergeant Silas! I trust you're feeling better and well enough to report back to duty?" Captain Baron asked as he approached the younger man.
"Yes, sir," Silas responded. "I'm much better, sir."
"Nice to see you again…. Sergeant Scream."
Silas had barely noticed the other man at the opposite end of the tent until he heard the rather gruff voice, but when he turned to acknowledge him, he couldn't help smiling. "Colonel Ryan. It's good to see you too, sir."
Ryan walked forward and set the glass he'd been holding in his hand down on Baron's desk, and extended his hand towards Silas and grinned back. "Hear you got into another wrestling match with a prisoner. It's a good thing you have such a hard head, Sergeant."
"Yes sir," He said as they shook hands.
"Sergeant, Lieutenant," Baron said gesturing to the two chairs place before his 'desk'. They sat down, Ryan sitting in a chair at the end of the table, opening up a thin file in front of him. "I trust Lieutenant Lapus has brought you up to speed?" he asked Silas.
"Uh, yes, sir, he has."
"Good! Because I have an important task to be done and I think that you and your men are the most appropriate and most capable of taking care of it for me. Lately it feels like I'm charge of the Keystone Cops."
Ryan lowered his head and bit back a smirk, but not before Baron caught him in the act.
"Sorry, James."
Baron looked again toward Silas. "The prisoner, Sulayman, is to be transferred this evening to Camp Redemption at Abu Ghraib, except they wouldn't come up here to get him. I need additional manpower to assist in the transport. As this man successfully murdered another prisoner while in custody, I'm taking no chances."
"Yes, sir." Silas said nodding. "Sir? Have we gotten any additional information from him about the break in and how they were able to steal official documents?"
"No. Colonel Ryan here is going to take a crack at him, but if he wouldn't speak to us, command doesn't want him lingering here any longer then he has to. They want him sent on for processing and if they feel they need any additional information they'll send someone up here to do whatever they need to do."
Silas nodded.
"Sir? The sergeant had an interesting thought about the KAOS plan," Lapus commented.
"Well, Sergeant if you think you have anything that could be helpful, let's hear it."
Silas shook his head. "It wasn't really anything, sir."
"Oh, come on now, Sergeant! Play nice and share." Ryan said with a grin on his face.
Silas shrugged. "I just commented to the Lieutenant that if KAOS is planning an attack on all the military installations, that they must have several cells scattered all over, rather then it being only one group as we recently believed.
Ryan smiled. "And you believe that because?"
"If they really plan to disrupt the interim government, blowing up one or two installations at a time wouldn't cause enough of a disruption. But, if you took out several locations at a time, it would be a serious blow to the other side. It would cause 'chaos', sir. To take out several installations at a time you'd have to have several cells.
"Why not just one big group?"
"If you're going to launch an attack of this magnitude, you'd want people that wouldn't call attention to themselves or appear suspicious. They'd have to know the area well. To me that says locals."
"The Sergeant also believes that are planning a coordinated attack," Lapus added.
"Because?" Ryan asked again.
"The biggest impact would be to take out all the installations in one area or cut them off from the rest of the country, like all the installations around Baghdad. Or…"
"Or what, Sergeant?"
"They might want to take out specific installations country wide, like those bases with airfields."
"You can't do that without coordinating the attack, either. Again, to do that you'd have to have several cells. "Ryan agreed.
"Except how to do figure out which bases they'll hit and why?" Baron asked.
"A possible similarity in the types of attacks on the area, security breaches or similar situations to what occurred here, maybe." Silas said.
"I'd have to agree with your thinking, Sergeant." Ryan commented with an approving nod. "I'll see what else I can find out about insurgent activities around other bases and possible security breaches. Meanwhile, I'll be recommending that all military installations go immediately to high alert status, this one, especially."
"That means increasing the-" Baron began.
"Captain Baron?" St. Claire slipped his head in thru the entrance flap." I'm sorry sir, Lieutenant Hunter to see you?"
"Send him in." Baron replied. Turning back towards Ryan," I was saying that we should increase our presence in the town as well." He turned back to face Hunter.
"Excuse me sir, did I miss a scheduled meeting?" Hunter asked, with a quick glance at Lapus and Silas.
"No, not at all, Lieutenant, I was just going to brief Sergeant Silas about the detail bringing the prisoner down to Abu Ghraib."
"You'll have nothing to worry about, Sir. I'm sure my men and I will have no trouble-"
"Lieutenant, I'm actually going to need you to stay right here. We'll be increasing the security within and around the base. I'll need you to see that this is taken care of. You'll coordinate with Harris. We'll be going to full alert. I want to double the number of men we usually have on watch. I also want you to do a full review of the current security situation including any area where you feel there may be any vulnerability. For instance, the camp laundry facility?"
Hunter swallowed his anger. "Yes sir."
"Oh, and I'll need it by 0800 tomorrow morning, Lieutenant."
"Yes sir." Hunter replied.
Baron nodded. When Hunter made no move to leave, Baron replied. "That's all for now Lieutenant, your dismissed."
"Yes, sir. " Hunter replied stiffly. Turning sharply he left the tent.
Baron turned his head and looked at Ryan, who was leaning sideways watching Hunter's retreating form. He raised his head. "Is it me or is that guy seriously bow-legged?"
Baron gave him deadly look.
Behind the tent, Corporal St. Claire was sneaking a cigarette; he laughed so hard, he nearly soiled himself.
Camp Freedom
Stockade
01600 Hours
Dim sat on the back of the large truck, his long legs dangling over the side, peering upward; the sun was just about set and the sky had the quality of a water color painting, as though the fading streaks of purple and pink had been brushed across it. "Nice night for road trip, "he commented to Angel, who was sitting beside him.
"Some road trip." Smoke griped.
"Come on! Didn't you join the army so you could see the world?" Dim kidded.
"If I wanted to go back to the hood, I could go home to Compton."
"Shut up, Smoke." Silas said as he approached the waiting squad.
"Nice to see you, Sergeant." Smoke retorted." How's your head?"
The rest of the squad chuckled.
"You want me to show you? I'd be goddamned happy to demonstrate." Silas said.
"Told you he missed us." Dim said, nudging Tariq.
"Alright let's cut out the shit, and get serious," Silas said, hunkering down on ground. The rest followed, watching as he began to scratch out a diagram with his knife.
"We've got four MPs going with us to guard him. Tariq." Silas said, looking up at the young man across from him. "I'm putting you in there with them, but only because you speak the language, but you don't talk to him. They'll be no talking to this guy, nothing, not one word. You tell the MP's if he says anything. Anything he says gets noted in the transfer report. Got it?"
"Yes, Sergeant." Tariq nodded.
"That means be on your guard." Silas added." And that means everyone!" He shouted, looking from man to man. "This freak murdered someone this morning and I'll bet my months pay he'd love to do it again, especially if he can take an American out."
"Angel?" You and Dim are gonna be in the forward vehicle, with another MP. Dim, you and me will be in the back with a medic."
"Who gets to drive?" Dim asked, with a slight smile, knowing how much the sergeant bitched about his driving skills.
"Mrs. B and Del Rio will be driving." Silas snapped, getting up and walking back to the holding area. On his way he passed Del Rio and Mitchell and nodded curtly to them before entering the building.
Smoke started to laugh as the two woman approached.
"What?" Brenda asked.
"We don need no stinkin' MPs" Smoke said trying to affect a Spanish accent.
He began laughing hysterically.
"There's something wrong with that boy." Del Rio announced.
Silas stepped back inside and stood quietly watching Ryan with the prisoner.
"Sulayman." Ryan shook his head. "You're just not helping yourself here."
"Where is my brother, "the man in the cell demanded, "I was told he would be here! I don't talk to you until I see him."
"Well, he hasn't shown up. And even if he does show up? You're outta here. That's right Amigo! You're on your way to Abu Ghraib! You're gonna be charged with murder, conspiracy, theft of official US Government documents….gee, you're gonna be charged with the whole shit load."
He started to walk away, from the cell, and then turned back around. "I hope you like small rooms, 'cause you're gonna be livin' in one for, oh, the next 50 years."
"Pig! Kafir! Filthy American dog!"
"Ooooooh. Now that really hurts, coming from a murdering sack of sludge like you." Ryan quipped.
Sulayman hawked and spit at Ryan.
"Ya missed me." He turned towards the MP at the door. "We have any gags? Oh, oh forget it. We can just use that rag he seems to be using as a hat.
"Well, it was nice talking to you, Sulayman. Have a good trip. You got great weather for it."
He turned to look over at Silas and winked, then commented, " When Mr. Sulaymans' brother gets here, we'll need to speak with him as well and also to go into the town and round-up all the big guys buddies, family members,etc….you know the drill Sergeant."
"Yes, sir."
"MY BROTHER KNOWS NOTHING!"
Ryan turned back around, and cupped a hand to his ear. "Excuse me? Sorry, I missed that. You were saying….?"
Sulayman was clutching the bars of the cell. "They know nothing!"
"Thats a Lie! If they know nothing, then who is helping you?" Ryan yelled.
"Someone….."
"Someone?" Ryan shook his head, and pressed his lips together. "Afraid I don't know him."
"Fazul! He got me involved, he threatened me. He planted the documents on me!"
"What? He stuffed them in your under shorts when you weren't looking? You're LYING to me! Ryan yelled, as he walked back towards the bars.
"No! He told me I had to take the papers out of the camp or he'd have them kill me, kill my family! "
"Uh huh…Sooooo….. some sixteen year old kid threatens to kill you and your family. Hmmm. And how did he get the documents?"
"From someone here!"
"Here? In this Camp? Someone here, in this camp gave him the documents? What's his name?"
Sulayman took a deep breath. From somewhere buried deep in the recesses of his mind he somehow found his conscience. He knew he would pay for the part he had been foolish enough to play, that he'd be punished for murdering Fazul. To destroy another life, was wrong. Sulayman shook his head; he looked at Ryan and whispered," I don't know who it is."
"EEER!" Ryan said, imitating a game show buzzer. "That your final answer?"
Sulayman clutched the bars and sank to the ground.
"Get this guy outta here!" Ryan snapped.