"Colonel Potter, I came as soon as I got your call. I hope I'm not too late?"
"No, Sidney, it's just fine. It was mighty good of you to rush over."
"For Hawkeye Pierce? I'd travel back from the states for that man, he's a truly great man."
"Indeed. So I assume you're all caught up?"
"Yes, Radar debriefed me upon my arrival. I understand that this is highly delicate."
"The man that has Pierce is very dangerous. He's a sadistic, obsessed, manipulative man. He had BJ for a bit, and he doesn't seem to think that Pierce is going to make it much longer unless we get him out of there pronto."
"I'm ready when you are, Colonel."
Potter nodded and picked up the phone, receiving a nod from Radar, who worked the switches and dials to get the call through. After a few minutes of clicks and whirs, the line was ringing. It was picked up after a few nerve-wracking chimes.
"HE. IS. DEAD!" The man bellowed. There was the sound of a metal door opening, and Potter imagined the man entering a cell of some sort. "I SAID NO MORE CONTACT - YOU JUST KILLED HIM!" There was a scuffling sound, then Pierce gasped. Then he screamed.
"Stop! I just want to talk!"
"No more TALK, just SCREAMS! He will suffer to NO end, colonel, and it's ALL YOUR FAULT!"
"There's no need for that! Really, just hear me out, you'll want to hear this."
The man didn't respond, but held out the phone to Pierce writhing on the ground, sobbing in agony.
Potter waited for the man to speak.
"I didn't have to do this, you know. He could have lived. I would have let him earn some trust, maybe be allowed to do a few more things. I'd feed him every day. Maybe he could even work under tolerable conditions. He'll never have a life now."
Potter handed to phone over to Sidney.
"Hello, I'm Doctor Sidney Friedman."
"I don't give a damn who you put on the phone, your man is going to die for this!"
"You're welcome to yell all you like, and threaten too, but I don't think you will kill him."
"I nearly have already. He's a hit away from death, the very picture of it."
"But you wouldn't let him die. You don't want to lose him, he's your release, your plaything. You've kept him alive this long, and even discarded another prisoner to keep him. Are you saying that you'd kill him as soon as torture him?"
There was a pause. "He doesn't deserve death. He deserves pain, I can never dish out enough pain for him. I want him to suffer."
"And so he has. Is it not enough for what he has done?"
"It will never be enough! He is PATHETIC," Pierce cried out, "ARROGANT," Pierce yelled again, "and INCOMPETENT!" Hawkeye choked on another cry.
"Incompetent. As a surgeon, right? He has made mistakes."
"MISTAKES? HE'S A KILLER! A TORTURER! HE'S TORN MEN OPEN, SEWED THEM TOGETHER, AND SENT THEM STRAIGHT INTO HELL!"
There was scuffling and whimpers before the phone was closer to Pierce. The surgeon was choking and gasping. The man must have been on him, strangling him.
"You're absolutely right. He has done all of those things, and he carries no shame for it. He is practically ruthless. He cuts into boys, sews them up, and sends them back to the front."
Pierce inhaled hoarsely and coughed, now choking after being released. The sound grew quieter as the man walked away from him.
"Damn right. He deserves every punishment I deliver."
"Yes, you deliver them. In the stead of one that he tortured. Someone dear to you, that he cut into and destroyed."
"For everything I've lost, he spends another lifetime in his hell! Death is too merciful. I will break him."
"Well, I'm sorry, but I don't think you can do that."
"He's not some angel, he will break! He has broken! He's a cowering, whimpering, shattered husk."
"He's not broken."
"How in the hell can you know that?"
"I know him. He's a man of the heart. He may be ruthless, cold, even vile at times, but he loves just as deeply as he hates. There's only one way to break a man like that."
"And what is that?"
"Destroy the love, everything good in his life. Force him to watch his family turn on him, to dismiss him and show utter disgust at his presence. He may be in his own hell right now, but for him to return after all of this, it wouldn't just break his body; it would shatter his mind."
"And how do you know this so well, doctor?"
"I'm a psychiatrist, and he's told me his inner thoughts. I know him better than any man."
"Well, I'm his captor, his owner, and I know him pretty well too. I know how to make him scream. I know how much pain he's in by his breathing. I can make him scramble away in panic or heel like a mutt. I can bend and break his body, carve into his flesh, and make him do my bidding. Why would I give him up to break his mind?"
"You've done all you can to destroy him. Now you have to let him destroy himself. The only pain you can't force upon him is what he can do to himself. If he had to face us, his friends, the people he abandoned and betrayed, me, the man that wants him to suffer so thoroughly, he'll go mad. This is one thing you'd never know from physically tormenting him: his greatest fear is madness."
"And you think I care more about his suffering than my joy in causing it?"
"I know that you do. Why else would you go to so much trouble to create a living hell for one man? If you just loved hurting anyone, you'd have kept Captain Hunnicutt."
"Well, I can't argue with that. Still," Pierce's breathing became more audible. He was hyperventilating, and the receiver was held near his face. "What do you think?" The man was holding the phone to Pierce's head.
Hawkeye looked up at his captor in confused fear. "W-what?"
He yelped as the man grabbed a fistful of his hair and twisted, forcing him to tilt his head back. "What do you want? To stay here, with me, or to go back to your unit?"
Hawkeye stammered. He had no idea which one would earn a worse beating. "I-I... I want to go h-home."
He grunted when the man bashed him over the head with the receiver.
"He wants it, Doc. Sounds like your theory was wrong."
"He thinks he wants it. Here, I'll make a deal with you. Let me come to you. I'll show you that he fears me, what I can do, then I'll take him back and he'll break."
"No way in hell, you just want to know my location to get him."
"Fine, take me. I can meet you somewhere, you blindfold me and bring me there. It's a win-win situation."
The man laughed. "You're very pragmatic, doc, I like your approach. Alright, I'll take you. Walk five miles to the south of the camp."
"Done. I'll see you there in a few hours. Sundown work?"
"Sundown."
"Swell."
"Looks like the good old doctor is a fan favorite. Everyone want a piece of him?"
"Oh, believe me, we all want him to suffer. Good thing you got him before we took it into our own hands. Our work would be nothing compared to your craft work."
Sidney had never felt more sick to his stomach. The other in the office were staring at him in horrified wonder as he hung up.
"Well, I think I need about a dozen showers." He intoned.
Potter shook his head. "Sidney, where in the world did you pull that bull hockey from? You sounded worse than he is."
"That was the point, Colonel." Sidney sighed. "From everything that BJ told me, that man couldn't interact with anyone but a sadist more ruthless than he is. When he sees weakness, kindness, he crushes it for sport. I had to deliver."
"You had him break his bones to make your point?"
"Hard point to sell."
"So now you're going to walk five miles, then be taken hostage, just to torture Pierce some more before bringing him home? How can you know the kook won't attack you?"
"All he cares about is destroying Hawkeye. He doesn't care about me. If I can convince him that I can ruin Pierce more thoroughly than he has, he's home free."
The Commanding Officer cocked a brow. "And how do you plan to do that?"
"By tearing him down even further."