OR2-EP1: Perun Awakens (13)
It had been over a day since the group had been confined to the American Embassy's hut, where the embassy staff and guards would regularly feed them and otherwise ignore them, as if they had been completely forgotten. This indifference had caused some panic among the men, who were not afraid that their superiors would send someone to investigate and interrogate them, but were afraid that they would be thrown around the corner and disposed of as garbage. Corporal Randal had been looking with resentment at Tom, who was hiding in the corner, and Sergeant Salas was inching his way in front of Tom, not allowing the big, burly Southern man a chance to take it out on Tom. Captain Shields, the leader of the squad, sat in the center of the hut contemplating life, while his right-hand man, McNeil, hunkered down in another corner looking for a new response.
"I mean, we are now accomplices, allies in the same boat. At least until our somewhat strange makeshift group disbands, we must face the inescapable together." McNeil bit his nails; it wasn't warm in the embassy and he was still freezing. In a demonstration against the United States, the OUN had cut off the embassy's water and electricity supply, and the two sides were still negotiating, while McNeil and the others had undoubtedly brought the negotiation campaign to a complete halt by rescuing the hostages and escaping into the embassy with them. Considering that they were deserters fleeing from the front lines, the embassy and the army probably won't thank them for their supposedly heroic behavior. The idle men with nothing better to do had to be made to give up investigating their recent activities, lest they end up sitting on the charge of fleeing the battlefield.
McNeil was simply proposing an initiative that others would not necessarily accept. Lack of trust could sometimes be the worst internal conflict in teamwork, and even if none of them had initially intended to victimize others, as soon as one member became suspicious and began to suspect the others, suspicion would allow the malice to surface and become a reality. They had known each other for too short a time, and the only thing that had kept them working together and getting along in recent times had been the pressure of the outside world to find a way to return to the army without being punished for having escaped from the Russians' secret weapon. One of the proposals that was embraced by McNeil was to reappear in the army's sights as war heroes or some other similar capacity. There was no reason for the army to punish the newest heroes out of hand, and when the supposed escape was just a rumor, everyone would subconsciously forget about pursuing the truth and just believe what was right in front of their eyes.
Of course, they also have to prove that they have enough value to be utilized. The army had no shortage of heroes, heroes were just expendable items with a short lifespan.
Captain Shields looked up at McNeil in the corner and didn't speak, leaving the discussion to the others. His actual control over the seemingly disparate group was questionable; McNeil would certainly be willing to follow orders, but only if Captain Shields' decisions were always correct; Corporal Randal and the Captain had known each other much earlier, and the rugged, burly man from the South could sometimes spoil things by being reckless; Tom had always been an expendable figure, his role in the group limited to providing cover for the others, and Captain Shields had reason to believe that the only reason for Tom's success was luck, and that if an enemy approached Tom and attempted to take a stronghold under his control, Tom would only be captured with his hands tied; that Sergeant Salas was always preoccupied, that he seemed to be perpetually thinking of his loved ones far away in Texas, and that he would sometimes at inopportune moments become disoriented and blindly listen to the advice of others. There was no elite among these men who were particularly brilliant in some way, McNeil was halfway decent in Captain Shields' eyes, the others were just paycheck thieves who made a living in the army, especially Tom who wanted to do nothing but play games and read books.
"What's this sudden talk today?" Corporal Randal said gruffly, "We did survive and have to leave from the front line by a fluke ... I have a clear conscience myself."
"Everything we said was probably on their radar." McNeil pointed to a possible eavesdropping device somewhere overhead, "Forget about any eavesdropping device for a moment. We are not criminals, and I continue to advocate that now. As long as we tell the truth, and with the current chaos in Kiev, there's a good chance that they'll let us take the credit for our crimes and leave us unpunished for now. However, in case some people are induced by the investigators to say something they want to hear - even though it is distorted - then everyone else will have to suffer with them. I am not doubting anyone of you, but you should know that human nature precisely cannot be tested."
Earlier McNeil had intended to invent a set of simple gestures for communication, and then he realized that he had no such talent. Captain Shields tried to draw some marks on the wall to serve as a code word, lest all their exchanges should all be overheard by those who would only hide in their embassies and give orders. All must agree that from the time of the rendezvous between the two groups things became simple and clear, and that they need not avoid the existence of criminal acts in which they were involved, and that no one would be expected to lie about them. As for the story prior to this there are conflicting stories, McNeil, Tom and Sgt. Salas had fled from the northeast of the Ukraine, while Capt. Shields and Cpl. Randal had come from the eastern front. Captain Shields had briefly described the fiasco they had encountered on the front line with the other three, except for not describing exactly what weapons the Russians had used or the actual extent of U.S. casualties (McNeil surmised that a fiasco that could collapse the command structure would be accompanied by a large number of deaths and injuries), which made McNeil, who was planning to adopt the same reasoning for deceiving the investigators, skeptical. If he didn't want the investigators to take him out alone and interrogate him closely, he'd better tell most of the truth.
"How do we prove it?"
"We make a rule that anyone who leaves the sight of the others before this makeshift squad is disbanded must report on their entire experience after the reunion, no details can be left out." McNeil spread his hands, "Gentlemen, no more worries, we can't be cannon fodder on the front lines nor should we be sitting ducks in a prison, our fate is in our own hands now."
Tom said he had nothing to hide, and Sergeant Salas seconded the motion. After Captain Shields raised his hand in approval, Corporal Randal, the toughest of the bunch, had to defer to the majority. A few minutes later, someone opened the locked door and the guards outside entered and took Captain Shields out, while quickly closing the door behind them. The four men left inside looked at each other and fidgeted as they waited for the Captain to return. During this time the guards brought them lunch, all of them did not move their forks or dinner knives and watched each other's actions as if they were sitting in front of each other not as teammates with whom they had lived and died for over ten days, but as implacable enemies.
"Right, I concede, I'll have it first." McNeil was the first to give up the confrontation and lowered his head to start eating. He wolfed down all the food, wiped his lips in satisfaction, and smiled as he showed his empty plate to the others, before the rest of them began to eat. The meal was not yet over when Captain Shields was brought back indoors by the guard, who then called McNeil's name. McNeil, who had just finished eating, was pulled out of the room too late to exchange information with Captain Shields, and he proceeded down the corridor towards the makeshift interrogation room under the close guard of six guards, who were always skeptical that the Captain would keep his end of the bargain.
In the interrogation room sat three officers in heavy military coats, presumably military attachés stationed abroad in the Ukraine.
"British?" One of the thin officers, wearing flat glasses, spoke first.
"It's American, I've been naturalized for almost twenty years." McNeil sat back in his chair and waited for the other man to come forward. He didn't know what information Captain Shields had made public to these men, and the prisoner's dilemma had been fulfilled in his case. Now he would have to gamble on the character of Captain Shields, and the consequences would be a return to the sunlight as a decent hero, or arrest as a deserter. McNeil had not admitted to Captain Shields and Corporal Randal himself that he was a deserter, and though Wyatt Curtis seemed to surmise the truth from McNeil's language, that could not be taken as evidence.
"Good, American." The thin officer looked at the tablet in his hand with a leathery smile, "Private Michael McNeil, according to Captain Alfred Shields' confession, the Captain was in sole command of the entirety of your criminal operations during your activities in Kiev, but it was you who made all of the decisions on the key issues ... Frankly, we are curious as to why a captain would defer to a common soldier to judge the situation."
"Sir, allow me to correct one statement: this is not a crime." McNeil realized he would have to speak up and fight back to keep these guys from using him as a breakthrough, "Soldiers of the United States have lost orders from their superiors due to the main force being routed, and all we're doing is trying to stay alive."
"... Even so, it seems like you guys should have stayed near Kharkov and waited for instructions instead of retreating in the direction of Kiev without new orders, not to mention all the mishaps you've created." The officer sitting in the center wore no glasses, his physique was only slightly thinner than Corporal Randal's, and he brought with him the strongest sense of oppression of the three, "The question of whether or not your actions were desertion will be discussed later. Now, Private McNeil, I wish to present to the SIT the full story of your raid on the hotel and confrontation with the OUN ..."
Capt. Shields may have stated some important information. That's right, McNeil was in charge of the ideas, he decided how and what to do next, while the exact plan was Captain Shields' own problem. At first Captain Shields was not at all inclined to listen to McNeil, but the lack of interest on the part of the other three in discussing the plan of battle made it necessary for the Captain eventually to make McNeil the sole subject of discussion, and it soon became apparent that McNeil was not on his level.
The interest of the three officers was drawn to one detail, the mysterious OUN mercenary that McNeil had described as seemingly causing Captain Shields to lose his mind for a short period of time, a man who had already been killed on the spot by McNeil, and who I'm afraid the Embassy couldn't find out any more information about here.
"Have you ever before seen a soldier using magic in combat anywhere?"
"No. Captain Shields is the first Magician I've encountered."
The thin officer with the glasses signaled his colleague to his right to stop continuing to ask stupid questions.
"Why didn't you choose to rescue hostages from other countries at the time?"
"They weren't Americans, simple as that." McNeil replied, following the other man's train of thought. He could tell by the recent domestic news in the United States that the culture there was becoming more conservative by the day, and at this point he'd probably be considered mentally ill by the officers if he made some grandiose blanket statement. The officer sitting on the far-left side of McNeil's field of vision had been sleeping since the beginning, and he hadn't asked any questions until now, so it seemed he was determined not to waste his energy on this ridiculous investigation.
The thin officer held up his glasses and continued to state his opinion in a tone of scholarly rigor, "However, if you were even slightly aware of the international repercussions of the OUN's hijacking of foreigners, you would understand that saving only the Americans would have brought about an even more egregious public outcry than not saving them at all. In fact, the international community generally views this as a failed operation carried out by our military, and the remaining hostages of other countries were all executed by the OUN!" He flung the tablet aside, "Trying to find somewhere else to play as hero because you lost a battle on the front lines? I'll be honest with you, you've got the wrong idea, how can a complex issue that even the President has to call on his staff to discuss be something that a common soldier like you can hastily come up with the optimal outcome?"
McNeil sneered a few times, realizing that his peaceful acceptance of the other man's reprimand would only result in more charges.
"If you're so capable, why don't you go to the rescue?"
"... What?"
"Perhaps you are an expert in your position and field, but in the complexity of the scene, we call the shots." McNeil's tone became aggressive, "The OUN executes a hostage every hour that passes, and what I see is the United States stalling and not wanting to take a stand, which is what I intuitively feel as a rank-and-file soldier in your mouth. Isn't it our greatest victory that we were only able to rescue our hostages and that they arrived at the embassy unharmed and accepted asylum? Or... there is someone who would rather claim more than eighty corpses than spoil their reputation. You are sitting in the embassy having your water and electricity disconnected for no reason, and we don't see you discussing a solution with the OUN militia outside anywhere."
The thin officer was about to snap when the burly man sitting in the center suddenly received a phone call. This turn of events made the other thin officer to stop his movement and he waited for his fellow officer to finish the call and then proceeded to ask for the rest of the content. Unexpectedly, the burly officer coyly said a few polite words, then hung up the phone and said a few more words to the thin officer. The thin officer with an angry face stood up, gritted his teeth and pointed at McNeil as he gave orders to the other guards:
"This interrogation is over, you will send Mr. McNeil back, Corporal Randal is next."
The officer who had been asleep the entire time didn't wake up until then, he looked sleepily at his two fellow officers who were still arguing, rolled over on himself and went back to sleep. The gates closed behind McNeil, and he returned along his original route under the close watch of his guards, when someone had appeared in the center of the road. A slightly tired Wyatt Curtis called out to the guards and said that he intended to speak to McNeil alone.
It would be a lie to say that McNeil had no personal motives. There were a number of prosperous families in the United States that had been in politics for generations, the Curtis family being one of them, and now that Senator Curtis' eldest son had been kidnapped by the OUN, perhaps the Senator would put on a show of presenting a couple of awards to the GI's who had rescued the citizenry and delivering a speech in praise of the common soldier after his heir had safely escaped. The Senator's mouth was less reliable than their sanity, and McNeil wasn't about to trust the other man's character; what could be maximized was the temporary trading relationship that had been formed. McNeil had saved his son, and it was up to the Senator to give something in return for that. That reward should be honored in the proper form before the gratitude wore off completely.
"On behalf of myself and the Curtis family, I thank you for your efforts, Mr. McNeil." Wyatt Curtis courteously thanked McNeil.
"The one who called them just now was-"
"Perhaps my father felt that our benefactor did not deserve to be held and interrogated without cause."
Senator Curtis Sr. was a noted conservative, and naturally Wyatt Curtis was no exception. To idealists who wanted the United States to take on more responsibility overseas and remain a beacon of light, the actions of McNeil and others were undoubtedly self-serving and irresponsible; in the eyes of conservatives, it was just a little lesson for the uneducated OUN. If McNeil had stormed into the OUN headquarters building and caused an explosion, they might have privately offered McNeil up on the altar.
McNeil tried to hide his inner excitement; he didn't want the other side to notice that all his activities were premeditated.
"Allowing us to return to the front lines and rejoin the war as soldiers would be the greatest reward."
"Unfortunately, your behavior cannot be explained in a few words." Curtis gave an inexplicable smile, "What I was able to learn is that your actions have attracted attention ... because they were just too good. I actually thought for sure I was hopeless, but I didn't realize you guys arrived before the regular rescuers."
After ending the brief call, McNeil was escorted back into the room by the guards. He watched as Corporal Randal disappeared into the doorway and immediately asked Captain Shields for information pertaining to the interrogation.
"Their focus on me was mostly on how I escaped all the way to Kiev and the motives and tactics used to carry out each of these activities, so I just had to give you up." The Captain looked at McNeil with a slight apology, "You're the one who answers every time why this mission, I can't imitate it."
McNeil watched the expressions on Tom's and Sgt. Salas' faces. Captain Shields may have said the exact same thing to these two men earlier, or perhaps prepared a separate set of remarks specifically to deal with McNeil. There had been Corporal Randal in the room at the time in addition to the two of them, and the Corporal, strong and loyal enough to act as a punching bag for Captain Shields, would surely have echoed everything the Captain had asked for - including coercing the two men into agreeing with the forged remarks.
"I, ah, was taken by them as the main culprit." McNeil fidgeted away from Captain Shields to Sergeant Salas, "But it's not the tactics they're concerned with, it's my motives. These men thought that a common soldier was not worthy of coming up with such a scheme, of such judgment ... or of caring about matters affecting international opinion. I rebuked them bitterly, without mercy. So, they threw me out."
"That's bad." The Captain sympathized.
The score was now 3-1, McNeil had two comrades with him, and Captain Shields was alone. He couldn't let the situation break down; as he himself had said, they had to stick together until this makeshift group disbanded. McNeil could not, therefore, speak out bluntly in front of Captain Shields toward the other two men who doubted him; he must confuse the others with some ambiguous statement and get the result he wanted.
"Tom, when they call you in for questioning, if these men ask about the electronic warfare against the OUN during the operation, you must give a full confession, and don't say that the Captain did it alone, or take credit for it, just say that you did it under the Captain's command."
Tom looked uncertainly at McNeil, the always quiet young soldier trying to think of the implications.
"Sir." McNeil turned to Sgt. Salas, "Don't forget to check with them on the status of the OUN ... If the OUN has taken control of the Ukraine, you offer to let the five of us form a detachment to continue the destruction of the OUN, and remember to put the importance of the Captain and I in the forefront. "
The entire investigation was practically over that evening, when a guard opened the door to the room and informed them that they were free to move around parts of the embassy. The other three did not encounter any difficult questions, and according to them, the investigation team focused on asking for all the information about Captain Shields and McNeil, and were eager to find out what time of day the two men used to sleep and go to the bathroom. Assuming that none of the three men were lying, McNeil's objective was accomplished. He wanted to draw attention to himself without becoming a prime target.
The bad news that followed was that the OUN's insanity had left Kiev bereft of any forces that would dare to openly defy it. After the president literally took the plane and fled to Romania, the Ukrainian army, unwilling to follow the orders of the kleptocrats, temporarily laid down their arms and accepted the result of the OUN coming to power. The brutal killing of the hostages by the OUN caused great indignation in the international community, and the OUN claimed that this was only the beginning of their efforts to remove all foreign forces from Ukraine and to cleanse Ukraine of its poisonous ideology. By about 9:00 p.m., they were approached by the skinny officer who had had a very unpleasant falling out with McNeil during the day, and this time his tone became much milder.
"The United States has an honorable mission for you." He kept his eyes on McNeil, who was snoozing on the couch, as he said this, "To liberate the people enslaved by the OUN and give them back their freedom."
TBC
Chapter Notes:
The expansion of private superpower would drastically increase the cost of maintaining order, and not all Magicians are comfortable working with government agencies.
«ОУН змагається за ідеал християнської України, визнає і захищає християнський світогляд, що від тисячоліття формує українську духовність. Українська націоналістична ідеологія стоїть на позиціях ідеалістичного світогляду і протиставляється всім матеріалістичним напрямкам».