Buck again used the vertical-mattress technique for the skin sutures to keep tension off the edges of the skin so the wound would heal properly.

After an hour and a half, the surgery was completed. Buck stepped back from the table. "Would you dress that for me, please?" he asked the tech.

"Yes, sir," the tech replied, reaching for some Vaseline, gauze and sterile tape on the mayo table next to him.

Buck entered the command center still in his scrub clothes from surgery.

Ben Raines, the rest of his team, and President Osterman 238.

and her cabinet were all in the large conference room when Buck walked through the door.

Ben stopped talking in mid-sentence to give him a worried glance. "How is Hammer doing?" he asked, speaking the question on each of the team members' minds.

Buck smiled widely. "Great! I was able to clean and de-bride the wound and close it without having to take any donor muscle from his hip."

"That's really good news," Ben said, a look of relief pa.s.sing over his face.

Even President Osterman and her men smiled at the good news Buck had given them.

"Yeah," Buck said. "That means he'll heal much faster."

"When will he be operational again?" Harley asked, trying not to showhis concern for his best friend.

"Oh, he'll be up and around with his arm in a sling ready for desk duty by tomorrow. No heavy lifting or exertion until the st.i.tches come out in five to seven days," Buck said. "Otherwise, we'll be right back where we started if he busts those st.i.tches loose."

"I'll make sure he doesn't use the arm too much," Jersey said, causing Coop to give her a look that had jealousy written all over it.

"Are you too tired to sit in on our discussion?" Claire asked the doctor.

Buck shook his head. "No, I grabbed a c.o.ke on the way over here to get my blood sugar up, so I'm all right for another hour or so ... then I need to get something to eat."

"This shouldn't take that long," Ben said. "We've been discussing the best way to proceed with the interrogation of Achmed Sharif, the leader of the Arab terrorists captured at the airport."

"You want my advice?" Buck asked, walking to the corner table, picking up a coffee cup, and filling it with the strong, black brew in the pot.

"Well, General G.o.ddard thinks we should try to question 239.

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him first without chemicals to see if he'll give us any information that way," Claire said.

G.o.ddard nodded. "That'd be much faster than chemical interrogation," he said.

Buck glanced at the general as he took a seat next to Ben Raines. "You want fast, or do you want effective?" Buck asked, sipping the coffee and making a face. He set the cup down without drinking any more.

"Effective, of course," Claire said.

"Then here are my recommendations. First, do not attempt to question him at all right now. It will just tip him off to what we're going to ask later, and will let him build up a mental resolve not to answer those questions, or worse, it may allow him to formulate accurate-sounding lies."

"Uh-huh," Claire said. "What then?"

"Strip Mm naked and put him in a completely dark cell for twenty-four hours with no sensory input to let him tell the pa.s.sage of time."

"Why take his clothes?" Claire asked, interested in the reasons behind Buck's thinking.

"People, especially men, from a macho male-dominated culture like that of the Arabs, feel especially vulnerable when they are naked. Being dressed gives them a feeling of protection, of invulnerability. Keeping him time-disoriented and spatially disoriented, lowers his mental defenses and gives his mind all kinds of nasty things to think about-like what we're going to do to him when we come for him.""That sounds barbaric," Claire said, a look of distaste on her face.

Buck shrugged. "It IS barbaric, but so is War, Madam President. The North Koreans established this protocol over seventy years ago during the Korean War, and the tenets of brainwashing and interrogation haven't changed a whole lot since then."

"Okay, so we strip him and keep him in the dark for 240.

twenty-four hours. Then what?" Claire asked, leaning forward with her elbows on the conference table.

"The guards who come for him must be instructed not to talk to him at all, no matter what he asks or says. He is to be treated as if he is of no importance whatsoever. This will further lower his mental defenses.

As a leader of the Arab terrorists, he will be used to being treated with some deference and respect. We must change that from the get-go."

"Go on, Doctor," Claire said.

"Tomorrow morning, after he's lain awake all night in the dark wondering what's to become of him, we'll take him from his cell and walk him naked through the corridors to my interrogation room, which will be filled with all manner of terrible-looking instruments and machines. I and my helpers will be gowned and gloved as if ready for surgery when he enters the room."

Buck thought for a moment, then smiled. "Also, it will be better if there are several females in the room."

"Females?" Claire asked, astonished at this request.

Buck nodded. "There's nothing to make a man feel insignificant and impotent like having women see him paraded around with his genitalia hanging out. It strips him of what remains of his pride in his manhood."

"Especially for an Arab who culturally has great disdain for women,"

Jersey added, a look of malicious glee on her face at the thought of the arrogant terrorist in this position.

"I see," Claire said, smiling herself at the mental picture this evoked.

"Then, when he is in the room, he will be blindfolded and strapped on an operating table. By this time, his mind will be conjuring up all kinds of horrible torture scenarios. In fact, it will most probably remind him of things he's done to enemies in the past, further helping to demoralize him," Buck said.

"You don't really intend to torture this man, do you?"

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General G.o.ddard asked, as if the very thought were foreign to his thinking.

Buck shook his head. "Not in the least, General. Once he's on the table,I'll start an IV and begin to infuse the chemicals I use for interrogation."

"You mean, like sodium Pentothal?" Claire asked.

"Naw, that's old hat, Madam President," Buck answered. "I'll start with sodium Amytal, a distant relative of Pentothal, but much quicker and more potent. Once the Amytal has him relaxed and calm, I'll add a pinch of scopolamine."

"Scopolamine?" Claire asked. "Wasn't that once used in childbirth?"

"You're correct, it was. It was used to cause a semiconscious condition called a twilight sleep. It completely relaxes the inhibitions part of the brain, and it has a further benefit of causing amnesia about the time the subject is under its spell. That way, Sharif won't remember what we did or what we asked or even what his answers were."

"So," Ben said, "we can repeat the process and double-check the answers to the same questions to see if he gives the same response?"

Buck nodded. "Sure. It's a way to make sure he wasn't able to lie to us the first time."

"You mean even with all this, some people are still able to lie under the chemicals?" General G.o.ddard asked, as if he couldn't believe such a thing.

"Yes," Buck answered. "It depends on how strong-willed the subject is.

Back in the days of Korea, the Koreans only had about a twenty-percent success rate with the Americans they tried to brainwash, because Americans were very strong-willed and had grown up in a country that prized individuality."

Buck paused. "However, since this man grew up under the Arab culture, where conformity and obedience at all costs is taught, he should be much easier to break."

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Claire nodded. "So, you plan to start first thing in the morning?"

"Yes, ma'am. What I need from you is a list of questions you want answered and information you are seeking. It's best if only one person questions the subject."

"Can I be there?" Ben asked. "That way, if one of the answers leads to another question, I can let you know."

"Sure," Buck said, "but I have to be the only voice Sharif hears. During interrogation, there is a weird sort of transference that takes place between the subject and his interrogator. Too many voices spoils the effect."

Ben nodded, satisfied. "In the morning then . . ."

"Dr. Buck," Jersey said.

"Yes?"

"As one of the people involved in capturing this man, I'd like to be oneof the women in the room when he's brought in naked."

"Me too," Anna said.

Both Corrie and Beth nodded that they wanted to be included in the audience.

Coop snorted. "You that hard up to see a naked man, Jerse?" he asked.

"No, idiot," she answered, "but I think it might make him feel even more insignificant if the women who aided in his capture were there to observe his humiliation."

Buck nodded. "You're exactly right, Jersey. I'd like all of you to be there in the morning. You too, Coop."

"Okay," Coop said, "but only if I don't have to look at his ... equipment."

Jersey laughed. "Yeah, we wouldn't want you to feel inferior, would we, Tiny?"

Coop raised his eyebrows in disbelief at Jersey's statement. "Oh, yeah?

And just how would you know anything about the size of my . . . er, uh .

. . you know."

"Oh, it's not from personal observation, that's for sure," Jersey said, a look of distaste on her face.

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"Then you're just guessing," Coop said triumphantly.

"No," Jersey replied, "but on the wall of the women's head back at our base, someone wrote, 'For an unremarkable time, call Tiny,' and under it was your phone number."

"That's a d.a.m.ned lie!" Coop protested as all the other members of the team burst out laughing.

Claire Osterman glanced from one member of the team to another, wondering how these fools could be so silly and yet be such devastating warriors. It was clear she just didn't get the camaraderie that existed among men and women who fought together and put their lives on the line together.

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After the meeting in the conference room broke up, Jersey stopped Buck in the outside corridor and whispered something in his ear.

He laughed and nodded. "A great idea, Jersey. I'm gonna make an interrogator out of you yet."

"What was that all about?" Coop asked.

"Dr. Buck says we can be the ones to escort Sharif to his new quarters,"

Jersey said, a glint of mischief in her eyes as she told the others what she had planned.Achmed Sharif was sitting in his cell, wondering when the infidels were going to come to question him. He had prepared himself mentally to stand up to whatever torture they tried on him. After all, was he not the descendent of princes of the realm of Arabia? he thought with some pride.

The metal door to his cell banged open and several men and women filed in. Two of the women were holding Beretta pistols in their hands, the hammers back and ready to fire, he noted.

As he looked at them, he recognized them. They were part of the Scout team that had captured him and destroyed the airplanes as they tried to land at the airport.

In general, Sharif was opposed to the idea of women being 245.

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in the Army, thinking they were too weak to make good fighters. But, he had to admit to himself, these female Scouts of Ben Raines's Army made excellent warriors.

As two of the women covered him with their side-arms and the two men stood in a corner with their arms crossed and enigmatic smiles on their faces, the female with the dark skin and long black hair pulled out a K-Bar a.s.sault knife, its razor-sharp blade glistening in the pale light of the cell.

Sharif took a deep breath. He was determined not to show any fear, no matter what the crazy woman did to him.

She approached, a slight grin on her face and a weird glint in her eyes, causing his heart to beat fast and sweat to appear on his brow.

He stood up straight, his chest out and his lips in a tight line, determined not to let his fear show.

Jersey walked up to him, lightly running her finger along the blade of the a.s.sault knife. As she stepped in closer and raised the blade, Sharif could stand it no longer.