by J J Cooper
Bowen adjusted Jay's handcuffs so they locked around the chair. He moved toward the door and stopped to whisper something to Catherine. After a kiss on the cheek, he exited the room.
Elated that his father was alive, Jay considered the hidden message in their conversation. Follow the director; only director he knew was the Director of NSIS, Patrick Goodwin. A close family friend. Sarah's boss.
Follow the director. Easier said than done.
TWENTY-TWO
Primrose choked on his gag, trying to say something.
Jay caught him nodding to Catherine. 'Seems she's changed sides, mate. Save your breath.'
Primrose turned and rolled his eyes.
'Shut up, Jay,' Catherine said from the doorway.
'Any chance you're going to unlock these handcuffs for old time's sake?' Jay asked.
'I suppose I can. Get up and move to the back corner, facing the wall.'
'After all we've been through, Catherine, I think I'll wait for Major Bowen to return, thanks.'
'Get in the fucking corner. Now!' She took a step forward, the pistol trained on Jay.
'What if I don't?'
'I'll shoot you.'
Jay believed her. She was fucking crazy. He managed to get to a raising-crouch position and shuffled to the corner. The chair dug into his lower back, causing a cramp in one side. He made it to the corner and sat facing the wall.
The metallic clink of handcuffs played off the concrete floor. Jay heard Catherine whisper something to Primrose. 'I hope you're not playing favourites,' he said.
'Don't know when to shut up, do you?' she sneered.
'My handcuffs are a little tight too. Can you adjust them?'
'Fuck off, Jay. You really are annoying sometimes.'
'Does that mean I can't see you for conjugal visits?'
'What?'
Jay turned his head toward Catherine, who was standing behind her husband. 'You know, when you're in jail. Can't honestly think that you'll get away with this?'
'You really do think you're smarter than everyone, don't you?'
'No. I just think that you three are stupider than I am.' He flashed her a smile.
The vein throbbed again on Primrose's temple. Catherine clenched her jaw. 'We'll see.'
'I guess we will, Catherine.' Jay turned back toward the wall, knowing Catherine and Primrose were again up to no good.
Waiting for Bowen to return felt like an eternity and Jay reflected on why he was in his current situation. One interrogation of an Iraqi general before the invasion had landed him in the hands of these lunatics. The information he'd obtained from the general should have stopped the invasion of Iraq in 2003. His government and the Americans chose to ignore his interrogation report; in fact, they acted as though the report didn't exist. It had played on Jay's mind at times. Each time he told himself he was just doing his job. Empty faces screamed out at him at night, asking why he didn't make the information public. The nightmares were persistent. Scotch and dry helped keep the faces at bay but he hated not being in control of his senses, so he rarely overdid it when it came to alcohol. The post-deployment counselling service provided by the army was inadequate, to say the least. Fresh-faced psychologists with no comprehension of living on the edge in a war zone. Besides, Jay couldn't offload on them the secrets he knew. It seemed pointless. And the few sessions he'd attended didn't yield any positive outcomes for him. The regular nightmares persisted, yet paled in comparison to his current situation.
Bowen jolted Jay from his thoughts by dragging him back to a position next to Primrose. 'I knew it,' Bowen said. He waved a few pieces of paper around. 'We went to Iraq looking for fucking Weapons of Mass Destruction, sweating our arses off in the godforsaken Western Desert for no reason. They had already moved them.'
'We went there because we were told to go,' Jay said.
Bowen's jaw tightened. 'Why haven't you told anyone about this?'
'My orders were to report directly to the Chief of Defence, and I did.'
'You sent thousands of people to their graves, Sergeant Ryan.'
'What are you talking about?' Catherine asked.
'This piece of shit here gained information that should have stopped the invasion of Iraq.'
'What information?' she asked.
'Iraq moved the WMDs across the border to Jordan before the ground war. Yet we still invaded.'
'I had my orders. It wasn't my call,' Jay said.
'What else is in there?' Catherine asked.
'In his analysis, the good sergeant here claimed it was likely that Mossad was involved. Apparently, Israel offered to purchase some of the WMDs. Mossad arranged the shipments.'
'I'm an interrogator. I don't make policy and I certainly don't influence decisions to start wars,' Jay said.
'Who else knows about this?' Bowen asked.
'Apart from you three and me, the Chief of Defence, and I assume he would have told the Minister of Defence and the Prime Minister.'
'What happened to the Iraqi general?'
'Don't know, don't care.'
'Any guilt, Jay?'
'No.' There was, but Jay would never admit it.
'Seems to me that we invaded Iraq for no reason. So yeah, you should feel guilty, considering this report should have stopped it.'
Jay tried to stay calm. 'I did my job. Gave the information to the right people and they made their decisions.'
'You've been living with the knowledge that Israel has fucked the Americans and the Coalition. We went in looking for WMD, which cost the lives of thousands of troops and civilians. You put your mates, including myself, in harm's way. You should have stopped it.'
'What could I do? If I'd have brought this out in the open they would have found a way to discredit the report, either through the Iraqi general or me. They would have said he made it all up. There was no way I could have convinced anyone. Who in their right mind would believe that Israel would buy chemical weapons from the Iraqis without the general verifying it? I did my job. I gathered the intelligence and sent it to the right people. They made their decision.'
'You do realise that this is going to come out in the open, don't you, Jay?'
'Not much I can do about it now.'
'Problem is we don't need you any more, now that we have the document.'
'You need that document corroborated, and I'm the only person who can do that,' Jay said.
'Not necessarily. We've got enough proof from Lazarau to validate the conspiracy between our government and the Americans. You're just likely to cause problems. You know too much. I can't let you go from here, Jay.'
Jay had to take a risk. 'Look, boss, I'm sorry you've been dragged into this. The fact is these two are using you, and they plan to kill you.'
Primrose's eyes went wide. Catherine stood still. She seemed to be holding her breath.
Bowen looked at them both. He appeared to assess the information, grinned and addressed Jay. 'Catherine is a smart woman. She helped me use her husband to fulfil our end state. Warren really is a chump. He's just bitter because you deployed instead of him. Have a look at him. If these two wanted to kill me, they would have done so by now.'
'They needed you to get to my father. They needed you to log on and get that document. I only had access for that one task. They needed you because you are the only one here with the access.'
'Shut up, Jay,' Catherine warned.
'Listen to me, boss.' Jay continued. 'I couldn't have got that document, even if I had wanted to. They're using you.'
'Shut the fuck up!' Catherine shouted. She took a step closer and pointed the pistol at Jay.
Bowen turned toward Catherine. 'What's he talking about, Cath?'
'Lies. He's telling lies. You know that it was you and me who set this whole thing up,' she purred.
Jay added more fuel to the fire. 'Do you know who you're actually working for, boss? Has she told you?'
Catherine took another step forward. The pistol waved around in her trembli
ng hand. Bowen noticed and stepped between the pistol and Jay, facing Catherine.
Primrose launched from his chair. Hands free from the cuffs, his knife extended in front of him.
'Boss!' Jay shouted.
Too late. Primrose took two steps and plunged the blade deep in Bowen's side. Primrose worked in a frenzy. Sidearm movements propelled the blade in and out of Bowen's staggering body. Blood sprayed everywhere. Catherine ran out of the room. Bowen spun around and looked wild-eyed at Jay. He tried to mouth something but the knife caught him again in the neck.
Jay cringed and pushed back in the chair. He wanted to say something but couldn't bring himself to speak.
Bowen collapsed at Jay's feet. Primrose went down with him and continued stabbing until he was spent.
Like witnessing a train wreck, Jay couldn't stop watching. He saw his boss and mentor die with a pleading look in his eyes. Pleading for the ever-reliable Sergeant Jay Ryan to come through for him. Not this time. Jay had let him down, or so he felt. Bowen had betrayed him, yet Jay felt that he was the better of two evils.
Primrose rolled to his knees and ripped the gag from his face. He puffed like an overweight office worker running for the train.
Jay froze with fear as Primrose rose to his feet.
Primrose controlled his breathing and wiped his face with the back of his sleeve. He looked at the blood-soaked corpse on the ground and then at Jay.
Primrose flashed his lunatic grin. 'Hello, Sergeant Ryan. Good of you to join us.'
TWENTY-THREE
Bowen's blood ran down Jay's forehead, stinging his eyes before dripping onto his lips. He shook his head, leaned as far to one side as his chained hands would allow and vomited beside Bowen's corpse.
He had seen broken bodies before, the blood-soaked faces of the enemy, missing limbs and begging for a mercy killing. Chilling images from Afghanistan and Iraq floated through his mind. Matted beards and bloodshot eyes sprinkled with dust and debris. Women wailing over the bodies of loved ones crumpled beside their AK-47s and RPGs. He had looked into innocent eyes that had taken a stray round. Sorrow, pain, evil and redemption. War was about loss, not gain. Evil thrived in war but was born within society. He was prepared for the psychological impacts of war but nothing could have prepared him for the slaughter he had just witnessed.
At the sound of Catherine's boots, Jay raised his head and looked toward the door. The pistol in her hand had been replaced with a green army towel. Her face showed no emotion as she handed it to Primrose. Jay knew that he had underestimated her.
'Thank you, darling,' Primrose said. He wiped the blood from his face and hands and threw the towel toward the door. Catherine handed him the key to the cuffs, still attached to his left wrist. He removed the copper comb from his pocket and ran it through his thinning hair. The blood put a sheen through it, making him look even more demonic. With the smeared blood around his lips, he resembled a clown as he grinned, an evil clown.
'Very clever, Jay,' he said. 'How did you know?'
Jay spat out more blood and vomit. 'Undo the handcuffs so I can wipe the blood from my face.'
'Sorry, can't do.'
Jay shook his head. He held Primrose's gaze to avoid looking at Bowen.
Primrose retrieved the towel and wiped it hard down Jay's face. Even through clenched lips, Jay could taste blood. It made him dry-retch.
Primrose told Catherine to find a plastic bag for the bloodied towel.
'There. Now answer the question,' Primrose said.
Jay coughed and tried to control his breathing. 'You're a sick fuck.'
'Granted. You almost ruined my moment. Now, how is it that you know?'
Jay took his time answering. He waited until the anger played at Primrose's temples. 'I've unlocked handcuffs thousands of times. Your whore wife wasn't too subtle with yours.'
'Careful Jay, you wouldn't want to end up like the good major here, would you?'
'You would have killed me by now if that's what you intended.'
Primrose nodded and considered his next question. 'You were onto it before the handcuffs.'
Jay's confidence grew as he realised Primrose needed him alive – for the time being. He cleared his throat. 'Despite knowing that only commissioned officers have access to that system, the boss was convinced I still had access. Only one person I know could have made him think that. And I bet it was done during foreplay.'
Primrose chuckled. 'You really do know my wife well.'
'Even convinced him that he should print the document in case I tried to delete it. Is that right?'
'I've always told Catherine never to underestimate you. You have a sharp mind. There is one more thing that may have given it away, though. How smart are you, Jay?'
'Two more, actually. The first was Cliffe and Taylor. They didn't lie. I don't finish any interrogation until I know the truth. Catherine set it all up. Bowen didn't pay them a visit, otherwise he would've known what they told me.'
'Like the visitor you had?'
Primrose knew about Sarah. Jay wasn't expecting the comment. 'Now you're fishing,' he said.
'Maybe. What's the other thing that gave it away?'
'Same reason you can't kill me just yet. Catherine knew I got a call before we came here. I told her it was my lawyer. You don't know who it was or what information I may have told him or her. She mentioned something to you when she unlocked your cuffs. Easy assumption that it was about the call.'
'She does whisper too loud sometimes, doesn't she?'
'So what happens now?' Jay asked.
'You are the one with the answers. Why don't you tell me?'
'I figure a straight swap. My silence for my father, unharmed.'
'Interesting. Yet I doubt that you'll keep your silence.'
'You have my word. I've kept the Iraq thing secret long enough. I know how to keep secrets. Sub Rosa, right?'
Primrose's grin widened. 'You have been doing your homework. I'm impressed. I'll think about your offer. Here's mine. You'll keep silent because I have your father. Once you're safely behind bars and have proved to me that you can keep your mouth shut, your father will be released.'
Jay hadn't thought about time behind bars. 'Why do I get the feeling that you are about to screw me over?' He knew if he went to prison, Primrose would find a way to kill him eventually.
'You have my word,' Primrose said.
'Like Lazarau?'
'No. Lazarau got greedy.' Primrose checked his watch. 'Now, I need you to take the rap for this little incident here with the good major. After searching your room, the authorities will find a video of you raping my wife along with the recording device. Catherine will inform the police she was ashamed to tell me about the rape and that she told Major Bowen. The calls from Bowen to your mobile will place both of you here at the same time. All in all, solid evidence, don't you think?'
'Do you ever think, Primrose, that maybe you should be seeing a shrink?'
'Defiant to the end. Don't go messing around when you go down for this. Remember I have your father.'
Jay tensed his muscles. He had never thought about killing anyone in his life. Until now.
Catherine returned with a plastic bag and placed the bloodied towel inside. She took up a position to the side of Primrose. Jay noticed her stealing a glance at the bloodied corpse and watched the colour drain from her face. The plastic bag shook in her hands.
Primrose continued. 'I don't know how you managed to get out of here last time but I doubt it'll happen again. Catherine is staying here this time. Seems that you managed to kidnap her earlier this evening. Brought her to your meeting with the major. In your killing rage, she managed to get out, lock the door and raise the alarm. Now that's airtight.'
Jay knew the answer but thought he would ask anyway. 'How do you explain how I got to pick her up when my car is in Brisbane?'
'The stolen military police vehicle, of course. Has your prints all over it. Thank you for setting that up for us. It'll be moved to m
y house soon enough. And before you ask, there is a leave of absence slip for me in the major's office. I've got a week's approved leave. Gone camping to clear my head. You know, a little trouble with the wife. She's been very isolated lately and wouldn't tell me what was wrong.'
'Got it all figured out, haven't you?'
'Yes.'
'Any loose ends?' Jay asked.
'I have your father if anything pops up.'
'You know I'm going to kill you. Lay one hand on him and I'll make it painful.'
'You have me scared now, Sergeant Ryan.'
Jay clenched his jaw and stared ahead. Resigned to the fact that Primrose had set him up well. God, how had he missed the signs? If only he'd been more cautious, more thorough with his analysis. For fuck's sake, he was supposed to be Australia's best interrogator. Maybe he'd listened to the hype for too long. The more people tell you how good you are at your job, the more you believe them. Where was Sarah? He hoped she was safe, and could get him out of this mess.
A sudden movement caught his attention. Primrose stepped to his left and launched a backhand toward Catherine. It caught her flush and sent her down hard on the concrete.
She crawled on her knees to the door and pulled herself up. An attempt to wipe the blood from her nose met with the shake of Primrose's head. The same occurred when she attempted to straighten her hair. She stood at the door. Her knees trembled and the plastic bag shook in her hands.
Primrose turned back to Jay. 'The things we do for authenticity.'
Jay held his breath, wide-eyed at what he'd witnessed.
Primrose moved around Bowen's corpse and kicked into the side of Jay's chair. Jay's head hit the floor, stunning him. His shoulder took enough of the force to soften the collision between the concrete and his ear. Primrose removed the handcuffs.
Stealing a glance toward the door, he noted Primrose placing the handcuffs on Catherine. He looked back at the corpse. Bowen's eyes bored through him. Jay shuddered in revulsion and jerked away from the body, using his legs to push himself and the chair into the far corner. He pulled his legs into a foetal position, shutting out the horror he'd just experienced.