Aussaresses sat in the corner reading the newspaper and sipping a café as if he wasn’t paying any attention to Zaki or the interrogator. Zaki had never seen the French officer before and wondered why he was there. It was hard for Zaki to focus and reason. “Give us a name and you can sleep,” said the interrogator.
Zaki said nothing. The interrogator turned back to Aussaresses as if asking for permission. Aussaresses looked up from his paper and seemed to quickly survey the situation. He gave a small nod to the interrogator and went back to reading his paper. The officer controls my fate, thought Zaki.
“Two,” said Aussaresses without looking up.
The interrogator picked up a pair of pliers from a table. Zaki whimpered. He knew what came next. He had already lost two of his fingernails. The interrogator placed the jaws of the pliers on the tip of one of Zaki’s fingernails. “Slowly,” said Aussaresses without looking up from his newspaper.
Zaki’s wrists and ankles jerked against the wire as the interrogator slowly pulled off his fingernail. “Marwa!” said Zaki without even knowing what he had said. Anything to stop the pain.
Aussaresses was surprised at hearing the name of Zaki’s sister and motioned for the interrogator to stop. The interrogator released the pliers. Zaki gasped for breath. Aussaresses set down his newspaper and considered. Why would Zaki say his sister’s name when asked for a name? According to the two soldiers that captured Zaki, the mother had explained that her daughter had been offered a job in a woman’s shoe factory on the outskirts of Paris where she was now living. The soldiers had assumed that the mother was telling the truth, because she was too afraid for her young daughter Rania to do otherwise. Aussaresses also believed the mother was telling the truth as she knew it. But Aussaresses also knew that children did not always tell their parents the truth, especially when they thought their parents would be angry or worried. Aussaresses had sent an agent in Paris to check out the mother’s story but the agent had not yet returned to report on the results of his inquiry. The mother had said her daughter had left nine months ago which was right around the time of the first bombing in Paris. Aussaresses was intrigued by the possibilities. “We already know about your sister,” said Aussaresses. “You’ll need to give us more if you want to the pain to stop.”
“Marwa,” Zaki said again and then passed out.
There it was again. The name of the sister. Like it had value. Something that would save him. “Give him some food and water and let him sleep. And for God’s sake hose him down. I think he shit himself,” said Aussaresses getting up and exiting the room.
Aussaresses sat at his desk reading a report when his phone rang. It was his agent in Paris. It was as Aussaresses thought… there was no Marwa working at the factory. If fact, there was no factory at the address given. Just a barbershop. So where was Zaki’s sister and what was she doing? He instructed his agent to pull Marwa’s duplicate photo from the passport office and give it to the police prefect in Paris to issue a bulletin to apprehend and bring Marwa in for questioning.
When Zaki woke, his mind was clear. He couldn’t take any more and would do anything to avoid pain. He was broken. He told Aussaresses everything he knew about his sister. He knew she had been specially trained by an FLN leader but he didn’t know the leader’s name or the type of training his sister had received. “When can I go home?” said Zaki.
Aussaresses smiled and said, “Get some more sleep. You’re a growing boy.”
Zaki’s trial was held in secret and lasted less than five minutes. There was no jury and no witnesses. The defense attorney assigned to represent Zaki only asked that the death penalty not be allowed because of the defendant’s young age. The judge denied the motion but did show some mercy when he pronounced the guilty verdict and sentencing. The guillotine would be used to remove Zaki from this earth.
As horrible as the device and its operation appeared the guillotine was actually considered a humane method of capital punishment by the French. They had designed the device during the French revolution and it was used often in the purge that followed. It was, of course, much more efficient than death by hanging, especially if the neck of the person being hanged did not break when dropped from the gallows. It was far less traumatic for the members of a firing squad that were ordered to carry out a prisoner’s sentence and far more accurate. The guillotine never missed. Once the guillotine’s blade separated the prisoner’s head from his body he felt nothing and there was no question that he was dead. It did however occasionally malfunction which could bring about horrific results. It was also true that some doctors believe that the victim was still aware for several seconds after decapitation because there was still a small amount of blood in the brain but that was pure conjecture since nobody survived the guillotine to relay the experience. The guillotine represented a finality of justice in these enlightened times.
Zaki was one of twenty-four prisoners that had been sentenced to the guillotine that sunny day in the prison courtyard. Executions were no longer public affairs but a few journalists were allowed to witness the event.
Zaki thought it was good that his mother and sisters would know about his death; that they would have closure. He hated the thought of disappearing like so many of his friends had done; their families never knowing what happened to them. He waited his turn in line. Each execution took about five minutes. It was the clean up after each decapitation that took most of the time. The guillotine was messy and the French thought it rude that a prisoner to be executed suffered the indignity of lying in another person’s blood. They were not barbarians, after all.
It was a surprisingly orderly occasion. There were twenty armed guards supervising the line and surrounding the platform on which the guillotine sat. If one was going to die, the guillotine’s blade was by far quicker and less painful than several bullets in the back. And even if you survived the bullets they would still cut off your head with the guillotine once you had healed enough to be ruled healthy. There was no escaping at this point in the process of justice. Just death.
Zaki’s turn came and he was escorted up the stairs to the platform. The executioner’s assistants lay Zaki face down so he would not see the blade dropping. Zaki did not struggle. He had been told by other prisoners that struggling only made it worse and could cause the guillotine to malfunction. Zaki was sure he didn’t want that to happen. The assistants secured his neck within the device by using a metal plate with a half-mooned cutout on one end.
Many say that when a person knows they are about to die their lives flash before their eyes. Zaki’s life had been so short he was worried that he would run out of things to think about. Instead, Zaki thought about the time his father had taken him into the mountains to hunt deer. Zaki never got a chance to shoot a deer because they never spotted one, but it didn’t matter. He loved just spending time with his father. The sunlight through the trees of the forest and his father’s smiling face was Zaki’s final thought when his head was severed from his body.
Marwa was awoken by a knock on her door. She looked at the wristwatch Saadi had given her. It was four-thirty in the morning. She slipped on her robe and walked to the door of her apartment. She picked up the revolver that sat on the hallway table and pressed the barrel against the front door as Saadi had shown her. The security chain was already on the door but she knew it would not prevent a determined intruder. She put her foot ten inches behind the door to stop it if the person on the other side tried to force their way into her apartment. She opened the door until it rested against her foot and peered out through the gap.
Saadi was on the other side of the door with a folded newspaper under his arm. Marwa closed the door and pulled off the security chain. She opened the door again and let Saadi enter. “What is wrong?” said Marwa as she closed the door and replaced the security chain.
“We must talk,” said Saadi.
“Should I make tea?” said Marwa.
“Yes. I think tea would be good,” said Saadi.
“Please. Sit,” said Marwa as she moved off toward the kitchen.
Saadi sat on the couch and placed the newspaper on the coffee table.
Marwa prepared the tea. She knew something bad must have happened for Saadi to visit her so early. She brought the tea out on a small tray along with four biscuits and set it on the coffee table. She poured a glass for Saadi and one for oneself. “Why are you here, Saadi?” said Marwa with a small quiver in her voice. “Is it my mother?”
“Your mother is fine,” said Saadi as he handed her the newspaper. “Page six near the bottom.”
Marwa opened paper to page six and saw a list of the Algerians that had recently been executed for terrorist crimes against France. She saw Zaki’s name at the bottom of the list and gasped. “Oh my God.” Tears welled up in her eyes.
“The French caught him at the airport,” said Saadi. “I’m sorry.”
“Did he suffer?”
Saadi remained silent. Marwa broke down and wept. “My mother?” said Marwa.
“We have sent someone to comfort her. They will make sure she is okay.”
“I must see her.”
“And you will. But we have a mission that must be fulfilled. You swore an oath.”
“Yes. Of course.”
“Zaki died a martyr’s death and is assured a place in heaven. We will avenge his death together.”
Marwa nodded.
Aussaresses decided he needed to supervise Marwa’s arrest in Paris. He didn’t know when his intelligence unit would have another opportunity like this and wanted to ensure there were no mistakes. He also wanted to ensure that proper credit was given to her captor, namely him.
He knew Massu would take the credit if given the chance. Of course Massu would mention Aussaresses’ name as a minor player in the intricate web that Massu had designed to capture the notorious terrorist. Massu was a shrewd politician and Aussaresses would expect no less of him. Aussaresses had his own political aspirations. This was most likely Aussaresses’ last war and he needed to enhance his reputation as much as possible.
Aussaresses did not notice the motor scooter following him to his hotel. He was an officer and therefore not expected to stay on base when visiting. He used his per diem plus a supplement to pay for a small room at the Hotel George V just off the Avenue des Champs-Élysées. Most officers chose to stay in less expensive lodgings and pocketed the majority of the per diem. But one did not run into high-level diplomats, generals, and politicians in flop houses.
The George V had three excellent restaurants in which Aussaresses ate his breakfast and lunch. For dinner he preferred La Maison du Caviar which was easy walking distance from the hotel. He knew the maître d’ well and always tipped for a seat that gave him a view of the reception area. He liked to know who was entering the restaurant. It was a popular spot with high society, famous musicians and movie stars. The restaurant’s specialty was Russian caviar which always impressed his dates and smoothed the way for a more enjoyable evening.
The dining room was crowded when Aussaresses arrived with his date - the hostess at a local nightclub that he frequented when in the city. The maître d’ gave him a signal that the required tip for a good table would be twice what he normally gave. He paid it, not wanting to look cheap in front of his date. She was very attractive.
They were escorted to their table and the maître d’ took their drink order as was the custom. Aussaresses ordered a medium-priced champagne. His date was beautiful but he was sure she would not be able to tell the difference between a high and medium-priced champagne. The bubbles looked the same and that was what was important to her. He pretended to seem interested as the girl babbled on about the time she met Jerry Lewis in the lounge at Le Dome. Aussaresses kept glancing at the front door as each person entered to see whom he might want to run into at the bar on his way to the toilet. The waiter walked over and informed him that there was a telephone call for him. He was surprised, as he couldn’t recall telling anyone that he was here this evening. Many on his staff knew that he frequented the restaurant, but they knew better than to disturb him unless it was a true emergency. He excused himself and moved to the end of the bar where the house phone was located. He picked up the phone and said, “Hello.”
The line went dead and he hung up. A joke? he thought. But whom? When he turned to go back to the table he saw that a beautiful woman was behind him. It took him a moment to realize that he had seen her before… in a photograph. It was Marwa.
Saadi had instructed her to use her revolver and to fire two shots into his chest followed by a coup de grace to the head once he had fallen to the floor. She had decided that bullets were far too kind for the man responsible for Zaki’s death. She had stolen a steak knife from one of the tables.
Marwa raised the knife above her head and swung downward toward Aussaresses’ chest. He instinctively put his hand up to deflect the blow. The knife plunged through his palm and the tip of the blade pierced the back of his hand. The knife had been stopped. Aussaresses cried out in pain and cursed.
Marwa was furious. She kicked his shins and pushed forward with all her weight keeping her hand on the knife. Aussaresses tripped and fell backward. She held onto the knife’s handle and followed him to the floor landing on top of him. She grabbed the handle of the knife with both her hands pushed the blade towards his face. The tip of the knife sliced his eyebrow open and slide down into his left eye. He screamed. A waiter and the maître d’ pulled her off him but the damage was done. He was blind in one eye and badly disfigured. His date shrieked on seeing him.
Marwa was kept in a cell with a single light bulb that shined day and night. Loud music was played over a loudspeaker whenever she dozed off. If the music didn’t wake her the guards soaked her with a fire hose. She was a wreck after three days of no sleep.
She was removed from her cell and dragged into an interrogation room. She was stripped naked. Her hands and feet were tied with baling wire. She was hung by the baling wire around her wrists from a meat hook on a steal pipe overhead. Her feet dangled a few inches off the concrete floor. Copper clamps on the ends of wires were attached to each of her nipples. The wires led to a hand cranked generator. The guards left the room, leaving her alone with her thoughts… What comes next?
She hung from the pipe for what she thought was three hours. In reality it was only thirty minutes but one tended to lose track of time in these types of situations. The door opened. Aussaresses entered with a gauze patch over his left eye. The bleeding had stopped after the second day. Soon he could be outfitted with a leather eye patch which he thought would give him a rouge look and amplify his mysterious reputation. The wound was not ideal but not the end of the world either. He sat down in the room’s only chair and stared at her silently.
Marwa was unnerved by his one good eye moving up and down her naked body. “You, fucker. I’m gonna kill you,” she said.
“No. You had your chance. It’s my turn now,” said Aussaresses.
He rose and walked over to the generator. He flipped a switch to “ON” and gave the generator’s handle a whirl. Marwa screamed as the electricity coursed through her nipples. Her body convulsed and the baling wire dug deeper into her wrists and ankles as she jerked. The generator handle slowed to a stop and the generator wound down decreasing the voltage as it slowed. Finally it stopped and Marwa gasped for breath. Aussaresses stared at her again with a kind of curiosity. He wondered why the nipples were the most effective location on a woman’s body to place the clamps of the electrodes. He had studied the human body during medical school and he knew that a woman’s vagina had far more nerve endings than the nipples. But still he and others like him found the nipples to be more effective on a woman. He surmised that it was probably the smell of burning flesh so close to the nostrils and the visual of seeing smoke rising from her nipples that struck such terror in a woman’s mind. It didn’t really matter what the reason as long as it was effective, but he was naturally curious. “I am going to nee
d the name of your handler,” said Aussaresses.
“Fuck you,” said Marwa.
“That’s my girl,” said Aussaresses. “It will get better once you start sweating.”
He gave the generator’s handle another whirl and Marwa screamed. The echo bounced off the concrete walls in the hallway and struck fear in the other prisoners waiting their turn in their cells.
The session continued until Marwa finally fell unconscious for the fourth time and Aussaresses waved off the guard with the fire hose. He would let her rest for a bit before continuing. He didn’t want her to die of shock before revealing the name and location of her handler. Aussaresses was a patient man.
Marwa woke a few minutes later her arms still hanging from the pipe. She was exhausted and her body glistened in cold sweat. Her beautiful black curls were clumped together in long strands. She knew she would eventually reach a breaking point and reveal Saadi’s name. It wasn’t that she was worried about Saadi. He could take care of himself. She just didn’t want to give Aussaresses any kind of victory over her… over Zaki. She was resigned to her fate but determined to pick the manner of her death. She turned her head to the side and used her tongue to draw the first strands of hair into her mouth. She swallowed without chewing.
After a coffee and a visit to the toilet, Aussaresses went back to the interrogation room with his newspaper tucked under his arm. The pain medication he had been given was wearing off and he felt a stinging sensation in his eye. He lightly pressed on the gauze for a moment and the pain went away. It would be back. He pulled a small bottle of medication from his pocket and opened the lid which contained an eyedropper. He used the eyedropper to place two drops of medication on his tongue. It was bitter. He wished he’d brought a cup of coffee with him to wash out the taste. Next time, he thought and made a mental note to himself. He opened the door to the room and entered. He found Marwa’s lifeless body hanging from the pipe. Several strands of hair led into her mouth and disappeared. Her eyes were bulging and her face was blue from lack of oxygen. She had suffocated to death.
Café Wars Page 20