The president nodded slowly, as if he were still not certain this was not all some sort of a cruel hoax. Court stared him down several seconds, and then a wave of panic flashed in Oryx’s eyes.
“I’m going to try to kidnap you, but here’s the deal. If that gets too complicated, I’m going back to plan A. Plan A pays a lot more than plan B, anyway. Things get too rough, you make too much trouble when we try to get out of here, and it’s plan A all the way. Plan A is a bullet between your beady eyes, and I leave you in the street, go home, and count my cash.
“You understand?”
Oryx nodded again. The panic was there, but there was an acquiescence in his expression. He understood now.
“So your job is to make sure plan A isn’t the easy choice for me. Got it? We need to be on the same team here, so this all goes smooth, okay?”
“American? You are American?”
“Absofuckinglutely.” Court was proud to say it. It had been a while since he’d operated in the interests of the United States.
“Good. What is your rank?”
“No rank.”
“No rank? You are an officer, yes?”
Court laughed as he pushed the two-wheeler up against the wall to shield it from view of anyone walking down the street outside. “Just a grunt, dude. It was this or peeling potatoes, and I drew the short straw.”
Oryx did not understand the joke. He shook his head again to clear the lights and declared, “I wish to surrender to your senior commander.”
Gentry chuckled. “Sorry, I’m all you get for now.”
“Very well.” He said it in a disappointed tone. “My head—”
Gentry pulled two pills from his front pocket. “Take these for now.”
Oryx took the pills in his hand, looked them over, but did not put them in his mouth.
“They’re just mild painkillers. I promise you will thank me in a few minutes.”
Abboud popped the pills in his mouth slowly, swallowed another swig of water and choked on it, but did manage to keep the pills down.
“Can you run?”
“Run? I can barely see!”
“Can you move fast, then? Say no, and plan A is my best bet, because we’re going to have to haul ass to get you out of here.”
Oryx nodded helpfully. “I can run.”
“Good man. Now, I’ll help you stand.”
Oryx looked around. He seemed to just now notice all the gunfire. “Who is shooting? What is all this shooting?” Court realized his prisoner really wasn’t quite caught up to what was going on yet. It was no surprise.
“Friends of mine. They are keeping your friends busy. We are going to head through the back of this house here, go south a few blocks, and get in a boat. You ready?”
Oryx nodded again. He was helpfully conspiratorial in his own kidnapping. Even though he was clearly still disoriented, he recognized the alternative and had no doubt in his mind, looking at the serious American man in front of him, that it would be no problem for him to carry it out.
“Let’s move,” said Court. And he pushed Oryx around, shoved him hard to propel him towards the little stone house.
Sierra One, Two, and Four bounced around the inside of the cargo van as it bottomed out, lurched back into the air, and began climbing a little hill. The back doors were wide-open, but Four had strapped himself in with a belt tied to the bolted-in center seats and affixed to him with a quick-release buckle. No one knew where they were exactly, even though they had all spent weeks studying maps of the town. Brad even had a satellite photo of Suakin taped to the steering wheel in front of him. But all the streets looked the same, all the alleyways looked the same, the endless sea of dilapidated burlap and driftwood shacks looked the same, and apparently all the road signs had long ago been used for roofing material or firewood.
The three men had spent the past three minutes stumbling into and then out of little engagements with government of Sudan soldiers from the Sudanese People’s Armed Forces. The GOS units in town seemed disorganized as hell. As often as not, Brad had turned their van onto a road only to find themselves behind a column of men. Twice they’d come face-to-face with army trucks, and both times not a shot had been fired as both vehicles backed up to get out of danger.