everyone. "I want to caution everyone that this is extremely graphic. There are at least two hours of footage and we will be analyzing it for months to come, but I wanted to show you one thing that everyone needs to see before we get into the rest of it."
Hayek hit the Play button and started the video. The flat-screen showed the same image as the one that had gone viral. A bloodied, battered, and shirtless Rickman hung from the ceiling, his hands stretched above his head. His torso was covered with red welts. Both eyes were swollen shut and, from the unnatural angle of his mouth, it looked like his jaw was broken. The two men were beating him senseless, taking turns so they could conserve their energy. As the video continued, they began striking him in the groin with rubber hoses, and then Rickman's body convulsed and he coughed up a glob of blood. The hooded men continued their onslaught for another dozen seconds and then seemed to sense that something was wrong.
They stopped hitting Rickman and lifted his swollen chin. As soon as the shorter man let go of Rickman's chin his head dropped lifelessly to rest on his chest. The two men began arguing in Pashto and then they pulled their masks up to reveal their faces. It was obvious they were panicked while they started to check for a pulse. A third man entered the picture, a blur as he passed the camera. He ignored the two men and put his fingers to Rickman's neck. It seemed like an eternity as the man continued to search for a pulse, going back and forth between Rickman's neck and his wrists. Eventually the man placed an ear over Rickman's bloody chest. After what seemed like an eternity, he stepped away from Rickman and the two men began to defend themselves.
The third man began screaming at them and then pulled a pistol. There was more arguing and then the third man, who still had his mask on, started pumping rounds into the taller of the two men. When he was done with him he turned the pistol on the other man and kept firing until his pistol was empty. The man then turned, marched straight for the camera, swung at it with his pistol, and the screen went black.
There was nothing but stunned silence. Kennedy's mind was trying to process what she had just seen, torn between horror and sadness and relief and a deep personal revulsion over the fact that she was comforted by the knowledge that one of her top people was dead. In a matter of seconds her mind ran the gamut, processing the violence, the tragedy, and the calculation that while Joe Rickman's final days on this planet were as awful as one could imagine, he had been spared months of cruel, unthinkable torture. There was a rationalization at work - one man was dead, but countless others would avoid the gallows. With a wave of relief, Kennedy realized her network of spies was safe, and in the same time and space she hated herself for coming to that conclusion without mourning for Rickman.
Chapter 42
WASHINGTON, D.C.
JOEL Wilson didn't have the energy or the desire to take his dog for a walk, but it was part of the plan, so he slid on a pair of tennis shoes and grabbed his barn jacket from the front hall closet. His wife, a skinny little platinum blonde who was a fitness freak, walked the dog both before and after work, so when Wilson grabbed the leash the dog cocked his head to one side as if to say, Are you kidding me?
"I don't need any attitude from you. I've got enough shit going on."
"What was that, honey?"
"Nothing," Wilson called to his wife, who was down the hall working on the computer. "I'm going to take Rose for a walk."
"Really?" Sally Wilson appeared in the doorway of the study, a pair of black reading glasses perched on the end of her nose.
"I know it's not usually my thing, but I need to clear my mind."
"Is it that bad?" Sally worked at the Department of Energy and had a good sense of just how nasty office politics could get in the big bureaucracy of Washington.
I'm about to find out, Wilson thought to himself. "It's pretty bad, but it's not over by a long shot. Just because crazy old Hargrave is mad at me doesn't mean he's right."