yet to lay a hand on him, but he was already sniffling. The men began taking turns slapping him in the head and heaving insult after insult at him. Kassar could tell that the CIA man was losing control of his legendary wits. He'd been awake for a day and a half and he'd been beaten so severely that he could barely stand. He was exhausted and on the verge of a complete collapse.
The men paused for a moment and then without warning one of them took a rubber hose and swung it up between Rickman's legs, striking him in the groin. A glob of blood exited Rickman's mouth as his entire body convulsed forward. His sniffles turned into sobs and his chin was coated with spit, tears, and blood. Rickman was begging for them to stop, but the men paid him no heed. They were literally kicking the crap out of him as Rickman defecated in his boxers. This only upset the men more. The slaps were now replaced with punches.
Kassar watched Rickman slump suddenly, his legs completely giving out. The Pakistani moved closer to the screen and tried to see what was wrong. It was not unheard-of for a subject to lose consciousness during an interrogation. Kassar checked his watch again and frowned as the two men continued to beat their unconscious prisoner.
It took them another minute to realize that something was wrong, and by then it was too late.
Chapter 22
BAGRAM AIR BASE, AFGHANISTAN
RAPP heard voices. He opened his eyes and looked up at a ceiling he was pretty sure he'd never seen before. His brain didn't seem to be working quite right as the only thing he could figure out was that he was in a bed and his head hurt. The voices were coming from somewhere down by his feet. Moving his eyes caused discomfort, but he caught a glimpse of two men and a woman talking. None of their faces were familiar, but one of the men and the woman were wearing white coats. The other man was in what looked like light-blue pajamas. Rapp didn't know why, but their clothes had some meaning to him that he couldn't grasp.
He closed his eyes and let out a long sigh. Suddenly the three people were standing over him, two on his right and one on his left. He opened his eyes and could see their lips moving, but it was all scrambled. Suddenly the woman shined a bright light in his eyes. Rapp didn't like it one bit, but his limbs felt as if they were encased in concrete, so all he could do was lie there. Thinking of moving them hurt his head, so he gave up on the idea and let the woman move the light from one eye to the other. When she finally clicked the light off he was so relieved he fell back asleep.
Rapp had no idea how long he'd been out, but sometime later he woke to find a familiar face. His head rolled to his right, and there in a chair next to his bed was someone who he knew was very important to him. He couldn't come up with her name, or how he knew her, but he knew he should have known. In a moment of panic he asked himself if he knew his own name. He came up with that one pretty quickly, but when he asked himself where he was, a half dozen cities popped into his head, which got him wondering what he did for a living. Then things got really murky.
"You're awake," the woman said with a warm smile.
Rapp noted the familiar brown eyes, the glasses, and the auburn hair pulled back in a tight ponytail, and then something clicked. "Boss."
Rapp frowned and another link popped into his head. "Afghanistan?"
Kennedy looked at him with appraising eyes. "Mitch, what is your last memory?"
Rapp looked past her at the far wall. Some part of his brain was telling him to bluff his way through this, but another part was telling him he needed to tell her the truth. He couldn't remember everything about her, but he knew she was someone he could trust - perhaps the only person he could truly trust.
"Is there any water around here?"
Kennedy grabbed a covered plastic glass with a pink straw sticking out of a round hole in the