translated, and again Altair did not respond, but kept staring at the ground.
Brenner then said, “But The Panther who caused all this death is still alive.”
Hakim translated, but this time Altair responded, and Hakim told us, “He says The Panther was in this camp, so he is also dead.”
I said, “Bullshit. Tell this sonofabitch that the next time he lies to us, he gets tasered.”
Hakim nodded and passed on the good news.
Altair did not respond.
I also said, “If The Panther is dead, then Altair can tell us where his hideout is.”
Hakim nodded, and translated, but Altair again had no response.
Okay, the taser was the stick, and here’s the carrot. “Tell him if he shows us where al-Darwish’s hideout is, the Americans will pay him one hundred thousand dollars, and send him anywhere he wants to go.”
Hakim translated that and the other three PSO thugs looked interested themselves. I mean, if they knew where The Panther was hiding, they’d give him up in a heartbeat for a hundred large and a ticket out of here.
Altair, however, was not interested, and Hakim told us, “He says first that al-Darwish is dead in this camp, and that he does not want your American money, and that he will die in Yemen.”
“That can be arranged.” Well, so much for the carrot. Back to the stick.
Hakim had the same thought and he nodded to one of his goons, who hit the old man in the neck with a jolt of juice.
Altair screamed and toppled to the ground, thrashing around, then he lay still.
Kate turned away and walked back to the Land Cruiser.
Brenner said to Hakim, “Keep asking him the same question and if you get the same answer, repeat the process. Eventually he will tell us where al-Darwish’s hideout is.” Brenner cautioned, “Don’t kill him.”
Hakim, who didn’t need much advice or encouragement on the subject of torture, asked Altair the question again, but Altair did not respond, and Hakim’s goon shoved the taser prod into Altair’s nuts.
Hakim went through the routine two more times until Altair passed out. Hakim said to us, “It is possible that he has no knowledge of where this hideout is located.”
Well, that was possible, but we hadn’t gotten there yet.
Brenner looked at Altair lying unconscious on the ground, then bent over and took his pulse, announcing, “He’s… okay.”
Maybe a little gray.
Well, if Altair didn’t die here, Hakim would kill him anyway. We were trying to save the old guy’s life, but he was making that difficult.
I moved away from Hakim and his goons, and Brenner followed.
Zamo, who’d told us about six times in the SUV that he didn’t trust Hakim or his men, stood off near the vehicles with his rifle at the ready. I didn’t trust Hakim either, but we were all here to do business.
I said to Brenner, “Altair knows where al-Darwish’s hideout is and he’d tell us if he really thought al-Darwish was dead.”
“Correct.”
I continued, “He’s not responding well to the carrot or the stick, so…” I thought about this and said, “So we need to try another approach.”
“Maybe more carrots and a bigger stick.”
“No. We’re thinking the way we think, but Altair thinks differently.”
Kate saw that the taser session had ended and she came over to us. “Any progress?”
“No. He’s hanging tough.”
“That’s enough taser.”
I agreed and said, “This guy doesn’t want to rat out his chief and go to hell. Right? He wants to take the express elevator to Paradise.”
Brenner nodded and said, “It’s not a choice between living and dying. It’s a choice of what kind of death he’s looking for.”
“Correct. So we have to help him become a martyr.”
Kate asked, “How?”
“I don’t know. But Hakim does.”
The gentleman in question came over to us and asked, “What do you want to do?”
I said to Hakim, “It seems to me, Colonel, that Altair does not want to die a traitor and a coward. Right?”
Hakim, who was probably both, had to think about that, but then he nodded and said, “This may be true.”
“So? How do we make a deal with Altair that lets him tell us what we want to know, but also lets him into Paradise?”
Again, Hakim had to think about that, and he replied, “That is difficult.” He informed us, “You are the reason for his stubbornness.” He explained, unnecessarily, “You are… infidels. He cannot betray his chief to you, or he will go to hell.”
“Right. We get that.” In fact, Altair should have mentioned that himself between tasers to his nuts. He would