Page 30 of Double Shot
“I don’t like her in the field,” he said.
“That’s very regressive of you, sir,” I said with a little jest in my voice. “Women are joining the Marine corps these days, and there is a female fighter pilot now.” He gave a sigh, and I saw that the point might have been conceded.
“Lyudmila Pavlichenko,” he said, raising his glass to a mock toast and throwing the last gulp down.
“Name’s not familiar, but she sounds old and Russian.”
“She was a sniper for the Red Army, killed a few hundred Nazis. They called herLady Death.” He seemed to accept this.
“I’ll raise a glass to shooting Nazis, it’s on my bucket list.”
“Honestly,” he looked up at me, and I saw a crack of a smile on his tired face, “mine too.”
“You seem interrogation free,” I eventually said.
“I was barely questioned, and everything I gave them was dated or the encryption had cycled. I knew that you were still out there somewhere; gave me strength.” He smiled.
“So, what happened?” I asked.
“Kaijin kept me as a trophy, a pet.” He poured another glass and sat it nearby but didn’t pick it up.
“Did she take you on walks?” I asked. This was weird.
“She tied me up, a lot of it had a strong BDSM feel to it, but it was darker.” He gave a small shudder.
“Did the anti-interrogation training do anything?” I asked, genuinely interested. All of that had seemed strange, and now I wanted to know how much was legit and how much was smoke.
“It did, well, some of it did,” he said. “It prepares you for pain, and sensory deprivation, all that. But if the captors don’t take Friday night crime dramas as a guideline, it’s not so effective. It’s easier to block out pain than it is pleasure.”
“Pleasure, what did they do to you, force you to eat baguettes and foie gras?”
“Ha-ha.” He gave a mock laugh. “They fed me very well, the bread was amazing, Eloise made it, the woman who was there at my cell. She took care of me, and that was the other thing that held me up. I knew you and Sadie were safe, and Eloise was keeping me up with fresh bread, cassoulet, and all that rustic French food, and a fair bit of seafood.”
“Bless your heart.” I gave him a smirk.
“I reallyreallywant a greasy cheeseburger now, actually. A Burger World number four, with the double meat, double cheese, and bacon,” he said.
“Sure, when we get back. I don’t think they allow Burger Worlds in the European Union – too aggressively American and zero redeeming nutritional qualities.”
“There is one in Paris, at the airport,” he said. “But no, I want the real thing, back home. Maybe go over into the Carolinas where they haven’t banned half of the stuff that Burger World uses for cooking.”
“That’s a lot of self-destruction coming from you, mate.” I felt a bit of concern. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“I’m not,” he admitted. “That sadistic bloody cunt tied me up like some animal and did whatever she wanted to me.” There was a flush of color in his face that wasn’t from the booze. I stepped over to him and put my hand on his shoulder. Part of me had the notion of mentioning that some people paid top dollar for that sort of treatment.
“We’ll take her down.” I gave his shoulder a squeeze.
“I don’t want to take her down. I want to murder her. I want her to die with her eyes open, terrified, knowing that she’s going to die and there is nothing she can do about it. I want to cut her bloody head off and stick it on a pike and leave her for the crows.”
“We can do that. The hard part will be finding a pike.” I nodded.
“Sharp stick will do.” He gave a small laugh. “Some of what she did was just for her own fancy, sometimes what she did was just fucking sadistic. She would bite me, she would draw blood sometimes.” He gave a small shudder.
“I assume I don’t want to know, and you don’t have to say.” I offered the best support I could. I felt like I was doing fucking horrible at that. Fuck this caregiver role, it was so goddamned hard. “I’ll do anything I can, and I won’t even be my usual sarcastic asshole self.”
He laughed.
“God, that sounds dreadful. Did you get promoted while I was a way, you a full bird colonel now?” He snapped me a salute.
