Chapter 37: Interrogation

The two men were seated on a bench at a field mess table; well, but not closely, guarded. They were wearing fatigue pants and simple white shirts. They were still clearly somewhat disoriented from the dose of stun they had received.

Pru walked up to them and looked them over, sensing their confusion and fear. She spoke in Mandarin.

"Good afternoon. You have nothing to fear from us at this time. We are here to release hostages, not to punish anyone who has done no wrong. What are your names?"

They each gave their names, which were checked with their CIDs. They matched.

"Are you aware that General Lao announced you were taken as hostages?"

"Who is General Lao?" one of them asked.

"Perhaps you know him as Elik Baltar?"

"Baltar, we know," said the other. "He is our leader."

"Not any more." Pru glanced at a flimsy Xing handed her. "You are one of those listed as Baltar's hostages. He told the world that he would kill you all on the last day of the month."

"Why would he do that? We are not hostages. We have served him faithfully." the first man asked.

"His demands were that all Han must leave Uighur territory, or he would kill you. He also wanted all Han removed from positions of power or he would kill you."

"You lie. We are all Uighur, here," the other objected.

"I can show you his demands on the comNews channels. We believe he planned to wait until the end of the month and kill you all no matter what we promised."

The men looked at one another in disbelief. Pru turned to Xing. "Sergeant Major, please have someone bring up a com screen. Get all the hostages together when they've revived, and show them the videos of Baltar's demands. And, make sure they get something to drink and something for their headaches."

Pru turned to Lia. "Let's go see how Lao is coming along. I want to talk to him before we show that stuff to his crew."

General Lao was beginning to come around when Lia and Pru approached. Pru beckoned to Maeve to join her and pulled up chairs next to the cot where Lao was loosely restrained. He looked at them and sneered.

"What are you doing here? Women!" He spoke in Mandarin and spat in the dust.

"Good evening Elik," Pru said in Uighur. "I am Kanar. Peace be on you." She turned to Maeve.

"Good evening, Elik," Maeve said. "I am Merve. Peace be on you."

Lao looked at them in astonishment. "What is this? You are not Uighur. You are not even Han!"

Pru spoke in Mandarin. "No, I am North American, and my associate is Irish. You are former General Lao Te-Jao, now only Lao. You have disgraced your former uniform and brought disgrace on all your Han people. You are under arrest and will be judged by the International Court of Justice."

"How have you done this? You cannot have done this."

"Yet, here we are, and here you are, Lao. You deceived your associates, whom you told us were hostages, and whom you planned to kill. You tried to deceive us, and ended up being deceived yourself. You should have paid more attention to Sun-Tzu."

Pru turned to Xing. "Sergeant Major, can you read this man his rights?"

Xing turned to an officer nearby. "Captain?"

The captain stepped forward, recorded Lao's CID and recited the traditional list of prisoners' rights.

"Thank you captain," Pru said and turned back to her captive. "Lao, we have all the evidence we need to prosecute you. Do you wish to make a statement?"

"I do not speak about such things to women."

"You are very likely to have a woman for a defense attorney and perhaps for a judge. I would advise you to keep such thoughts and attitudes to yourself."

An NCO came up to Pru and told her the com screen was ready.

"Bring him along," Pru said and walked toward where the screen was set up. All the former hostages were now seated on benches taken from the field mess. A reasonable number of troopers stood guard.

Pru stood in front of the screen. She watched as Lao was placed under close guard to one side.

"Gentlemen," she said in Mandarin, "I am Prudence Whiteside. I represent the Office of the Secretary General. This is Captain Jiang Lia-Chu, commander of the OSG forces here.

"Some days ago, a person calling himself Elik Baltar contacted the comNews channels and told them he was holding 30 hostages. He demanded that all Han be removed from Uighur territory — which he did not define — and that all Han be removed from the economic base of Uighur lands. He said that, if this was not done by the last day of this month, the hostages would be killed.

"It is now clear that, whether you consider yourself Han or Uighur, you are those hostages. Baltar provided us with your CIDs."