They stared at each other in silence. Victoria willed herself to show no emotion. But her mind raced, wondering if he was telling the truth. He was attempting to break her. To remove hope. To strip it away, thread by thread.
“Was Florida really attacked?”
“Oh yes.”
“I don’t believe you.” She wondered if she could coax out more information.
He shrugged. “It doesn’t matter whether you believe me.”
Victoria said, “Your English is very good.”
“So’s yours.” He smiled, then changed the subject back to her. “You are a woman in a man’s profession. And an admiral’s daughter…” He lowered his voice. “I see here that your father passed away. My condolences.”
She dug her fingernails into the wooden seat beneath her.
Captain Tao said, “You are the senior prisoner in this camp. That means that you will be responsible for the behavior and well-being of its prisoners. I will, from time to time, call on you to make sure everything is running smoothly.”
Victoria said, “My men need better living conditions. They need more food and water than you are giving them. They need to be let out of those cages you have us in so we can walk around. And we need to bathe.”
Captain Tao said, “We can do all of this.”
Victoria was startled by this reply.
“In return, you will provide me the names of everyone in the camp, as well as their occupational specialties. Each one will sign a confession. And there can be no more resistance to interrogations. If we ask a question, I expect your men to answer. In exchange, your men will be moved to barracks suitable to their rank and stature. They will have exercise privileges in the central court, under the close supervision of our guards. Food, water, and hygiene concerns will also be addressed.”
“I can’t order my men to sign a confession.”
Captain Tao frowned. “Fine. Then you read a short statement. And all your troubles go away.”
Victoria knew that they would use whatever she read as propaganda. Perhaps doctor it up to make it look worse than it really was. She also knew that she had a responsibility to take care of her men. She thought of the chief, vomiting up food because he couldn’t live with his shame. They needed their living situation improved.
“Let me see the statement.”
Thirty minutes later, Victoria was brought back to her cell. It was dusk, and the bugs were out again. As soon as the bars closed on her cell, she began swatting away giant mosquitos and God knew what else.
“When will we be moved out of here?” she asked the female PLA guard standing in front of her.
“Captain Tao said tomorrow. You must stay here at night.”
“That’s not what we agreed to.”
The guards walked down to a cell on the end of the next row as Victoria’s confession blared on the speakers. She leaned back against the concrete wall, her feet pressed up against the other side, angry with herself for allowing them to take advantage of her. Humiliated that her men were now witnessing her dishonor. They hadn’t even tortured her. Instead, they used her desire to take care of her men as the dangling carrot. She hadn’t been thinking straight. She was dizzy from the sleep deprivation and hunger pangs in her belly.
“Oh yeah! Party time!” a familiar voice said.
Plug was being marched to the interrogation building.
Victoria yelled, “Hey! Hey! Captain Tao said that the interrogations would stop…”
One of the guards ran over and opened her cell door. He dragged her out onto the gravel and took out a night stick, then swung it rapidly at her face.
A searing white-hot pain exploded on her cheekbone.
Stars and dizziness and then another eye-popping wallop of pain, this one near her kidney.
She was lifted up and slung back into her cell, landing like a sack of potatoes. After a moment of agony, she began taking stock of her injuries. She touched her face. It was already swelling, and still oozing blood.
Yells of protest from nearby prisoners who had witnessed the attack on their senior ranking officer. Then whistles and more guards coming out of the woodwork and boots marching on gravel. The sound of iron cell gates swinging open on creaky hinges. More intense beatings and groans.
After a few minutes, the punishment had been properly doled out, and the guards shut the prisoners back in their cells. Then the POWs were treated to the loudest screams yet from the interrogation room. Plug was putting on some sort of performance, and getting punished for it. The interrogation lasted for an hour, and then he was dragged back to his cell.
After the guards left him, the rows of cells were completely silent. Victoria thought they might have killed him.
Then Plug broke the silence with, “This prison has the worst conjugal visits ever.”
Laughter filled the prison cell courtyard but died down as a few guards made the rounds again. They pulled her out again, but Victoria’s beatings felt good this time, like they were washing away her sins. Plug’s comic relief also felt good.
Her men’s spirits were still strong.
19
David sat in a chair along the outer wall of the conference room. A hush fell over the room as the president and his entourage entered. The president nodded to General Schwartz, who was standing near the presentation screen.
“Good morning, General.”
“Good morning, Mr. President.”
“Sir, this brief outlines our plans for Operation CENTER SHIELD.”
The screen flipped to a map of Central America. “We are positioning American forces in three defensive belts: belt one is Panama, belt two is Costa Rica — the Puerto Limon-San Jose-Caldera corridor — and belt three is Mexico City.”
The president said, “Why Panama, General? We had military in Colombia. Why didn’t we move our forces there?”
“Sir, frankly, the Chinese moved faster than we expected. Panama is a great choke point, small and narrow. Think a stretched-out Delaware with jungle-covered mountainous terrain. The Panama Canal is the treasure. It presents enormous strategic advantage if one side controls both bodies of water around it. In the Panama operating area, heavy tanks are less useful, so we’ve deployed helos and Stryker brigades.”
“Very well. Continue.”
General Schwartz said, “Belt two: Costa Rica. Also mountainous, and the last geographic choke point before the terrain widens and the enemy can flank, infiltrate, and continue northward movement. Helicopters are coin of the realm here.”
General Schwartz pointed to the screen. “The final belt: Mexico City, a major population center. There are hills and desert, especially north of the city, where our mechanized infantry and armored units can maneuver and cut off or destroy vast enemy formations in a Desert Storm-type counterattack. Warfighting here will be very different than what went on in Central America. If the enemy gets this far north, my counterattack plan, focused in Mexico, also involves an airborne and seaborne invasion to seize Panama and cut off all land-based escape/resupply. Think MacArthur’s amphibious op at Inchon that virtually destroyed the entire North Korean army.”
The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, sitting next to the president, said, “What would prevent the Chinese from using the same tactic to flank our forces?”
A Navy four-star admiral sitting near the end of the table leaned forward. “Third Fleet is deploying both Carrier Strike Groups to the area for supporting operations in the eastern Pacific. Second Fleet will provide a Surface Action Group in the Gulf of Mexico.”
The president said, “What’s the latest update on Chinese PLA Navy movement?”