Chapter 8: Sons of the Viper

Lieutenant Salim Al Khoury leaned back in his chair and looked at the Sergeant standing at attention in front of his desk. The Lieutenant's uniform was crisply starched and creased. His short, black hair was neatly trimmed. The only thing about his appearance that didn't scream military efficiency was his luxuriant, flowing black mustache. He stroked it thoughtfully as he considered the Sergeant.

"At ease, Sergeant Mahdi," Salim said quietly.

The Sergeant's right foot snapped out precisely eighteen inches and planted itself. His hands snapped from their rigid position at his side to a similar rigid position at the small of his back. There was nothing 'at ease' about his stance.

Salim mentally rolled his eyes, but his face remained blank. It was never wise to create unnecessary enemies within the ranks of the Sons of the Viper. The lowest member could report a senior member; and, if an accusation was proven to be true, the council would execute the senior member. Of course, if it wasn't proven true, the junior member's life would be a living hell. Salim's problem was that he didn't know this Sergeant well enough, yet, so he needed to be careful in how he handled him.

Lieutenant Khoury had been assigned to the Baalbek post less than two weeks earlier. Another cell of the blasphemous heretics that reached for the power of the gods had been uncovered in Baalbek. Salim's superior within the Sons of the Viper, who happened to be the Adjutant for Personnel at the Lebanese Army headquarters, decided that someone of higher rank was needed at Baalbek. Not that the Sergeant hadn't performed admirably with the local exposure of Seekers. The Captain in charge of the post wasn't a Son, but he knew that Salim was favored by someone at headquarters. The Captain wouldn't be a problem. The Major in charge of the three posts on the western side of the Lebanon Mountains might be a problem. Salim mentally sighed as, not for the first time, he questioned the reasoning behind not having a Son in a leadership position. He sighed again as he returned his attention to the Sergeant.

Salim didn't understand why the ranks of the Order of the Seeker had suddenly started boiling like an ant hill poked by a stick all over the world. It had been centuries since they last became so active. The histories said that the last time had been over two thousand years earlier. There had been hints from the questioning of Order members that had been captured alive, but members of the Order had an irritating habit of dying before the Sons got the answers they wanted. The single word, 'Seeker' was the Sons only clue from the interrogations. But the clue didn't make sense. They were the Order of the Seeker so why would they scream the word Seeker in answer to the questions that accompanied the red hot metal bars forced into their bodies. And then, they would die.

There was other tantalizing tidbits of information that may be related, but no one knew for sure, unless the council was holding back information. Rumor reported an incident in South America but Salim didn't know if, why, or how it might be related to the sudden activity of the Order. There was a legend that the Order had hidden a cache of knowledge in South America, so the incident could be related. Now, the latest dispatch from the Adjutant gave another hint of information. Salim still didn't know how it fit with everything else.

"Sergeant Mahdi, close the door please and have a seat," Lieutenant Khoury instructed.

Salim grimaced when the Sergeant had complied with his order, with military correctness, and sat stiffly in the chair in front of his desk. The past ten days had been very busy and this was the first chance that Salim had to talk to the Sergeant in private, and without needing to rush.

The Lieutenant sighed and said, "Sergeant, I have a question for you before we get to what I called you for. We are both Sons. I have seen you with other soldiers, and even officers, and haven't seen this proper soldier persona that you display with me. Why am I the sole ... beneficiary of this side of you?"

"Sir, I have obviously not performed adequately," Sergeant Mahdi said stiffly. "However, I don't know how I have failed the Sons badly enough to require supervision or to be replaced. Until I know how to correct my deficiencies, strict military etiquette and discipline are the only actions I can take."

"I see," Salim said tiredly, shaking his head. "Okay, let me correct a couple of misconceptions on your part," he said, leaning forward, placing his elbows on the desk. "First of all, you have performed beyond expectations. Sergeant, your exemplary actions over the last couple of weeks is being talked about in the ranks of the Sons as far away as England." He looked at the Sergeant hard and asked, "Do you understand?"

The Sergeant nodded slowly so the Lieutenant continued.

"Second, you do ... not ... need ... supervision," Salim said, poking the desk with his finger at each word to emphasize his meaning. "Supervising you is not my purpose here, though orders may pass through me to you. Your actions in rounding up members of the Order has been mentioned, in passing, by the Major. The comments have been in the nature of excessive exuberance during questioning and prisoners dying as a result. The Adjutant believed an officer, stationed locally, could deflect attention from you so you could more freely do your job. Okay?"

The Sergeant nodded his head again and said, "Yes, Sir." His shoulders had relaxed and a look of relief crossed his face.

Salim nodded and said, "I apologize for not explaining all this to you earlier, but I didn't know there was a need. I have been busy moving to Baalbek, closing issues at my old command, and getting plugged into the local command structure. For not being a Son, the Captain doesn't seem to be a bad sort, but the Major is an idiot."

The Sergeant nodded and said, "That's close to the descriptions of them that I've heard from the troops, sir. In the case of the Major, they aren't quite as complementary."

Salim chuckled and said, "I can imagine." He looked at the stack of papers on his desk before looking at the Sergeant and saying, "Tell me how your roundup of the Order members are going."

"I think we've nearly reached a dead end, at least locally," Sergeant Mahdi said with a frown, wondering if he should tell the Lieutenant about his last captive. She was a tender morsel that he looked forward to sampling.

"Why is that?" Salim asked.

"Because Order members are weak," the Sergeant said with disgust, pulling his mind back to the subject. "They die much quicker and easier than normal civilians and they tell their wives nothing."

"Do you think that could be because of the training that they have had?" Salim asked curiously.

"It must be," the Sergeant said with a shrug, "but, why would they train to die under intense interrogation?"

"Oh, I don't know but, maybe to protect their secrets?" Salim said, struggling to keep the sarcasm from his voice. "You said 'nearly reached.' What did you mean by that?" he asked hurriedly to cover the sarcasm.

"The last one we could find in this cell died, despite trying to torture him gently," Sergeant Mahdi said seriously.

Salim snorted as he tried to wrap his mind around the thought of 'torturing someone gently.' He shook his head at his failure and motioned for the Sergeant to continue.

"We captured his wife and daughter yesterday," the Sergeant continued. "I ... um ... I questioned the wife all day yesterday with the help of a few soldiers. She lasted longer than her husband did, but she didn't know anything. The only associates that she knew of her husband's had already been arrested and questioned."

"How did you ... ah ... question the wife?" Salim asked, after licking his lips in anticipation.

Sergeant Mahdi recognized the gleam in his Lieutenant's eyes and relaxed farther. He would tell the Lieutenant about the girl, after whetting his appetite.

"Oh, we used the normal methods. Repeated rapes, at least until the men and I could no longer perform. Then beatings, hot needles in tender spots during rape, cutting tender spots, fingernails ripped off," the Sergeant said nonchalantly and shrugged. "Those methods have proven to work well with men and women. Some of the soldiers prefer interrogating men in that way and others prefer interrogating women. I cater to the men's preferences. They get more, um, enthusiastic when I do."

"I'm sure they do," Salim said with a smile. "You said that you captured the mother and the daughter but you only mentioned, uh, questioning the mother. What about the daughter?"

"Oh, yes. The daughter," Sergeant Mahdi said as if he had forgotten her. He had to fight to hide his smile.

"The daughter is a college freshman this year, engineering is her major, I believe. She was tied to a chair in the basement the entire time we, uh, questioned her mother. The daughter gave us an opportunity for a different nuance to the questioning than we normally take. Based on the lack of information we received from the other families, we didn't believe the mother would have any information. However, the mother and father had no sons, and the daughter was the only child. I thought that, just maybe, the father and said something to the daughter that would give us a path forward. Also, if the daughter hadn't been trained in the way of the Order, then maybe she wouldn't die as quickly. We forced her to watch, and participate in a manner of speaking," the Sergeant said with a lecherous smile.

"How in the world did you persuade her to participate?" the Lieutenant asked startled, beginning to breath harder while his face flushed slightly.

"Well, we started by skinning a small patch of skin from the mother. Then, we told the daughter that she could stop us from cutting on her mother, by giving us something else to do, and to beg us to accept her choice. If she begged hard enough, and convinced us that she really wanted us to take her choice, and her suggestion was something we wanted to do, we might comply. It started as simple rape of the mother, at the daughter's insistence," the Sergeant said with a grin. But, when we tired of that, the daughter had to think of other things we could do to her mother, beside cut on her. What young girls learn in college these days is truly amazing," the Sergeant said, shaking his head in mock amazement, and grinning. "I didn't know that some of the things that she begged us to do to her mother were even possible. Of course, while the daughter was trying to devise the next act we could perform with the mother, and begging us to take her suggestion, we were cutting on the mother. The daughter begged," the Sergeant replied, his grin turning malicious. "She even begged us to let her take her mother's place, and release her mother. That was very tempting because she is a pretty little Order whore. Of course, we resisted the temptation."