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.”
The men murmured and moved restlessly on their benches.
“Do you all speak Uighur?” she asked. All of them raised their hands and Pru switched to that language. “You may not believe me when I tell you this. Therefore, let me play for you the announcement the so-called Elik Baltar made to comNews.”
Pru gestured, and the com screen came alive with a Voice Only recording of Baltar’s announcement, delivered in Uighur. When it was complete, Pru went on.
“All of you will have recognized that voice. I can assure you that it belongs to this man here, whom you know as Baltar. We have voiceprints to prove it.
“What you may not know is that this man is not Elik Baltar. He is Lao Te-Jao. Lao was once a general officer in the OSG forces. He was retired because of his inappropriate attitudes toward Uighur and Muslims, not to mention the women with whom he served. Let me repeat: He pathologically hates Uighur and Muslims. He seems to have tricked you into some form of illegal activities. He will be punished for that.
“As for you, if you have not committed any crimes, you will be released as soon as we can establish that. In due course, before your release, you will be questioned by our intelligence officers and I urge you to cooperate with them. Are there any questions?”
A man in the back row stood up. “We were told that we were to be part of a Uighur paramilitary force. We were to help defend Uighur against the Han.”
Pru nodded and asked, “How many of you consider yourselves Uighur?” Everyone raised his hand. “How many of you have at least one Han parent?” At least half raised their hand. “How many have two or more Han grandparents?” All responded. “ How many of you are Muslim?” All but three responded.
Pru sensed rising anger in the group. “You must understand that you have been deceived by this man. He told you things you wanted to hear, and urged you to band together to carry out measures he convinced you were worth while. That he tried to deceive you is not your crime. That you allowed yourselves to be deceived is not a credit to your intelligence or to your powers of thought. You should consider this in the next few days.
“You should also consider your ethnic heritage. All of you have significant portions of both Han and Uighur blood, as do most of your friends and most of your relatives. You are Uighur because you speak the language and follow Uighur ways. You are citizens of China, a member of the United Nations. Your neighbors, friends and associates are both Uighur and Han and any prosperity you have is due to the peaceful relations between both cultures. You should keep this in mind and avoid the salesmen of hate who would destroy what you have.
“You will now be examined by our medical staff; then you will be removed to our headquarters in Beijing, where our intelligence personnel will question you and we will be checking your records. As soon as possible, most of you will be released.”
Pru turned to Lia. “I think they’re pretty calm now. The anger has gone, and they’re confused, but I don’t think anyone is ready to try anything rash. Let’s get out of here.”
Pru, Lia and her staff left the site and returned to the command post, where Lia set about organizing the withdrawal. As she gave her initial orders, an officer came to her.
“Lieutenant Fan, what is it?” Lia asked him.
“Sir, if you plan to move, you need to be out of here in three hours. There is a strong wind and sand storm developing that will make it extremely dangerous to be outside.”
“What do you recommend?”
“We have about a three-hour window before the winds rise to dangerous levels. Otherwise, we should remain here until the storm is over, but that might be three or four days.”
“Then, let’s get moving. Lieutenant, inform the troops at the target site of what you’ve told me, and get them moving. Tell them to secure the site and leave the camouflage field intact, so our intelligence people can investigate it when the storm is over.”
The lieutenant hurried off and work went forward.
Lia turned to Pru. “You pulled it off, Pru. When I met you, I never would have believed it. I need to read Sun-Tzu again.”
“Well, I suppose that might help, Lia,” Pru said, “but your best approach will be to take the Neo-Tantra training you’re being recommended for and let that help you.”
“I know that’s planned, Pru. Will it really help me and my people?”
“Guaranteed. You’ll be a more effective commander and an even more wonderful person.
“But there is one more request I have. When we get back to Beijing, I want you to arrange a muster for all the troops involved in this operation.”