Eyes of the Hammer

The Israeli grabbed the extra headset and plunked it down over the American's ears, positioning the boom mike in front of his lips. The prisoner regarded him with dark, angry eyes.

Ariel knew he would have his hands full if this bear of a man got loose. There was little chance of that, though: The Colombians had shackled his wrists with two sets of steel handcuffs, and his feet were held with two rings welded to an iron bar that was tied into the floor of the helicopter.

"Can you hear me?"

The man's gaze swung around.

"What is your name?"

The man shook his head.

"You can talk. You have a hot mike. I'm interested in what you thought you were doing when you tried to attack this facility."

The man just glared.

"My name is Ben Ariel. I might be able to help you. I'm a professional military man just like you."

That brought a reaction. "You call yourself a professional, working for these scum? You're a hired killer. You're lower than whale shit."

"Ah, I see you can talk." Ariel smiled. "Yes, I do call myself a professional. I am just like you. I get paid to provide military services. I just do it for an individual instead of a government.

I don't see much difference between the two."

The American shook his head. "You work for the money. I do it for my country. I would think you'd understand that, seeing where you come from if I read your name right."

Ariel shook his head. "I don't do this for the money. I do this because I am good at it. Just this morning I set up a beautiful ambush. You would have been impressed. Destroyed an enemy vehicle at almost two thousand meters. Do you have a name?"

The man shook his head. "You get no information out of me."

Ariel laughed. "If we wanted it, we'd get it. No one is immune. Everyone breaks. There isn't anything you could tell us that we don't know already. We're just keeping you alive in case we need you as a chip on the table later on. How does that make you feel? Just a bargaining piece, and not a very valuable one, I might add, since your government is still denying it did anything and is sticking to its air crash story."