Re: many warnings 2/2
His English is functional as he begs, which is understandable. The man is an accomplished physicist out of Dubai, nothing so third world as where they all stand now. Your men ask him for an address, a very important address where a very important man is staying. "I do not know," the physicist says while shaking beneath the barrels of the handguns. "I-I.. I have the address, but it is on the computer at my home, I do not remember such things.." There's a smile in his quivering voice, and there is no reason to smile. That is what finally pulls you away from the scope to look him in the eye. You ask him in Arabic if he thinks you are incompetent. The man hesitates, and so you continue to explain that you have already been to his home. You have met his lovely wife, and his child. The man's eyes darken, disbelieving until you reach into the duffle bag and produce a laptop, the man's own.. assuredly taken from his home, so far from here. You slide the laptop across the dirty floor, and he catches it with a hand. He does not open it and he does not speak, the silence stretches on for a full minute before you tick your head to one side and a member of your team retreats down the stairs. He is gone for only a few minutes before he drags a woman and young boy up into the destroyed room. There is a gun pointed at the woman's head and the boy is sobbing while you watch the scientist, still waiting. "The address," you say. This time in English.
The man swallows and nods, opening the screen while you step over to watch beyond his shoulder and ensure he does nothing more than retrieve the information. He pulls up the screen, and you recognize that the address is in German, you'll memorize it. Kicking the laptop closed, you collect it under your arm while withdrawing a handgun from the small of your back. The man is begging again, pleading that you don't hurt his child, don't hurt his wife.
You make a regretful kind of tsk of a sound while explaining that you already did. She really is quite lovely, you explain again in Arabic, and you needed to find the laptop.. she wasn't being very cooperative. The wife weeps uncontrollably, and the sound breaks into a brief scream when you shoot the physicist. Your team members stay behind with guns drawn as you pack up the rifle and stuff the laptop into the duffle bag alongside it, you hit the stairs. One of your men calls out behind you, "What do we do with them, sir?"
The sun is scorching, and you give him a patronizing glance over your shoulder when your boots hit the sand. They know what to do, and as you walk through the desert heat, you hear the boy screaming about how they're devils, then a gunshot brings that to silence.. until all that's left is the familiar weeping of that widow. It carries on the wind, and it follows you even when it turns into screams.