Fic: Prisoners of War, Chapter Three

[jeriendhal]

Rufus slept badly. Aside from being sore from dropping into remarkably hard water, having his arms bound for hours on end and being miscellaneously manhandled, his cell's bunk wasn't exactly designed for comfort. It hadn't helped that he'd rolled over in the middle of the night and woken up with his collar chain wrapped around his neck.

When he awoke again after finally getting back to sleep after that particular incident, he pulled off the pillow from his face and blinked into the light of the cell's light, which had remained on all night. He glance over to where Rolas still slept, to find himself looking up at Lt. Swiftfoot, who was leaning against the bars of an empty cell, nursing a cup of tea.

“Good morning,” he greeted, sitting up and swinging his legs over the side of the bunk. “Or is it afternoon?”

“I'm not permitted to zay,” she said, sipping her tea. The smell reached him and his stomach began to growl. The last meal he'd had was a cold sandwich he'd wolfed down an hour before they'd approached the Gerwart coast, nearly... over...? a day ago.

“Oh, surely that's not classified.” He opened up the access panel of his right arm and began to crank it back to life, hoping the delicate internal mechanisms hadn't begun to rust out after their dunking in the sea.

“'Prisoners vill be denied any access to time keeping mechanisms in order to promote dizoritinzay... disoriztay...” Lt. Swiftfoot crossed her eyes, stuck out her tongue, then said in an accent that was straight from the Mother Country Plains Region, “DISorienTATION. I'm sorry, I can't keep up that up when the Major isn't around. I swear half of this bloody political mess is because Gerwart wants the MC's supplies of the letter's V and Double F.”

Rufus's ears flicked back, the arm crank forgotten. “Wait, you're from the Mother Country?” His eyes flicked over to the door where beyond the reception guard waited.

“No, I'm not an MC agent if that's what you're thinking, Captain,” she said, taking another sip of her tea. “My parents moved from the Mother Country to Gerwart when I was eight. I've spent my entire life here since then.”

“Why would your father move from home to Gerwart?”

“He's an engineer. Went to teach at university in the capitol and fell in the love with the place.”

“No accounting for taste.”

“Maybe you shouldn't make so much fun of your host country, Captain. I presume you would like a little breakfast, ja?”

“Ja, I mean yes.”

“Something will be along shortly. The Major sets a good table.” She glanced over at Rolas. “How's your leftenant?”

“Sleeping soundly, despite the whacks to his nose.”

“Sorry about that. The Major can get, er, enthusiastic in her duties.”

Rufus shuddered at the implications in that statement.. “Torture is against all military conventions, you know that don't you?”

“State Security isn't, technically, a military organization. And as you and your subordinate were decidedly out of uniform when we arrested you, you can hardly claim that you were on a military mission.”

“And the point is moot anyway, since technically we no longer exist. I was wondering why we were taken to a private facility instead of a government building. It's to keep us isolated and away from public records.”

“You catch on quick, Captain Brushtail.” She took a last sip of her tea. “Now, I wouldn't worry too much. All you have to do is answer our questions truthfully and completely, and there's no reason why this can't be a perfectly pleasant experience. You can spend a couple of quiet months on ice, then be sent back home when the inevitable prisoner exchange takes place.”

“And if we don't?”

“You will.” The amused expression on her face faded. “The Major and I are very good at our jobs, Captain. In the end, you'll be more than happy to tell us what we want to know.”

TBC

Comments

[mjkj.livejournal.com]

you forgot ze letters "z" :P

(though keep in mid zat ze german letter "z" is pronounced lie "ts" unlike the english "z" which is pronounced like "s" (and used here in my faking zat dialect))

Oh she is of MC-ancestry :) nice...

mjkj

[aynne-witch.livejournal.com]

Ah yes, rounding out to be a classic predicament bondage. I'm in love.