EXCERPT #8

[…]

INTERVIEWER: “So you’re saying they were covert missions.”

WITNESS #9791: “[Laugh] You think I would if they were?”

INTERVIEWER: “Good point. What can you tell me about them, anyway?”

WITNESS #9791: “Without being arrested for treason, you mean? A whole lot of nothing.”

INTERVIEWER: “Like I said, any information could be useful for the case we’re trying to build here.”

WITNESS #9791: “It’s your case to build, not mine, so yeah. Good luck with that.”

INTERVIEWER: “You let us worry about that. I’m just trying to find anything I can work with.”

WITNESS #9791: “Yeah, you people would kill for that shit, wouldn’t you? Some disgruntled jarhead handing out state secrets out of spite.”

INTERVIEWER: “So my guess is you’re not gonna do it.”

WITNESS #9791: “I’d say your guess is correct.”

INTERVIEWER: “Okay, let’s try something different. [pause] See this right here?”

WITNESS #9791: “What’s that? Classified papers you stole?”

INTERVIEWER: “On the contrary. Public data on your military record. One phone call to a clerk and it’s here.”

WITNESS #9791: “Yeah, so what? Need help reading it?”

INTERVIEWER: “Oh no, I actually skimmed through it a few times already. Some interesting material you got here, sergeant.”

WITNESS #9791: “Thanks. I made it myself.”

INTERVIEWER: “Quite. ‘Sergeant Bosconovitch, Republican Army, nineteenth’, yeah, we’ve been through that already.”

WITNESS #9791: “Yes, we have. Can I go home now?”

INTERVIEWER: “You can go home any time you want, sir. The door’s unlocked.”

WITNESS #9791: “Can I get another cigarette, before I go?”

INTERVIEWER: “Go ahead, I bought these for you.”

WITNESS #9791: “Appreciate it. [pause] You don’t smoke?”

INTERVIEWER: “I quit after my father died.”

WITNESS #9791: “I’m sorry to hear that. Was it related?”

INTERVIEWER: “Very much so, yes. He smoked for forty years. The doctor told him he either had to stop or go all the way through. In the end he made his choice.”

WITNESS #9791: “I see. It’s never easy being reminded of it.”

INTERVIEWER: “Of what?”

WITNESS #9791: “Not being able to make people’s choices for them.”

INTERVIEWER: “Indeed.”

WITNESS #9791: “I hope you don’t mind.”

INTERVIEWER: “You smoking? Not at all. People we bring here do it all the time.”

WITNESS #9791: “Appreciate the composure.”

INTERVIEWER: “Everyone on my team smokes. They’re young, eager to fit in. To impress.”

WITNESS #9791: “You’re no old timer yourself, slick.”

INTERVIEWER: “Yeah, I hear that a lot at board meetings.”

WITNESS #9791: “So, is that why you’re here? This your foot in the door?”

INTERVIEWER: “I’ve already walked through that door, sergeant. That’s why I’m here.”

WITNESS #9791: “So I’m guessing this whole thing became quite the high profile case, from what you’re saying. Since they brought in a made man like yourself to handle it, and all.”

INTERVIEWER: “That’s one way to put it, yeah.”

WITNESS #9791: “You’re gonna catch the guy?”

INTERVIEWER: “We don’t ‘catch’ people, sergeant, we’re not the police. We’re just trying to piece information together so we can do our job.”

WITNESS #9791: “Which is why you need me. To help you find those pieces.”

INTERVIEWER: “Can I be upfront?”

WITNESS #9791: “I insist.”

INTERVIEWER: “We already have enough pieces to paint a clear picture. What we need your help with is making sure this picture is what we think it is.”

WITNESS #9791: “So this is you telling me you don’t actually need classified information on my unit.”

INTERVIEWER: “I mean, why would I need that, right?”

WITNESS #9791: “Right. So, what did you wanna talk about, anyway? I noticed the page you picked to leave this file open.”

INTERVIEWER: “Your men. What can you tell me about them?”

WITNESS #9791: “On record? Not much. But I knew most of them like brothers, so it’s still quite a bit.”

INTERVIEWER: “How many were there?”

WITNESS #9791: “Okay, you got me now. Thirty? Forty? Well over twenty, at least. Recruit rotation was a circus at the height of the conflict.”

INTERVIEWER: “I read about some of the casualties. Unfortunate.”

WITNESS #9791: “Yeah, that’s the word. Next question, please.”

INTERVIEWER: “Still a solid run for someone leading a four-man operation for as long as you did.”

WITNESS #9791: “My career was short, but most of it was spent as head of that fireteam. So yeah, say what you will about the results, they speak for themselves.”

INTERVIEWER: “With a record like yours at twenty two you could be ahead of an entire platoon, if I’m being honest.”

WITNESS #9791: “[Laugh] Thanks, chief. But the reason I had a record like that in the first place was because I wanted to stay non-commissioned. Getting field work actually done, shaping those brats into freedom fighters. We had a war to win.”

INTERVIEWER: “From what I see here you stuck to a team after a while. Boys you requested transferred to your unit, some of whom were on their second stint already.”

WITNESS #9791: “Yeah, things were heating up by the end of the Gévaudan campaign. Command needed all hands on deck, told me to pick three men and stick to them. As the last rebels were being hunted down we had been working with a tight crew for a while.”

INTERVIEWER: “Who was on your team by the time the war ended?”

WITNESS #9791: “It was me, Preacher, Wolfman, Lancer and Gecko. All good men, good shots, worked well with one another. Followed orders and kept their heads down, which is good enough for me.”

INTERVIEWER: “Did you come up with these handlers?”

WITNESS #9791: “Me? You’re kidding, right? I can’t even come up with a name for a dog. No, these were all academy nicknames. Gecko’s was how his six or so older brothers called him. Wolfman’s was a college football name or some other jock bullshit, can’t remember now. Lancer I don’t think I ever asked.”

INTERVIEWER: “You did come up with Romanek’s, though.”

WITNESS #9791: “What makes you think I did?”

INTERVIEWER: “That’s what he told us, anyway.”

WITNESS #9791: “Of course he did. [pause] Yeah, that one was me, actually. But I didn’t lie when I said it was an academy thing. It’s just that this time I was there with him.”

INTERVIEWER: “Why Preacher, though?”

WITNESS #9791: “I don’t know, I guess I just always felt like he talked too much. It wasn’t a religious thing, that wasn’t his deal at all. He was always giving these pep talks, it was so stupid. [laugh] But in a way that made you like the guy.”

INTERVIEWER: “What about the others? Were you as close to them?”

WITNESS #9791: “What does it matter if I was?”

INTERVIEWER: “Like I said, cross-referencing. We need to know who’s friends with who, and who just says they are.”

WITNESS #9791: “Right. So what do you wanna know about them?”

INTERVIEWER: “Just whatever comes to mind.”

WITNESS #9791: “I mean, yeah, we were pretty tight. They were good kids, the bunch of ‘em. Beaumont was a real trooper, he made it to major after I left. Schneider was a complete knucklehead, but still a crack shot. Saved my ass a bunch of times. No complaints. And Malloy, well… Like I said, they were good kids.”

INTERVIEWER: “Tight crew, it seems.”

WITNESS #9791: “Yeah, thick as thieves. Rare to see a fireteam work that well together. Believe me.”

INTERVIEWER: “Speaking of which, what about the rest of the squad?”

WITNESS #9791: “Besides us there was Kasowitz and his people. Don’t really remember their names, now. Bunch of punks, sat on their asses all day. J.D. seemed to do their thinking for them, which I always thought was kinda fucked. My team and his were led by Burroughs, who was our staff sergeant at the time. He and I had our differences, but he was a good man.”

INTERVIEWER: “Were you and Burroughs friends at all, at any point?”

WITNESS #9791: “Sort of. He was my drill instructor at the academy, before I was assigned to the same unit as him, years later. He didn’t like my style, said I should keep politics in one basket and war in another. Back then I thought he was just a bitter old-timer, but yeah. Now I know what he meant by that.”

INTERVIEWER: “So eventually it was you leading one of his fire teams.”

WITNESS #9791: “What can I say, I worked for it.”

INTERVIEWER: “I’m curious about Lieutenant Kasowitz, personally. We never managed to get a hold of him.”

WITNESS #9791: “You didn’t miss much, Jan was just a schmuck. Had a shifty air to him, but he mostly just did what he was told. You’d never guess a guy like that would turn out the way he did, but then again the ones who do are always guys like that. Figures.”

INTERVIEWER: “Did the two of you work closely as team leaders?”

WITNESS #9791: “Not at all, we only operated as a full squad on a number of occasions. Mostly it was either one doing recon missions while the other sabotaged enemy supply lines.”

INTERVIEWER: “Terrebonne was one such instance, from what I gather.”

WITNESS #9791: “It was more complicated than that, I’m afraid.”

INTERVIEWER: “In what sense?”

WITNESS #9791: “Bravo was investigating some suspicious activity in this remote location in the wetlands, way off across the border. It seemed weird at first, but after we realized what it probably was, we had to see for ourselves.”

INTERVIEWER: “The old smuggling routes.”

WITNESS #9791: “Precisely. Those old swamp rats knew all about them. Kravchenko worked in transportation for weapons and ammunition between the entire south coast and the capital at the time, so there was no way he hadn’t at least heard about the tunnels.”

INTERVIEWER: “Did anyone in the Nineteenth’s intel division tell you any of this, though? At the time, I mean.”

WITNESS #9791: “Can’t go on record either denying that or not, but what I can say is that it didn’t really matter. Burroughs already had a hunch.”

INTERVIEWER: “Which meant you were gonna be sent to make sure.”

WITNESS #9791: “Not us, this time. We were already en route to another mission, some bullshit stakeout on an enemy convoy. That was when we got the call.”

INTERVIEWER: “Bravo had not reported back?”

WITNESS #9791: “They just moved into position and ceased all communications. Command thought it was a jam signal at first, but then they realized they could still hear them. It’s just that they picked up and said nothing, which was freaking everyone out.”

INTERVIEWER: “So that’s when you come in.”

WITNESS #9791: “We didn’t really know what to expect. Could’ve been a trap. Could’ve been anything, really. We pulled up in full gear, ready to tango. Our orders were to either find them or report any hostile activity.”

INTERVIEWER: “What was Burroughs predicting at this point? Did he tell you?”

WITNESS #9791: “He didn’t need to, it was on the wall. He was convinced it was an escalation already in motion, that it was just a matter of time before it was official. He ran me through the plans of engagement like a dozen times, kept telling me not to panic and do anything brash in case it was an ambush.”

INTERVIEWER: “Were you none the wiser, either?”

WITNESS #9791: “I don’t know. I don’t remember very well, it all happened in the span of just a few hours. One moment we’re watching paint dry, and the next… Yeah, that’s just how it goes sometimes, but what matters in the end is that you’re never as ready as you think you are.”

INTERVIEWER: “I suppose he was ready for the worst, from what you’re telling me.”

WITNESS #9791: “You can’t be ready for the worst when you don’t know how bad it can get. I don’t remember much from that morning, but I do recall seeing him argue with his commanding officer over the radio about getting a gunship crew on standby. Like I said, he was already sold on the ambush angle. Looking back at that day and how that mission turned out, well… Can’t say I don’t wish he had been right.”