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Death by hanging. The Garage. Death by hanging.
Farland went next. The morning of his trial he was almost cheerful. "Hey, I've admitted it. I did wrong and I'll take what's coming, serve time and address cadet classes about humane treatment of prisoners if they want. The court's gotta see this as a case for mercy, right?"
His guilty plea just meant he had to spend less time in the courtroom before hearing his sentence. The trial was over and done with in thirty minutes.
This time, when Valentine asked, Young just shook his head. The guard had a hard time meeting Valentine's eyes.
In the yard that day Roderick didn't eat, he just rocked back and forth on his heels, whistling. Valentine felt he should know the tune but couldn't identify it.
"'There's No Business Like Show Business,' Val," Roderick supplied.
"Roderick, what did you do that got you in here?"
Roderick shrugged. "Guess it doesn't matter now, since none of us will be telling tales. Rape and murder of a Quisling prisoner. She was sweet and creamy, and I figured they do it plenty to our people. She had the softest-looking brown hair, partly tied up in this red bandanna. Funny. If her hair didn't catch my eye, she would have just been another prisoner walking by. But I had the boys pull her out of line."
"They reported you?"
"No. I felt guilty about it afterwards. Talked it over with a chaplain. He turned me in. Guess I don't blame him. There's got to be a difference between us and them, or what's the point? I'm almost so I want their brand of hemp medicine." He made a hanging motion at his neck with his finger, both gruesome and funny at the same time.
Roderick's words stayed with him for hours. Roderick deserved his fate-if the men saw their officers behaving that way, they'd degenerate into a sexually charged mob the next time . . . but wait. How different were their crimes, really-save that Valentine amassed a higher body count? Eight men had died in horrible pain.
In the afternoon he met with Captain Luecke in a little, white-painted room with a big table. She looked a little haggard.
"I was handling Farland's case as well. I thought it was just going to be plea negotiations. I heard something about Sime making you an offer."
"What happened to Thrush?"
"He moved onto death row. They hung him at midnight last night. In front of the witnesses." She took a long drag at her cigarette, and the shaking in her fingers stilled for a moment as the nicotine hit her bloodstream. "Farland will go tomorrow night. Our guests can't afford to stay long. Do Sime's deal."
"Or end up like Thrush and Farland?"
"Maybe they're having you go last for a reason. After a few hangings, the bastards might be willing to see a little mercy."
"'Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy,'" Valentine quoted.
"This last week has been strictly Old Testament, Valentine. Like Leviticus."
"How did your checking on Martinez go?"
"It was quite revealing. I'm glad I wasn't at that trial. Were there really bullets flying in through the windows?"
"The prosecuting officer almost got raped."
Luecke sent a funnel of smoke at the ceiling lights. "There were times I thought a lynch mob coming for some overeager scalp-taker wouldn't be altogether a bad thing. But to see it in real life-"
"It worked out in the end. My defense?"
"You don't have one. Every witness I wanted to call met with the same response from the judge: Major Valentine is on trial, not General Martinez. Denied. Valentine, honestly, take Sime's deal. If anyone has the pull to get you off the hook, it's him."
"Pull? What kind of justice system is this?" Valentine asked.
Luecke lit another cigarette from the butt of her first as she took a last drag. "A kind I've never seen before. Take Sime's deal."
"If I don't?"
"I'll do my best. I have a feeling it won't be good enough."
"Can you get me a visitor? There's-"
