The door to the interrogation room opened and a rather short and ordinary looking man—dressed in a bright orange jumpsuit—was escorted in and ordered to sit down. His manacled hands were placed on the table and secured to a steel ring. Shaven to the skin, he showed no signs of the long black ponytail he’d once prized. Five-day-old stubble was all that remained. His eyes appeared sunken and hollow. Lifeless. He looked broken, like a death row inmate.

Suddenly his eyes flicked upward. Montez seemed to look right through the mirror. Of course, in reality, he could only see himself.

Like the image, Monty? Do you see yourself clearly now?

“Is this your man?” Thorny asked, completing the act.

“Yes, General,” Harv said. “He looks different without his hair and the stapled cuts on his face and scalp, but it’s definitely Colonel Montez de Oca.”

Nathan stared. Couldn’t avert his eyes. Conflicting emotions assaulted him. Surprise. Satisfaction. Anger. Disgust. And unexpectedly, sadness. He actually felt pity. The once-proud man, brilliant in his own way, had been reduced to a common prisoner with a bleak and hopeless future. What goes around comes around? He’d never really believed it until now. Did evil beget evil? How many people never realized it until too late, until facing the ugly moment of truth when they saw themselves for who and what they really were, monsters disguised as human beings.

Nathan winced at the flashback of the savage whipping he’d endured, at the casual way Montez had yawned during the worst of it. He hated what he’d discovered about himself. There was no rationalizing or justifying it. And no amount of psychobabble could explain it. The other. Was that vicious part of his soul born that day, or had it always lived inside him?

Maybe it didn’t matter.

Now it was Montez’s turn.

Nathan wondered if this manacled man sitting before him was evil in the truest sense of the word. Maybe, maybe not. That judgment was reserved for God, not Nathan McBride. But one thing was certain. Montez would have the next forty years to contemplate it.

Holly’s words echoed again. You don’t have to fear him anymore.

Seven simple words with such deep meaning.

Chapter 51

Chapter  51

The following day, Holly picked Nathan and Harvey up at Lindbergh Field. Thorny had graciously offered his jet for their flight home and refused to accept no for an answer. A C-130 was leaving Gitmo for Andrews that same afternoon and his former commander insisted on taking that jump-seat ride they’d talked about. Besides, you didn’t argue with a four-star, especially Thorny.

After an emotional parting with Harv in Rancho Santa Fe, they headed over to La Jolla. His Clairemont house was out of commission until repairs from the firefight with Montez’s men could be completed.