Devil's Due (Destroyermen #12)(41)
“I fired off a message to Chairman Letts describing what Fiedler spilled about the League strategy to get everybody to wipe each other out so they can, basically, march in and pick up the pieces. I also dispatched a Nancy to Mahe with a copy of the map Fiedler drew, complete with updates Silva added.” Silva had hung on to the copy Matt showed him. He’d need to know it well. He’d drawn another, and doodled on it before handing it back. Matt snorted. “Silva titled it ‘Objective Shithouse’ and made up a bunch of goofy place-names that are actually pretty appropriate, and we can use for code references.” He shook his head. “That guy is so weird. I changed the name to ‘Outhouse,’ but left the rest. Nobody just overhearing one of the place-names, without Silva’s warped mind, will know what they mean. Anyway, if the map’s accurate, it’ll help our planning. I have to confirm it, though, like I said, and told Keje to send a scout.”
Courtney raised his brows in alarm.
“I know—it’s a risk. But not only can it confirm what Fiedler told us about Zanzibar, but it’ll help me decide if we can swallow the rest of what he said.”
“That makes sense, I suppose,” Courtney agreed in a skeptical tone. “But even if we confirm every detail, I doubt I could ever trust Fiedler. Everything having to do with the League seems so utterly warped, so false.”
“I know,” Matt confessed, eyes straying back to the coffee cup. “And I even catch myself wondering if Gravois told him to have Jindal beat him so we’d believe him! Everything the League does is so sneaky and underhanded.” He puffed out his cheeks. “I keep telling myself that Fiedler isn’t the League, and I don’t think anybody could fake how much he hates Gravois, but . . .” He sighed. “So many shades of gray. I always hated ’em. Preferred everything nice and neat, black or white, and now there’s different shades of shades!” He took another sip from his cup. “I guess it all has to come down to principle and what our gut tells us in the end. I think Fiedler hates Gravois, and what’s behind him just as much. My gut tells me he doesn’t like what the League’s been up to out here, or his German contingent’s place under its triumvirate. I feel that he hopes if we win, we’ll wreck Gravois’s strategy to kill us off and the triumvirate’ll fall; maybe paving the way for a more rational leadership we can deal with. Coexist with, anyway. It’s a big world. Assuming that, maybe it really was Sandra’s capture, and what Savoie did to Amerika, that forced him to make a choice.” He looked back at Bradford. “That would be the right thing to do, the honorable thing.” He chuckled darkly. “The black-or-white thing.”
Courtney tightened his lips but didn’t respond, and Matt paused, considering. Finally, he raised a finger to his chin.
“And maybe it’s that he wouldn’t spill much that’ll hurt his German contingent that makes me trust his map, at least. He knew we could’ve kept him, tortured him, killed him, if we wanted, but we didn’t. And he didn’t say squat for a while. He waited until he knew we weren’t like Kurokawa or the goddamn League. You saw how Gravois reacted when I told him we knew about the German sub. It’s real and it’s out there. Fiedler volunteered that, potentially sacrificing a few of his countrymen so we wouldn’t blame the rest, or him, for what it might do.” He nodded. “So, yeah, I guess I kind of do believe him after all.”
“I’d dearly love more detailed information about the League and its capabilities,” Courtney mused, “and most particularly what constitutes its other problems, more pressing than us. We might make them more acute if we had an idea what they were.”
“Probably exactly why he wouldn’t go into it,” Matt agreed.
“Then why didn’t we squeeze him, as Mr. Silva put it?” Courtney asked, exasperated.
Matt pursed his lips. “Haven’t you been listening? Because I’d rather have his voluntary cooperation. We’ve already had some, and I think we’ll get more in time. Besides, he has to know we’ll find out everything if we take Zanzibar. You don’t think all the League personnel pulled out, do you? Gravois even said they still have an embassy there.” He waved his hand. “And maybe Fiedler was uncomfortable enough about blabbing what he had, he wanted us to get the rest of the dope from someone else.”
Courtney frowned. “That’s not very principled.”
“Maybe not. But it is human.”
“He’s no human—he’s a Nazi!” Courtney flared. “All the League is fascist! How can we ever coexist with such as them? Any of them?”
“Is he a Nazi, Courtney?” Matt countered. “Did you ask him? He didn’t even know who Hitler was, so even if he is one, he’s not the exact same kind. The League’s clearly fascist—Nazi, if you will—and Fiedler dropped hints that it may be just as bad as Hitler’s Germany in some ways. Gravois’s behavior, and Savoie’s before Gravois gave her to Kurokawa, tend to support that. But we’ve discovered principled men among our enemies before, remember.” He leaned back on the rocker and took another sip of coffee. “I think, deep down, Fiedler’s just a pilot who doesn’t understand why his people have to keep fighting on a different world. Who knows how widespread that sentiment is in the League? And we’re coexisting with Halik, for God’s sake—so far—and he’s a Grik. I’d say if that’s possible, damn near anything is. Either way, I’m glad we didn’t do anything to wreck Fiedler’s goodwill—if we really have it,” he qualified again. “It might come in very handy.”