For those of you who have already read Prepared for Rage, you know “gators” is slang for interrogators, and that I’m referring to Bob and Mary in the Gitmo scenes.

I was not, repeat not looking forward to writing those scenes. Not big with the torture, nope. I love Jack Bauer but I cringe and hide whenever it looks like he’s going to beat the snot out of yet another guilty suspect.

What, I wondered, were Bob and Mary going to do to Sadiq to make him tell them what he knew about Akil? Sleep deprivation? Bright lights? Rubber hoses? Was I actually going to have to research waterboarding? Oh man, I so didn’t want to have to do that.

And then as I began to write the scene, Bob and Mary simply took the decision out of my hands. They knew, as I did not, that evidence gathered by torture can never be relied on to be the truth, because the person being tortured will say anything to make it stop. They knew, as I did not, that if a honey trap will work, it’s much quicker and much less labor intensive than other methods. They knew, as I did not, that when you’re dealing with wannabe terrorists like Sadiq that it’s not necessary to bring out the big guns. So to speak.

Against all expectation, I love the gator scenes at Gitmo.

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A reminder — I’ll be chatting with the Danamaniacs this evening at 5pm Alaska time/6pm California time/9pm Chicago/Kentucky/Boston time. You must belong to the group to access the website and join in the chat. See you then!

Also, there will be an interview with me in this week’s Homer News, publishing on Thursday.

Chatter Prepared for Rage