Have you ever carried something that was just too heavy for you, and your arms just...gave out? They couldn't hold it anymore? That's what happened to me. And at the end it was like a building had collapsed. I just couldn't take it.
Since “Monday Night Jihad” is doomed from birth to devolve into a by-the-numbers “Rainbow Six”-style counterterrorism black ops potboiler, Elam takes special pains to introduce our favorite fingernail-pullers and nipple-electrode-attachers early.
So let’s meet “Monday Night Jihad’s” baddest ass and the big screw at the Homeland Security Counter-Terrorism Division, in the midst of enhancedly interrogating one of Al-Qa…er, “The Cause’s” finest: #44 in your playbooks, #1 in your hearts, Jim Hicks!
Hicks’s right hand held the tie of the interpreter, who had vainly tried to remove himself from the interrogation when he saw the violent turn it was taking. The agent’s left hand held the MKIII combat knife he had kept from his days as a Navy SEAL. The tip of the blade was about a half inch through the skin behind the prisoner’s chin and was gradually making progress as Hicks slowly twisted the blade left, then right, then left, then right. Blood trickled down the cold metal and between Hicks’s fingers. Kurshumi had stopped screaming when he realized that each time he did, it just drove the blade in a little deeper.
Righteous kill! But don’t worry - we see the softer side of Hicks after he’s done stabbing this poor guy in the mouth, including a lame rationalization for said extrajudicial punishment that I kinda doubt even convinced Jason Elam when he was writing it:
Long ago he had resigned himself to the belief that the ends justified the means when hundreds, if not thousands, of lives were at stake. Yet acting on that belief had cost him countless sleepless nights and countless nightmares when he did sleep. He had lost two marriages, and now he felt he was gradually losing his soul. Don’t let the monster eat you alive, he told his reflection. You did what had to be done. Never forget that! You did what had to be done.
You’d be tempted to call Hicks a take-no-prisoners kind of guy, but for the fact that he, uh, actually takes prisoners for a living. Still, Jason Elam shows us the enemy’s side of the operation, and holy shit are we talking sinister doings. So Hicks can be forgiven, considering the diabolical nature of the evildoers he’s entrusted to smoke out of their caves:
Aamir dialed the number, then simply said, “The hand is poised to strike.” The older brother scribbled quickly in Arabic as he listened to the voice on the other end. When the line went dead, he placed the cell phone in the waste can next to the television and pounded it to pieces with the lug wrench from their car, wasting twenty-eight of their original thirty T-Mobile To Go minutes.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOO! *barrel-rolls out of exploding fireworks warehouse shooting two Uzis into the air*
Still, at least they’re probably “Wire” fans. Game recognize game!
So that’s Jim Hicks - a character you’ll meet many times in “Monday Night Jihad,” usually yelling things like “Not on my watch!” and trying to piece together nefarious plans that a child would be able to decipher. Think of a 40th percentile Jack Bauer, and you’re on your way.
