by Matt Rogers
Now, King wished he’d returned to the security office and forced more information out of the dock workers.
‘Someone caved Johnson’s throat in—’ Beth started.
‘That piece of shit,’ King snarled, gripping the M45 tighter. He took his finger out of the trigger guard, employing trigger discipline in case the rage built to an uncontrollable level.
‘Not so fast,’ Beth said. ‘It could be a coincidence.’
‘Why?’
‘You remember Victor?’
King paused. ‘Uh, no. We never met.’
‘Oh. Right. Well, he’s a full-blown alcoholic. Spends his nights snooping off the base and getting blind off moonshine in the fields.’
‘How hasn’t he been chewed out for that yet?’
‘He’s discrete enough. He has the day shifts at the perimeter of the compound, and he does his job well enough. I guess none of us were willing to do anything about it when there were more pressing issues at hand. Everything involving Reed broke out at the same time Victor started ramping up his nightly adventures.’
‘Right,’ King said.
‘Besides, we’re the only U.S. forces in the country, I believe. You’d be surprised how flexible our orders are. Not as lax as yours, obviously, but there’s surprisingly little command to hold us accountable. At least, for the time being.’
King simply nodded.
‘Anyway,’ she continued, ‘the peacekeepers found Victor a few feet away with a self-inflicted gunshot wound. So he could have come back from a stroll in a drunken stupor and thrown retorts at Johnson. Tempers could have flared. Then he could have killed himself out of guilt. We don’t know exactly what kind of issues Victor had. You never know…’
King shook his head. ‘Where does Reed fit into that?’
‘No idea. There’s been no sign of him.’
‘It’s bullshit,’ King said. ‘He set it up that way.’
‘You can’t be sure.’
‘I know what he’s capable of.’
‘How?’
‘You can just tell,’ King said. ‘Spend enough time around trained killers and you understand if someone has what it takes to go on a rampage. Reed could have done it. Especially after what I found out at the port.’
Beth froze in the driver’s seat, letting the car drift across the trail. She battled a shiver and regained control of her motor functions. ‘Don’t tell me it’s bad.’
‘It’s bad. I think.’
‘What’s he been doing?’
‘I don’t know. One of the guys there thought I was Reed. Because we look similar.’
‘You don’t look that similar…’
‘He only saw Reed on security cameras. We’re the same build. Big guys. Similar facial features.’
‘I guess.’
‘He saw Reed kidnapping his workers.’
‘What?!’
‘What kind of experience did Reed have in the military before the Force Recon Marines?’
Beth shrugged. ‘No idea. Didn’t ask. We don’t talk much about personal shit. Might touch on too many raw nerves.’
‘I’m betting he has extensive combat training. I’m betting he killed Victor and Johnson like it was nothing, and now he’s going through with something he planned to do all along. Maybe a little earlier than expected, because I showed up.’
‘We’ll never find him,’ Beth said. ‘Not if he truly wanted to disappear. We have to hope he wants to come back and silence us also.’
King looked at her. ‘I don’t think we want that.’
‘I do. I want to put a bullet between his eyes.’
‘He might do it first.’
‘I don’t care.’ He could sense the raw emotion in her voice — the shock of the escalating situation had started to fade, replaced by something close to fear. It didn’t sound like she meant it. ‘My career’s over anyway. They’ll find out I wasn’t at the compound when all this went down. They’ll find out I followed you. They’ll throw me out of the military. Or throw me in prison.’
‘Don’t think like that yet,’ King said. ‘We’ll sort this out.’
‘I doubt it.’
‘Why did you follow me? I was specifically sent here to do the things you, Victor, and Johnson aren’t allowed to do.’
‘And look where that got them,’ she muttered.
‘You might have ended up the same way if you made it to the port. Hell, I barely made it out alive myself.’
‘But you did. And you found something.’
‘I barely found anything.’
‘You know Reed’s lying.’
‘That doesn’t help much if he’s no longer around.’
‘It means everything,’ Beth demanded, suddenly stern. ‘I would have bought the Victor-Johnson dynamic hook, line and sinker if you didn’t let me know Reed’s full of shit. I would have spent a week searching aimlessly for him, worried about his safety. Now I know he’s rotten.’
‘Don’t get one hundred percent certain yet. Reed could be bad, but that doesn’t mean Victor didn’t kill him and hide the body. It could just be a crazy coincidence.’
Beth shook her head, resolute. ‘Not out here. That kind of thing doesn’t happen. Besides, ever since the peacekeepers told me I was in disbelief that Victor could do something like that. He’s a drunk, but not a violent one.’
‘Then it’s more than likely Reed’s our man,’ King said.
‘He already is, isn’t he? Regardless.’
‘Dodgy business at the port pales in comparison to the murder of two enlisted soldiers.’
‘Not if he really has gone on a killing spree,’ Beth said, then left her mouth hanging open, as if she had been ready to say more but the words that came out of her lips made her pause in consideration. She shook her head in disbelief. ‘I can’t believe it. Abducting dock workers one by one? What the hell’s he doing?’
‘I have a theory,’ King said. ‘It’s long-winded though.’
‘We have time. I’d say we have ten minutes left on this road before we make it back to the compound. AMISOM needed to operate well out of the centre of Mogadishu. So they could stay out of trouble. Which is ridiculous, in the end, isn’t it?’
King shrugged. ‘No-one could have expected anything like this.’
‘So what’s Reed doing?’
‘I think it has something to do with Afgooye.’
23
Beth glanced across, taking her eyes off the road momentarily. ‘The village?’
‘I don’t know what it is,’ King admitted. ‘You’d know more about it than me. But now that I’m looking at my conversation with Reed in a new light, that seems like the only thing he wasn’t bullshitting about.’
‘What did he say?’
‘That he first realised there was a smuggling ring operating out of the docks when he saw trucks pass by the compound at the same time each day.’
Beth paused, reflecting, then nodded. ‘Dump trucks. I’d always hear them. Big transport vehicles.’
‘Somehow, he worked out they were coming from the port.’
‘He could be lying.’
King paused. ‘No, I think that part might be true.’
‘How can you tell?’
‘I can’t. Just a hunch.’
‘Not much to go off.’
‘It leads into the next part. He said he followed the trail, after the ambush that I now know didn’t happen.’
‘So what makes you think the second part was truthful?’
‘I don’t know. It was seriously unnecessary for him to say it. I feel like it just slipped out. He had no reason to tell me he followed a road — unless he thought I’d find evidence that he made it all the way to Afgooye. In which case he’s also telling the truth about that.’
‘So he stumbled across something,’ Beth said. ‘Then he thought he’d exploit it by systematically picking off members of the chain. Then he tried to capitalise on the opening in the trade route by slotting himself into it. How’s th
at sound?’
‘Sounds accurate. I don’t know what he hopes to achieve though. Whatever these guys are running out of the port, I can’t see anyone along the route willingly co-operating with Reed.’
‘He doesn’t seem like the type of guy to give them much of a choice.’
King stomped down on the footwell, riding out a sudden wave of anger. ‘Goddamnit.’
‘What?’
‘I should have caught this. He fed me everything I wanted to hear in the conversation. I can’t believe I bought it all.’
‘What’d he say?’
King shrugged. ‘He didn’t explicitly say anything. But he made up situations that showed his supposed talents. Talked about how he picked off three guys when they were all swarming him. Kept a level head in the heat of combat. Things that he knew I’d like.’
‘Why’d he do that?’
‘I dropped my guard. I let him carry on staying in the unit unrestricted. I went off on my own personal crusade to the port without thinking a damn thing was wrong on the inside.’
‘You couldn’t have known…’
‘I could have. I could have been more cautious. Maybe Victor and Johnson would still be here. Christ.’
‘It’s not your fault.’
‘I got a bad feeling, on the way to the gate. I was going to double back and secure Reed properly. Lock him in the unit until I returned. Just as a precautionary measure. Then Johnson pissed me off and I forgot all about Reed.’
‘What’d Johnson do?’
‘I thought he was unnecessarily harsh towards Reed.’
King scoffed at the predicament.
‘Turns out he wasn’t harsh enough,’ he said.
‘You really bought Reed’s story?’ Beth said, electing to grill him a little further. ‘He took on six men at once? He gunned down half of them? I wouldn’t have believed that for a second.’
‘He didn’t tell it to you,’ King said, staring out into the darkness. ‘He told it to me.’
‘What difference does that make?’
‘He knew I could relate.’
‘Did you share personal stories with him or something?’
King shook his head. ‘He must have read me. He saw I was young, and he knew I worked for some kind of off-the-books outfit. Which meant I was a prodigy, which meant I’d done things that many people considered impossible, which meant I would buy whatever he fed me.’
He scolded himself inwardly at his own inexperience and hesitation.
‘You’re not twenty-eight, are you?’ Beth said. ‘That was another lie.’
‘I’m twenty-two.’
She said nothing for a long moment. ‘You’re kidding.’
‘No.’
‘They pull you straight out of college?’
‘Not exactly…’
She glanced across. ‘You’re only four years out of high school, for God’s sakes.’
‘You wouldn’t believe my record if you looked at it,’ he said. ‘Let’s leave it at that.’
‘Army?’
‘Navy first.’
‘Just a recruit?’
He shrugged. ‘For a few months. They whisked me into the SEALs pretty damn quick.’
‘No they didn’t,’ she said disbelievingly.
‘Like I said, you wouldn’t believe it. I had a stint in the Delta Force too.’
She stared at him with a bewildered expression. ‘They don’t do that. No-one drags fresh recruits around to different detachments of the Armed Forces.’
‘I know they don’t. But they did to me.’
‘Insane…’
‘Maybe they had this position in mind all along for me. Who knows?’
‘What’s so prodigal about you?’
‘Reflexes, I think,’ King said. ‘Something like that. Reaction speed. Intuition. My handler’s obsessed with it. He ran all kinds of tests before my first operation.’
‘Is this your first?’
King shook his head. ‘I was in Mexico before this.’
‘Successful?’
‘Very.’
‘Shame that this had to ruin your perfect record,’ she muttered.
On cue, she veered the jeep off Jeziira Road and weaved through to the front gate of the compound. An elderly, grizzled peacekeeper met them at the perimeter, his expression solemn and creased with worry.
The reality of the situation struck King, tearing his mind back to the present.
There were two dead Force Recon Marines within this chain-link fence.
He felt a pit forming in his gut as Beth steered the vehicle through the open gate, leaving barely a foot on either side.
He couldn’t shake the feeling that he hadn’t seen the last of Bryson Reed.
The jeep ground to a halt halfway up the trail, as soon as the headlights came to rest on the pair of corpses untouched in the middle of the dirt. Beth disembarked first, hefting a bulky military flashlight out of the driver’s footwell.
King glanced at it.
‘Thought I might need to get your attention if I found you,’ she explained.
The scene was as grisly as he’d anticipated. King had seen gunshot wounds before — more times than he’d have cared to — so he knew what to expect when Beth told him that Victor had blown his brains out, but Johnson’s corpse rattled him the most.
The man’s throat had already swollen beyond recognition, half of his neck caved in by the attack. It had been relentless and barbaric, debilitating him in the space of a few seconds.
King took one look at Johnson, and one look at Victor, and concluded that nothing about the situation on a surface level made any sense.
‘Victor didn’t do that,’ he said instantly, motioning to Johnson’s neck. ‘The guy looks like he weighs about one-fifty. Reed was my size. Over two-hundred. He could have done it.’
‘That’s unbelievable,’ Beth muttered, staring down at the grisly scene. ‘You really think he’s capable of that kind of power?’
‘I’m capable of it,’ King said begrudgingly. ‘So, yeah, Reed probably is. Victor certainly isn’t.’
‘What kind of attack causes that sort of damage?’
‘Elbows.’
‘You sure?’
King nodded. ‘I’d rather not be, but yeah. Elbows. Close-range, short and sharp.’
He crouched in the dirt and squinted at Victor’s corpse. The man had slumped on his side with both arms splayed out in front. He was dressed in a simple faded T-shirt, out of uniform for the night when he’d got himself wrapped up in the madness. Beth noticed King’s attention had turned to the gunshot victim and trained her flashlight beam over to Victor.
King nodded in satisfaction. ‘Neither of his elbows have a mark on them. It was Reed.’
‘What else have you got?’
‘Nothing. I’m not a crime scene investigator. This isn’t Sherlock Holmes. Wouldn’t have a clue about anything else. I just know that Victor didn’t kill this man. I know close-range combat.’ He stood up fully and glanced at Beth, aware that she wouldn’t like what came next.
He said, ‘Which means I’m going to Afgooye.’
24
Sure enough, Beth’s face twisted into a scowl. ‘No.’
‘Last time I checked, I don’t need your approval.’
‘That’s what this is?’ she said. ‘Approval? I’m talking common fucking sense.’
‘This is the last chance I’ll get to find him.’
‘Like you said in the car — it’s not your responsibility. This is out of our hands. We report everything that happened and you carry on doing whatever it is you do.’
King pointed at the corpses. ‘This is what I do. Whether you like it or not. I show up and I apply brute force to things. It’s worked for me so far. I’m not about to stop doing it, just because you disapprove.’
She seemed genuinely taken aback. ‘When did I—?’
‘Beth,’ he said, gripping her by the shoulder. ‘This is the only reason I exist in my current role
. So I have the option to abandon everything and chase a psychopath across Somalia. That’s what I do. It wasn’t what I expected to happen when I landed, but in all honesty I wasn’t happy with what I was doing here in the first place. I’m not experienced enough to sort out the politics of it all. But I can hunt a man down. No problem. That’s my bread and butter.’
She shook her head. ‘I won’t stop you. But you’re an idiot if you think it’ll go your way. Reed’s played you this much already. Who’s to say he doesn’t have a hired army waiting for you to come wandering into Afgooye?’
‘I hope he does.’
‘Cut the shit. Doesn’t matter how fast you are, there comes a point where you’ll get outnumbered.’
King shrugged. ‘Doesn’t bother me. I think I can do it, so I’ll go for it. My job allows me that. And there’s no chance anyone finds Reed if I don’t go right now. He’ll be in another country or on a boat within twenty-four hours.’
‘He’s an hour ahead,’ Beth said. ‘I think that’s too much.’
‘What else am I going to do — wait around here?’
‘These peacekeepers need guarding.’
‘And that’s your job. You safeguard them until we get more soldiers in-country. I’ll do my job.’
‘What is your job, exactly?’
King paused. ‘Can’t really put it into words. But it lets me decide what the right course of action is.’
‘I’m telling you you’re not making the right decision. We were too late on this one. Let it go.’
King brushed past her, heading for the lodge. ‘Not my style.’
She hurried to keep up with him, huffing in unrest. ‘So what do you expect me to do?’
‘Exactly what you would have done if I’d never showed up.’
‘If you hadn’t showed up, everyone might still be alive.’
He frowned, recognising that she was letting her frustrations out but disgruntled all the same. ‘Reed was going through with this regardless. I don’t fit into the picture.’
‘Which is why you should leave.’
‘No, it’s why I should go after him. Because he wasn’t expecting someone like me to show up. I doubt he planned accordingly. I can take advantage of that.’
