by Matt Rogers
‘Not particularly.’
The words hammered home, spelling disaster. King’s only hope of salvaging the situation had been resting on Wyatt considering his co-worker indispensable.
‘You’re not going to get any money for Bernardi,’ he said, taking a wild swing at a final chance of resolution. ‘Don’t think you can rely on that. Let’s just swap. Peacefully. Diplomatically.’
‘Of course I’m not getting any money for a corpse.’
Silence.
‘You’re joking,’ King muttered.
‘Afraid not, pal. Just wanted to get a sense of where you two were at. And you’re as desperate as I thought you were. He must have been an important man, this Rex Bernardi! Damn shame about that.’
King bristled, clutching the phone with white knuckles. ‘You didn’t kill him. That means we’ll kill your man.’
‘Go right ahead! Make sure to tell him it was nothing personal from my end when you do it. I’d just rather not try and arrange a swap with someone who I know is guaranteed to try and take my head off.’
‘He’ll come for you now. You know that, right?’
‘Try it. I fucking dare you. In fact, why don’t you both come after me? Couple of elite soldiers doesn’t mean shit in an open-pit mine. Come find me down there, why don’t you? Get past all the security. Go for your life. But I know the look of an employed man, Jason King. You work for people. You shoot up a corporation and they’ll bring the hammer down on you back stateside. If there’s one thing America loves more than its military, it’s money. The people I work for run the country. They buy the politicians. Them and the rest of corporate America. You think your employers will be happy with a man in uniform storming a perfectly legitimate business?’
Finally, for the first time in a long while, King felt the slightest inkling of relief crawl its way up his spine. ‘You see, that’s where you’re wrong, my friend.’
‘Why’s that?’
‘Technically, I don’t exist. I could kill every single person in that complex of yours and no-one would bat an eyelid.’
‘Try it,’ Wyatt said, but without the same unwavering confidence he’d sported moments earlier.
‘I might. Last chance to tell me you were joking about Bernardi.’
‘He’s lying on the floor of this room with half his head missing. Can’t bring him back, I’m afraid.’
‘Well, that’s your loss, then.’
‘Is it?’
‘We’ll find out.’
King ended the call with fury boiling in his veins.
42
He paced furiously toward Brody, livid.
Brody recognised the shift in atmosphere and instantly pointed to the wall. ‘Sit down.’
‘Brody—’
‘Sit down. Pull yourself together. Then we’ll talk.’
King felt like charging straight through the man, storming into the mining complex and tearing Wyatt limb from limb. But common sense prevailed and he understood the necessity to approach things in a clinical fashion.
So he changed direction at the last moment and dropped into a seated position at the edge of the combat mats, resting his back against the corrugated metal and taking deep breaths — in through his nose, out through his mouth. He repeated this over and over again until some of the rage had dissipated and he was left with an icy stillness that settled his thrumming heart rate and draped him in a menacing cloud.
Then Brody came over and sat down across from him.
‘What is it?’
‘Bernardi’s dead.’
Despite the man’s best efforts to control himself, Brody raised both eyebrows. The news threw him off guard. ‘You sure?’
‘No, but Wyatt seemed pretty convinc—’
The satellite phone shrieked in his hands, and for a moment he thought another call was imminent. He wasn’t sure if he’d be able to put up with the South African’s antics for another second longer. But as he glanced at the screen — covered in droplets of sweat where they’d run down from his palm — he noticed the shriek cut off after a single second of noise, indicating an incoming message.
Sure enough he thumbed a couple of buttons on the satellite phone’s keypad and brought up a photo the device had received from an unknown number.
The image was grainy, but unmistakeable.
Bernardi’s corpse, sprawled unceremoniously across a dusty concrete floor. The blood around his head had coagulated with the muck on the ground — a gruesome sight to anyone.
King’s own blood ran cold at the sight and he angled the screen in Brody’s direction.
‘Yeah,’ King said. ‘I’m sure.’
‘Christ.’
‘He knows what you know.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘He knows he did something to royally piss you off. Something involving your girlfriend. But I don’t think he knows exactly what, or who it is.’
Brody scowled, fire lighting up in his eyes. ‘I bet he doesn’t. Bet he kills and rapes as he pleases. Probably can’t narrow it down out of the hundreds of lives he’s ruined over his time in the Congo.’
‘Thousands, probably. He’s been here years.’
‘And all in the service of Barnes & Cooper Resources.’
‘We don’t know how guilty they are, or how much they know. Maybe this job gives him the discretion he needs to satiate his vices. I don’t think we should murder the entire executive board on a whim.’
‘They’re scum, King. I’ve been here three years. I’ve seen it all.’
‘Seen it from where? This compound?’
‘I used to venture out. Before everything happened. I know what I saw.’
‘Regardless, I’m over,’ King said, bowing his head. ‘I doubt they’ll take me back. They sent an important government handler over here to meet with me and I got him killed by sticking my nose where it didn’t belong.’
‘He came over willingly. In fact, he demanded it. I’m sure everyone will understand what a ludicrous decision it was. This isn’t the end of you. Especially not after what you showed me. You’re already better. I’ve never seen anyone learn like you have.’
Riding out a wave of unrest, King jerked his head in Thorn’s direction. The big mercenary was still out of it, staring vacantly out at Lake Kivu with blood running down the sides of his face.
‘He… told me things,’ Brody said. ‘When you were off dealing with your problem at the gate.’
‘Things?’
‘He doesn’t deserve to live.’
‘You say that with one hundred percent certainty?’
‘I don’t use those kind of statements lightly.’
‘Then we do what needs to be done.’
‘Do you want specifics? You know … for your own peace of mind?’
King shook his head. ‘I can imagine. That’s peace of mind enough. If you think he deserves to die, then he deserves to die.’
‘He deserves to die slowly. But I don’t have it in me.’
‘That’s not who we are. We make things quick and painless. The rest can be dealt with down the line. Or in another life.’
Brody nodded. ‘You want to do it?’
‘Not yet. We might be able to get more information out of him.’
‘About what?’
‘Wyatt.’
Brody didn’t move a muscle, but the look in his eyes changed. He realised that King had ulterior motives, that he wouldn’t just sit back and let exterior circumstances stomp all over him. ‘What are you going to do?’
‘What needs to be done. You’re sure as hell not doing it. Wyatt talked some sense on the phone. They’re a corporation, and they can twist things to suit them. You’re a civilian. You’ll get torn apart if you storm in there and raise hell. Maybe not physically, but…’
‘Don’t worry. I get where you’re heading.’
‘Nothing like an angry rich corporation to fuck someone over for life.’
‘But I can go in and do what needs to be do
ne, and disappear.’
‘I don’t want you to do that, though,’ King said. ‘You can start a new life. In peace. Without having to check over your shoulder every five seconds. I, on the other hand, can disappear legally. And I can get an entire country to help me do it.’
‘If they welcome you back.’
‘If I deal with this effectively, I’m sure they’ll welcome me back.’
‘How long since you’ve spoken to Lars?’
‘A while.’
‘I can contact him. Keep him occupied. But I need to know what you’re planning on doing.’
‘Getting the truth out of Wyatt. I know he shot up that village. I just need to hear him say it. Then I’ll put this whole thing to rest. And we can move on.’
‘You’d do that for me?’
‘Something about combat, isn’t it?’ King said. ‘It forms bonds.’
‘Brotherhood.’
‘Brotherhood. Feels like I’ve known you for years.’
‘Likewise.’
‘So what do we do?’
‘You really killed all five of them before?’
‘If I didn’t, I wouldn’t be standing here now.’
‘Then that should deter anyone else from making a run at our compound for the rest of the day. If you’re going to move in on that mine, you do it at night. And you do it right.’
‘You know how to do it right?’
Brody grinned. ‘Fortunately that’s what I used to be best at.’
43
The rest of the day passed in painstakingly slow fashion, with Brody and King interchanging watches on the trail leading up to the perimeter gate of the compound. There was no sign of hostile resistance in sight — because the initial party of mercenaries hadn’t returned, King imagined the executives at the mine were spooked.
They’d probably been expecting an easy retrieval.
Instead, five of their best lay dead around the gates. King and Brody opted to leave them where they lay — at least for the time being. If more mercenaries showed up for vengeance, the sight of their dead allies might deter them.
In between shifts, King prepared.
Brody revealed an arsenal of weaponry safely secured in the back room of the house, a room King had never ventured into due to the man keeping it locked. King chose a MK 17 SCAR-H battle rifle for the job — it was the Close Quarters Combat variant, complete with a thirteen-inch barrel for maximum effectiveness in tight spaces. Brody also had the Long Barrel variant, with twenty inches of steel to favour sniper-like shots from a distance, but King had never operated that way.
And he sure as hell wasn’t about to start.
He would bull rush the compound, but he would do it effectively.
His way.
He needed Wyatt.
Everyone else was simply in the way.
At one point Brody stepped into the house — by that point it was late afternoon — and observed King donning tactical gear and re-checking the SCAR-H like a man possessed by a ritual. He started to open his mouth to offer words of advice, but King held up a hand.
‘Don’t.’
‘Why not?’
‘You want to know if I’ve improved, right? It’s the same as the gate — just a little more dangerous. Let me do this on my own. I won’t have you in my ear for future operations. I need to know I can rely on myself.’
‘You’ll get yourself killed, and then all this will be for nothing.’
‘If I do wind up dead, it’s best you have no idea how it happened. Built-in deniability. Go disappear to another country and pretend I never existed.’
‘And the government? They’ll come hunting for me. They’ll want an explanation about what happened to their best operative.’
‘So don’t let them find you.’
‘You can walk away right now. You can go straight back to the U.S. You can pretend this never happened.’
King thought of the grainy image of Rex Bernardi with his skull turned to gore. ‘No, I can’t. This is on me.’
‘So you’re doing it your way? And what exactly is your way? Mexico and Somalia were straight madness.’
‘That’s my way,’ King said. ‘Except this time … I won’t get beat half to death.’
‘You sure about that?’
‘I can’t describe what happened at the gate. With the mercenaries. It’s like it was…’
‘…Easy?’ Brody said.
‘Yeah. Easy.’
‘I know what you’re feeling. I made that breakthrough. All those years ago. It changes you. See how you go tonight. If you die, then we both don’t know what we’re talking about. But if not…’
‘We’ll see what happens.’
‘No. You won’t. Just make it happen. Even if you crawl out of that complex with your life hanging by a thread, it won’t be a victory. It’ll prove to your superiors that you really are unreliable in the field. This is more than just confronting Wyatt. This is a test. A real test. Like the gate was.’
‘I know that,’ King said, his heart hammering against his chest wall, all the adrenalin of imminent combat ramping up inside him. ‘I’ll prove myself.’
‘You already did. At the gate. But … make an exclamation point. Give me something to show Lars and the rest of those bastards.’
‘It sounds like you’ve been through something like this before.’
‘Everyone has to prove themselves at some point. In our field, it takes some extreme courage to do it.’
‘I can do it.’
‘You sure you don’t want advice?’
‘Don’t say a thing. Let me do this on my own. For me.’
‘It’s your call. All of this is your call. I can’t tell you how to work. You’re going out into the field after this.’
‘I’ve been there before.’
‘Not like this. If they recognise your potential, and your ability to improve…’
‘More dangerous operations?’
‘They’ll give you tasks equal to your skill set. Prove that skill set to be the best of the best, and there’s no telling how far they’ll try to push you.’
‘Is that what happened to you?’
‘Precisely.’
‘What did you do for our country?’
‘Exactly what you’re doing right now, for years on end.’
‘And you survived?’
‘Which means you can too.’
King checked out the nearest window and noticed the sun dipping toward the horizon, melting the familiar orange hues across the sky. Once again, he stopped for a moment to process the beauty of it, as he always did. Ignoring the chaos that surrounded the sunset.
Ignoring the war that lay ahead.
Then he snatched up the SCAR-H, tucked the fully loaded Colt M1911A1 into a holster at his waist, and checked all his tactical gear for anything he was missing.
‘It’s not dark yet,’ Brody commented.
‘I need to be on my own,’ King said. ‘For a while. To process all this.’
‘I understand.’
He crossed the room, trying to act oblivious to the strange feeling hanging in the air. They could both sense it, but neither wanted to address it. It was the knowledge that King had no idea what he was walking into — he hadn’t conducted reconnaissance around the complex, hadn’t prepared in any way apart from strapping himself with weapons and charging forward headlong into danger.
But that was how he’d always done things.
There was no other way.
At least, not for him.
Stick to what you know.
But make it so good that no-one can stop you.
He pulled Brody into an embrace — despite the fact that they’d never hugged before, the man didn’t resist. There was no guarantee they would see each other again. Even if King succeeded, his future contact with Brody would be limited. The Congo was a ticking time bomb, and neither of them could stay there. Both of them knew what had to happen. Brody could no longer live here.
&nbs
p; Through simply visiting, King had set them both down an irreversible path. Once again, he found himself changing lives forever, no matter how hard he tried to stay in his own lane.
‘Good luck,’ Brody said.
All that needed to be said.
‘Don’t need it,’ King said.
They exchanged a grin, and then Jason King left the low one-storey house through the front door and set off across the rapidly darkening field toward the perimeter gate.
Where an open-topped jeep and an empty maroon Ford Raptor lay dormant.
The night started to descend over Lake Kivu, and King melded into the shadows.
He was live in the field, for the first time since Somalia.
44
Dusk fell, but King wanted pitch darkness before he stormed the mine. Wyatt would know he was coming, but the altercation with the five mercenaries who’d arrived in the Raptor had shifted King’s mindset. There was a dynamic at the mine he hadn’t anticipated — Wyatt hadn’t known about the separate force’s actions. It meant they were controlled by executives and officials and higher-ups, and neither party were in the know about everything at all times.
Which meant Wyatt might not even feel inclined to tell his superiors about what King had revealed.
Maybe, just maybe…
…the staff and workers at Barnes & Cooper Resources didn’t know the men in the red truck were dead.
King sat in their Ford Raptor, drawing in deep breaths of the new leather, tasting the blood money the vehicle had been purchased with. Strangely, the tantalising “new car smell” seemed stale in this setting. He didn’t want to imagine what the five dead men lying on the trail had done to earn their cash. If it was anything like the deeds Wyatt and his buddies had in their past, perhaps King was best not knowing.
The past.
King would be confronting it soon enough.
He didn’t fire up the Raptor until his surroundings had turned pitch black. He left the SCAR-H on the passenger seat, breathing in the night as it shaped around him. It was a gradual process, and allowed his eyes to adjust to the lowlight. When full darkness set in and he kicked the Raptor to life, its engine burst through the serenity with a throaty growl that scared off all nearby wildlife.
