The springs on the bed creaked as the body on top of it moved suddenly, and Keo found himself wishing the pistol in his hand had a hammer so he could do the oh-so-dramatic click! like in the movies. He briefly thought about jerking back the gun’s slide to achieve the same drama, but that would have just ejected a perfectly good bullet.
Instead, he had to make do with holding the gun at waist level and aiming forward at the figure sitting up in front of him, whipping a wool blanket sideways. From the looks of it, the man had fallen asleep while still wearing his uniform—the familiar tan color topped with a black collar and the white sun emblems stitched along the sides.
The man swung his legs off the cot and stared across the narrow space at Keo while trying to blink sleep from his eyes. After what seemed like forever, he finally said, “Are you sure you have the right room, son?”
Keo nodded. “Pretty sure.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“I have an inside man.”
“Ah.”
Keo didn’t know why he didn’t just pull the trigger right then and there. The man wasn’t even armed, so it would be like shooting fish in a barrel.
So do it and get it over with. That’s what you came here to do, isn’t it? So get it over with already. Maybe you can still catch up to Lara and the Trident afterward…
Except he didn’t. Not yet.
The truth was, the whole thing threw him for a loop and Keo had to readjust on the fly. It wasn’t how he had pictured any of this going down at all, not even close. It didn’t help that the man in front of him looked nothing like how Keo had imagined him. For one thing, he was missing horns and hooves and a tail with a long pointy arrow at the end. His skin was more tanned than it was a shade of devil red, and he leaned more toward grandfatherly than mass murderer or war criminal.
The man was in his fifties, with brown hair that looked almost blond against the slightly yellow ceiling light, and looked fit enough to be dangerous. In so many ways, Keo was reminded of Pollard, another ex-military officer who had made Keo’s life difficult. Just thinking about the other man made the scar along the side of Keo’s face tingle.
He didn’t need to see the name Mercer stenciled across the man’s shirt to know who he was pointing a gun at. He was in the right room, all right; there was no question about that. Keo could read every line on the grizzled face, and even heavy with sleep there was intelligence and a certain (madness?) something about the eyes. Keo imagined the cogs spinning behind the worry lines that crisscrossed the man’s forehead, processing information and coming up with and discarding scenarios, even as the man gazed back at him.
“I don’t recognize you,” Mercer finally said.
“You know everyone on the island?” Keo asked.
“Yes.” He stared at the gun in Keo’s hand for a brief second, then perhaps deciding there was nothing he could do about it, refocused on Keo’s face. “At least tell me your name, son.”
I’m not your fucking son, asshole, Keo thought but didn’t say. Even the slightest bit of annoyance might give Mercer something to use against him.
He willed himself to stay calm before answering, “Keo.”
“Interesting name.”
“It gets me free drinks in the bars.”
“Does it really?”
“Nah.”
If Mercer was the least bit amused by that, it didn’t show on his face. “So what’s this all about, Keo?”
“Oh, I think you know.”
He sighed tiredly. “Maybe if you gave me some hints. Then again, it is the middle of the night, and I’m not exactly at my best.”
“Your mom ever told you never to sleep in your clothes?”
“Yes, but sleep is a precious commodity these days. You take it when it comes.” He paused, then, “I give up.”
“Already?”
“I’m very tired. Why don’t you just tell me why there’s a stranger with a gun pointed at me in my own quarters, and we’ll move on from there.”
“I’ll give you a hint,” Keo said, and pulled a piece of paper out of his back pocket and crumpled it into a ball before tossing it over.
Mercer caught it and opened it before taking a few seconds to straighten the sheet over one knee, then looked down at it. Keo thought the man might have been stalling for time, but he dismissed it. Mercer was simply letting him know that he would not be rushed, even with a gun pointed at him.
“I hear Texas frowns on littering,” Keo said. “They even have an official motto and everything.”
Mercer ignored him and laid the piece of paper on the cot next to him before looking back at Keo. “I take it you’re not here to enlist.”
“’Fraid not, boss.” Keo gestured with the Sig Sauer. “But I am here to join the bullets in this gun with your brain.”
Mercer’s mouth curved into a slight smile.
“Her name was Jordan,” Keo said.
“Was it?” Mercer said.
“Your men killed her. She died in my arms.”
“She was a collaborator.”
“No.”
“No?”
“No. She was fighting them. We both were.”
“Then I’m sorry.”
“Are you?”
“Yes,” Mercer said. “But mistakes happen in war.”
“Collateral damage?”
“That’s right.” He narrowed his eyes at Keo. “I can tell you know a thing or two about that. But you’re not a soldier.”
“You sure about that?”
“Yes. I can always tell just by looking at someone if they’re ex-military. It’s in their eyes, on their face, even in the way they stand or hold a gun. You know the Army, but you were never one of us. My guess is, someone you knew was. A parent, maybe. Or siblings. You grew up around the Army and maybe that’s why you steered clear of it, though in many ways you simply joined another Army, one with less strict…guidelines.”
“Keep going…”
“You’re a man of violence, with a long history of blood on his hands.”
“You got all that just from looking at me, huh?”
“I’m a fast study. And I’ve always been good at reading people.”
“What else do you see?”
“I don’t know how you got in here, but you don’t expect to leave alive. Not that you’re too worried about it. In fact, you’ve already accepted that things will end here for you, so long as you can take me with you.”
“Not bad.”
Mercer shrugged. “I have my moments.”
“You should go on the road. Become a carnie.”
“Not quite the future I had in mind,” Mercer said, and stood up.
Keo watched the older man walk the short distance to the canteen sitting on the nightstand. He passed the gun belt hanging on the wall but never looked at it. Mercer opened the cap and took a slow, purposeful drink.
“So this is personal,” Mercer said, lowering the canteen and brushing his lips with the back of a shirt sleeve. “Simple bloodthirsty revenge?”
“Revenge gets a bad rap. Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it.”
“I’d rather waste my energy on more productive things.”
Mercer spun the lid back into place before returning to the cot, passing the gun hanging off the wall a second time and sitting back down in almost the exact same spot. The springs creaked under him, the only other noise in the room besides the hum of the single light bulb, the generators in the background, and the sounds of their breathing.
“You want to ask me something,” Mercer said. It wasn’t a question.
“What makes you say that?”
“You haven’t shot me yet, so I assumed you have something else on your mind other than just killing me. Please, do go ahead. I’ll answer, if I’m able.”
“Aren’t you the giving kind.”
“I wouldn’t want you to leave this room feeling unfulfilled. After all, we both know you’re not going to get off the island alive.”
<
br /> “You’ve said that already.”
“Because it’s true.”
“I don’t know, I’m pretty good at this,” he said, gesturing with the Sig again.
“Oh, I don’t have any doubts whatsoever about that, Keo. I know you’re an old hand at this.”
Keo stared at the man. He could see now why people like Erin, Gregson, and even Hart would view Mercer as some kind of potential savior. The man was unsettlingly calm, even with a gun pointed at him. Mercer wasn’t the very least bit scared. He didn’t even seem slightly disturbed by what was happening, as if this was a regular occurrence for him.
So shoot him and get it over with. What the hell are you waiting for?
Because I have to know. I have to know…
“Are you crazy?” Keo asked.
The older man gave Keo a wry (disappointed?) look, as if to say, “That’s it? That’s all you could come up with?”
“No,” Mercer said.
“You must be crazy.”
“Why ‘must’ I be?”
“What you did in Texas, what you’re planning on doing next.”
“Someone has to do something. It might as well be us. I don’t take any of this lightly, but—”
“Someone has to do it,” Keo finished for him.
Mercer nodded. “Yes. Someone had to do it.”
“What happened, did you lose someone? Is that why you’ve gone cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs?”
“Not at all.”
“You didn’t lose anyone?”
“We’ve all lost someone. Even you have, I’m sure. But that’s not anything new. It’s the cycle of life. We’re born and we die, and others are born and take our place. It’s how nature works. But there’s nothing natural about what’s happening in those towns. Man was not born to be enslaved at birth, Keo. We were not created to provide sustenance for monsters that shouldn’t exist. It’s unnatural.”
“Some would say what you’re doing is unnatural.”
“They’d be wrong. I’m trying to bring back the natural order of things. Fate saw fit to appoint that role to me, but I never asked for it.”
“Fate?”
“Fate. Destiny. God. Whatever you want to call what’s behind this.”
“There’s nothing behind this.”
“Of course there is. Just because you can’t grasp it, or see or feel it, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.”
“So God’s telling you to do this?”
“Would it make you feel better to think of me as some Bible-thumping nutcase, Keo?”
“Are you?”
“I believe there’s something out there desperately trying to balance the universe. Maybe I’m a part of it; maybe I’m just playing a very minor role. And maybe it sent you here to kill me, to end my command. If that’s the case, then so be it.”
“So you actually think you can win this war by dropping bombs on towns full of kids, old men, and pregnant women?”
“Is it really that farfetched?”
“Have you been out there? Have you seen how many of them there are? All you’re doing is killing a whole lot of people when there aren’t that many of us still left to begin with. You’ll never be able to do enough with the limited resources you have. All you’re doing is giving the nightcrawlers minor headaches. This crusade of yours will never expand past Texas.”
“Headaches can grow into tumors.”
“Good one, but it’s still bullshit. You don’t even have enough men right now to cover half of Texas, and you expect to take the entire state? What about the other forty-nine? Mexico? Canada? However many you think are in Texas, there are millions—billions—more out there.”
Mercer smiled.
“What’s so funny?” Keo asked.
“You seemed to be under the impression I haven’t considered all the possibilities. I have. Every single one.”
“And yet here you are, fighting an impossible war.”
“This was never going to end overnight. This is the fight of our lifetime, Keo. And when we’re gone, our children and their children’s children will still be fighting it. There isn’t any easy way out. No quick victories. The only other option is surrender. Become slaves. I’d rather die on my feet than on my knees.”
“Nice speech. Is that what you used to convince the others?”
“I didn’t need to convince them. They always understood what was at stake.”
Not all of them, Keo thought, and said, “Your own people are already turning on you.”
“Just because you’ve given up doesn’t mean the rest of us will too, Keo.”
“You’ll never be able to hold everyone together when more of your people start coming back home with stories about dead pregnant women and children. You’re massacring civilians, you crazy bastard.”
Mercer frowned. It was the first real emotion the man had surrendered, and Keo felt a rush of triumph.
“And you’re here to murder me for… What was her name?” Mercer asked.
“Jordan.”
“Jordan,” Mercer repeated.
“I don’t like the way you say her name.”
“No?”
“I don’t want you to say her name again.”
“You’re losing your composure, Keo.”
“Fuck my composure, and fuck you,” Keo said, and lifted the gun and pointed it at Mercer, wishing again that the P250 had a hammer for him to dramatically cock back and hear that clicking! sound, but he had to be satisfied with the resigned look on Mercer’s face.
The man wasn’t afraid—if he was even capable of that particular emotion. No. That wasn’t fear staring back at Keo; it was a man who was at peace with his decisions.
He’s either insane, or he just doesn’t give a fuck.
“Shoot true,” Mercer said. “You don’t have a suppressor on the weapon, so the first shot will alert the base and the guards on duty. You’ll want to be out of this room and running as soon as I drop. Given my lack of resources at the moment, my guess is you’ll make it almost to the front doors, but no farther.”
“There’s a rear exit close by. I plan to take it.”
“Your inside man.”
“Uh huh.”
“He or she would have also told you about the sentries in the fields. Even if you managed to elude them, you’d never access the boat yards alone.”
“What makes you think I’ll be alone?”
“An extra gun or two won’t help you very much.” Mercer shrugged. “But that’s all a moot point, since I’ll be dead anyway.”
“You’re not even going to pretend to beg for mercy?”
“Everyone dies, Keo. If fate dictates that I die here, tonight, then so be it. The war will go on. Better men than I will assume leadership roles.”
“Your true believers.”
“No, just loyal men who understand what I’m trying to accomplish.”
“Well, in that case, I might just have to stick around and kill them, too.”
“Ambitious.”
“What the hell, I could always use a hobby. Life’s boring these days without a little Internet porn to pass the time with.”
Keo lined up his shot.
“One thing,” Mercer said.
“Changed your mind about begging?”
“Not at all. I was just going to ask: You don’t know anyone important onboard the Trident, do you?”
Keo jerked his forefinger off the Sig Sauer’s trigger and glared at Mercer. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“We were alerted to Riley’s mutiny a few hours ago. Not everyone on the Ocean Star is a traitor. There is still a patriot or two onboard.”
Sonofabitch, Keo thought, but he forced himself to smile back at Mercer and said, “What makes you think any of this matters to me?”
“Because you didn’t just know where to find Black Tide, you also made it onto the island without anyone stopping you. That means your inside man has to be one of Riley’s people. And because you’re not one of my
mine—I would remember a face like yours, especially that scar—that only leaves you as a member of the Trident, the group that Riley struck a deal with. Am I close?”
Close enough.
“What did you do?” Keo asked.
“I dispatched one of our warplanes to intercept them. The pilot has a full tank of fuel and his orders are simple: Find the Trident and sink it. The good news for you is that we haven’t heard back from him yet, which means his mission is still ongoing.”
“It’s a big ocean.”
“It’s not big enough to hide from a plane flying at high altitude and equipped with infrared. Not to mention plenty of fuel to search and our very own inside man to tell us which direction they went. All those warm bodies crammed into one moving boat, out there in the middle of a black sea… You really think they’re going to be able to slip by unnoticed?”
Keo ground his teeth together and glared at the man. “You’re willing to murder your own people just to stop them from leaving your crusade?”
“Not at all,” Mercer said. His face remained stony, his voice even. “I have no idea Riley and the others are onboard the Trident. As far as I know, the yacht is full of enemies—strangers. Sinking it, and unfortunately killing every soul on board, was a terrible accident. Or, at least, that’s what I’m going to tell my people, and that’s exactly what they’ll believe, because I’ve never lied to them before.”
Keo curled his finger back around the pistol’s trigger. It would be so easy. One quick pull and Mercer would no longer exist. Keo could already smell the gunpowder, see the viscera on the concrete wall behind the man’s head, the spray of brain matter that would splash the cot’s bedsheets…
Do it. Do it!
What are you waiting for? Do it!
“Call the plane back,” Keo said.
“I can, but not from in here,” Mercer said. “And not with you pointing that gun at me.”
“I thought you were ready to die.”
“I am, but I’m not interested in becoming a martyr. There’s still too much work left to do. Texas was always just the beginning, and I plan on seeing it through to the very end—or as far as I can take it before my time is up.”
The Purge of Babylon Series Box Set, Vol. 3 | Books 7-9 Page 70
