2013 with the Ninety-Sixth Civil Affairs Battalion. I was in country for almost two years.”
Mercer seemed to go distant, as though he was back there.
Taylor said something to him in what Brodie figured was Pashto, and Mercer looked at her, then replied in Pashto.
Brodie hoped the Pashto didn’t send him off the deep end.
Mercer said something, and Taylor nodded and replied in what Brodie recognized as Arabic.
She said to Brodie, “Kyle also learned Arabic from a Quran written in both languages.” She added, “While he was a captive.”
Brodie wanted to tell him he could learn ten more languages by the time he got out of Leavenworth. Brodie knew a few words of Arabic, like, “Stop, or I’ll shoot,” but he didn’t think that would be useful here.
More importantly, there were now three combat veterans having a conversation. That didn’t mean Mercer was going to tell them they were free to go—in Pashto or Arabic—but they were engaging with their captor in a way that held his interest, and that meant they were momentarily safe from the piranha and the monkeys. Brodie had the sense that he and Taylor were playing with a cougar that had once been trained, but had reverted to the wild. As long as they amused the animal and fed him scraps of information, the cougar would let them rub his tummy. Sometimes the cougar purred, sometimes the cougar snarled. And you never knew when the cougar was going to bite.
Mercer asked, “Why did you transfer to CID?”
Brodie replied, “It’s interesting work. You get to ask questions instead of answering them. Can I ask you a question?”
“No.” He looked at Taylor, who said, “I believe in justice and the law.”
“They’re not the same.”
“They need to be.”
“They will never be,” he said.
“They can be.”
“You could be right. I am the law here, and I dispense justice.”
“You dispense punishment.”
“Not every time.”
But often enough to be familiar with disembowelment, cutting throats, severing heads, and feeding people to the wildlife.
Mercer was looking at Taylor. “Civil Affairs. Did you do good things for the Afghan people?”
“I tried.”
“Me too. I sent a lot of them to paradise.” He looked at Brodie. “How about you?”
“I did what I got paid to do.”
“I did more than I was paid to do.”
Taylor said, “Tell us.”
“I think you might already know.” He looked at Brodie. “How’d you get hit?”
“Standing in the wrong place at the wrong time. Same as everyone else who got hit.”
“I never got hit.”
“Right. We read your file, Kyle.”
He nodded.
“You served honorably,” said Taylor.
“I did. Then I didn’t.”
“Tell us.”
He ignored that and asked Brodie, “What was your rank?”
“E-Five,” meaning a three-stripe sergeant.
“Ms. Taylor?”
“Same.”
“Good soldiers. Good schools. Surprised you didn’t go to OCS.”
Brodie explained, “I don’t like officers.”
Mercer smiled. “I don’t like wiseasses. But I liked my sergeants. They were good men.”
“And,” said Brodie, “by all accounts you were a good officer. So what made you desert?”
Mercer again ignored the question and asked, “Are you working with Worley?”
Taylor replied, “We are in contact with Colonel Worley, but we are here with CID orders to find and apprehend you.”
“Well, you’ve found me. Actually, I found you.”
“And we have informed you that you are under arrest.”
“You have. You’ve fulfilled your responsibility, and I’ll even acknowledge your authority. But you don’t have the power to take me into custody. Or am I missing something?”
Brodie said, “You have the power, Kyle, to come along voluntarily.”
“That’s not going to happen. But if it did… just curious… how would you get me out of the country?”
Brodie didn’t want to mention Captain Collins at this point, so he replied, “We can work something out with the embassy. We’ll get you inside, and the dips can negotiate an extradition.”
“Okay. And once I’m in the embassy, I’m going to kill Worley.”
“I don’t think we can work that out, Kyle.”
“Why not? He wants to kill me, so why can’t I kill him?”
“Well… I suppose you could do that here. Or someplace else. But that’s not really something you should do in the embassy.”
“Then let’s get him here.”
“I think he’s on the way. And not alone.”
Mercer didn’t respond. He picked up the sat phone from the table. “There’s one number in this phone, and I’m guessing it’s his.”
“Good guess.”
“Did he tell you he wants to kill me?”
“He didn’t indicate that he knew you that well. But if that’s true, it’s better that we found you before Worley does. And better that you come with us.”