brothers? Because that’s what’s going to happen. Ms. Taylor and I are here to save you from being killed—silenced—by whoever it is that wants you and your story dead and buried. You want to get even with Worley for something? Do it in a civilized setting where the world can hear about it. The worst that could happen to you is getting the cell next to Worley.”
“I am not going to prison. Not ever again.”
“They serve bacon for breakfast, for God’s sake.” Brodie knew he wasn’t supposed to promise anything, but given that he and Taylor were in a bad place, he said to Mercer, “If you give yourself up voluntarily, I’m pretty sure you can get off with a few years for desertion.”
Mercer remained standing. “That’s a few years too many. You should also know that I tortured and killed a CIA officer named Robert Crenshaw in Peshawar.”
“We didn’t hear that.”
“You did. And I killed Haggerty. There’s no going back.”
“Okay… Then tell us why you killed those men.”
He smiled. “If I tell you, I have to kill you.”
“Well, then tell me why you didn’t kill Al Simpson.”
“He did nothing to me.”
“Okay, Captain, as long as you’re confessing, what did those civilians in Afghanistan do to you to make you kill them?”
Mercer stared at Brodie, then at Taylor.
Taylor said, “Operation Flagstaff.”
Mercer stayed silent, then said, “I can still see the women trying to protect their children, the old men, the young boys and girls, taking full bursts of M4 fire, blood all over the place, and the screaming and crying that got on our nerves so much that we drowned it out with long bursts of fire until it stopped.” He looked out at the river again, then at Brodie and Taylor. “I’ll bet you’ve never seen that much blood.”
Taylor made eye contact with him. “You need to tell other people about Flagstaff.”
He shook his head. “That’s not the way I want to be remembered.”
“Kyle… that’s not the way I want to be remembered.”
He looked at her.
“I… do you know the village of Mirabad?”
He nodded. “But not one of my villages.”
“It was one of mine.” She said, “I helped gather Intel for… I’m not sure who… but one day my team went back to Mirabad, and everyone in it was dead.”
Again, he nodded. “Civil Affairs. I always suspected they were part of Flagstaff.”
“We didn’t know.”
“You knew. Or should have known.” He added, “There were a lot of Mirabads.”
Taylor didn’t respond.
Mercer looked at Brodie. “You zap any ICs?”
“No.”
“You’re proud of your combat duty.”
“I am.”
“That makes all the difference. That’s what you’ll be remembered for.”
“Maybe.”
“Do you know how most of America remembers me? They remember me in that fucking Taliban video, kneeling in the fucking dirt like a whipped dog.”
Brodie and Taylor exchanged glances.
Mercer continued, “Those fucking bearded bags of shit… they put me in front of a camera… me, Kyle Mercer, Delta Force… years of combat duty, never showed an ounce of fear… and that’s what it came down to… kneeling in the dirt for the world to see… for my friends and family to see… my teammates…” He looked at Brodie and Taylor. “But did the world see the end of that story? Did anyone see me cutting off their fucking heads?”
“We saw it. The Army saw it.”
“I want the world to see it.”
“All right… Maybe you can present it at your court-martial.”
Mercer seemed not to hear. “Two fucking years in that hellhole, starved, beaten, humiliated…” He looked at Taylor. “Sexually abused.”
Taylor took a deep breath. “I’m sorry. Really.”
Mercer remained standing, then looked at Emilio, who was looking at Señor Kyle in an odd way, obviously wondering what the hell was going on. Mercer shouted something at him, and he walked quickly down the ramp to the five other men who were still on the riverbank, ready to engage in a live-fire exercise using live targets. With the AK-47’s cyclic rate of fire of six hundred rounds a minute, that would be fifteen hundred rounds coming at them in thirty seconds. So, best not to try anything. Actually, even if they were alone with Mercer, Brodie and Taylor weren’t going anywhere. They had come a long way to hear this—the heart of this troubling case—and they were on the threshold of some answers.
Mercer had his back to them as he looked into the river, then noticed their boat. He said, “You had balls to come here alone.”
Brodie replied, “Come back with us. That would show real balls.”