Four if you travel mostly at night so the fucking T-bans don’t see you. And I’m thinking about Worley coming in on that chopper at first light and finding out that I’m gone. And I pictured him shitting his pants.”
Mercer went quiet, and Brodie figured he was picturing Worley shitting his pants. Aside from that, Brodie didn’t recall any mention of a helicopter coming to the outpost on the morning of Captain Mercer’s mysterious disappearance. Possibly there was no black helicopter coming to take Captain Mercer on a long horizontal and short vertical ride. Or the chopper had turned back when it got a report of Captain Mercer’s absence from the outpost. And maybe the chopper ride to see General Clark was legit. No way of knowing any of that, but Brodie found himself hoping that Mercer had made the right decision for the right reason. Otherwise, those two years with the Taliban were not necessary. This is what’s meant by the fog of war. The fog is in your brain—paranoia, rumors, stress, fear, fatigue, and a daily reminder of mortality.
Mercer said, “I almost made it. On the third night I ran into a Taliban camp… thirty miles east of Bagram. And that was the beginning of my two years of hell… and I thank Brendan Worley for that.” He looked at Brodie and Taylor. “Still think I shouldn’t kill him?”
Taylor said, “We’re a society of law, Kyle. We do not take personal revenge. If you do, you become no better than the person who broke the law. You need to come home and make these allegations that you were going to make three years ago. You didn’t want to kill Worley then, you wanted him to be held accountable for what he did. That would be worse for him than death. That would be public disgrace, loss of honor, and maybe imprisonment. That would be justice. It’s no different now.”
Mercer looked at her. “You didn’t spend two years in a Taliban cell.”
“No… I didn’t, but if I did—”
“Don’t even go there. What you’re really saying is that you and Mr. Brodie would like to get out of here alive. And you’re spinning the shit so it looks like gold, but it’s still bullshit. Next you’re going to tell me to let you go so you can tell my story.”
Which was what Brodie was about to suggest, but that wasn’t going to fly.
Taylor actually walked up to Mercer, and Brodie glanced at the firing squad, who looked tense. “Maggie…”
She stood more or less in his face. “You, Captain Mercer, made the first bad decision at your first meeting with Colonel Worley when you didn’t tell him to go fuck himself. Your second bad decision was not reporting what he said to you. I know about that firsthand, and I understand not wanting to put your ass out there and get it chewed on. But everything that happened after your first meeting with Worley was a result of what you did or failed to do. And nobody made you pull the trigger in those villages. That was your decision, and you led your men into that hell. You violated every law and every code of civilized behavior.” She looked up at Mercer, who was about six inches taller than her, but looked shorter now. “Does that sound like I’m trying to talk my way out of here?”
He stayed quiet for awhile, then said, “I was ready to take full responsibility for what I did.”
“Knowing that the Army would go easy on you for following the orders of Colonel Worley. That’s always the case in wartime. Just following orders.”
Brodie was wishing she’d shut up before Mercer went over the edge and told Emilio to go get a fishnet. Jesus, Maggie.
But she wasn’t done. She actually waved her finger at Mercer and said, “But are you now willing to go before a court of your peers and admit to torturing and murdering Robert Crenshaw? Or Ted Haggerty? Or whoever else you’ve killed before or since then? I don’t think so.”
Mercer seemed on the verge of either a meltdown or another homicide. Brodie wasn’t sure he approved of this interrogation technique in this particular situation. What works in a jail cell doesn’t always work in the field. Especially a place named Camp Tombstone. “Maggie—”
“I’m handling this, Scott.”
Mercer said, “But not very well,” taking the words out of Brodie’s mouth.
Taylor said to Mercer, “Do you know that two men died looking for you?”