“Did I understand that Worley never told Dombroski that we had been captured and were being held in Mercer’s camp?”
“It may have slipped Colonel Worley’s mind.”
“He was going to leave us here to die. Or worse.”
“I think what Worley was going to do was try to get a fix on Camp Tombstone and blow it and Mercer off the face of the earth.”
“And us.”
“High explosives solve problems.” Brodie added, “If Dombroski knew we were in the camp—and maybe even if he didn’t—he would have pushed for a Delta Force raid to capture Mercer alive. Which is why Worley never mentioned the phone call.”
Taylor nodded, then said, “And now Worley is going to send a plane to rescue us and Mercer.”
“Now that the secret is out with Dombroski, Worley has no choice.”
“We do. We don’t have to make that rendezvous.”
“What do we do instead?”
“We… call Dombroski back, explain our concerns, and have CID effect the extraction.”
“Here’s what’s wrong with that idea: Our time as healthy soldiers is running out. It could take Dombroski a full day to get a rescue operation in place. Worley now owns that airstrip, and I don’t know where there’s another. Do you? And finally, no one in the Pentagon is going to approve of switching the rescue operation from Defense Intelligence—and probably CIA—to CID. Time is of the essence right now, and time is running out.” He added, “We’re in a fucking jungle, surrounded by Indians, cougars, snakes, and crocs. We are at the bottom of the food chain. And for all we know, Mercer’s men might be tracking us along the riverbank.” He concluded, “I’d rather take my chances with the snake we know—Worley—than with the unknown. Besides, we’ll be lucky if we even make the airstrip. But once we’re there, we’ll make a threat assessment.”
Taylor stayed silent, then said, “I think we can survive in this jungle and explore other options.”
“We’d have to eat Captain Mercer.”
“All right… I’ll let you make this decision.”
“There’s no decision to make.” He said, “If it makes you feel better, I think Worley is in a worse situation than we are, and he’s at the stage where he’s hoping for the best, which would be us getting eaten by a croc. Meanwhile, he’s putting out the word that Captain Mercer has gone apocalypse now.” Brodie glanced at Mercer. “He would not make a credible witness against the well-respected Colonel Worley.”
Taylor also looked at Mercer, and nodded.
“Colonel Worley’s choice now is between completing what he had planned for Captain Mercer two years ago in Afghanistan, or taking him home to tell his wild story, and to explain Camp Tombstone to a very unsympathetic Army.”
Taylor looked at Brodie. “You underestimate the power of the truth.”
“The first casualty of war is the truth.”
“I never believed that until I went to war.”
“Hard lessons there.”
She nodded.
Brodie turned on the sat phone and looked at the coordinates. “We’re almost there… maybe a few hundred meters, give or take.” He slowed the boat to conserve fuel and veered toward the right bank.
Up ahead he could see a small break in the wall of jungle vegetation, and he steered toward it. “Could be a trailhead. Like an animal watering trail… maybe Pemón. Maybe both.” Which would speed their progress into the jungle, but they’d be sharing the trail with Pemón, big cats, and crocs.
Taylor said, “My survival course instructor said avoid trails.”
“So did mine. Sounds good in class until you see the jungle.”
“Agreed.”
Brodie thought he heard the engine sputtering, but it might have been his stomach growling.
He cut sharp right so that the bow of the boat would hit the muddy shore at a right angle. “Hold on.”
Taylor pulled on her T-shirt, then put one hand on the gunnel and pressed the other on Mercer’s chest.
Brodie kept the throttle fully open, and as he approached the shore, he heard the propeller getting fouled in underwater vegetation. The boat slowed, then hit the shore and came to a sudden stop with the bow a few feet on land.
Brodie cut the engine and he and Taylor jumped into knee-deep water. They pulled on the bowline and got the boat a few feet farther onto the mud. Taylor tied the line around a tree and sank to her knees. Clearly she was suffering from heat exhaustion and dehydration. Brodie didn’t feel his best either and saw spots in front of his eyes. He wondered how Mercer was going to do with no incentive to make a two-hour trek to an