She gave him the evil eye. ‘Of course not. He’s not a savage.’
‘You don’t know that.’
‘I’ve spent time with him,’ she said. ‘Can you say the same?’
‘Not yet. Which brings me to my next point. What the hell are we doing in here?’
She motioned to the dossier in front of her. ‘I’m going to bring you up to speed on the history of—’
King held up a hand, an abrupt gesture, cutting her off instantaneously. She froze and stared at him with a perplexed expression.
‘I’m not interested in that,’ he said. ‘That’s not why I’m here. I’m interested in Reed.’
‘I think—’
King shot his chair back and got to his feet, scraping it against the floor in the process. He ignored Beth’s venomous stare and made straight for the front door.
‘Excuse me,’ she said, clearly taking offence to King’s mannerisms.
He didn’t respond, instead hurrying for the door.
He heard the distinct scrape of her chair legs as she scrambled to catch up to him. As he placed a hand on the doorknob, moving to throw it open, Beth came storming in from behind and slammed a palm against the wood, grinding it shut.
‘What’s your deal?’ she demanded. ‘Who are you?’
King sighed. ‘Look…’
‘I need you to start talking if I’m going to trust you going off on wild tangents like this. You’re not doing anything by the book.’
‘I’m not on the books, okay?’ he said, which made her freeze in her tracks. ‘How did you lot get informed that I was on my way?’
‘We got a call from the very top,’ she said.
‘That was legitimate. But I can’t say the same about what I do. The truth is, I’m just as confused about my official role — maybe even more so, because I’m the one doing this shit without a clue as to what my operational capacity is. Got it?’
‘You’re like a one-man show?’ she said. ‘You get sent into places to fix things?’
‘Something like that. I’m afforded certain freedoms that enlisted men and women aren’t. I’m new to all of this — as you can tell — but from what I’m understanding, I’m given free reign to do whatever the hell I want, as long as I get the job done.’
‘Whatever Reed did at the port…’ Beth said, thinking hard, connecting the dots.
‘If he had unfinished business,’ King said, ‘I can finish it for him. Or I can just go down there and snoop around. I can do anything I want — I think. So you don’t need to spend time bringing me up to speed on Reed’s psychological profile or his history in the military, or any official procedures I’m supposed to adhere to in Somalia. None of that applies to me. You all know what I’m here for, but you need to afford me the ability to react to things however I please.’
‘I understand,’ Beth said.
‘Thank you. Sorry to be so confrontational.’
‘It’s fine. I was treating you as a common grunt. How old are you, by the way?’
‘Thirty,’ King lied.
‘You look younger.’
She refused to take her hand off the door. King sighed and bowed his head. ‘I am. But you’ll think I’m an inexperienced idiot if I tell you how old I am.’
‘I already do,’ she said. ‘So that won’t make a difference.’
‘Twenty-eight.’
‘How’d you land this gig so early?’ she said. ‘You some kind of prodigy?’
‘Something like that.’
‘You’ll end up dead all the same out here. The al-Shabaab militants — hell, even the army too — they don’t care about your talents. They’ll shoot you down without hesitation. So be careful. Don’t get reckless out here.’
‘I’m not sure I know how to do anything else,’ he said with a smirk, wrenching the door open despite the resistance of Beth’s arm against it. She relented and let him through. ‘Let’s go talk to Reed.’
11
King couldn’t shake the intense feeling of vulnerability as he stepped back out into open ground. The main lodge had brought an aura of safety with it, like they were protected from all harm by the surrounding walls even though it would only take a single shoulder-fired missile to disintegrate the building into a raging fireball.
It felt as if there were eyes on him at all times. He stepped down off the terrace and rounded the side of the building, Beth trailing in his wake. As he slogged through choking weeds, he took note of the lodge’s wooden walls to his left and the chain-link fence a dozen feet to his right. Beyond the fence, the overgrown field ran for half a mile before the outskirts of Mogadishu swallowed up the free land. King eyed towering residential apartment complexes, all visibly crumbling, many with significant damage to their exteriors. A smattering of them looked like they would collapse at any moment.
Half a mile.
Easy enough for a trained sniper.
The side passage opened out into a yard tended to with similar care as the rest of the compound. King imagined that gardening wasn’t high on the list of AMISOM’s priorities. He stumbled through the weeds and made for the collection of portable buildings that had seemingly been dumped up the back of the complex and left to their own devices. Most of the paint had flaked off the exterior of the units, scorched by the overbearing sun.
‘Which one’s Reed’s?’ King said.
Beth caught up to him and motioned to the furthermost unit. ‘Right up the back.’
‘You said he wasn’t detained?’
She shook her head. ‘None of us were about to do that. We still don’t know if he’ll even be punished for what he did. War isn’t the most stable industry.’
‘So he chose to exile himself?’
‘He heard that we got a call from the top dogs. Thought they might look at him more favourably if he owned up to his mistakes and quarantined himself. I think Victor and Johnson both were thinking the same thing, but neither of them were adamant enough to start a fight about it. Reed went peacefully.’
‘You been talking to him during his self-imposed quarantine?’
She shook her head. ‘Nods here and there. He does his own thing. I think he’s shitting himself about the visitor deciding his fate.’
King shook his head back. ‘I’m not here to enact punishment. I’m here to get to the bottom of this, and eye his handiwork.’
‘Handiwork?’
King paused in the middle of the field — otherwise, they would have made it to Reed’s portable unit before the conversation concluded. ‘Have you seen Reed in action?’
The perplexed look returned, spreading across Beth’s face. ‘In action?’
‘When he killed the three militants. Did you see it?’
‘No.’
‘Did anyone?’
‘No.’
‘If he has the ability to defend himself in a three-on-one situation, that’s worth taking a look at.’
‘Wait,’ Beth said, touching a hand to King’s arm — a gesture that he wouldn’t have thought possible given the curt demeanour she’d adopted when she’d picked him up from the airport. ‘You’re a recruiter? Are you kidding me? You want him to do what you do?’
Fuck, King thought, realising he might have opened up a little more than he should have.
‘I didn’t say that.’
‘That’s what you’re implying. You think he’s some kind of prodigy like yourself? Is that what you do? Run around taking on small private armies? A trained killer?’
King thought of Mexico.
Actually, that’s exactly what I do.
‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ he said. ‘You’re living in a fantasy world. I deal with threats — they’re never like that.’
Yes they are, he thought.
‘Is that what you’re about to do here?’ she said, gesturing to their surroundings outside the compound. ‘Take what Reed says and go start World War Three?’