‘A convoy of trucks would pass by at around three in the afternoon,’ Reed said. ‘Every single goddamn day.’
‘Piqued your curiosity?’
‘You could say that.’
‘Why?’ King said. ‘That can’t be suspicious in itself. It’s an active war zone, for God’s sakes.’
‘I don’t know. I can’t really describe my exact thought process. I just had some downtime one day, and decided to travel a little further than we’re supposed to. I reached the port and went snooping around. You know — curiosity. I don’t have an excuse for it. It just happened. I could tell the trucks came from the port. That road originates at the docks. It’s a long and complicated back route out of Mogadishu. It heads further inland if you stay on it.’
‘How do you know that?’
‘I drove it,’ he said. ‘Used a car I stole from the docks, so no-one would suspect I was military. Made it all the way into Afgooye before I turned back.’
‘Why the hell did you do that?’
‘I wanted to be sure that I did the right thing. That I wasn’t crazy.’
‘So you busted, what — a smuggling route?’
Reed nodded. ‘I’m going to tell you this now, because I don’t want to hold anything back from you. But none of the others know…’
King said nothing, simply raising an eyebrow.
‘I killed three men.’
King hesitated. ‘I know that. The al-Shabaab militants.’
‘No,’ Reed said, shaking his head slowly. ‘Before them. At the port.’
King froze. ‘What?’
‘I stumbled onto a live trade. In the evening, five days ago. That’s how all this shit started. The dock workers were smuggling drugs and guns out of shipping containers and funnelling it into a convoy of dump trucks that had just arrived. They saw me. I’ve kept the details of what happened private until you showed up. I wanted to wait until I was chewed out to tell you what I did. I want to own up to my mistakes.’
King didn’t respond for a long time. He weighed up his options, staring deep into Reed’s eyes from a few feet away. He didn’t get the natural sensation that he was in the midst of a psychopath. The man seemed genuinely regretful of what he had done — not that it meant anything. But King decided not to have the man arrested right then and there.
Can you even do that if you wanted to? he thought.
‘Go on,’ he said.
‘I ran at first,’ Reed said. ‘I got the feeling these men were ruthless, and I didn’t want to start World War Three at the Port of Mogadishu. I wasn’t in military gear, but—’
‘You weren’t?’
‘No.’
‘Why not?’
‘I didn’t want to get caught.’
‘You could get discharged for that alone.’
‘I know. I thought that’s what you were here to do.’
‘If I was your superior in any way, you’d be in military prison,’ King said. ‘No offence. You might have had the right intentions. But I can’t see one of the bureaucrats seeing this in a favourable light.’
‘And I understand that completely.’
King didn’t respond.
‘Which brings me to the question of why you’re not a bureaucrat?’ Reed said. ‘What the hell is this?’
‘I told you — I’m not willing to disclose that yet. Tell me more about what happened on the docks.’
Christ, no wonder you’re public enemy number one, he thought. Sounds like you mowed down half the dock workers.
‘I ran to the outskirts of the port,’ Reed said. ‘They came after me, man. Five or six of them. All with automatic weapons. All ready to use them.’
‘What did you have?’
‘An M45 MEUSOC. Standard-issue sidearm for Force Recon—’
I know what it is,’ King interrupted. ‘So you used it?’
‘Only when they shot at me.’
‘You do know there’s no way to prove any of this?’ King said. ‘You could have killed them all in cold blood and there’s no way we’d ever know.’
Vocalising that particular train of thought set off an idea in his head, but he quashed it until he knew further details.
Reed shrugged. ‘I thought as much after I gunned three of them down. But I realised there was a way to prove I wasn’t bullshitting, so I took the initiative.’
‘Oh?’ King said.
‘The car I used to navigate that supply trail. I hid it after the skirmish. They shot it to pieces trying to silence me after they realised I wasn’t one of their men. I killed three of them within the space of a few seconds from inside the car, where I was taking cover, and then the rest retreated. I drove straight out of there before they could regroup and come after me again.’
‘And what’s that supposed to prove?’
‘That my story’s consistent. I don’t know how much you know about crime scene investigation, but surely the bullet holes will match up with what I’m saying.’
‘What guns did they have?’
‘AK-47s. Pretty much exclusively. It’s the only weapon widely available amongst the criminal outfits around here.’
‘Where’s the car?’
‘At the edge of the port. Inside an abandoned warehouse with M51 scrawled on the side of it. I parked it in there and fled back here, late at night. I don’t know if it’s still there.’
‘And you’re expecting me to retrieve it?’
‘I’m not expecting anything. In fact, I was expecting someone entirely different to yourself. I don’t know what to think anymore.’
King shrugged. ‘Well, I was going to the port anyway.’
‘You were?’
‘I do things a little differently, as you said. I’m more hands-on in my approach. Seems to get the best results.’
‘If you antagonise them anymore… I mean, they’re already hiring militants to try and kill me.’
Reed hesitated, as if he had been thrown off by King’s brash behaviour. King narrowed his eyes, scrutinising the expression on the man’s face, but came away with nothing significant. He didn’t blame Reed for being startled by the wild development. What kind of military official flew into Somalia to investigate a serious war crime only to follow in the subject’s footsteps?
‘I just think you might make things worse,’ Reed said, filling the silence that had developed in the wake of King’s muted thoughts.
‘I tend to do that,’ King admitted.
‘And the government is okay with that?’
‘In certain situations.’
‘What kind of situation is this?’
‘One where I’m not affiliated with the government,’ King said. ‘I can do whatever I want, because I’m not relying on anyone to pull me out if things go belly-up. I’m on my own out there, so they’re a little more lax with what they allow me to do.’
‘Who are you, exactly?’
King shrugged. ‘I’m nobody. But I’m going to take a stroll down to the port tonight. So tell me if there’s anything else to this story?’
Reed hesitated. ‘That’s about it, man. I killed three men because my life was in danger, and then I did it again the next day. Got nothing else to say. I’ll take whatever punishment you all think is necessary. My mistake. Should have never left my post.’
Maybe not, King said.
If the guy’s story was consistent, then he might pose a welcome recruit to Black Force. That kind of quick thinking matched King’s style, a style that had revealed itself as advantageous after what went down in Mexico. The actions of a solo operator, who abandoned what was expected of him and did good work in the process.
Silently, King realised he liked what he was seeing.