‘What did he say?’
‘That he first realised there was a smuggling ring operating out of the docks when he saw trucks pass by the compound at the same time each day.’
Beth paused, reflecting, then nodded. ‘Dump trucks. I’d always hear them. Big transport vehicles.’
‘Somehow, he worked out they were coming from the port.’
‘He could be lying.’
King paused. ‘No, I think that part might be true.’
‘How can you tell?’
‘I can’t. Just a hunch.’
‘Not much to go off.’
‘It leads into the next part. He said he followed the trail, after the ambush that I now know didn’t happen.’
‘So what makes you think the second part was truthful?’
‘I don’t know. It was seriously unnecessary for him to say it. I feel like it just slipped out. He had no reason to tell me he followed a road — unless he thought I’d find evidence that he made it all the way to Afgooye. In which case he’s also telling the truth about that.’
‘So he stumbled across something,’ Beth said. ‘Then he thought he’d exploit it by systematically picking off members of the chain. Then he tried to capitalise on the opening in the trade route by slotting himself into it. How’s that sound?’
‘Sounds accurate. I don’t know what he hopes to achieve though. Whatever these guys are running out of the port, I can’t see anyone along the route willingly co-operating with Reed.’
‘He doesn’t seem like the type of guy to give them much of a choice.’
King stomped down on the footwell, riding out a sudden wave of anger. ‘Goddamnit.’
‘What?’
‘I should have caught this. He fed me everything I wanted to hear in the conversation. I can’t believe I bought it all.’
‘What’d he say?’
King shrugged. ‘He didn’t explicitly say anything. But he made up situations that showed his supposed talents. Talked about how he picked off three guys when they were all swarming him. Kept a level head in the heat of combat. Things that he knew I’d like.’
‘Why’d he do that?’
‘I dropped my guard. I let him carry on staying in the unit unrestricted. I went off on my own personal crusade to the port without thinking a damn thing was wrong on the inside.’
‘You couldn’t have known…’
‘I could have. I could have been more cautious. Maybe Victor and Johnson would still be here. Christ.’
‘It’s not your fault.’
‘I got a bad feeling, on the way to the gate. I was going to double back and secure Reed properly. Lock him in the unit until I returned. Just as a precautionary measure. Then Johnson pissed me off and I forgot all about Reed.’
‘What’d Johnson do?’
‘I thought he was unnecessarily harsh towards Reed.’
King scoffed at the predicament.
‘Turns out he wasn’t harsh enough,’ he said.
‘You really bought Reed’s story?’ Beth said, electing to grill him a little further. ‘He took on six men at once? He gunned down half of them? I wouldn’t have believed that for a second.’
‘He didn’t tell it to you,’ King said, staring out into the darkness. ‘He told it to me.’
‘What difference does that make?’
‘He knew I could relate.’
‘Did you share personal stories with him or something?’
King shook his head. ‘He must have read me. He saw I was young, and he knew I worked for some kind of off-the-books outfit. Which meant I was a prodigy, which meant I’d done things that many people considered impossible, which meant I would buy whatever he fed me.’
He scolded himself inwardly at his own inexperience and hesitation.
‘You’re not twenty-eight, are you?’ Beth said. ‘That was another lie.’
‘I’m twenty-two.’
She said nothing for a long moment. ‘You’re kidding.’
‘No.’
‘They pull you straight out of college?’
‘Not exactly…’
She glanced across. ‘You’re only four years out of high school, for God’s sakes.’
‘You wouldn’t believe my record if you looked at it,’ he said. ‘Let’s leave it at that.’
‘Army?’
‘Navy first.’
‘Just a recruit?’
He shrugged. ‘For a few months. They whisked me into the SEALs pretty damn quick.’
‘No they didn’t,’ she said disbelievingly.
‘Like I said, you wouldn’t believe it. I had a stint in the Delta Force too.’
She stared at him with a bewildered expression. ‘They don’t do that. No-one drags fresh recruits around to different detachments of the Armed Forces.’
‘I know they don’t. But they did to me.’
‘Insane…’
‘Maybe they had this position in mind all along for me. Who knows?’
‘What’s so prodigal about you?’
‘Reflexes, I think,’ King said. ‘Something like that. Reaction speed. Intuition. My handler’s obsessed with it. He ran all kinds of tests before my first operation.’
‘Is this your first?’
King shook his head. ‘I was in Mexico before this.’
‘Successful?’
‘Very.’
‘Shame that this had to ruin your perfect record,’ she muttered.
On cue, she veered the jeep off Jeziira Road and weaved through to the front gate of the compound. An elderly, grizzled peacekeeper met them at the perimeter, his expression solemn and creased with worry.
The reality of the situation struck King, tearing his mind back to the present.
There were two dead Force Recon Marines within this chain-link fence.
He felt a pit forming in his gut as Beth steered the vehicle through the open gate, leaving barely a foot on either side.
He couldn’t shake the feeling that he hadn’t seen the last of Bryson Reed.
The jeep ground to a halt halfway up the trail, as soon as the headlights came to rest on the pair of corpses untouched in the middle of the dirt. Beth disembarked first, hefting a bulky military flashlight out of the driver’s footwell.
King glanced at it.
‘Thought I might need to get your attention if I found you,’ she explained.
The scene was as grisly as he’d anticipated. King had seen gunshot wounds before — more times than he’d have cared to — so he knew what to expect when Beth told him that Victor had blown his brains out, but Johnson’s corpse rattled him the most.
The man’s throat had already swollen beyond recognition, half of his neck caved in by the attack. It had been relentless and barbaric, debilitating him in the space of a few seconds.
King took one look at Johnson, and one look at Victor, and concluded that nothing about the situation on a surface level made any sense.
‘Victor didn’t do that,’ he said instantly, motioning to Johnson’s neck. ‘The guy looks like he weighs about one-fifty. Reed was my size. Over two-hundred. He could have done it.’
‘That’s unbelievable,’ Beth muttered, staring down at the grisly scene. ‘You really think he’s capable of that kind of power?’
‘I’m capable of it,’ King said begrudgingly. ‘So, yeah, Reed probably is. Victor certainly isn’t.’
‘What kind of attack causes that sort of damage?’
‘Elbows.’
‘You sure?’
King nodded. ‘I’d rather not be, but yeah. Elbows. Close-range, short and sharp.’
He crouched in the dirt and squinted at Victor’s corpse. The man had slumped on his side with both arms splayed out in front. He was dressed in a simple faded T-shirt, out of uniform for the night when he’d got himself wrapped up in the madness. Beth noticed King’s attention had turned to the gunshot victim and trained her flashlight beam over to Victor.
King nodded in satisfaction. ‘Neither of his elbows have a mark on them. It was Reed.’