‘It’s personal for me,’ she said. ‘You didn’t know Johnson or Victor. I did. And I hated the way you left — heading into the unknown with no plan. I hated what Reed did, and in the back of my mind I thought he might outsmart you.’
‘You thought about me an awful lot, then.’
‘I didn’t expect to walk into something like that. There were six militants around me before I could do anything. I tried to fend them off…’
‘You succeeded. You killed half of them. That’s nothing to scoff at.’
‘If you hadn’t shown up…’
‘Don’t think about that. Nothing happened — you’re fine. Now let’s go get Reed.’
They lapsed into silence, each drawing into their thoughts. King set a fierce pace with the semi-tractor, bouncing and jolting over the uneven terrain, and focused entirely on the road ahead.
He didn’t want to think about anything — at least for the time being. Any kind of self-reflection would only draw attention to the state of his broken wrist, and the damaged muscles across his upper back, and his spasming ribcage, and his potentially-broken nose pulsating with agony.
His nose had only recently healed after Mexico…
Ignore it.
Struggling to take his mind off the injuries, he sunk into a trance-like state as he followed the path back to Afgooye’s outer limits. There was little debate as to which direction Reed had headed — there was only one way in and out of the complex. The sides of the trail were reserved for inhospitable terrain — unless Reed had decided to simply run over anything in sight, he would stick to the main trail until he made it to his replacement for the haul truck.
If there was one to begin with.
When they returned to civilisation — worse for wear but still holding themselves together — King applied the brakes and paused for consideration at a T-junction.
‘North or south of Mogadishu?’ he said.
‘What do you think?’
‘I have no idea. You’ve been here longer. You know the lay of the land better than I do.’
She pondered that statement. ‘North. It’s more desolate. Less chance of getting randomly murdered. If I was Reed, I’d drive up the coast, to one of the fishing villages.’
‘Why?’
‘No-one goes up there. That’s reason enough.’
‘There’s no warring factions up there?’
‘There’s warring factions everywhere. But it’d be simple enough to buy a discreet extraction on a container ship — they don’t even have to come all the way to shore. He can meet them just off the coast. It’s what I’d do. I haven’t spent enough time with him, but I imagine it’s what he’d do.’
‘Sounds accurate enough. But it doesn’t narrow down our options. That’s a lot of coast to cover.’
‘Do you have superiors?’
‘Yeah.’
‘Contact them. Get them to check if there’s any container ships stalling unnecessarily along the coast.’
‘If it’s a common occurrence like you say, there could be dozens. It won’t tell us anything.’
‘It’s better than nothing. I assume we have access to all kinds of satellite feeds.’
‘I wouldn’t know. I’m still a young pup in this game.’
‘And they sent you out here.’
‘Must have had faith in me.’
‘I can see why.’
He paused. ‘North?’
‘North.’
He twisted the massive wheel and swung the semi-tractor to the left, setting off into the total darkness.
‘If we’re wrong…’ Beth said.
‘Then Reed gets away with what I’m imagining is hundreds of millions of dollars. No-one ever finds him again, and he lives out the rest of his days in luxury after murdering two of his brothers-in-arms. I get chewed out and possibly released from my role, and you get dishonourably discharged for lying to your fellow Force Recon Marines and following me. And that’s best-case scenario. In all likelihood we get killed by armed bandits while trying to track Reed down.’
‘Was that supposed to reassure me?’ she said. ‘You’re sounding awfully pessimistic.’
‘This is a pessimistic field,’ he said, and settled into an uneasy silence as they accelerated into the night.
37
The trail took them all the way back to the outskirts of Mogadishu, passing shoddy, rundown neighbourhoods milling with activity and all manner of fearsome-looking parties loitering by the side of the road, searching for stray travellers. King kept his foot firmly planted on the gas pedal at all times, unwilling to slow down for even a second. He lost count of the number of automatic weapons he spotted over the course of the journey.
The road ran parallel to Mogadishu for a couple dozen miles, running along the furthest stretch of the city from the coastline. From there it twisted back into the more desolate stretches of Somalia, replacing dishevelled buildings and collapsed infrastructure with the weed-choked fields and hollowed-out administrative checkpoints that King had become used to by now.
He wrestled with the idea of contacting Lars. None of the news he bore was pleasant — it was near-identical to the situation he’d faced in Mexico. But the man would find out one way or another that the Force Recon Marine they’d been interested in recruiting had turned psychotic and slaughtered his fellow comrades.
King might as well be the one to break the news.
He fished the satellite phone out of the duffel bag in the passenger’s footwell and dialled. The man answered within seconds.
‘Where are you?’ King said.
‘Still airborne. It’s a damn long trip. I’m almost back stateside. What’s the update? I haven’t heard anything.’
‘It’s bad. It’s all bad.’
Lars sighed. ‘That seems to be a reoccurring problem with you.’
‘I get the job done, though, don’t I?’
‘You going to get it done this time?’
‘Maybe. It’s complicated.’
‘Well, fill me in.’
King told him everything, starting from the moment he stepped foot on the runway, moving through to the initial encounter with Reed and his preliminary investigation around the port, then touching on the scene he’d returned to and the altercation in Afgooye.
‘…And here we are,’ he finished, taking a deep breath as he realised he’d spent two full minutes vomiting information.
Lars took some time to respond, opting to process the tale King had told. After a few seconds of radio silence, he said, ‘Are you fucking with me?’
‘Wish I was.’
‘You’ve barely been in-country for twelve hours.’
‘I don’t mess around.’
‘Where are you now?’
King stared out at the dark, undulating plains. ‘Middle of absolute nowhere. We’re going to find Reed’s haul truck soon, though. My guess is he’ll abandon it soon — if he hasn’t already.’
‘How big is it?’
‘Largest vehicle I’ve ever seen.’
‘He’ll ditch it. Christ — I wanted him in our ranks. That’s the reason you’re in Somalia. Imagine what would have unfolded if we’d recruited him before he could pull off this mess?’
‘Based on everything I’ve learnt so far,’ King said, ‘I’ve worked out he likes money. Maybe he would have bitten at the chance to serve his country and get paid well for it… if we’d offered.’
‘He would have been a ticking time bomb. We both know that.’
‘Obviously.’
‘How long until he sensed an opportunity to disappear with enough money to keep him going for the rest of his life?’
‘That’s what he’s doing right now.’
‘You don’t know what he’s doing. He could have stolen sensitive information for all we know. He might be planning to sell it to the highest bidder.’