‘How often do you keep sensitive information in a haul bed the size of a building? Whatever it is, it’s valuable. They had at least five men guarding it, maybe more. I lost sight of Reed while he was killing the guards.’
‘He killed five men in Afgooye?’
‘He’s killed plenty more than that. It took a string of abductions at the port for him to be able to infiltrate the supply route without anyone raising an alarm. I don’t know the details of what he did yet.’
‘He’s done enough. You need to take him out of the equation. We both know that.’
‘Have you run that by anyone?’
‘Haven’t you heard?’ Lars said. ‘I finished sorting out where Black Force sits in the hierarchy. That’s what was taking so long in Washington. The upper echelon were beyond impressed by Mexico. We’ve been granted full approval. Now people run things by me.’
‘Congratulations,’ King said quietly. ‘We’ll celebrate when I get back.’
‘Make sure you do get back,’ Lars said. ‘With Reed out, you’re all this division’s got. It’s resting on your shoulders until we recruit more operatives. I’m sure you’re aware of that.’
‘It crossed my mind.’
‘So — I hate to say it, but don’t throw yourself into trying to track down Reed. If you can’t catch him — whatever. Don’t get yourself killed being unnecessarily reckless. We need you. You can do more good applying your talents to other operations than trying to stop a bent Force Recon Marine. By what you’re telling me, it sounds like he would have made a talented operative. It’s a damn shame. Don’t bite off more than you can chew.’
‘Is that an order?’
‘Yes.’
‘But I can use my own discretion?’
‘You’ve always been allowed to do that. That’s the point of this division.’
‘Then don’t question my choices,’ King said, suddenly barbed. ‘You’re sitting on a plane somewhere — I’m in no-man’s-land in Somalia. I’ll decide what the right move is, okay?’
‘Rough night?’ Lars said, surprisingly calm.
King paused, composing himself. ‘Yeah. Rough goddamn night.’
‘You beat up?’
‘Somewhat.’
‘Try and make it back in one piece. Do what you do best.’
King recalled the mental image of Victor and Johnson lying motionless at the peacekeepers’ compound, their injuries grisly and their limbs splayed. They hadn’t been anticipating betrayal of that nature. They had been doing their job, and their lives had been stripped from them because Reed wanted an illegal payday.
He could almost feel his own blood boiling.
‘There’s no way in hell I’m letting this guy get away,’ King said into the mouthpiece. ‘Respect my choice. I’ll contact you when it’s done.’
Before Lars could say anything, he ended the call. Beth shifted uneasily alongside him and he turned to see her pressed up against the passenger’s door, her chin drooped to her upper arm, using her own limb as a makeshift pillow. Her brow was furrowed and her skin clammy. After the incomparable adrenalin dump of a potential gang-rape, her energy levels had understandably crashed.
King said nothing, gently lowering the satellite phone to the footwell between her feet and turning his attention to the road ahead.
He realised his own energy levels were dissipating as the cortisol leeched out of his veins. With no immediate threat, and no sign of civilisation for dozens of miles in any direction, he found himself battling to simply keep his eyes open.
He slouched forward against the wheel once, then twice, then a third time. After the third attempt to stay lucid he slapped himself hard across the cheek, which set off the throbbing in his damaged nose all over again.
He instantly regretted it.
Beth stirred as the hollow slap emanated through the cabin, lifting her head and squinting through sleep-affected eyes. ‘You okay?’
‘Yeah,’ he said, masking a wince. ‘Go back to slee—’
Then it appeared on the side of the trail ahead, illuminated by the faint glow of the semi-tractor’s headlights. From this distance it seemed like an administrative building three storeys tall had been dropped in the middle of the desert, but King knew better.
‘On second thought,’ he said. ‘Don’t. This is our cue.’
He let the semi-tractor approach the Liebherr haul truck with reserved caution, expecting an ambush at any moment. If he were Reed, he would elect to burrow into the undergrowth all around the abandoned vehicle, lying in wait for King to arrive before putting a bullet through his head under cover of darkness. He checked the weaponry he had available — the Kalashnikov AK-47 he’d snatched off the semi-tractor’s previous driver, and Beth had her M45 pistol in its holster.
‘He could still be here,’ King muttered.
She nodded, eyes wide, searching the dimly-lit land around the haul truck for any signs of life. She slid the M45 out of its holster and switched the safety off in one practiced motion.
King brought the semi-tractor to a halt directly behind the haul truck. He killed the engine and the lights simultaneously.
Their surroundings plunged into complete darkness.
He doubted Reed had prepared enough in advance to somehow acquire night-vision goggles.
‘Let’s go,’ he breathed, his tone near-silent.
Together, they swung the cabin doors open and slipped out of the relative safety of the cabin.
38
King spent a long, drawn-out moment entirely frozen by the side of the dirt road, tuning his ears to any imperceptible shift in the atmosphere, listening intensely for any sign of Reed.
None came.
He let the silence reach an uncomfortable length. Beth had evidently followed suit, for he heard no sound of movement from her side of their vehicle.
If Reed was here, he would be squirming on the spot, confused by the loud appearance of the tractor unit followed by the uncharacteristic silence and darkness. He would have been expecting King to advance noisily over to the haul truck, but it was like they had never showed up in the first place.
When the night had enveloped them entirely and King was sure he had seized the upper hand by way of sheer unpredictability, he raised the AK-47 in one swift motion and unloaded ten blistering rounds into the nearby undergrowth, sweeping the barrel from left to right. He screamed at the top of his lungs simultaneously, a berserker-like roar that echoed across the plains. Altogether it created a cacophony of noise that erupted out of the night. If Reed was buried in the bushes, he would almost certainly be shocked into returning fire, possibly thinking a small army had descended on him.
King hit the dirt, flattening down on his stomach, anticipating some kind of retaliation.
None came.
With his ears ringing and his pulse pounding, he waited a few long moments and concentrated hard on picking up any kind of movement in the brush.
‘We’re clear,’ he said after a beat of observation. ‘He’s long gone.’
Beth took her time to respond, her voice drifting across from the other side of the tractor unit. ‘What the absolute fuck was that?’
‘I needed to see whether Reed was here.’
‘You almost gave me a heart attack. In fact, I think you did.’
‘You’re still alive, aren’t you?’
‘Yes…’
‘That’s all that matters. I’ll gladly look like an idiot if it draws him out of hiding.’
‘You sure he’s gone?’
‘Yeah. Let’s check out this truck.’
He was ninety-percent certain that Reed had switched vehicles instead of needlessly waiting for King to catch him, but he found himself glad that he’d made sure. Now he swung back into the tractor unit’s cabin and twisted the headlights back into action. The two white beams cut through the night in piercing detail, lighting up the Liebherr in all its glory. Now that he could concentrate on the task at hand, King noted that the haul bed’s front was raised straight up in the air. It had been lifted via a mechanism and the contents unloaded across the flat dirt patch behind the truck.