Brodie had no doubt that a lot of people were involved in Operation Flagstaff to one degree or another. Some people at the bottom, like Maggie Taylor, were just useful pawns. Some, like the guys on Mercer’s team who carried out the pacifications, were just following illegal orders that they liked. People at the very top—the generals—were masters of willful ignorance, and they surrounded themselves with credible deniability. It was second-tier management—people like Colonel Worley—who were the movers and shakers of things like Flagstaff. In any army, the colonels who want to be generals are the hardest-working and most dedicated and devious staff officers. And if they happen to be Intel officers, like Worley, with connections to the CIA and other civilian or military agencies that are tasked with fighting the enemy in new and unconventional ways, then those guys are going to push the envelope, and when things go bad they have to cover their asses.
Meanwhile, no one had bothered to contact CID with the information that Captain Mercer might be in Caracas. But when Al Simpson did the right thing and reported his sighting to the Army, there was no choice but to make the search for Kyle Mercer official. And anyone who was tainted by Flagstaff could only hope that the CID failed in its mission so thatBrendan Worley and his friends in the Intel community could succeed in theirs—which was to find and silence Captain Mercer. Tangled webs indeed.
Taylor said, “Are you thinking about how to get out of here?”
“I know how to get out of here. I’m thinking about how we got here.”
“I didn’t mean to blame you.”
“I blame me for not figuring all this out sooner.”
“It’s sort of moot, Scott. But you did think there was more to this than finding and apprehending a deserter.”
“Right. And you made believe there wasn’t.”
“Sorry.” She added, “Now that I know you better, I realize you’re smarter than you look.”
“You too.”
She took his hand, leaned back, and closed her eyes.
Brodie returned to his thoughts. His instincts had been telling him from the beginning that there was more to this case, and that bringing Kyle Mercer before a court-martial was the worst possible outcome for a lot of people. And now he understood why.
So, what did that make Warrant Officers Scott Brodie and Maggie Taylor?
Unwanted characters in a long-running play where everyone else knew their parts. Or, to be less NYU and more CID, he and Taylor were a perfunctory legal response, sent on a mission that was presumed fated to fail. Sent for the sake of appearances.
Well, if that was the thinking in the Pentagon or in Langley, they should have sent someone else. Not to be egotistical.
But Dombroski, who Brodie truly believed had no knowledge of the bigger picture, had sent his best man. Again, not to be egotistical, but who else would you send to Caracas on the most high-profile case of the decade, if not the century? And if Brodie took all this information and put it in the right order, then Maggie Taylor being assigned as his partner a few months ago was not a random occurrence. If Trent and his pals were thinking long-range, they were concerned that CID would eventually get on this case. They might or might not have known where Kyle Mercer was at that point, but some inquiries would tell them that if CID got the Mercer case, thenCID would want to assign one of their few combat veterans—someone who could think like Kyle Mercer and who could talk his talk, man-to-man, if the time ever came. And this needed to be a top investigator, an exceptional detective, and a man who had a few snatch jobs under his belt, a fearless rogue who took chances but got the job done. And that would be… well, Chief Warrant Officer Brodie.
And somehow the CIA got their asset, Maggie Taylor, assigned to Warrant Officer Brodie before the CID even knew where Mercer was. Taylor might have been part of the process herself, asking to be partnered with Scott Brodie. And voilà—everything fell into place, and the CIA could count on having eyes and ears on the ground in the unlikely—but possible—event that the CID would eventually get a tip on Mercer’s whereabouts, and that Scott Brodie would get the case. Or… maybe it was vice versa: The CIA had influenced the decision to put Brodie on the case because Brodie’s partner, Maggie Taylor, was their man. Or, in this case, their lady. Trent’s lady.
If even part of this was true, he had to admit that the Agency had some good thinkers onboard. Probably Trent, in this case.
He said to Taylor, “Did you ask to be partnered with me?”
“I did.”
“Why?”
“Trent told me to do it.”
“Right. If you’re going to place a mole in an organization, you put the mole next to the fastest-rising star in that organization.”
“I’d never even heard of you. And when I asked around… I got mixed reviews.”
“Really?”
“Everything from brilliant and tough, to arrogant asshole.”
“Some people are jealous.”
“A female investigator did say you were charming, handsome, and always a gentleman.”
“Who was that?”
“Not telling. But she also said you never showed unwanted attention toward female personnel. I liked that, so…”
