“I’ll do it.”
“We can’t do that. I won’t let you do that.”
“We discussed killing him.”
“Only if he presented a danger to us. You know the rules.”
“Maggie… we have three choices—try to take him with us, leave him here alive, or leave him here dead. The first choice could leaveushere dead.”
“I understand that. But he is our prisoner, and you have to forget what he’s done and remember what was done to him. He served honorably until he didn’t. We are not his judge, jury, and executioner.”
“He would be ours if the situation was reversed.”
“Doesn’t matter whathe’ddo. It matters whatwedo.”
“He cut Ted Haggerty’s throat, for God’s sake. And he tortured and killed Robert Crenshaw, and dismembered one of his guys who raped Carmen. And he’s done a lot more that we don’t know about.” He reminded her, “Your friends in the CIA want him dead. Do Trent a favor, and do yourself a favor. Do Worley and everyone a favor—including Kyle Mercer.”
“Are you stooping to the level of Trent and Worley?”
“Just for today.”
“When you cross that line, Scott, you can never go back. Ask me about that.”
“Okay… but I can’t let him go, so… we’ll take him with us.”
“That’s the only right thing.”
“Tell me that when his posse is on our tail and he’s dragging his ass and calling out to them.”
“I know how to handle a prisoner.”
“Good. Start with a swift kick to his nuts. You usually get compliance.”
“I’m in charge of the prisoner. You’re in charge of E&E. What do we do?”
“Okay… I’ll go get the boat. You get him on his feet and into shallow water where he’ll be easier to handle. Hold his head under if he drags his ass. Piranha only take little bites, but watch out for the crocs and snakes. We’ll meet up, put him into the boat, and off we go upriver toward that airstrip.” He added, “I’ll call Worley from the boat. We should be in Bogotá, Panama, or Gitmo in time for cocktails.”
Taylor didn’t reply, and she walked back to Mercer.
Taylor pulled Mercer’s knife from her pocket and cut a strip of cloth from his pant leg to use as a gag.
He said to her, “When my men get their hands on you, they’ll make you dance naked every night before they each tell you what they want—a blow job, anal sex, or vaginal sex.”
“Your men are not very nice, Captain.”
“You’ll pray for death, or maybe you’d enjoy it.”
“What happened to Captain Mercer?”
“He died in Afghanistan.”
She shoved his wet handkerchief in his mouth, then tied the gag tightly around his head. “Let’s get up.” She tried to help him up but he resisted, so she rolled him on his side and threw a roundhouse punch into his groin.
Mercer screamed in pain through his gag, but the sound didn’t travel very far.
“Okay? Do we stand, or do we get another one?”
Mercer was more cooperative on the next try, and Taylor got him on his feet.
