“Right. We were just doing a river recon and somehow ran into—”
“And why did Ms. Taylor call the message line earlier, and not my cell?”
“Well… quite frankly, Colonel, we were disobeying your orders not to look for Mercer’s camp, so I told Ms. Taylor to use the message line.”
“I’m not sure how to respond to that, honestly.”
“You could say, ‘All’s well that ends well.’?”
“I would never say that.” He asked, “Where is Mercer’s girlfriend?”
“In Caracas. She got cold feet.” But has a warm heart.
“All right. What is the condition of the prisoner?”
“Very unhappy.”
“His physical condition.”
“He’ll live.” Until Worley gets his hands on him. Brodie said, “We don’t want Captain Mercer dying in transit.”
“I understand what you’re saying. And how are you and Ms. Taylor? Ready to dance?”
“Maybe a slow one. But we’ll be okay.”
“They rough you up at that camp?”
“No worse than those POW training camps.”
“Did they… abuse Ms. Taylor?”
“They were planning to.”
“Okay… What the hell is that camp all about?”
“It’s about Kyle Mercer wanting payback for two years in Taliban hell. It’s about Worley recruiting him into Flagstaff, then double-crossing him. It’s about Mercer training a guerrilla force to undermine American interests in Venezuela.”
“So Captain Mercer is also a traitor.”
“Captain Mercer deserves his day in court.”
“All right… So you gave me a grid coordinate when you left a message this morning. How close is that to the camp?”
“Close. Recon drones can find the camp a few miles southeast of those coordinates.”
“Good. I’ll pass that on.”
“Mercer’s last order to his men was to break camp and move. So whoever gets this assignment needs to move fast. And be advised that there are civilians in the camp. Indigenous workers and nurses who cure homesickness.”
“I understand. Okay, how close are you to your rendezvous?”
“Maybe a half hour on the river, then two through the jungle.”
“And you know where you’re going?”
“We’ll figure it out. Let me give you the lat long for this airstrip.”
“Okay… but Worley has it.”
