“Not at all,” said the general. “It means you get to be the author of your own life. It’s empowering. I figured a man like you’d appreciate that.”
Brodie watched the two black birds grow smaller against the dimming eastern sky. He said, “You’re right, sir. I do.”
CHAPTER 58
SCOTT BRODIE SAT IN THEsand and breathed the night air as he watched the waves break along the beach. He looked out to the horizon, but it was almost impossible to detect where the starless and polluted sky met the black ocean.
A Boeing 737 roared over the beach and out into the void. This place was next to LAX, and the air traffic kept at a steady buzz overhead. On either side of him, bonfires burned in the sand pits. On one side was a large Hispanic family, on the other a bunch of drunk college kids.
He wasn’t sure why Caroline Dixon wanted to meet here, except that it was near the airport. And the chances of being recognized by anyone were about as close to zero as you could get in a big city.
The debrief at Fort Irwin a week ago had been as frustrating as he’d expected. The brass insisted on separate debriefs for him and Taylor, and the guy conducting them, an amiable colonel in his early fifties, had listened with rapt attention to everything they said. The guy had the clearance to already have a general idea of what was going on at the secretive camp to Fort Irwin’s east, but the details nonetheless shocked him. He’d promised to take it “up the chain,” to which Brodie responded it would just come back down the chain along with a message for everyone to shut their mouths. The colonel didn’t dispute that. In fact, be barely commented on it. The system was the system, as sure as the sunrise, and only lunatics and fools would waste their energy arguing with it. Scott Brodie was neither a lunatic nor a fool, but he was fed up.
He also couldn’t get a clear answer from anyone about where Captain Ed Spencer was being detained. This was, in fact, the first time in Scott Brodie’s career that he’d lost his perp. Well, maybe Spencer wasn’t his perp anymore. Maybe the case wasn’t either. They were rolling things up, funneling the crimes at Camp Hayden, along with any culpability on the part of senior-ranking brass or corporate honchos at Synotec, into some dark recess of the national security state, where it would sort itself out away from the reach of the military justice system.
And there was something else. Something deeper. It was that dusty road at Camp Hayden strewn with the bodies of the Rangers. It could have been Fallujah. ItwasFallujah. And seeing that again, and this time without having jihadi psychos to blame, had changed something in him.
He barely heard Dixon approach over the roar of another jet. She sat next to him in the sand. She was still wearing a cast, now covered in signatures from the Rangers of Camp Hayden, along with a tank top, shorts, and sandals.
He said, “You look like a beach bum.”
She looked him over. He was wearing jeans and leather shoes, plus a button-down shirt. “You look like you don’t get out much.”
“Thank you.” He gestured to the cast. “When do you get that off?”
“Few weeks. And maybe a little longer before they can remove the pins. I might not get full mobility back.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. I paid a small price compared to others.” She asked, “Where’s Maggie?”
“Quantico. I told her to keep her flight, that I needed time here alone.”
“Did she buy that?”
Brodie looked at her. “Why wouldn’t she?”
Dixon shrugged.
Brodie, because he was a bit annoyed, asked, “How’s Colonel Howe?”
If Dixon was bothered by the question, she didn’t show it. “Haven’t spoken since Fort Irwin. I doubt we will again. She travels a lot. Plus, I don’t think she liked…” She trailed off. “Well, there’s no reason to get this personal with you.”
“Being in a life-and-death situation with someone is already pretty personal, Caroline. Go for it.”
“Right. Well, let’s just say I play for both teams, and she doesn’t, and I think there’s some judgment there.”
Brodie nodded. “I agree with the colonel. Why the hell would you bother with men if you don’t have to?”
Dixon smiled. “I know you were wondering.”
“Don’t flatter yourself.”
“I know you were wondering because Taylor told me you were.”
Why the hell would Taylor tell her that? Well, regardless of her motive, maybe this night was about to get more interesting than he’d planned. But then he thought about why he was there, and why she was there, and that killed the mood inside him. They sat in silence as another plane roared over the beach, and the drunk kids by the fire started taking their clothes off to skinny-dip.
After a while, he asked, “Do you have an address for me?”
