Greer sighed. “Yes, ma’am, I did. I apologize for not being truthful.”
Brodie said, “Next time it will come with a price.”
“Yes, sir.”
Brodie asked, “Why did you give the major your code?”
“Because he asked for it. He said that since I was alone it would not be good to leave the Vault unguarded.”
Brodie nodded. He had some sympathy for Greer. What he’d done was against protocol, but it was at the request of a commissioned officer. The steep power imbalance made it difficult for the private to say no.
Taylor asked, “How many incidents were there of the major coming to the Vault late at night when you were alone on guard duty, and you giving the major your access code? Think before you answer.”
Private Greer thought, and if he was smart, he was thinking that the agents already knew the answer to the question. Then he replied, “Three.”
“And do you recall why you were alone on duty all three nights?”
Greer nodded. “First time a guy was sick. Second time, I think it was because the guy’s training schedule had changed last-minute, and he had to rest up that night. Third time, the other Ranger just didn’t show, and later I heard he’d… kind of been on a bender and was in no shape to do anything.”
Taylor asked, “Are you often on nighttime sentry duty?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Why? Is that based on seniority, or a disciplinary measure?”
Greer shook his head. “Neither. Most of the guys don’t want to do it, but I volunteered to pull extra night shifts. I wasn’t sleeping well anyway, so figured I’d get some shifts on the books instead of staring at the ceiling all night. It allowed me to get excused from some of the early drills the next day, and if I slept at all I had a better chance of doing it during the daytime.”
A cocktail of amphetamines, cocaine, and steroids is bound to screw up your internal clock. Brodie asked, “Were you alone on any of your other nighttime guard shifts?”
Greer thought a moment. “Not that I recall.”
“Did Major Ames come to the Vault on any of those nights when you were with another Ranger?”
“No, sir.”
“Did you find that odd?”
Greer thought a moment. The man seemed a little nervous but relatively calm and cogent, and Brodie could believe that this guy had quit or at least paused his mass consumption of uppers. He replied, “Yes, sir, that is odd now that you put it like that.”
Brodie switched gears and said, “We are aware of the incident with your roommate, Kowalski.”
Greer refocused on his burrito. “Yes, sir. That was… a bad time for me.”
“Do you remember the incident?”
“Parts. I remember sitting here on this couch, staring at that door.” He gestured to a door on the wall opposite, which presumably led to the bedroom that used to be Private Kowalski’s. “And I was feeling like… like there was something very wrong on the other side of that door.”
Taylor asked, “What do you mean, wrong?”
Greer looked at her with his large blue eyes. He appeared pained. “Unnatural, ma’am. Something unnatural, that was going to kill me if I didn’t kill it first.”
She asked, “And then what happened?”
He shook his head. “I don’t remember. I blacked out. Next thing I remember is Sergeant Miller pinning me against the wall and yelling at me. I looked over and saw Kowalski getting talked down by another Ranger. He had blood dripping out of his nose and a black eye.” He took a deep breath. “I didn’t mean to do it. I didn’t know what I was doing.”
Taylor said in a calm voice, “Private, you likely experienced stimulant psychosis. It affects judgment as well as memory. It can occur from prolonged amphetamine abuse.”
Private Greer nodded. “I don’t do that anymore.”
