Greer busied himself with his MRE rations, which he graciously offered to share. Brodie declined, and found a protein bar in the inside pocket of his suit jacket that would tide him over for a while. Taylor, maybe nostalgic for this crap, used the MRE’s indestructible cardboard bread to make herself a PB&J.
Brodie was eager to get the guy talking before his own mind started to slip. He asked, “What is Praetorian?”
Greer looked at him, eyes narrowed. “Doesn’t ring a bell.”
Strike one. “When and why did Ames first approach you?”
“April something, outside the Vault.” Greer watched the MRE heating bag cook the beef stew. “This is amazing, isn’t it?”
For a guy who had spent the last nine months with walking, talking robots, he seemed easily impressed. Brodie asked, “Did Ames approach you because he saw the footage from the March twenty-first exercise?”
“Yeah,” said Greer, still looking at the heating bag. “When I wanted to kill Sergeant Miller. I was totally out of my head.” He looked up at Brodie. “I was convinced Miller was one of them. In disguise. It feltso real. And when he told me to put the gun down, I saw his fear. And I thought,Is that real fear? Is that a real man?And the scary thing is, I never stopped believing he was one of them, even when I dropped my pistol. I thought to myself,Let it kill me. Even if I’m right, let it kill me. I can’t live in a world where something that seems so real… isn’t.”
It was clear that the private’s brain was cooking now. The way he talked, it was as though he was more fascinated by his own thought process than bothered by almost murdering his platoon sergeant.
Taylor asked, “Why did you let the major into the Vault by himself?”
“The first time it was because he asked,” said Greer. “Second time, I think he noticed I was on something, totally strung out. And that’s when he says to me, ‘I know what you almost did. And I won’t tell anyone.’ I was kind of shocked, but I guess I shouldn’t have been. I mean, I was wearing a body camera. I really should have been more surprised that no oneelsesaw it happen.”
This was the blackmail moment, and Brodie was not at all surprised that it had worked. There was no explicit quid pro quo. Ames was smarter than that. But he’d shared a secret with Tom Greer, and people who share secrets are also forced to share trust.
Taylor followed up: “Did he ask you not to tell anyone he had come to the Vault that night?”
Greer nodded.
“Did he tell you what he was doing down there?”
“Not at first,” replied Greer. “After his second visit, he comes out and looks at me, he tells me that I need to stop before I kill myself. And he’s got something that will help me. He says to meet him at his house the next night, and I do. He’s got an SUV, makes me climb in the back and puts a blanket over me. And then he drives through the gates. I mean, he’s an officer and he can do what he wants, but he didn’t want me being seen. He brings me out here…” Greer trailed off. “Look at that.”
Brodie and Taylor looked out at the sunset. The sky was a brilliant orange in the distance, fading to indigo. A few clouds had rolled in, hanging in the dying light as they caught the sun, their puffy contours etched with fire.
Taylor said, “It’s beautiful.”
As Brodie watched the slipping sun, he began to feel something. A kind of… heightening of the senses, maybe. Things became sharper. He felt almost lifted, in a way. Energized.
He asked Greer, “What did Ames share with you?”
Greer kept his eyes locked on the horizon. “He told me… he told me about Bucky. That it—” He gasped, as if shocked by something. “Oh my God…”
Taylor reached out and touched his shoulder. “What is it?”
“I forgot. How did I forget?”
“Forgot what?” she asked.
“It happened.I know it happened.”
Greer started to panic. The man began hyperventilating and then crying, and as Scott Brodie watched him, he saw a slide down into madness that he didn’t want to take. He tried to center himself, and said to Greer, “Say it, Tom.Say it. Get it out.”
Greer looked at him, blue eyes shimmering with tears. “When I wasin that room with the sergeant, when I had my gun aimed at his back, I heard a tin man come in. I figured it would shoot me, but it didn’t. And then this voice… this muffled voice, it says to me, it just says: ‘Do it.’ And then it leaves.” He dropped his head and thrust his hands into the earth. “Oh my God… Oh my God… What are these things?”
CHAPTER 35
TAYLOR WORKED ON CALMING THEman down. She rubbed his back and made him drink water.
Do it.
Brodie heard it in his head, rattling around. Couldn’t get it out. Neverwouldget it out.
