Klasky looked up at him. “I can tell you everything or tell you nothing, and either way I’ll be charged, and I’ll never make it to trial.”
Brodie and Taylor exchanged a look. Then Brodie said, “We can protect you.”
“You can’t even protect yourselves.” He looked at Taylor. “Free advice, get out of this place while you can.”
Taylor said, “Work with us, Major. You have the chance to do the right thing.”
Klasky spat back, “Ihavedone the right thing.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means I care about something more than my own safety and myown freedom. That’s how we do it in the United States military. They teach that at CID?”
Brodie said, “You’re talking to two combat vets, asshole. We’ve both seen more action than your mother when the Navy’s in town.”
Klasky sprang up from the chair and Brodie gave him another whack in the head with the butt of his pistol.
The major sprawled backward onto the couch, his head flopped back and craned up to the ceiling. He remained like that, staring up, a purple bruise forming on the side of his head where Brodie had struck him. He gave a gap-toothed grin and laughed to himself. “I guess we can keep doing this until you’re facing assault charges, Scott.”
“How about murder charges? Then we’ll have something in common.”
Taylor put her hand on Brodie’s arm, which was her signal that he needed to shut his goddamn mouth. Good advice. He was pissed and felt himself losing control.
Then Taylor sat down on a chair facing the couch and leaned forward. She asked in a soft but urgent voice, “Major, what is Praetorian?”
Klasky righted his head and looked at her. The blood had stopped flowing from his temple, congealing into a dried red ribbon down the side of his face. “Out here in the desert, I think about Los Alamos. Oppenheimer. What he accomplished. What he did that others couldn’t.Wouldn’t.Not because of lack of intellect, but lack of will. He did what had to be done to ensure the preservation of the free world. And so have I.”
Well, Robert Oppenheimer had a god complex, and it sounded like Dan Klasky did too. Brodie said, “Answer the goddamn question, Major.”
Klasky looked at him with his close-set bloodshot eyes, and it felt like the man was looking into his soul. “The answer, Mr. Brodie, is that you and your partner arefucked. This doesn’t end with me.”
Taylor asked, “What does that mean?”
Klasky did not respond.
Brodie took a step toward him. “Is there someone else on base who is involved with Praetorian?”
Klasky eyed Brodie’s pistol. “Go ahead. Hit me again and see if you get the answer.”
Brodie did not move.
Klasky continued, “The best part is, I don’t even know who it is. They didn’t tell me. And ifIdon’t know, you sure as hell aren’t going to figure it out.”
“Who’s ‘they’?”
Klasky laughed again. “You think I have aname? This is a pitch-black project.”
“What is the project?What is Praetorian?”
Klasky looked him in the eyes. “Now, why the hell would I tell you that?”
Brodie crouched so he was eye level with Klasky. “Major, let me tell you how this works. How helpful you are right now will impact sentencing at your court-martial. Be smart about this.”
Klasky stared at Brodie, but he seemed to be somewhere else. The man raised his handcuffed hands to his heart. “I love my country. Whatever it takes.”
Brodie saw Klasky fingering something in his shirt pocket, and he understood…
Klasky slipped a capsule from the pocket and opened his mouth.
