Open Season by Cameron Curtis (great novels TXT) 📕

down an Apache, which gave you the perfect excuse to leave us hanging out to dry. Three days and nights on those mountains. Lopez finished the job, pushed Grissom off a cliff.

“But—Grissom and Zarek were careful men. They had a plan. Before he died, Grissom told Koenig that if anything should happen, he had to get Trainor back. Because Trainor was the deal. That was the big secret. To this moment, General, you don’t know why that girl is the whole shooting match. But Koenig and Lopez knew it wasn’t enough to kill Grissom. They had to kill Trainor, too.

“You helped, General. Shahzad couldn’t have known our team split up at Lanat. He should have sent his main body after Koenig and Takigawa. I always wondered why he turned his force around and headed back to the village. You tipped him off by radio. That’s why Shahzad arranged an ambush to keep us off Shafkat. That’s why he rushed his main body back. He thought he could take, or kill, Robyn—before Zarek showed up.

“Lopez suspected. That’s why he was extraordinarily careful as we passed the village. He knew he was bottom man on your totem pole. You weren’t above sacrificing him to kill us all. The money made the attempt worth the risk, so Lopez tried to kill Trainor at the village. He failed.”

Lieutenant General Anthony straightens his tie. “Breed, you are a fantasist.”

“It gets better, Sir. When we got back to Bagram, Koenig and Lopez reported to you. Time was running out, so you instructed Lopez to try again. That was a desperate, clumsy effort. When it went bad, Koenig covered your tracks by killing Lopez. I don’t think you planned to kill Lopez, but you didn’t shed any tears. He wasn’t as discreet as the rest of you. Koenig told you Lopez hung a poster of his seven-figure Shelby on the wall. Must have driven you crazy.”

The general’s unblinking stare tells me everything I need to know.

“I should have suspected Koenig. But he was humping over Lanat while most of the action was going on. You had two killers on that mountain, separated by fluke.

“You were almost out of time. Trainor would be brought back to Washington and kept under CIA protection. You played one last roll of the dice. Shahzad and the Taliban put you in touch with Al Qaeda sleepers in the continental US. You learned through military intelligence where Stein planned to hold Trainor. You sent Koenig’s hit squad to take her out.”

“Breed, you cannot prove any of this. In the end, it will be my word against those of Colonel Tristan and Captain Koenig. They may have been up to no good, but I knew nothing of their activities.”

“That will be up to the court-martial to determine, Sir. Way above my pay grade. Stein has turned over all her evidence to the Provost Marshal General and CID.”

The general refuses to break. I search his eyes, listen for a quiver in his voice. Nothing. Only the faintest darkening of his tanned features.

“Another battle,” General Anthony says. “I’ll kick their ass in court. A jury of my peers won’t convict me. Why did they send you in here?”

“I told them you’d do the honorable thing.”

“What’s that, Breed?”

“Confess. The Judge Advocate General will cut a deal.”

“Not a chance. How about a different kind of deal, Breed?”

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“I didn’t expect you to get Grissom and Trainor out of those mountains.” General Anthony’s gaze is hypnotic. “But you always had to be the nastiest shark swimming through the guts.”

“Sorry to disappoint, General.”

“Not at all—you have affirmed my judgement. It was you, after all, who wrote the book. I’ll beat this at trial, and we’ll rebuild. You can be my number one.”

“General, no matter the result, they will never reinstate your command.”

For the first time, the general looks away. We both know his career is over. The question is whether he will spend the rest of his life in prison. “I taught you the value of cut-outs. They’ll never find all the money.”

“I wouldn’t bet against them.”

“They expect you to get me to cooperate.”

“It’s the smart play. There are officers from the Provost Marshal and CID in the hall right now.”

The general stiffens. “I think you’d better leave.”

“Yes, Sir.” I get to my feet and walk to the door. Hesitate, face the general. “It has been an honor to serve with you.”

I step through the door and close it behind me. MPs and CID warrant officers are waiting in the corridor. I nod to the officer in charge and walk to the exit.

From the conference room, a shot rings out.

38

Watches & Time

Joint Base Andrews

Six weeks later

I stand with Robyn on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews. Robyn is dressed in civilian clothes. An army rucksack is slung over her shoulder. A small suitcase rests at her feet.

Robyn squints at me. “You were right.”

“What about?”

“I killed two men, didn’t feel a thing.”

I search her eyes.

Robyn looks thoughtful. “I felt more shooting a deer than the Tali in that riverbed. The deer wasn’t trying to kill us.”

“You do what you have to do.”

“Yes. Both times, I had a decision to make…”

“And there was only one correct decision?”

Robyn smiles. “You’ve been there.”

“Yes.”

“It isn’t adrenaline, is it?”

I frown. “No. Too much adrenaline hurts performance. You’d be jumpy, your hands would shake. You would lose situational awareness.”

“Breed. When I picked up the rifle, swung the axe—I was in the zone.”

“In combat, that’s where the best live.” I set my hands on my hips. “Be careful—it’s addictive.”

Together, we look at Stein’s caravan of Suburbans. The CIA operators who drove us to the airfield. Stein stands at an open passenger door, a squad radio to her ear. She signs off and walks toward us.

“You call your mother?” I ask Robyn.

“Yes. Mom accepts my decision.”

“She doesn’t mind you and Zarek?”

“It isn’t her choice.” Robyn shrugs. “I want to live with Zarek in the mountains. Where the sky is midnight blue. Where