Chapter 60
TAYLOR SET A STEAMING MUG of yerba maté on Brodie’s desk. “You look half dead. Have some.”
“No thanks,” said Brodie, his head in his hands.
“You just got off a six-hour flight. It’s effective.”
“It tastes like ass.”
“You mean grass.”
“No, I don’t.”
She took the mug away and said, “Watery Walmart coffee it is.”
“Does the job.”
“Caffeine addiction is an arms race, Scott, and you’re losing.” She poured him a steaming cup of coffee, added creamer, and set it on his desk. She smiled at him. “How was your Los Angeles R&R?”
“Good,” he said while looking into the coffee. “I sat on the beach with my brain off.”
“Swim in the ocean?”
He shook his head. “Too many flesh-eating bacteria.”
Taylor sat at her desk and checked her watch. “It’s almost six. Dombroski agreed to stay late, but let’s not push it.”
“Right. Let me just get some coffee in me.”
They sat quietly for a few minutes. Brodie heard Taylor clicking on her laptop. This felt pleasurably mundane. Almost unreal.
He checked his email and saw the same four unread messages from his girlfriend Sarah. He’d get back to her when his head was right. If that ever happened.
Taylor said, “Oh my God.”
Brodie’s heart skipped a beat. “What?”
“The CTO of Synotec Systems was found dead in his Las Vegas mansion. Multiple gunshot wounds.”
Brodie didn’t respond for a moment. Then he said, “Maybe someone’s tying up loose ends.”
Taylor remained focused on the screen. “Yeah, I just…” She read some more and said, “I guess it happened in the middle of the night. Or early this morning.” She looked at Brodie. “Scott, this is a little scary.”
“Why?”
“Why? They’re willing to hit a high-level corporate executive. I mean, who are we? With everything we know.”
“They think we’ll be good soldiers and keep our mouths shut. We have before.”
She looked at him. “Maybe that needs to change.”
“Maybe it already has.”
She met his gaze. Her brown eyes opened a little wider, her lips parted slightly, but she said nothing. And in that moment, he understood that she understood. Of course she did. Then she said, “Well, I’m glad you had some time to yourself.” She checked her watch. “Time for our meeting.”
She rose from her desk and walked past him to their office door while he remained seated. She asked, “Are you coming?”
“I am.” He got up from the chair.
She didn’t move, didn’t face him. “The burial’s at Arlington tomorrow. We need to be there.”
“Of course.”
“You know what they’re saying? Chopper collision. Training accident. Bullshit.”
“Of course,” he said again.
She turned to him and wiped away her tears. Then she reached out and took his hand and squeezed it. “We get the world we deserve. We get the world we’re willing to fight for.”
He looked in her eyes. “We do, Maggie. We do.”
Then they both walked through the door, together.
THE END