He stared at her almost as if he didn’t hear what she was saying. She then said, “You want to go back, if they’ll have you after you failed in your mission, got a bunch of people killed, that’s your choice. Metzler will have you safely escorted out of here.” Her voice was strong and her demeanor was hard, but there was something in it she tried to offer.
He made no visible reaction.
She waited, then said, “After what had happened with the Blacksnake team, Metzler says there is no going back for you.” Still no reaction. She said, “I think you need to consider that as a reality. He thinks you need to understand that what they’re doing, what they want men like you to spearhead, is a fundamental violation of everything you really believe. And that is a very persuasive argument.”
“Metzler’s persuasive,” Keegan said, and there was a heavy sarcasm there, “but he’s wrong.”
“No,” Rainee said. “It’s not about his being wrong. It’s about the reality of his beliefs versus yours.”
She saw the anger, the aggression in his face. Yet he was looking at her, and that was important, so he was forcing himself to back off. She saw that. She understood it and knew that he was very vulnerable.
After a long moment, Keegan said, “You have some sort of plan?”
“What do you mean?”
“Maybe you’re joining Metzler’s war?”
She said, “I’m not joining any war. I’ve been there and have no desire to go back.”
Keegan studied her intently. With the regular eye and the prosthetic eye, it was a bit unnerving when he fixated. He said, “Look, whatever I do, or you and Metzler do, it’s meaningless.”
“Why is that?”
“Because this is going to happen, whether you like it or not.” He said it with a strained authority. Said it like a man under pressure of uncertainty. “It’s too late to stop it.”
“Maybe you’re right,” Rainee said. “But I’ll do whatever I can to expose it if it comes to that because I have a very good suspicion this is really not a good course.”
“How?”
“I have very powerful contacts who will take what I have to tell them seriously.”
He shook his head. “Acquisitions with any kind of hard evidence won’t do anything. And your friends don’t have time for investigations and hearings. And it would be stopped by even more powerful people than your friends before it even gets started.”
“It’s a risk, yes, but a necessary one. Metzler said you were a mission-obsessed true believer. I’ve met a few in my life. I’m not here to argue, because when you face a religious fanatic, or a true believer, that’s a waste of time.” She pushed him hard now. It felt right. “I know Raab very well. And you are a true disciple. I’m just here to let you know where I stand.”
Keegan grew even more visibly agitated, a good sight to Rainee. She was making progress.
He said, “You’re suggesting I’ve been brainwashed. Programmed.”
“I’m not suggesting anything. I don’t know what you’ve been through. Or Metzler. Or those other men. Some who’ve been assassinated. In the end, it’s about power. It’s always about power.”
In the darkness above and behind him, some kind of bird flipped by.
Rainee said, “We’re a long way from being able to program the Manchurian Candidate. It makes good fiction, but you aren’t fiction. None of you are. And that’s the problem. I don’t know what you’ve gone through, but I’m here because something is wrong.”
His face muscles tightened as if something was going on that he couldn’t quite control. He sat leaning toward her, his elbows resting on his knees. “Maybe you don’t really understand the political side of life.”
That’s Raab talking. Rainee said, “Maybe, but I know this country pretty damn well, and what might work in about any other nation on earth—total surrender to authority—won’t work here. Not for long. And I don’t think you buy that either.”
Keegan fired back, “Maybe people are ready for a strong government. Maybe they’re sick and tired of the weakness.”
Rainee said, “Maybe, but I don’t think they’re ready for military control. And if I’m wrong about that, so be it. It won’t work for me. And it shouldn’t work for you. And I’m not happy that soldiers I struggled to bring back are being used by bitter, delusional, would-be Napoleons.”
Keegan hesitated, gathered himself, and said, “Americans aren’t like they used to be. They’re passive, frightened, and they want a strong government to deal with the ongoing crisis.”
That sounded weak. Rainee smiled and shook her head sarcastically. “That was Raab talking,” she said. “I’ve heard it all before. Americans surrender power to the government in an emergency, but not for long and not seriously. They always want it back.”
“Maybe now the threats are different and the solution for dealing with them is different.”
I got you, Rainee thought. You don’t fool me. She said, “This has been going on from the beginning. The Alien and Seditions Acts came when it looked like war with France a couple hundred years ago. Habeas Corpus during the Civil War. And then the Espionage and Sedition Act in World War I, followed by internment camps in World War II. Then the Patriot Act after the Twin Towers went down. But the DNA of the country demands that the power given for emergencies be given back. It’s who we are.”
“Maybe we’re in a different age.”
“Whatever the case may be,” she said, “Lester Raab and his band of merry men aren’t going to change any of those things for the better. I’m not here to convert you. I’m here just to let you know I’m not bringing Metzler in. Your mission is over. But at least Metzler is willing to let you leave to whatever fate has for you.”
Arguing with a true believer never was a good idea, but she had no choice and she had some hope she could break him down. She’d gotten his number before and needed to do so again. “You disappoint me,” Rainee said. “You can go ahead and get out of here. Do what you think is right. I know Raab and his collection of friends very well. Believe me, they aren’t the nation’s saviors. My Riverine Force uncle told me that an officer in Vietnam became famous for telling some reporter that they had to destroy a village in order to save it. It didn’t get saved. And destroying this republic and its democracy in order to save it won’t either.”
He didn’t respond. He seemed in a kind of catatonic state for long minutes.
She motioned for Metzler to join them. When he walked over she said, “He’s locked into Raab’s world view. Get him out of here. I never liked listening to Raab and I haven’t changed my mind.”
Metzler nodded. “Keegan, time to go. You not only failed your mission, you’ve betrayed it. We’ll get you out of the area, but then you’re on your own. Good luck—you’ll need it.”
Keegan glanced from one to the other. “I need to think,” he said. “I need to figure something out.”
And then he left them there and walked toward the riverbank.
They watched him, this man who’d been through about as much as any and survived. He stopped and just stood there, staring off toward L.A,, lonely looking, a soldier who had to decide who was the enemy.
Metzler said, “What do you think?”
Rainee shrugged, shook her head. “I don’t know. He was addled just like this at the safe house where he killed his assets. I’d gotten through to him. Brought up memories he didn’t want brought back.”
“Well, I don’t want him to decide to do something here.” Metzler left her and went over to Duran and Mora for a brief discussion. They took up positions in the woods on either side of her.
Metzler came back over to Rainee. “I hope he figures this out.”
They stood there waiting to see what Keegan would do. He had to know he was finished. The only question was what he would do about it.
Then, when it took longer maybe than Metzler liked, he said, “I’d prefer it if you got a little closer to the trees. If he turns on us, he’s superfast.”
“That he is,” she said. She did as asked. She had full appreciation of Keegan’s speed. She wished she could see into Keegan’s mind. Had she the right equipment, that might have been possible.
“You really think he could be of real help to us if he turned on his mentors?” she asked.
Metzler said, “He probably knows more about how it’s all set up in the cities than anyone. He put a lot of it in place. Those are his guys. He could be important. And we don’t have much else. But I don’t think he’s coming over.”
And Rainee began to think if that were the case, no way would Metzler let him go. She saw no good end to this situation.
33
Lima Nine Four. . .
Lima Nine Four . . .
Keegan felt himself losing his grip, reality spinning off in different directions into the black holes in his mind.
He stood by the riverbank and stared back at the city. He wanted to walk back and kill Metzler and anyone who got in his way and just take Rainee and get out and make contact.
But he knew on some level the mission was failed, over. And he was no longer sure of things. She had done that to him. She had this power to disrupt his thinking.
He felt the same massive agitation he’d felt when he first realized his connection to the woman he kidnapped. She revealed his hidden weaknesses.
The idea that everything he believed only twelve hours ago, everything that was his new mission, his new war, could be wrong seemed impossible. It was like surrendering a religion you desperately wanted, needed, to believe in.
Instead of bringing Metzler in, she’d sided with him in an ultimate betrayal. Yet without her, he wouldn’t exist.
He was in a mental trap. A very short time ago, he was a top warrior in a new army. Now he was nothing. A confused renegade. Lost.
Had he been willingly brainwashed?
Had they found a way to program all of them into accepting the philosophy and purpose of Operation Chaos? What caused Metzler and some of the others to rebel?
Doctor Hall was a brilliant woman from a military family. Not somebody he could easily dismiss, regardless of whether she was the one who pulled him out of the Swat Valley and certain death.
Bringing her to Metzler was a huge mistake. He wrestled with the situation, not wanting to give up what he had believed for so long, but knowing he was on the verge of being utterly lost. He had been struck at his core.
Was he betraying his country? Or, if he changed his mind, betraying those who would save the country?
Keegan felt himself sinking into a kind of mental abyss where there were no answers.
For all the advanced power they’d given him, thinking outside of those enhanced abilities wasn’t part of the program. Soldiers don’t question, they do.
Keegan didn’t know how long he stood there, transfixed by the soft flow of the black river, and the turgid flow of his conflicted mind, but then an idea hit him. It hit with great, sudden force. And he knew in an instant exactly what he had to do. He had a solution and it didn’t require him to decide between Doctor Hall and Doctor Raab. It was an idea born of a conversation in the dinghy.
34
The longer they waited, the higher Rainee’s anxiety. She glanced at Metzler and said, “How fast was your change? Your rebellion? Did it come on suddenly, over gradually?”
“I’m not all that sure,” Metzler said. “There were times I felt like I was living on a kind of speed-brain attack that never came completely down and I didn’t like that. I tried to counter it with various sedatives. Not to a nice effect. Then I began to slow a bit. I sort of fell apart and then put the pieces back together the best I could. I had a lot of help from fellow soldiers. All my adult life, I’ve been trained to follow orders, focus on the mission, never question my superiors.”
“It just came over you?”
“I’m not sure what brought on the doubts. That’s when you get lost. If you doubt, you start to see, to question, and then it just falls apart. It felt like I woke from a long dream. Woke and saw the light of day and reality. Maybe it’s a fault of the chip set. That’s what Doctor Raab believes. That’s why you’re here—to stop us from waking from the dream.”
She wanted to question him more, but Keegan finally turned. He had his hands out, as if to assure them he wasn’t coming with bad intentions. He had a confident strut, as if having made up his mind about something.
She stepped out, away from the protection of the tree.
Keegan said, “I have an idea.”
They waited.
Keegan looked at Rainee. “I’m going to defer to your judgment. But not to your plan.”
“Which means what?” Metzler demanded.
Keegan ignored Metzler. “Going public, no matter how many important people you know, is a waste of time unless you have the smoking gun in your hand. And you don’t. And I’m not enough to give it to you. But there might be a way to get that smoking gun and get it fast. Your uncle, the one who was in the Delta Riverine Force you mentioned. He’s down south of Coronado on the Silver Strand and has a boat.”
Rainee said, “What are you thinking?”
“It’s a fast boat?”
“Very fast.”
“You think he would be willing to surrender his boat for an operation?”
It was so out of the realm of expectation that neither she nor Metzler could react for a moment.
“What the hell are you talking about?” Metzler demanded.
Keegan said, “You want to go public, you need something very powerful. Like Raab himself, his records, his computers and videos of operations are more than a smoking gun, they’re a bomb. You grab him and his files and you have what you need to blow this whole thing into the public arena. After that, whatever happens happens.”
It was a stunning idea, but not easily accepted because it meant he was seriously reversing himself.
They just stood there staring at him, studying him.
“The compound in Baja is in stand down,” Keegan said. “The only reason Raab and a small security force are there is because he wants you to help him with the problem. It’s in a semi-remote area in the hills where the mega-rich live in their gated compounds. The wider area is protected by Mexican Special Forces, which there are pretty much one and the same with the Baja Cartel. But since the end of the advanced-warfighter development program, and the preparation for Operation Chaos complete, the Facility itself is almost empty. Only the medical wing has yet to be moved back to the States.”