Gone Bad Read Free Page B

in his seat. He looked uneasy. “He was known to us. He was a point of contact within that firm.”
    “Point of contact?”
    “He was passing on intelligence.”
    “Go on.”
    “He worked alongside Shia paramilitaries at one time; we wanted to know what was happening. His crew tagged along with them in the early days of the liberation, but gradually he started feeding us information on these guys. Where they were based. Their alliances. Where they hung out. And from there, we got an entry into Shia politicians. We were able to work with them, identifying Ba’athists, you know the stuff.”
    “When did Cain leave Gemini?”
    “Late 2006.”
    “Then he went home?”
    “Pretty poor mental state. Some described him as clean gone.”
    “Did he get help?”
    “He dropped off our radar.”
    “I see. And then …”
    “And then, he apparently formed this militia.”
    “Did you know about them? Did you try and make contact with him?”
    “I don’t know what happened.”
    Meyerstein folded her arms. “So we’ve got this disturbed, highly trained killing machine who’s been brutalized in Iraq?”
    Harrison nodded.
    Meyerstein’s gaze wandered round the table. “Jon Reznick, who some of you will already know, was in Delta Force. He actually knows Cain from their time together.” She looked across at Reznick. “First, we need to track him down. But assuming we do, give me some more about this guy.”
    Reznick leaned back in his seat, all eyes on him. “Hunter Cain, like all Delta operators, is very self-contained. He can happily work alone, or in a team. Phenomenally fit, as you’d expect. But what set him apart was his intelligence. High critical-thinking skills. Comfortable with high-pressure situations, again like all Delta. Most interesting facet? Sadist. Enjoyed killing. So much so that he once cut off the fingers of a Taliban prisoner as a keepsake. Big one for trophies.”
    Meyerstein asked, “Political ideology?”
    “Far right from day one. A lot of Delta are what you’d describe as military right-wing – protecting the homeland and swearing allegiance to the flag are givens. But he was something quite, quite different.”
    “Fascist tendencies perhaps?”
    “Borderline. He read Nietzsche, books on philosophy, Goethe, and Adolf Hitler. Whole passages he could recite verbatim. Geo-political buff.”
    Malone was scribbling notes furiously. “You mind if I jump in here, Jon?”
    Reznick shrugged.
    “I’ve worked with Jon and the Assistant Director before. So from what Jon says, this is a highly intelligent man. This is an interesting challenge in front of us, for sure. I’ve been reading up on Hunter Cain. Propensity to extreme violence from an early age. Father whipped him if he didn’t finish his meals. So we can have a clear insight into his psychological make-up. Certified sane apparently, but examples of him hearing voices as a child. Perhaps may hint at schizophrenia. But this has never been diagnosed.”
    Reznick blew out his cheeks. “Are you saying he could’ve been in Delta, and subjected to everything we had to go through, and be schizophrenic? Is that possible?”
    “Far more likely to be psychopathic, perhaps.” He stared long and hard at Reznick. “But to answer your question: yes, I believe it would be possible. Could he be delusional?”
    Reznick said nothing.
    “There could be multiple personalities at work here, to be frank. The cutting off of fingers, or any body part, is part of the make-up of many serial killers.”
    Meyerstein stared at her notes before she fixed her gaze on Reznick. She then looked across at her FBI colleague. “Militia guy, military training, tough, possible personality disorder, hatred of government, fixation with Timothy McVeigh, on the loose. I’ve not had time to look over what the prison says, but where are we with that?”
    Female Special Agent Gillian Miller cleared her throat. “It’s clear this was pre-planned, months in advance. Clearly