The Escape (John Puller 3)

“She shot at me first. I defended myself. She’s dead, I’m not.”

“But what was the reason?”

“We found out she had financial problems, and lo and behold she sets up an account in the Caymans under another name and someone puts a million bucks in it.”

“What did she do to earn that?” asked Kirk.

Puller said, “A device that simulated the sounds of gunshots and an explosion played a primary role in the chaos at DB. My take is she brought them in herself. That’s why she didn’t search any of the guards for it later. That way we could never pin anything on her. And she might have sabotaged the cell door locking software too.”

Kirk held up a hand. “Okay, but let’s get back to your last question: Why all this attention now?”

Puller looked at Knox and then glanced back to Kirk. “I’m not sure either one of us can answer that.”

Kirk nodded. “I agree that it all looks dicey. And that more investigation is needed. But you have to understand that it unduly complicates the situation now that your brother has escaped from DB.”

“Well, he might not have had much choice. Escape or die. Given those options, I’d have cut and run too.”

“And the problem with that answer is that the people hunting him won’t care about his reasons.”

“And another problem is he may have folks after him who aren’t part of the official machine,” retorted Puller.

Knox said, “After what happened to you, I think he probably does. Kidnapping and then trying to murder you definitely speaks of unofficial involvement.”

A stunned Kirk now shot Puller a glance. “First she shoots a friggin’ Army captain, and now you’re telling me that you were kidnapped and nearly killed?”

“That’s pretty much the gist of it. Bunch of guys with guns got the jump on me using a damsel-in-distress act that I fell for. They took me to a place, tied me up, asked me a bunch of questions, none of which I answered, and then they were going to kill me.”

“Then why aren’t you dead?”

“I had a guardian angel on site. He did enough to allow me to get my own way out.”

“And who was this angel?” asked Kirk.

“I hope to find out one day so I can thank the person.”

He turned to Knox and his voice dropped even lower. “And you can guarantee to me that you don’t know who any of these folks are, or where they might have come from?”

Knox said, “If you’re asking me whether it’s any of my people, I can assure you that it’s not. We may deceive, we may slice and dice the truth, we may conceal. But we don’t do crap like this. We do have oversight committees, Puller. And if we tried any of this and it came out, well, everybody could pretty much kiss their asses, pensions, and freedom goodbye. And I’m not sure there’s ever a compelling enough reason to do that. We have enough true enemies without turning on ourselves.”

He studied her closely for a long moment and then looked away.

Kirk looked at Knox. “Tell me about this shootout with an Army captain. What was her name?”

Puller answered. “Lenora Macri. And she must’ve been pretty desperate to take a shot at you, Knox. Do you think she saw you coming in?”

“I knocked and rang the doorbell before I picked the lock. I wasn’t trying to do it on the sly.”

“I know you did. I was watching. So for Shireen’s edification, tell us again how it went down.”

“Step by step,” added Kirk.

Knox sighed and then gathered her thoughts. “I closed the door behind me and called out her name. There was no answer. I called out again and identified myself, full title and everything. The next thing I know she came around the corner from the living room at me. Her gun was out and pointed at me. My cred pack was in my hand and held out for her to see but I knew it didn’t matter. The look on her face told me all I needed to know. I had maybe a second. She was going to shoot me.”

“Keep going,” encouraged Puller when Knox paused.

“I dropped my creds, grabbed the chair, and flung it at her as I went down to the floor. She fired. I felt the round pass over me and hit the wall behind me. The chair had struck her as she fired and threw off her aim. I hit the floor, kicked away, aimed, and fired upward, into her chest. She dropped where she stood. She hit the floor and never moved after that.”

“That all coincides with what I heard downstairs,” said Puller, looking at Kirk.

“Well, it also happens to be the truth,” replied Knox resolutely.

“But attempting to shoot you in cold blood like that,” said Kirk. “It’s an extreme response. How could she know what you were there for? It could just be routine questioning. If she killed you she’s looking at the death penalty. And how was she planning to get away?”

“She had an alias. Same name she used to set up the account in the Caymans, but we traced it back to her. Under that alias she had purchased a series of one-way tickets with the final stop in Saint Petersburg.”

“No extradition treaty between Russia and the U.S.,” said Kirk.

“Right. And I doubt Russia was her final destination. She was just going there to disappear. After that, it’s anyone’s bet. She certainly would have had the financial resources to do it.”

“What date was the plane ticket for?” asked Puller.

“Today. She was supposed to be on duty, but called in sick. She was clearly never going back. That’s why I went there.”

Puller eyed Knox steadily and she returned the gaze. Kirk noticed this staredown and looked back and forth between them, like she was viewing a tennis match.

“I know what you’re probably going to say,” said Knox at last.

“Really?” replied Puller. “So why don’t you tell me what I was going to say.”

“That we’re a team and I should have told you all of this. And you’d be right. And maybe if you hadn’t left me in that graveyard, I would have told you. But you did leave me and I had no idea where you were. And I had to get this done.”

Puller studied her for a while more but seemed satisfied by this explanation. He said, “I’m surprised with all the evidence you had against her that you didn’t send in a SWAT team. The Army would have.”

“That may be how the Army does things, but not us. What we really wanted was for her to cooperate with us and lead us back to whoever she was working with. In the grand scheme of things she was small potatoes. We wanted the others. That’s why I went in solo, to talk to her, to make her see reason.”

“And you almost got blown away for your troubles.”

“I have to tell you, I didn’t see that coming. There was nothing in her profile that would have led us to believe that she would have reacted with such violence.”

“Well, profiles can be misleading,” commented Kirk.

“And now we’ve lost her as a potential witness and information source. And it’s really all on me,” Knox added glumly.

Puller said, “So she saw you in her home, figured out who you were from you calling out. She knew the game was up since she was probably upstairs packing for her trip to Russia, and she panicked.”

“Well, I’m just glad her aim was off.”

“Because of the chair you threw.”

“I’m still lucky, Puller.”

“Like the hip.”

“Like the hip,” she agreed as Kirk looked at her quizzically. Knox saw this and said, “Long story.” She sipped her coffee and looked thoughtful.

“What?” Puller asked, seeing an ironic look in her eyes.

“I was just wondering when my luck is going to finally run out.”

“Don’t we all,” replied Puller.

“Well, unfortunately for you two, it seems the answer will be sooner rather than later,” noted Kirk.

CHAPTER

31

CAN YOU GIVE me a lift to my hotel, Puller?” asked Kirk as they were leaving the diner.

She had a small roller bag with her.

Kno

x looked at Puller. “I’m going to check in and then I’ll give you a call. I’m sure my superiors will have a lot of questions for me after the incident with Macri. And there’s always paperwork to fill out. Doesn’t seem like all that much, though, for taking someone’s life,” she added, looking depressed.

Puller said, “You took her life because she was trying to take yours.”

He watched as Knox walked off to her car.