The Escape (John Puller 3)

Robert aimed his gun at Reynolds, who was still on the floor.

When Puller looked over at the desk, Schindler hadn’t moved a muscle. He still just sat there. Puller’s jaw went slack as the truth hit him.

Knox pointed her pistol at Schindler. “You’re under arrest. Get up! Now!”

“Knox!” Puller called out. “Something’s way off.”

Knox shot him a glance. “What?”

The glass behind Schindler shattered as the high-powered round crashed through it.

The Pullers and Knox dropped to the floor.

“That shot came from the building across the street,” yelled out Puller.

Another shot shattered a second section of glass. Then more high-velocity rounds poured through these openings, slamming into walls and the floor. One hit the light fixture and it exploded, throwing them into near-complete darkness.

“What the hell is going on?” shouted Knox from behind the chair where she had taken cover.

“Just stay down,” Puller called back.

“Wait a minute, where’s Reynolds?” cried out Robert.

They all looked around the darkened room.

“I think I heard the elevator when the shots were going off,” said Robert.

They looked around but no one moved. Puller waited for more shots to be fired, but none were.

A moment later Puller rose cautiously and peered at the shattered windows. When Knox started to get up he said sharply, “Stay down. The shooter might still be out there.”

Robert had crawled over to the desk to examine Schindler, who still had not moved, even when the shots had started. “John!” he said frantically.

Puller shot across the room to kneel next to his brother. “What is it?”

Robert pulled back Schindler’s jacket.

As soon as Puller saw it he grabbed his brother and pushed him toward the elevator. “Go! Go!”

He next shouted at Knox. “Run, Knox!”

The three sprinted for the elevator, but when Knox hit the button it did not light up.

“Reynolds might’ve disabled it,” said Robert.

Puller looked left and then right and spotted the door at the end of the vestibule. It was locked when he tried the handle. He pulled his M11 and shot the lock off.

“What is it?” yelled Knox before Puller pushed her through the opening and then did the same with his brother.

“Move!”

He closed the door behind him and sprinted down the steps toward the first landing. Knox and Robert reached it first, turned, and headed down the stairs to the second landing.

Puller had almost reached the first landing when the detonation occurred. The concussive force blew the door to the stairs off its hinges and the compressed air surged downward like a million-mile-per-hour tidal wave.

When it hit the two-hundred-and-thirty-pound Puller he was lifted off his feet as though he were weightless.

The last thing Puller remembered was tumbling headfirst down the stairs. Then he hit something very hard.

And then there was nothing more.

CHAPTER

64

WHEN PULLER OPENED his eyes all he saw was darkness. At first he thought he was dead, but then wondered how he could still see. Or think.

Then the darkness lightened and he was able to make out a silhouette.

Then he heard a voice.

“Sucks being blown up, doesn’t it?”

The silhouette slowly transformed into something more solid. And familiar.

Knox was smiling at him, but the concern was evident in her eyes and wrinkled brow. She dabbed his forehead with a wet cloth.

Next to her he saw his brother, looking just as anxious, with no accompanying smile.

Puller tried to sit up, but it was Knox’s turn to put a hand on him to hold him down. He was lying on a bed in a small, dimly lit room.

“You got knocked cold, Puller.” She held up three fingers. “How many?”

“I’m fine, Knox.”

“How many?”

“Three!”

“Okay, your head must be even harder than I thought.”

He looked around. “Where are we?”

“In Virginia, near Gainesville. Reynolds left her car in the garage and I still had the keys. We drove back to get my car, left her car there, and then we drove around until we found this place,” said Knox. “We’ve been sitting here waiting for you to wake up.”

Puller rubbed his head and winced at the lump on the back of it.

“Couple of times we came close to taking you to the hospital,” said Knox. “That would have required some problematic explanations. But if you started going downhill fast we would have.”

Puller glanced at the window, where he could see the dusk gathering outside. “The whole thing happened last night?”

Knox nodded.

“So what exactly happened?” he demanded.

“You remember the explosion?” asked Knox anxiously.

“I’m not suffering from memory loss, if that’s what you’re asking,” said Puller. “I saw the detonation belt around Schindler. We ran for it. We were in the stairwell. The bomb went off and then I was flying through the air. And hit something very hard.”

“That would be the wall, Junior,” said Robert.

“It felt more like an Abrams tank.” He glanced around at the space. “What is this place?”

“Motel room,” said Knox.

“So how did we get out of the building Reynolds took us to?”

“Fortunately, your brother and I had made the turn going to the second landing. You got far more of the blast than we did, although we got knocked around too. It’s a good thing your brother was there. He carried you out over his shoulder. I never would have had the strength.”

Robert said, “I haven’t had to carry you that much since you were four years old. And you weigh a hell of a lot more now.”

“Cops show up?”

“I’m sure they did. But we managed to get out first.” She rubbed his face again with the cloth. “How are you really feeling?”

“Better than I have a right to, I guess.”

She sat back and sighed. “Best-laid plans. I’ve been working undercover on this case for two months, I finally get to who I think is the bigwig, and find out Reynolds suckered me.”

“She suckered us all,” pointed out Robert. “She obviously trusts no one.”

“But I delivered you right to her. I acted my part really well. I almost deafened you to gain her confidence.” She touched Robert’s arm. “I’m sorry about that. It was an ad-lib. I had to sell that I was really a traitor.”

“I understand. And it seems that most of my hearing is back.”

Puller now sat up a bit, and she didn’t try to stop him. “Why didn’t you bring us in the loop before we went after Reynolds?” he said, scowling.

She shook her head. “Trying to get you up to speed on the fly right before the op? No way. You wouldn’t have been prepped well enough. You would have said something or done something or made the wrong look, and Reynolds is too sharp. She would have picked up on it. I had to let you act exactly how you felt: convinced that I had betrayed you.”

“Well, I bought your act,” said Puller grumpily. “But you took a risk by not telling me. I might have shot you.”

“I had to take that risk. I worked too hard on this sucker. But when I saw Schindler, I was stunned. I didn’t figure him for it at all. But there he was.” She glanced at Puller. “But it was all a façade. A trick. How did you know?”

“I could see it in his eyes. Up closer they were glassy. And he hadn’t moved a muscle.”

“He was already disabled,” added Robert. “They probably used a paralytic.”

Puller said, “Reynolds was obviously testing your loyalty. That’s why she moved to shoot Bobby. If you were really on her side, you’d let that happen. You weren’t and you didn’t.”

“So she was able to get me to blow my own cover.”