“Let’s go.”
He popped the trunk and pulled out from his duffel a set of NV goggles.
“Good thing I didn’t have my duffel in the car when we went into the water.”
“Yeah, good thing it was just us in the car,” shot back Knox.
They hoofed it as close to Ballard’s place as they could without the possibility of being seen. Hidden behind a sand dune, Puller powered up his goggles and took a sweep of the place.
“Initial conclusions?” asked Knox a minute later.
“My brother was being quite literal when he called it a fortress.”
“Great.”
“High stone walls. Big gate, exterior security, and I’m betting internal sweeps. No doubt they have electronic surveillance as well.”
“Just another quiet, relaxed day at the beach.”
“Paul said he got in there.”
“Yeah, well he’s Superman and Spider-Man rolled into one, remember?”
“Let’s time the security sweeps for the next hour and go from there.”
Puller shimmied up a tree and viewed th
e interior of the compound’s courtyard.
A few minutes later an SUV pulled down the road and the gates opened to admit it. Puller watched as it swung into the courtyard and backed up to a set of French doors. Men got out of the vehicle and opened its rear doors.
The French doors opened a moment later and Puller watched as a gurney was rolled out. It was quickly loaded into the back of the SUV.
Puller climbed back down. When his boots hit sand he grabbed Knox’s arm.
“What’s going on?” she said.
“They’re transferring a ‘patient.’”
“What patient? Ballard?”
“Not Ballard. Paul.”
“You’re sure?”
“I saw him.”
They reached their car as the SUV passed. Puller slipped in behind the other vehicle.
“Where do you think they’re taking him?” asked Knox.
“We’re not going to find out.”
“What!”
“Hold on.”
Puller sped up, cut to the left, hit the gas, paralleled the SUV, and rammed it with his car.
“Shit, Puller!” exclaimed Knox as she grabbed a handhold on the ceiling of the car.
The SUV veered over and rammed Puller’s car back.
The bumpers locked, which was what Puller had been hoping for. He hit the brakes and forced the other vehicle to slow and then go off the road. He slammed the car into park and jumped out, gun in one hand and his badge in the other.
“Federal officers, get out of the vehicle. Now!”
Knox had emerged from the passenger side and had her gun out too.
“Now!” barked Puller. “Or we will open fire. You are completely surrounded and we have a chopper coming in.”
The two front doors of the vehicle opened and two men got out, hands up.
Puller said, “On the ground, facedown, hands behind your head, fingers interlocked. Do it. Now!”
The men hit the dirt and did what he ordered.
Knox cleared the rest of the car. It was empty except for Rogers in the far back.
Puller cuffed the two men and then ran to the back of the SUV and threw open the doors. Rogers looked at him groggily. “What are you doing here?”
“Saving your butt. Can you walk?”
Rogers shook his head. “Temporary nerve blockers.”
Puller hefted Rogers over his shoulder and carried him to their car and put him in the backseat, buckling him in.
“Hey!” screamed one of the cuffed men on the ground. “What about us?”
“Hire a good lawyer,” replied Knox.
Puller managed to disentangle the bumpers and then he pointed the vehicle back toward Virginia.
From the backseat Rogers said, “They took Josh Quentin and Helen Myers. They were with me when Jericho came and gassed me.”
“Why were they with you?” asked Puller.
“I wanted to use them to get to Jericho. But she tricked me. She took me somewhere and performed all these tests on me. She wants to figure out what went wrong and then restart the program. She’s fucking nuts.”
“Where were you when she took you?” asked Knox.
“At Quentin’s, or now I know it’s Myers’s beach house. You know where that is?”
Puller nodded. “Yeah, but what time was that?”
“Around eight in the morning.”
“We got there at nine and searched the place. There was no one there. But we did see Myers’s and Quentin’s cars in the garage.”
His phone buzzed. It was his brother.
Puller took a couple minutes filling him in, but it appeared his brother was just waiting for him to finish before conveying his own information.
“We just found out something,” said Robert.
“What?”
“Josh Quentin’s body washed ashore on the Outer Banks this afternoon.”
Puller sucked in a quick breath. “Homicide?”
“Clearly.”
“Cause of death?”
“Appears his skull was crushed in.” He paused. “Maybe like some of the dead women.”
Puller glanced in the rearview at Rogers.
“Thanks for the info, Bobby.”
“What are you going to do with him?”
“Right now, I’m not sure.”