Дэвид Балдаччи - No Man's Land

“So maybe who you used to be is coming back?” suggested Puller.

Rogers gaped at him. It was clear he had never considered this possibility.

“I’m not sure I even remember who I was,” he said quietly.

“But why all these painful attacks?” asked Knox.

Rogers rubbed his legs. “They installed an endoskeleton made of composites. Made me the strongest person on earth.”

“So what’s happening to it?” asked Knox.

“After thirty years it appears to be dissolving. Or maybe my body’s finally rejecting it, I don’t know.”

“Is there any way to reverse it?” asked Puller.

“Not so anyone’s told me.”

Puller and Knox exchanged a glance. Puller shook his head.

Knox said, “Okay, then we need to get to Davis and/or Myers. I have to believe that if they’re alive they’re at Ballard’s.”

Rogers said, “I got into the place before. I can do it again.”

“But this time we’ll be with you,” said Puller.

“YOU SCALED THAT wall with no rope?”

Puller, Knox, and Rogers were flat on their bellies on the beach looking up at the Ballard compound. They had on black ski masks pulled down over their faces.

Behind them the ocean surf beat on relentlessly, covering any noises they might have made.

Rogers held up his hand and flexed his fingers. “This is all I need.”

Puller carried a loop of rope over one shoulder.

Their plan was fairly straightforward. Rogers would scale the wall and then use the rope to get Puller and Knox to the top of it.

They had watched the sentries making their rounds. The guards had changed it up from the last time Rogers had been here, but there were still gaps in the system.

“They’re going to be on higher alert,” said Knox. “They know you got away and that you’re with us.”

“And we’re not going to kill any of them unless we have to,” Puller said to Rogers.

The man shrugged. “If they try to kill me, I will kill them. You got a problem with that, stay on the beach.”

Puller stared at him for a long moment. “Actually, that’s the same rule I have.”

They had chosen the far left corner of the wall to make their ascent. Rogers had given his shoes and socks to Puller, who’d put them in his small knapsack.

Puller and Knox watched as Rogers, the rope looped around his shoulder, scaled the wall like he was walking down the street. He reached the top, scanned all around, and then lifted himself onto the top of the wall and lay flat.

Knox looked at Puller. “Okay, now I’ve seen everything.”

“You might see even more in just a few minutes.”

Rogers let the rope down, wound the other end around his waist, and gripped the edge of the capstone as he served as the anchor point for the other two.

Knox went first, and within ten seconds she was lying next to Rogers.

Puller joined them in about the same amount of time.

They peered into the courtyard, saw that their way was clear, and used the same process to descend into the courtyard. They raced to a far corner of one of the outbuildings and took stock of their situation.

They shrank farther back as an armed guard came into view and met up with another on rounds. The men briefly spoke before moving on separately.

Rogers pointed to an upstairs window on the main house. “That’s Davis’s room.”

“How do you know that?” asked Knox.

“I brought her here after she went on a bender at the Grunt. Ballard’s room is at the top. He’s got most of the floor. Or whoever it is up there. I don’t know where Myers might be.”

“And they know you killed the ‘fake’ Ballard?” whispered Puller.

Rogers nodded. “I told Jericho.”

Puller nodded and pulled from his knapsack two metal objects roughly the size of his hand. “Ready?”

They both nodded.

“Go.”

Knox and Rogers crept around the interior of the courtyard, closely following the track of the guards making their rounds. When they got near the front entrance they stopped.

Knox looked at her watch, counted down, and then gave a thumbs-up to Rogers.

A second later the quiet was broken by glass being shattered, followed by twin explosions. Smoke started pouring out of the upstairs windows of the main house.

Screams were heard, an alarm went off, and Knox and Rogers shrank back into the shadows as the guards ran pell-mell toward the main house.

An SUV pulled up to the main gate and the driver leapt out and rushed over to the main house, leaving the vehicle running.

A minute later four guards rushed outside. Suzanne Davis, in a bathrobe, Helen Myers, fully dressed, and an old man in a wheelchair were with them.

They headed straight for the SUV.

And ran right into Rogers and Knox.

And Puller on the backside.

Rogers took one of the guards and threw him so hard against another that they both hit the wall and slumped down unconscious.

Knox had her gun aimed at the head of a third guard. “Put it down,” she said.

He dropped the gun and Rogers walloped him on the head, sending him unconscious to the cobblestones.

Puller knocked out the fourth guard.

Knox pushed Davis and Myers into the rear seat. Rogers lifted the now agitated old man from the wheelchair and into the front seat.

Puller took the wheel of the SUV and drove it straight out of the gates, which opened automatically from a sensor on the inside.

Myers looked at each of them. “What the hell is going on?”

Rogers pulled off his ski mask.

“You!” she said, obviously stunned.

“Me,” he said simply.

“And your friends?”

“Here to rescue you,” said Rogers.

Puller and Knox took off their masks.

Myers smiled. “Thank God for rescuers.”

Rogers glanced at Davis.

“I wasn’t aware I needed rescuing,” she said bluntly.

Puller drove to where he had parked their car and the group transferred to that vehicle.

Once they were on the road again, Rogers asked Myers, “What happened after I got knocked out?”

“Men came in and took me out. I don’t know what happened to Josh.”

“We do,” said Puller. “He’s dead.”

“What?” said Myers.

“Washed up on the beach with his head bashed in.”

Rogers eyed Davis again. “How do you feel about that?”

“Probably the same as you do. Nothing.”

Knox looked at the old man, who was unfocused, his head tilting to one side. “I’m thinking plastic surgery on the face and other stuff to make him look like Ballard.”

Puller glanced in the rearview at Myers and then Davis. “Work with us and maybe you get a deal.”

“A deal for what?” said Myers sharply. “I wasn’t aware I’d done anything wrong.”

Knox said, “Anton Charpentier. And we have the pictures to prove it. The Feds are already working up their indictments.”

Myers paled and glanced out the window.

Rogers said, “They want Jericho. Not the small fish. You talk, maybe you walk.”

Myers said, “I…I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?” said Knox incredulously. She looked at Davis. “Okay, so we nail her ass for espionage and she goes away for life. How about you? You want to deal?”

Rogers glanced at her. “Don’t be dumb.”

Davis shrugged.

Puller added, “Cooperate now and it will only help you down the line.”

“They just hired me to look after this guy,” she said, indicating the old man. “Other than that, I don’t know squat.”

“ Guys , don’t you mean?” said Knox.

“I don’t know, do I?”

“You play games, you’re going to do some hard time.”

“Well, I guess that’s why they have lawyers.”