Дэвид Балдаччи - The Escape

WITH THEIR GUNS OUT, Knox and Robert approached the car parked off a back road. The security forces guarding them had fanned out looking for Anton Bok, but Knox and Robert had stayed together and broken off in this direction while the others had headed to other areas. Knox reached the car first and peered inside.

It was empty.

“Look out!” yelled Robert. “On your six.”

Knox leapt over the hood a split second before machine-gun fire raked the front of the car, blowing out the front tire and destroying the headlight on that side.

As Knox hit the ground hard on the other side of the car her gun popped out of her hand.

Robert fired at the gunman, but Bok had already taken cover behind a tree. He stepped out and unloaded again, spraying shots at the spot from where Robert had fired. Bark and leaves were blown off trees.

But that was all, because Robert was no longer there.

Bok took up cover once more and then moved to a new spot.

Knox slid on her belly and snagged her gun. She did a turkey peek over the car and fired a handful of shots in Bok’s direction.

None of the rounds found their target because Bok was on the move again. He circled around, intending to come at Knox from her exposed flank.

She deduced this and fast-crawled to the rear of the car.

Bok stepped clear of the trees a moment later and raked the car with fire. The tires on that side deflated and one of the rounds struck the fuel tank. Gas started to splash onto the road.

Bok took a moment to reload his weapon.

Robert called out, “Move, Knox! The gas!”

She looked back at him, then at the gas, then over at where Bok had been.

She turned to run as Robert stepped out into the clearing at the same time that Bok did.

Both men fired at the same time.

Bok had reloaded with incendiary rounds. When his round hit the gas tank the Ford sedan exploded.

A small but still lethal chunk of the car came swirling at Robert. He tried to duck, but the metal caught him in the arm, slicing it open and knocking the gun out of his hand. Staggered, he grabbed his bloody limb and looked around desperately for Knox.

“Knox!”

There was no answer.

He looked across the way as the smoke started to lift. Through the flames eating at the car he saw Bok standing there, his gun pointed directly at him.

“Susan’s been shot. She’s in custody,” Robert called out.

Bok said nothing to this. He walked forward. He fired a round at Robert’s feet. And then another. Robert backed away holding his arm.

Bok walked forward. “Then I have nothing left to live for, do I?”

“That’s your choice,” said Robert.

“I have no idea how someone like you could be so, how do you say, fortunate,” said Bok. “Susan was far more talented. Far more dedicated. She cared far more than you ever would.”

“For the Russians. ”

“I made her see the light. That was my job.”

“And her job was not to turn traitor. On that I’d say she failed spectacularly. And, by the way, we totally kicked her ass.”

“Your country has had its day. It’s time for new world leaders. The Stars and Stripes are done. She could see that clearly, even if the likes of you could not.”

“And you think Russia will fill that void?” said Robert incredulously. “You’ve got a shirtless leader, an economy totally based on fossil fuels, and a military that can’t even control its own nukes. Not a recipe for domination. More likely a rapid decline.”

Bok stopped a few feet from Robert and then looked to the side. “Tell her that,” he said, indicating something with his gun barrel.

Robert looked where he was pointing.

Knox lay in the grass under the trees, the side of her head bleeding. Her breathing was ragged, her chest heaving.

Robert’s lip trembled. “You’re never going to make it out of here alive, Bok.”

Bok said nothing.

Robert said, “You can kill me too. But you just blew up your only way out of here.”

“As I said, it doesn’t matter to me anymore. Not with Susan gone. We were in love, you know.”

“I seriously doubt people as twisted as the two of you could possibly love anything.”

Bok raised his gun and pointed it at Robert’s head. “This is for Susan.”

From the corner of his eye Robert saw Knox slowly sit up, her gun in her hand. She fired. A shot hit Bok smack in the middle of the head. He dropped where he stood.

Robert looked back over his shoulder. Knox’s shot had sailed wide of its mark. The other shot had not.

John Puller was just lowering his sniper rifle. At this close range it was a devastating weapon against flesh, bone, and brains.

“And that was for my brother,” he said to the dead man.

Behind him came an EMT squad with medical equipment and a gurney. They raced past where Bok lay and over to Knox. Puller hustled over to his brother and examined his bloody arm.

“How bad?” he asked.

“Not bad. I’ll make it. Take care of Knox. She’s not good.”

Puller called one of the EMTs over. The man sat Robert down and started to treat his wound.

Puller sprinted over to where Knox lay back in the grass and knelt down next to her. Two EMTs had already started to triage her.

She looked up at Puller and said, “Did I get him? Did I get Bok?”

“You nailed the prick. He’s dead.”

She smiled weakly and touched her head. “Hurts like a bitch. Worse than my hip.”

“I know. These guys here are going to take care of that.”

“Am I going to make it?”

“There is no doubt that you will.”

“Are you lying to me?”

“I’ve never really lied to you, Knox.”

She reached out and gripped his hand. “Your brother okay?”

“Good to go. Focus on yourself.”

“Hurts like shit.”

Puller stared over at one of the EMTs. “Can you do something about that? Like right now?”

The EMT said, “Trying, sir. It’s…”

Puller turned back to Knox. “We’ll get your mother to come up and stay with you while you recover.”

“You don’t want to stay with me?” she mumbled.

“I meant all of us. I’d like to meet her.”

“I think. . I think you’d like her.”

“If she’s anything like you, I’m sure I will.”

“We got her, Puller. This time we got her.”

“Yes, we got her. We got them both.”

“Hurts like hell, John.”

He gripped her hand more tightly. “You’re going to be fine, Veronica.”

“You’re a good man, John Puller. A damn good man.”

Knox slowly closed her eyes.

PULLER OPENED THE door, closed it behind him, and sat down at the small table across from her. He dropped the file folder he was carrying on the table.

Susan Reynolds was in an orange prison jumpsuit and her hands and feet were in shackles. Her left arm and shoulder were encased in a cast. She stared impassively across the width of the wood at him.

“How are the accommodations, Susan?” he asked.

“Lovely. Haven’t been this comfortable in years.”

He glanced at the cast. “The docs have instructions to go easy on the painkillers. They don’t want you to get addicted.”

“I was sure I had you to thank for that.”

“Sorry about Anton. He unfortunately lost his head back at the safe house.”

Reynolds simply stared at him.

He opened the folder. “Since I can barely stand to breathe the same air as you, let’s get down to it.” He slid a document across to her.

She didn’t even look at it. “What is it?” she asked in an indifferent tone.

“A confession. A detailed confession not only to what you’ve done recently but to what you did to frame my brother. All you have to do is sign it.”