Дэвид Балдаччи - The Escape

“If it’s true,” said Puller.

Carter scoffed. “Why would she make something like that up? It would just bring her into this mess when she wasn’t involved at all. She would have no incentive to lie.”

“Incentives are in the eye of the beholder, at least that’s been my experience,” said Puller.

“And my experience, Mr. Puller, is to see things as they present themselves. And as opposed to your brother’s actions, Ms. Reynolds is by far the more reliable witness. She is a valuable employee and has faithfully served this country for many years.”

“I’m just pointing out that we don’t have all the facts yet.”

“Your bias in favor of your brother is natural.” Carter looked first at Rinehart and then at Schindler. “Which makes it very difficult for me to understand why you are even involved in this investigation.”

“He’s involved, Donovan, because we asked him to be involved,” replied Rinehart stiffly.

Schindler added, “With the knowledge he has of his brother we felt, along with his training as an investigator, that he held a good chance of tracking him down. Maybe the best chance.”

“Well, that hasn’t happened, has it?” countered Carter.

“I haven’t even been on the case for a full week,” said Puller, who suddenly realized it felt more like a year.

“And there are other forces pursuing Robert Puller,” added Rinehart. “We don’t have all of our eggs in one basket.”

“Well, I will presume you know what you’re doing,” said Carter, as their meal was served.

They ate mostly in silence, with only an occasional question and reply. After their coffees and a port for Rinehart had come, Puller glanced at Knox before saying to the three men, “We learned that my brother received a threatening letter during his court-martial. A letter that said if he didn’t basically lie down and let himself be convicted that my father and I would come to harm.”

He quickly looked at Rinehart, Schindler, and Carter to see their reactions. He was disappointed because none of them seemed remotely surprised.

“We’re aware of that, Puller,” said Rinehart.

“I was told it was not disclosed to anyone.”

Schindler said, “Don’t believe for a minute that we are relying on you solely to further this investigation. As General Rinehart said, our eggs are not in one basket.”

Rinehart said, “We’re employing scorched earth here, Puller. We talked to both defense counsel and the prosecutor in the case. And to the judge. We learned about the letter from Doug Fletcher, among other things.”

“I interviewed him, but he didn’t mention talking to you.”

“That is because my people told him not to disclose the interview. And even though he’s no longer in the military, he knows how to obey an order from a three-star.”

“And why was it important to keep this from me?”

“It wasn’t necessarily done to keep it from you. I wasn’t aware you were going to even speak with him. It was done, in a blanket way, to keep this matter in as tight a group of need-to-know as possible.”

“And what did you think about the existence of the letter?”

“Robert Puller could have easily written it himself. That’s why it wasn’t introduced into evidence.”

“That’s not exactly right. It wasn’t introduced into evidence because my brother wouldn’t let it be. I’m assuming Fletcher told your people that?”

“So what? Even if it had been introduced, there was no way to validate its authenticity.”

“But that’s the point. My brother would have known that. So why would he even bother to make it up? It couldn’t help him at all.”

Schindler said, “You don’t know that for certain. Maybe he had a change of heart after he wrote it, and decided not to use it. Maybe he thought it might carry some weight on appeal. I don’t know because I’m not a lawyer. Your brother is by all accounts a genius. Sometimes geniuses do irrational things. Sometimes they are delusional. Perhaps he felt guilty about what he’d done and wrote the letter and invented the story to make up for it somehow, at least in his mind.”

“My brother is not some sort of crazy genius. He had no delusions. He’s as pragmatic as I am.”

Carter said, “But you weren’t around him all the time back then, were you, Puller? You were off serving your country. People change.”

“Not like that. Not my brother.”

Carter finished his coffee, wiped his mouth with his napkin, and turned to Rinehart. “I think we’ve exhausted the possibilities of this meeting.”

Rinehart nodded and took a last sip of his port.

Before the men could stand, Puller said to Carter, “And why have you been brought into the tight circle of need-to-know?”

“Puller, Mr. Carter is the director of DTRA, for God’s sake,” Rinehart said sternly. “He oversees a three-billion-dollar budget with personnel deployed in over a dozen countries. His specific security clearances are at the very highest level.”

“I have no doubt they are. I was just inquiring as to why he’s involved in this particular matter.”

Before Rinehart could respond, Carter held up his hand. “I’ll field this one, Aaron, if you don’t mind.” He turned to Puller. “As I said, before I was in charge of DTRA, I worked where your brother was headed before he went to prison. There one of my colleagues was the unfortunate General Tim Daughtrey when he was still a colonel. I never worked with your brother back then, but I had met him. I saw as much potential in him as I’d ever seen in anyone. I didn’t consider myself a mentor to him, because frankly I didn’t think myself smart enough. And Robert Puller had plenty of mentors since everyone was racing to attach themselves to his coat-tails. I didn’t want to believe that he was guilty, but I have to accept facts too. Now, my immediate interest in this? As you know, your brother was at the heart of many programs, which in turn are at the very core of what this country does in both the intelligence collection and nuclear defense fields. In addition to my duties at DTRA, my main objective at the center is to locate WMDs and prevent them from falling into the hands of our enemies. The work that your brother did at STRATCOM has a direct connection to what I try to do at the center. If he’s escaped and people that he was selling secrets to are active once more, then I need to know what is going on. This country has many enemies and many issues confronting it, everything from cyber warfare to corporate espionage. But there is no more paramount concern than rogue WMDs being used against us. A crew of cyber warriors can attack the grid, knock out data servers, and hack into millions of credit card accounts. But a single WMD of sufficient magnitude can wipe out a city and kill hundreds of thousands of people. Credit cards can be replaced. People can’t. So which do you think is more problematic from a security perspective?”

“Thanks for answering my question, sir,” said Puller.

Carter rose, gave a slight bow followed by a tight smile. “You’re quite welcome.”

RINEHART AND SCHINDLER left in a car driven by a man in uniform. Puller was heading out too when Knox gripped his arm, holding him back.

“Just give it a minute, Puller.”

Shortly after that Donovan Carter approached them in the lobby.

“Have time for a nightcap?” he asked, looking at one and then the other.

Puller glanced at Knox, who said, “Sounds like an offer we can’t refuse, sir.”

They walked to the bar on the second floor. There were only a few people left there and they took a table in the back. Carter ordered a whiskey soda, Knox a glass of Prosecco, and Puller a Heineken. When the drinks arrived, Carter extracted a pill from a silver case and swallowed it along with some of his whiskey.