Дэвид Балдаччи - The Escape

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.

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.”

“I’m glad you did,” said Robert. “Otherwise I wouldn’t be here. I could see the look in her eye. She was going to pull the trigger.”

“But why all the shots fired through the window?” asked Knox, who immediately answered her own question: “So Reynolds could get away.”

Puller nodded. “It was slickly done, I have to admit.”

She sat back and folded the cloth into a square. “This was my only shot to get them, Puller. They’re long gone now.”

“I’m surprised you got as far as you did with them,” he replied.

“It wasn’t easy. When we were tipped off about Robert, that he might be innocent, we went back over his case in detail. One thing stuck out for us: Susan Reynolds.”

“But how did you approach her?” asked Robert.

“I didn’t. I let her approach me. We had set up my cover quite convincingly. I was passed over for a promotion. There were certain irregularities in my record, the accusation of a bribe. She could have gained access to this information quite easily. One day she called me out of the blue.” She looked at Robert. “I told your brother that we had received an anonymous tip about you. It said that you were innocent and that a co-worker of yours was not the loyal person they claimed to be.”

“When did you get the tip?” asked Robert.

“About four months before all hell broke loose at DB and the attempt was made on your life.”

“So that was the catalyst,” said Robert.

Puller interjected, “I think it might have been Niles Robinson. Guilty conscience.”

“As I told Puller, unfortunately, we were probably the ones who almost got you killed. We obviously had a leak at INSCOM. Word got out we were looking into your case. We believe that prompted the assassination attempt on you.”

“Well, it also gave me the opportunity to escape.”

“So we decided to lay a trap for Reynolds. I was with INSCOM. I was possibly damaged goods. I could be helpful to them. It took two months, because she was very cautious. Then she made contact. A phone call, an email, a text. A face-to-face in an out-of-the-way place. Then things started to heat up quickly. I had no idea about the hit at DB on you, Robert. I wasn’t in the circle on that one. I already told Puller that. But when it happened and you escaped, Reynolds met with me again. She needed me to be part of the investigation.”

“Why not just pull the plug on her right then?” asked Puller.

“Because we might get her but no one else. And we still didn’t know what the endgame was. It couldn’t just be the murder of your brother. We needed to know what they were after. If we pulled the trigger too soon, we’d never find out what that was.”