The Escape (John Puller, #3)(129)

Knox eagerly eyed the figure behind the desk. “May I be formally introduced?”

Reynolds switched on a light. It barely illuminated the room. Everything was cast in shadows. But there was one thing they could see clearly.

Knox gasped. Puller took a step closer.

Robert said nothing, but he stared at the man sitting rigidly behind the desk.

From the shadows, James Schindler stared back at them, his eyes wide and penetrating. He seemed to be silently appraising the situation.

Knox pulled her gaze from Schindler and looked at Reynolds. “I have to hand it to you, your access goes right to the top.”

Reynolds smiled. “For what we’re planning we needed it.”

“And now I can help you execute that plan.”

“Which is why we’re here. But first things first.” She pulled her gun, slid a suppressor on the muzzle, pointed it at Robert Puller, and said, “You can’t believe how long I’ve waited for this.”

Before she could fire Knox kicked the gun out of her hand. Then she whirled and clipped Reynolds’s legs out from under her. The woman fell hard to the floor.

A moment later Knox tossed two guns. A stunned Puller caught one and Robert the other. The brothers looked confusedly at each other.

Puller said, “Knox, what the hell is—”

Knox yelled out, “I’ll explain later. Keep your guns on Reynolds. Don’t let her out of your sight.”

Robert aimed his gun at Reynolds, who was still on the floor.

When Puller looked over at the desk, Schindler hadn’t moved a muscle. He still just sat there. Puller’s jaw went slack as the truth hit him.

Knox pointed her pistol at Schindler. “You’re under arrest. Get up! Now!”

“Knox!” Puller called out. “Something’s way off.”

Knox shot him a glance. “What?”

The glass behind Schindler shattered as the high-powered round crashed through it.

The Pullers and Knox dropped to the floor.

“That shot came from the building across the street,” yelled out Puller.

Another shot shattered a second section of glass. Then more high-velocity rounds poured through these openings, slamming into walls and the floor. One hit the light fixture and it exploded, throwing them into near-complete darkness.

“What the hell is going on?” shouted Knox from behind the chair where she had taken cover.

“Just stay down,” Puller called back.

“Wait a minute, where’s Reynolds?” cried out Robert.

They all looked around the darkened room.

“I think I heard the elevator when the shots were going off,” said Robert.

They looked around but no one moved. Puller waited for more shots to be fired, but none were.

A moment later Puller rose cautiously and peered at the shattered windows. When Knox started to get up he said sharply, “Stay down. The shooter might still be out there.”

Robert had crawled over to the desk to examine Schindler, who still had not moved, even when the shots had started. “John!” he said frantically.

Puller shot across the room to kneel next to his brother. “What is it?”

Robert pulled back Schindler’s jacket.

As soon as Puller saw it he grabbed his brother and pushed him toward the elevator. “Go! Go!”

He next shouted at Knox. “Run, Knox!”

The three sprinted for the elevator, but when Knox hit the button it did not light up.

“Reynolds might’ve disabled it,” said Robert.

Puller looked left and then right and spotted the door at the end of the vestibule. It was locked when he tried the handle. He pulled his M11 and shot the lock off.

“What is it?” yelled Knox before Puller pushed her through the opening and then did the same with his brother.

“Move!”

He closed the door behind him and sprinted down the steps toward the first landing. Knox and Robert reached it first, turned, and headed down the stairs to the second landing.

Puller had almost reached the first landing when the detonation occurred. The concussive force blew the door to the stairs off its hinges and the compressed air surged downward like a million-mile-per-hour tidal wave.

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.





CHAPTER





64



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?”