The Escape (John Puller, #3)(135)

“You can tell me who you tipped off, Susan. And what they plan to do with the canisters. And you can tell me right now.”

Reynolds didn’t even flinch. “That was quite a segue, Mal. I’m not sure I’ve seen better. Or worse, depending on one’s perspective.”

“You were my point of contact at the center. You said you sent the intel on the target site onward. I’m sure you did. I just need to know to whom.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“I won’t insult your intelligence, so please don’t insult mine. Donovan Carter called me the day he died. He told me he wanted to talk about something important. When I asked him what, he only mentioned one name. Yours. He knew we were friends. He knew we were working together.”

Reynolds drank some more of her wine. “And what did dear departed Donovan say about me?”

“That he had doubts as to your loyalty. That issues had been raised. That people were making inquiries and forming sound arguments about your possible treachery. That you might have even framed Robert Puller in order to place your own person at ISR.”

“He was that specific? And I thought I had been totally exonerated.”

“That’s highly doubtful, since I believe that you had him killed.”

She waggled a finger and gave him a sly look. “And yet you had dinner with me on the very night he died. Have you no heart, Mal?”

“I didn’t want to believe it of you, of course. You have a first-rate intellect.” His gaze wandered over her body. “Along with other attributes.”

“I seemed to have dressed up for no good reason tonight.” She smiled warmly, her eyes crinkling. “Yet I did get your mind to wander, it seems. You have no idea what you’re missing out on tonight, Mal. Your timing is absolutely horrendous.”

“Stop treating this like a game, Susan! Do you really deny any of what I’ve said?”

She shrugged. “I can tell you’ve made up your mind. And I’ve never been one to waste time, Mal. And I’m sorry. I liked you. I really did.”

“You used me to get what you wanted.”

“I did. But you see, I only use the ones I really like. And just to clarify, the Russians did manage to aerosolize it. A number of years ago. Then the bastards somehow managed to lose it in Africa. Those were the canisters you retrieved. And I thank you very much for your hard work in doing so. It would have been beyond my capabilities, which was why I called on my good friend and fellow START verifier to do it for me.”

Aust said forcefully, “Where are the canisters, Susan? You know as well as anyone what damage they can cause. You will tell me right now, or I swear to God–”

She rose. “I need a drink stronger than wine. Is the scotch in the same place?” She didn’t wait for an answer but walked over to the cabinet set against one wall, opened the door, and pulled out a bottle.

Watching her closely, Aust kept his gun trained on her. “I want an answer, Susan. If you work with me, we might be able to undo the damage you’ve done. That will help your cause later on.”

She took down a tumbler from a shelf and unscrewed the top of the scotch. “I appreciate the professional courtesy, Mal, I really do. It’s rather gallant of you. But I don’t need your consideration. I’m sticking with the ones who brought me to the party.” She poured out a portion of the scotch into a tumbler and swirled it around.

“So you would betray your own country?”

“Well, I don’t see it that way.”

“You’re an American!”

She turned back to face him. “I don’t go by those types of old-fashioned allegiances anymore. They just don’t work for me.”

He tightened his grip on the pistol. “Listen to yourself. Are you insane?”

“Well, you need to get out more. Because these days everybody’s a little crazy.”

She raised her glass as though in salute to him.

A moment later a bullet broke through the window behind Aust and slammed into the back of his head. Aust fell sideways off his chair and thudded to the floor.

Reynolds took a sip of scotch and then put down the glass. She didn’t look at Aust as she stepped over his body and walked out of the house.





CHAPTER





66



THEY HAD OBVIOUSLY left Robert behind when they went to DTRA. Their badges got them into the building and security escorted them to Reynolds’s office.

As the guard unlocked her door using his master key he said, “She won’t be in until tomorrow morning.”

Puller said, “I doubt very much she’s going to be in ever again.”

He switched on the lights and strode across the room to stand behind her desk. “You remember I said something was off when we left Reynolds’s office last time?” She nodded. He picked up the photo he had seen previously when they visited Reynolds here. “Well, this was off.”

Knox said, “How so?”

He pointed to a younger Reynolds standing in a row of men. “There she is.”

“Okay, so what?”

He pointed at some writing at the bottom of the photo. “The caption says this was the START verification team.”

“Again, so what?”