The Escape (John Puller, #3)(42)

“This and that, Shireen,” replied Puller.

“We haven’t worked a case in a while.”

“Maybe we’re about due.”

“Wait a minute, didn’t you just shoot somebody in Nebraska?”

“Oklahoma.”

“Right, one of those flyover states. Saw something come across my desk about it. You okay?”

“I’m fine. The other guy isn’t. I didn’t kill him, but he’ll be walking funny for a while. Not how I wanted it to go down, but he didn’t give me a choice.”

“Where are you now?”

“Kansas.”

There was a long moment of silence. Puller could almost hear her mind sorting through things and compiling data, with a conclusion soon forthcoming.

“DB,” she said.

“DB’s here, all right.”

“A little surprised you are,” she said warily, as though she were being wiretapped and suspected a legal trap.

“I was too. But it’s all official and authorized.”

She said in an incredulous tone, “You’re not saying you’re investigating the escape?”

“That’s exactly what I’m saying.”

“Get off it! You’re shitting me.”

“No.”

“Has the Army lost its damn mind?”

“I can’t really answer that.”

“Then have you lost your mind?”

“I hope not.”

“Well, I hope your authorizations go about as high as they can go, otherwise I might be prosecuting you for about a dozen violations of military law, Puller.”

“I wouldn’t be here if they didn’t, Shireen.”

“In writing. Sometimes a CO’s memory sucks when the shit hits the fan.”

“Got ’em in writing. Army three-star and the NSC with trickle down the chain of command to my CO good enough for you?”

“Well sonofabitch, will wonders never cease? Why are you calling? If you’re in Kansas it’s too far to catch a beer together.”

“I’m calling about my brother.”

“What would I know about your brother? Other than he’s apparently escaped from DB? And you’re there, apparently investigating a crime you shouldn’t be within a continent of?”

“That word ‘apparently’ again.”

“What about it?”

“You’re not the first to use it when talking about what happened.”

“Well of course, Puller. Think about it. People don’t escape from DB. And do you believe for one second the Army wants to admit to something like that? The bigwigs are probably still praying he got stuck in a ventilation hole and it was all a big misunderstanding.”

“So my brother?”

She said nothing, but Puller could hear papers rustling and thought he detected the sound of a pen clicking. She seemed prepared to take notes. Whether this was a good thing or not, he wasn’t sure.

“I need to find out about his case.”

“His case?” she said.

“His court-martial.”

“Find out what?”

“Basically everything.”

“You don’t already know about it?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“It was sealed. I’m assuming because of the issues involved.”

“National security,” she said, and Puller could imagine her head nodding and her perhaps frowning at this. He had found that Shireen Kirk did not like secrets on either end of a case. They were a lot alike in that regard.

“Right. But why do you need to know about his case?”

“I’m trying to find him. If I knew what he went to DB for it might generate some leads for me.”

He hoped the late hour had reduced the efficiency of her bullshit meter.

“O-kay,” she said slowly, skepticism oozing from both syllables.

“I think you’d agree that breaking out of DB is pretty remarkable.”

“I think we can agree on that.”

“And maybe he had help to do it.”

“So you think whoever he was involved with before helped him escape?”

“It’s a theory.”

“He’s been at DB for how long?”

“Over two years.”

“Long time to wait to bust somebody out.”

“Not really. Not if you have to acquire the tools with which to do so.”

“Inside help, you mean?”

“That wouldn’t come easily or cheaply. At least I hope it wouldn’t, since it might implicate folks in uniform.”

“Well, if the file is sealed, I’m not sure there’s much I can do. And if you’ve been authorized to investigate this case you should be able to get it unsealed going through appropriate channels.”

“Maybe, maybe not. But right now I prefer not to employ proper channels. And I was thinking that you might know people who could unseal it.”

“That would take a court order, Puller,” she said sharply. “Because it would have taken a court order to seal it.”

“Well, I remember from high school science class that for every action there’s an equal and opposite reaction.”