The Escape (John Puller, #3)(50)

“Where exactly would he lay low on an Army base and not be noticed? Particularly if he were wearing riot gear.”

“Probably had the gear in a duffel. This base has thousands of soldiers. To a certain extent they look alike, particularly in uniform. And there are plenty of places here to hide. And I’m sure that Mesic had scoped one out for him and probably drove him right to it. Maybe one of the base churches. That time of night it might have been empty.”

Knox looked unconvinced. “This is all quite a leap of logic. We don’t even know if this Mesic guy is involved.”

“He left early? Orders from home? What could be that important in Croatia to call him back early? And coincidentally on the day the storm was forecast and all hell broke loose at DB?”

“And if the guy did infiltrate the response team, why? What was his motive for going into DB?”

“I’ve been giving that some thought.”

“And?” asked Knox.

“And it seems to me his mission was to kill my brother.”

“Whoa, where the hell did that come from? And you said mission?”

“That’s right. This was all carefully planned with a lot of moving pieces. This guy didn’t just walk into this. He was sent here to kill my brother.”

“But he ended up dead.”

“Because my brother killed him first.”

“I don’t see where you’re getting all this.”

Puller said, “Before the power went out my brother was sitting in his cell reading a book. I read his body language. It wasn’t hard. For him this was a night like any other night he’s spent here. He wasn’t tense. He wasn’t anticipating anything more than falling asleep once he’d finished reading.”

“And then the power went out,” said Knox slowly.

“And all hell breaks loose. Sounds of gunfire and a bomb going off, when neither thing actually happened.”

“And your brother?”

“He’s smart beyond smart. I think he figured out what was coming and was ready when the guy burst into his cell to kill him.”

“Snap-crackle-pop,” said Knox. “So you did teach him that move.”

“Yeah, I did.”

“But if what you say is true, your brother still willingly escaped from DB. He took the guy’s clothes, climbed onto a truck, rode it back to Leavenworth, and then walked away.”

“Look at it from his point of view. He’s just killed a guy. He doesn’t know the man isn’t an MP. But he somehow knows the guy was trying to kill him. But who’s going to believe that? He stays at DB and they find the dead guy, my brother is probably looking at a guaranteed death penalty. And while they haven’t executed anyone there since the 1960s, I think they’d make an exception for something like that.”

“But they’d know the dead guy wasn’t an MP,” Knox pointed out.

“Who cares? He’s still dead. And maybe you don’t know this, but there were some in the military community who thought my brother should have been put to death for treason after his court-martial. I heard plenty of scuttlebutt afterward. This would give them the perfect opportunity to push for it again.”

Knox considered all this and finally said, “I admit, I can’t find an obvious flaw in your logic, but there’s still a ton that doesn’t make sense to me. And how does this tie in with Daughtrey’s death?”

“It may not.”

“And why would a Croatian military man be involved in sneaking an assassin onto a U.S. base?”

“I wish Mesic were around so I could ask him. If he’s even still alive.”

“You don’t think he made it back to Croatia?”

“Oh, I don’t think he was ever headed to Croatia. Now let’s take a ride. I have something I want to show you, Knox.”

“Is it important?”

“Very.”





CHAPTER





26



PULLER WAS SITTING on the hood of his car in the parking lot of the Fort Leavenworth National Cemetery. To the immediate east was the Missouri River, and on the other side of the river was the state of Missouri. A bit north of here the river began its long bend, shaped much like a bell curve. Inside this curve were Sherman Airfield and Chief Joseph Loop.

Knox stood next to the car looking curiously at Puller.

“What are we doing here?” she asked, gazing around at the white tombstones under which lay over thirty thousand dead.

“Lincoln established this cemetery back in 1862, when the Union was losing the Civil War. It was the first of twelve national cemeteries he set up.”

“Okay, and the reason for this history lesson?”

Puller slid off the hood and his feet hit the ground. “He knew it was going to be a long and deadly conflict. But losers don’t establish national cemeteries. A president presiding over a fractured country doesn’t set up a national anything unless he truly believes he’s going to win the war and the country will be reunited.”

“Lincoln was nothing if not confident, I guess,” said Knox, who still looked perplexed by Puller’s words.

“People who lack confidence rarely win anything,” he noted.

He strode into the cemetery and she followed. He walked the rows of tombstones before stopping and pointing at one.