The Escape (John Puller, #3)(97)

Despite being on the run, his brother had sounded cool and calm. And Puller had let him dictate the plan going forward, when that was not his natural inclination. Yet between the two boys Robert had always been the leader. Even if he hadn’t been older, Puller thought that would have been the case. Robert just had that way about him.

Puller waited another twenty minutes. During that time he changed out of his dress blues and into a set of fatigues he kept in the locker room. He left the building through a rear entrance and walked over to the motor pool. He checked out a four-door sedan and drove out another gate. He drove for twenty miles through rural roads, turning left and right, backtracking, stopping, going fast, then slow, and making it impossible for anyone to have followed him. He then parked a half mile away from the Holiday Inn and hoofed it the rest of the way through both woods and residential areas.

The truck with the Kansas plates was parked in front of room 103. Puller checked the bed and cab of the truck as he passed by it. He knocked on the motel room door and it opened a few seconds later after he had observed the curtain on the window adjacent to the door slide to the side just a bit as someone peered out.

Puller didn’t go in immediately. He put a hand on the butt of his holstered M11. “Bobby?” he said softly.

“Coast is clear, Junior.”

Puller walked in and closed and locked the door behind him.

There was only one light on in the small room, a table lamp next to the bed. His brother sat in a chair in the corner of the room. Through another door Puller could see the bathroom. A duffel bag was lying on the bed.

Puller sat on the edge of the bed and eyed his brother.

“Any problems getting here?” Robert asked.

“I took my time and if anyone was able to follow me then they deserve to win.”

Robert Puller rose and held out his arms. “It’s damn good to see you, John.”

Puller rose too and the two men exchanged a prolonged hug accompanied by back slaps. When they drew apart, Puller could see the moistness in his brother’s eyes and he could feel his own eyes begin to water. It was the most unusual feeling seeing his brother not a prisoner. It felt great. And it also felt fleeting and temporary. And that frightened Puller more than anything had in a long time.

Robert sat back down and Puller retook his seat on the bed. Neither man spoke for a long moment.

“How did you manage to find me?” asked Puller.

“I wasn’t following you, at least initially. I was following someone else and picked up your trail at the Army-Navy Club.”

“Who was the someone else?”

“Donovan Carter. I tracked him from Fort Belvoir. Surprised the hell out of me when you showed up.”

“Why were you following Carter?”

“I’m trying to do what I’m sure you’re trying to do: Solve a problem.”

“Of who set you up and why?”

Robert nodded. “Susan Reynolds was in on it.”

“We talked to her. She told Carter that you were at her house and threatened her. Injected her with poison.”

Robert held up his phone and pushed a button. Puller listened to the exchange between his brother and Reynolds that he’d recorded.

“It proves nothing, of course. She could just say she said it so I wouldn’t kill her. And it wasn’t poison. I just let her imagination take over and then knocked her out with a sedative.”

“Russians?” said Puller.

“A red herring, at least I think it is. You heard about Niles Robinson?”

“It was his kid that was the motivation, right?”

“Yes. He was talking to me on the phone at Union Station when someone gunned him down.”

“That’s what I figured.”

“Did you? Well, I can’t say I’m surprised. I recorded that conversation too. The salient point was he said someone might have a problem with me getting the slot at ISR.”

“Who?”

“He never got a chance to tell me.”

“Daughtrey took your slot at ISR. Then he went to Cyber Command.”

“And now he’s dead.”

“He was found in my motel room back in Kansas.”

“I saw you there with a woman. Didn’t know he was found in your room.”

“The woman is Agent Veronica Knox, INSCOM. Know her?”

“No.” He paused, eyeing his brother steadily. “I’m sure you have a lot of questions for me.”

“And some answers. DB? A Ukrainian was sent in to kill you after they orchestrated knocking out the power. A Captain Macri was in on it. Knox ended up killing her in a shootout.”

Robert fiddled with a pen he was holding. “When the guy came into my cell, I was already suspicious. I knew before I ever went there that DB had backup power that was infallible. But it had failed. I also knew that when the power went out the cell doors automatically locked. That didn’t happen. They opened. That meant someone had screwed with the software. Now I wasn’t sure exactly what was going on or that I was the target. But I decided to stay in my cell and see how it played out. When I heard someone at my cell door I called out that I was on the floor with my hands behind my head. When the guy came through the door he had a knife, when standard operating procedure is a gun in a situation like that. And you would never have only one guy clearing a room. You’d have at least two. This guy was clearly a rogue.”