The Escape by David Baldacci Read Free Book Online

And no sign of him since?”
    “Apparently not. Don White, my CO, filled me in today. Then I went to see my father. I figured he might have heard and even with his condition he might be upset.”
    “And that’s when you ran into the suit and the generals?”
    “They asked me the standard questions: my visits to him, what we discussed. Then, if he contacted me, to contact them. But then it got weird, like I said on the phone.”
    “In what way weird?”
    “First, although they never came out and said it, I believe they want me to look into the case.”
    “How can that be? I’m sure your CO told you not to go near it.”
    “He did. And then the Air Force guy wanted to know if I thought my brother was guilty.”
    “And what did you say?”
    It suddenly occurred to Puller that he had never really talked about his brother with her. And it also seemed apparent that Carson wanted to know if Puller thought his brother was guilty.
    “I didn’t really answer him, because I’m not really sure what I think about it.”
    “Okay,” she said, though her tone made clear she was not satisfied by his reply.
    He said, “Did you find out anything about these guys?”
    “Rinehart’s assigned to DIA. At a very high level. It’s beyond my ability to find out much more than that. The same really goes for James Schindler at the NSC. He wasn’t in the military. He came up through the civilian side of NSA before moving on to the Security Council.”
    “I guess that makes sense. My brother was convicted of national security crimes. That cuts across all branches. And so does DIA. And the NSC has its finger in everything because of the president. What about Daughtrey?”
    “Timothy Daughtrey is attached to STRATCOM.”
    “Bingo! That was where my brother was working when he was arrested.” He paused. “It’s ironic.”
    “What is?”
    “Bobby was stationed at a STRATCOM satellite facility near Leavenworth when he was arrested and court-martialed. He didn’t have far to travel to go to DB.”
    “And the STRATCOM connection dovetails right into DIA and NSC because spooks all hang around the same playground,” she added.
    “I guess so,” said Puller slowly.
    “The FBI is of course all over this,” added Carson. “National security issues bring out all the big dogs. I would say your brother is the most wanted man in America right now. I wouldn’t think his chances of evading capture are very good.”
    “I’m surprised the FBI hasn’t been by to see me,” said Puller.
    “I would imagine if they haven’t been by they are at least keeping an eye on you. But it might be that Rinehart et al. have talked to them and made it clear they’re heading the John Puller piece of this equation.”
    “Complicated stuff.”
    “Yes, it is. I read up on your brother’s career this afternoon,” she added.
    “Did you?” he said sharply.
    “Hey, don’t cop an attitude. I like to be prepared. A lot of it was classified beyond even my clearances, and some of the files seemed to have been deleted, because there were gaps. Some of the pages I saw onscreen were heavily redacted, but from what I saw your brother’s career was still pretty damn impressive. I mean, the trajectory was like a rocket. He would have easily gotten his star, and more. I even dug up a white paper he’d written on a next-generation nuclear weaponry design. I could understand about every tenth word, and I don’t consider myself stupid. Some of the math equations in the paper looked like Chinese to me.”
    “He was always the smart one in the family. Officer material. I was just the enlisted grunt in the trenches.”
    “Did you ever ask him if he did it?” she asked bluntly.
    Puller said, “Once.”
    “And?”
    “And he didn’t answer me.”
    “And now he’s escaped. You don’t escape from DB without help. It’s impossible.”
    “I know.”
    “And so you probably know something else.”
    “Yeah, that my brother was guilty. And maybe he killed the