No Man's Land

by David Baldacci

  And on it went day after day.

  In his mind he counted them off, just as he had in prison.

  Eight days. Nine. Ten. Two weeks.

  He wondered what they were planning to do with him. Kill him? Autopsy him? And then cremate him?

  Those were his best guesses.

  He was sure the guards had been told he was a murderer and also guilty of treason. They would have no sympathy for him.

  And he didn’t want any.

  Once, someone arrived carrying a medical bag.

  One of the guards hit him with what he assumed was the same gas that Jericho had deployed against him. He fell senseless to the floor.

  Later, when he awoke, he saw the bandages on his arms and legs. When he looked under them he saw the incisions. They had taken pieces of him away. Maybe for analysis.

  They are kicking the tires of the freak.

  He was just waiting. Biding his time. He ate his food, drank his water, used the toilet, showered with the hose. Slept and woke. Slept and woke.

  Yes, just biding his time. His patience, he had proven, was infinite.

  Then one day he had a visitor, a middle-aged man who arrived with a briefcase and a polite, professional attitude. He spoke through the bars to Rogers after the guards had backed away to allow them privacy.

  Rogers had listened to everything carefully.

  The man had ended the meeting by saying, “Good luck.”

  “It’s never really about luck, though, is it?” Rogers had replied.

  And finally, after five more days, the time came.

  “We’re moving you,” the head guard said.

  “Why?”

  The guard didn’t bother to answer.

  He saw the bottle coming and then he was sprayed in the face with the gas. He fell heavily to the floor.

  They lifted him off the floor and carried him to a waiting Army transport truck, where he was put into the back and strapped down to the floor. Six guards climbed in with him, guns resting on their thighs.

  They set off. Their route took them along some back roads, and then they reached a highway and the truck sped up. They reached a bridge and drove across it.

  One of the guards peeked through the back flap. “Damn, that’s a beautiful sight. Nothing like a bridge over water on a fine night.”

  A second later Rogers ripped the straps off.

  “Holy shit!” exclaimed the guard nearest to him.

  He reached for his weapon but didn’t get there before Rogers threw him against the man next to him. Both went down in a tumble of arms and legs.

  One guard got off a burst from his weapon but missed. He did not get a second chance. Rogers grabbed him by the shoulder and, using him as a weapon, smashed him against the other guards, who were knocked off their feet and thrown against the hard wooden sides of the truck.

  Rogers flung open the canvas flap and looked out.

  It was dark. There were car lights behind him. He looked to his right and saw the side of the bridge. He looked across the water and recognized Naval Station Norfolk, which meant that Fort Monroe was just across the channel.

  He bent his legs and jumped to the right.

  He cleared the concrete side of the bridge and went into a dive.

  He didn’t know how far down it was, but it was long enough.

  He straightened out, led with his hands, and cleanly broke the surface of the water. He went under, angled out his descent, and then headed back to the surface.

  He stayed there only a few seconds before going back under.

  The guards had recovered and were firing at him from the bridge. The bullets pinged into the water, but at this distance and in the dark they would be lucky to hit their target.

  And they weren’t lucky. Tonight, the luck all seemed to be with Rogers. Yet, like he had told the visitor, it was never about luck. The bottle he’d been sprayed with had held nothing but oxygen. The guard’s comment about the bridge had been his signal to act. The rest of it had been up to Rogers.

  But a little luck never hurt either.

  He struck off for shore with powerful strokes of his arms and kicks of his legs. The channel was not very wide. They would deploy people to cover as much of it as possible.

  But Rogers had spent a long time here training, and a great deal of it had been in this body of water. He had discovered landing spots that he suspected few knew about.

  He pointed himself toward one of them and in short order arrived there. It was wooded and isolated, and when he came ashore his only companions were woodland creatures that ran away at his approach.

  He had one more task to perform.

  And then he was done.

  Chapter

  74

  EIGHT STORIES TALL.

  And she was perched right on top.

  Of course.

  Veronica Knox looked at her watch and then walked toward the building. She was dressed in a long black trench coat with the collar turned up. Her features were tight, her gut even tighter.

  In the lobby she was searched and her gun and phone taken from her. She was escorted up in the elevator by an armed security guard. The elevator opened directly into the vestibule of Claire Jericho’s apartment.

  The woman was waiting there for her. She was dressed in a dark pantsuit. She took off her glasses and rubbed away a smudge.

  The guard went back down in the elevator, leaving the two women facing one another.

  “I was surprised you wanted to meet,” said Jericho. She made no indication she was going to invite Knox into the apartment.

  “Unfinished business,” replied Knox.

  “Really? I’m aware of none.”

  “Rogers has escaped.”

  “I’m aware of that.”

  “You could be in danger.”

  Jericho smiled. “And, what, you came here to warn me because you’re concerned about my safety?”

  “I’ve checked. You have a great many friends in high places.”

  She shrugged. “I’ve been doing this a long time. You build relationships.”

  “You’re getting away with murder, you know.”

  Jericho looked disappointed. “If this was the purpose for the visit, I’m afraid you’re wasting your time. And I have other things to do.”

  “Did it hurt to lose your daughter?”

  “Oh, you mean Helen?”

  “Yes, Helen Myers,” Knox said tightly.

  “I know what you want me to say. That it did hurt. That I miss her. That I’m grieving. But the truth is we didn’t really know each other. She was with her father most of her life, until he died, and then she came to me for help. And I did help. With setting her up in business. I feel like I was a good mentor to her. But that was really the sum total of our relationship. So, am I sorry she’s dead? Of course I am. Do I have the same level of grief as, say, your friend John Puller over losing his mother?” She shook her head. “The answer of course is and has to be no.” She paused. “And how are John and his brother doing? Are they holding up well?”

  “You don’t have the right to ask that,” Knox said sharply.

  “I was just being polite.”

  “The unfinished business,” said Knox.

  Jericho sighed resignedly. “You’re not going to shoot me. I know your weapon was taken. If you’re thinking of attacking me with your hands, please think again.” She drew a small pistol from her pocket and aimed it at Knox.

  “That’s not my style,” said Knox. “It’s a bit amateurish, actually.”

  Jericho smiled again. “Yes, of course. You and your group were so thoroughly professional in all that you did. Accomplishing what, exactly?”

  “I also have friends in high places.”

  “Yes, of course you do,” Jericho said patronizingly. “And I’m sure they look up from time to time and try to see my friends in higher places.”

  “Do you remember Mack Taubman?”

  Jericho pursed her lips. “Well?”

  �
�He was a mentor of mine when I started out. Actually like a father to me. When I got involved in this case I went to him, questioned him about it. It was clear that he had some knowledge of what had happened back then, but he wouldn’t talk about it. He was scared. Scared, when he was the bravest man I knew.”

  “And your point?” asked a clearly bored Jericho.

  “He was found dead shortly after I met with him. They think it was suicide, but I know better. I think he contacted you. Maybe he finally wanted the truth to come out. Only you couldn’t allow that.”

  “Oh, so now you have me involved in his death as well?” She laughed lightly. “Are there no horrors of which I’m not capable? And you speak of amateurism? Look in the mirror, Agent Knox.” She checked her watch. “Now, if there’s nothing else? I do have a country to keep safe.”

  Knox stared at her for a few moments and then shook her head.

  “No, that’s it. Thank you for meeting with me.”

  Jericho gave a mock bow and pushed the button for the elevator. The car came up and Knox got on with the guard. She looked back at Jericho staring at her.

  “I trust this will be the last time I will see you, Agent Knox.”

  “I can guarantee it,” said Knox as the doors closed.

  Jericho put the gun back in her pocket, turned, and went back into the apartment.

  Thus she did not see the pair of hands emerge in the crevice of the elevator’s outer doors. The fingers gripped and pushed and the doors came open.

  Paul Rogers climbed up into the vestibule. When Knox had gone up to the apartment he had ridden on top of the elevator car after getting into the shaft through an air duct opening. When the car had descended Rogers had already climbed onto one of the metal beams supporting the shaft and waited there.

  He slipped across the vestibule and saw Jericho at her desk, her back to him. She was working on her laptop, some complicated bit of science that held her full attention.

  She only looked up when the hands closed around her neck.

  * * *

  Down on the street Knox stood on the pavement looking up at the top floor of the building. The wind was picking up. As it whipped her hair she drew her coat collar up some more and put her hands in her pockets. Though it wasn’t possible, Knox thought she heard the snap of a spine eight stories up.

  I told you I had friends in high places.

  Like your apartment.

  Her phone buzzed. She took it out and looked at the text.

  Then Knox punched in the numbers and made the call.

  “It’s done,” she said quietly.

  “John can never know about this,” said the voice. “He’s not wired that way.”

  “He will never know about this,” Knox said. “I can keep a secret.”

  Knox put her phone away, turned, and walked off into the darkness.

  On the other end of the finished call Robert Puller put the phone down on his desk.

  He thought about the death of Claire Jericho, but only for a few moments.

  Then he put it out of his mind and turned to work of importance.

  Chapter

  75

  THE PULLER BROTHERS walked down the hall of one of the world’s great labyrinths. The Pentagon was a place well known to the brothers. They were both in uniform and marched along confident in where they were going.

  They had been summoned, by a four-star no less.

  Johnny Coleman, Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Though he had no operational command in the position, he was outranked only by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. And because the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs was with the Air Force, Coleman outranked all the other Army four-stars. Coleman had been one of Fighting John Puller’s junior officers, before going on to carve out a legendary career of his own.

  “What do you think he wants?” asked Puller as they walked along.

  “It’s either going to be really good news or really bad news,” replied his older brother.

  “You heard what happened to Jericho?” asked Puller.

  “I heard,” said his brother.

  “They never found Rogers.”

  “Heard that too.”

  “If it was him, how did he find out where she lived? That was classified.”

  “No idea,” said Robert.

  They reached Coleman’s offices. The flag of the Vice Chair was the American bald eagle with its wings spread horizontally. Its talons gripped three arrows, and thirteen red and white stripes representing the original colonies on a shield. It was a regal and intimidating image, and Coleman presented the same figure.

  He was a big man, six-four and north of two-fifty, with a broad, thick chest and a grip of iron. His gray hair was cut very short and his voice was a bullhorn that had been used to lead men for nearly four decades now.

  He was in his dress blues, with shelves of medals and ribbons. As he told the brothers as he led them into his interior office, he had a formal event to attend after their meeting.

  They sat down in Coleman’s office, the Vice Chair behind his battleship-big desk and the brothers on the other side.

  Coleman plunged right in.

  “Helluva time for you both and General Puller. Your mother was one of the finest human beings I have ever had the honor to know. It’s a tragedy all around.” He paused and fiddled with a pencil. “I have been briefed on all this. In fact, I inserted myself into this situation chiefly because it was the Puller family. As you know, I served under your father. He taught me more in the two years I was with his command than in the rest of the time I’ve been in the Army. In my mind there has been no better pure fighting officer than your father. At least in my experience.”

  “Thank you, sir,” said Robert.

  “Now let me get down to it.” He looked at Puller. “Your Army failed you, Chief Puller. You served it faithfully and we did not return the favor. I have been informed what happened three decades ago. I mean what really happened. And I am appalled. And I don’t simply speak for myself. Chairman Halverson has been made aware of this situation and fully supports my position.” He paused again. “In a perfect world, the research project undertaken by Chris Ballard and Claire Jericho three decades ago should never have happened. The murders of those women should not have been covered up. And what happened to your mother…?” He broke the pencil in