No Man's Land

by David Baldacci

  half. “I know that Jericho has been found dead. Officially, she committed suicide. Now, the whole truth of the matter can still come out. The Army will take its lumps and it should. The deaths of the women, your mother, Jericho, everything. You say the word and all of this comes out. I’m not putting any pressure on you one way or another. I mean that. The Army royally fucked up.”

  He sat back and looked at the pair.

  Robert and Puller exchanged a single glance, but a lot was communicated during those few moments.

  Puller said, “I think the appropriate parties have been punished adequately, sir. And I think the Army has learned a valuable lesson. So, no, it need not be made public.”

  Coleman nodded, his face not revealing whether he agreed with this decision or not. He opened his desk drawer and took out a file. He slid on wire-rimmed glasses and looked at the pages.

  “As I understand it, your father was not considered a suspect in your mother’s disappearance because he was out of the country. Recently, though, this was found to be incorrect. And then he became a suspect thirty years later.”

  “He came back a day early,” noted Puller.

  “And this is the reason why.” Coleman slid the file across.

  Both brothers looked stunned. Puller turned the file around and the two began to read down the pages. When they were done they both looked up.

  Puller said, “He came back to confront Ballard and Jericho?”

  Coleman nodded. “This super-soldier program was highly classified but not entirely a secret. Your father was a one-star stationed at Fort Monroe where this program was operational. Now, he was not the commandant of the fort, but that didn’t matter to a man like Fighting John Puller. Wherever he was stationed was his turf and he would defend it with his life if need be.”

  Puller said, “So he found out about the program? Jericho told me that she knew my father. And they didn’t exactly see eye to eye on things.”

  Coleman said, “Oh they knew each other all right. And eye to eye? Let me put it a little more bluntly. Your father personally thought her work was horseshit, using his term. He told me that war needed to be fought by real men. Real men had to bleed and die. Only then would we not want to fight wars. If we could create robots to do our fighting, he thought, we’d be at war all the time.”

  “There’s a lot of wisdom in that philosophy,” noted Robert.

  “Your father had seen more combat than just about anyone I knew. He knew how terrible it was. He thought Jericho was a cancer that the Army should just cut out of itself.”

  “But he didn’t win that battle?” said Puller slowly.

  Coleman shook his head. “Only battle I know the man to have lost. Ballard and Jericho were too well entrenched. They had too many connections. They managed huge budgets that got many an officer promoted up the ranks. It was wrong. It was cronyism at its worst. And it still happened.”

  “And our father?”

  “He never let it drop. Fought it for years.” He eyed them closely. “And it finally cost him. It cost him dearly.”

  Robert got there faster than Puller.

  “It cost him his fourth star.”

  Coleman nodded. “They couldn’t very well deny him the second and third stars. He flat-out earned those. But when you get to four, there’s more politics than merit. And the stand your father had taken came home to roost, because he had pissed off a lot of people who would determine if he got the fourth star or not. And he didn’t get it. And he was basically forced to retire.”

  Coleman stopped and tapped the fourth star on his shoulder. “When I got this pinned on, do you know who I was thinking about? Your old man. He deserved the fourth star far more than I ever did. And ever since I got it part of me has been ashamed that I walk around with it while he never had that honor.”

  Coleman sighed and sat back. “I know his current condition. But I want to propose something to both of you.” He paused, seemingly to marshal his thoughts. “We’ve never done this before and it carries no official weight. But I’ve run this up the flagpole and got nothing but salutes from both the brass and the civilian side.” He paused again. “We want to award an honorary fourth star to your father. I wish it could be the real deal, but that’s not possible now. But we want to do this. Out of respect for your father. We want to try to make this, if not right, at least better.” He leaned forward. “What do you say?”

  “I say it’s about time,” both Pullers replied simultaneously.

  Chapter

  76

  THE CEREMONY WAS carried out in Puller Sr.’s room at the VA. Dignitaries both military and civilian were in attendance, including the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. General Coleman presided over the presentation of the honorary fourth star.

  Puller Sr. at first did not seem to understand what was going on, but as the ceremony continued and Coleman whispered some words to him and he saw the star, he seemed to grasp the enormity of what was happening.

  When it was over and everyone left, though, Puller motioned for his sons to take off his uniform jacket. They helped him out of it and then he tapped the cassette recorder that was on his bedside table.

  Robert quickly turned it on and Puller Sr. sat back on his bed, turned to face the recorder, closed his eyes, and smiled as he listened to his wife singing.

  They left him there and headed out.

  “I don’t think the fourth star meant as much to him as hearing her voice does,” said Robert.

  “Not even close,” said Puller. He hesitated.

  Robert noticed this and said, “What?”

  “Coleman said Dad confronted Jericho. Do you think he ever thought Jericho was responsible for Mom’s disappearance?”

  “I think if Dad remotely thought that was what happened he would have gone over and shot Jericho himself.”

  “You’re right.”

  “So what happens to the stuff they were doing at Building Q?”

  “It’ll go on. The company is under a government contract.”

  “Anne Shepard described some of the stuff they’re doing there. The liquid armor, the electrical stuff that makes soldiers think faster on the battlefield. Some of it actually sounded good.”

  “Yeah, but just think if we spent that money on early childhood education and nutrition.”

  “Right.”

  “And I can guarantee that somewhere in the military-industrial complex people are working on stuff that will mean one day a million Paul Rogerses will be running around doing the fighting. And then it’s lights-out for the human race.”

  “That’s why I like hanging with you, Bobby. You’re always so uplifting.”

  * * *

  When Puller got back to his apartment, someone was waiting for him.

  Veronica Knox said, “I heard about the fourth star. I think that’s great.”

  “Well, the truth is he preferred hearing my mother’s voice to the fourth star.”

  When she looked puzzled he quickly explained.

  “I think that’s the most romantic thing I’ve ever heard.”

  He looked at her in surprise. “Romantic? I didn’t think you thought about stuff like that, Knox.”

  “There’s obviously a lot you still don’t know about me.”

  He let her in to the apartment and took a minute to let his cat, AWOL, out. They sat at his small kitchen table.

  Puller said, “They said Jericho killed herself. But Bobby got a look at the postmortem report on her. Her spine was crushed. And there was something else.”

  “What?”

  “A ring was found in her stomach.”

  “Really? A ring?”

  “It was inscribed with a phrase, For the greater good. And it had the initials CJ. Claire Jericho.” He looked at her. “Rogers wore a ring.”

  “That’s right, he did,” said Knox. “I remember seeing it.”

  “What I can’t figure out is how Rogers found out where Jericho lived. It was classified.
Bobby couldn’t figure it out either.”

  “Well, he was a resourceful guy. I guess he found a way. But what does it matter now?” Before Puller could say anything Knox added, “Now, let’s move on to something else.”

  She pulled an envelope from her pocket.

  He looked at it and then glanced at her. “Don’t tell me those are two plane tickets to Rome?”

  “Okay, I won’t, because they’re not. They’re two tickets to a Nats baseball game. And I’ll spring for the hot dogs and beer too.”

  He smiled. “The theory being start small?”

  “Considering who we are, I think it’s best.” She leaned across the table and kissed him.

  “So does this mean no more secrets?”

  She eyed him directly. “Can anyone ever promise that, Puller?”

  He considered this. “I guess not.”

  They took a walk around the neighborhood with Knox’s hand slipped inside his. When she looked at him he seemed lost in thought.

  “What’s going on up there?” she asked.

  “Just wondering where Rogers is.”

  She nodded. “Wherever he is, I wish him a better life than the one he’s had so far.”

  * * *

  The car pulled up to the shack at the end of the dirt road.

  The woman got out and walked up to the door. It opened before she got to it.

  Suzanne Davis looked at Paul Rogers. He was pale and thin and rubbing the back of his head.

  “You ready?” she asked.

  “You sure about this?” he said.

  “You ask me that again, I’m going to shoot you in the nuts. And I don’t care if you can’t feel pain, that’s still going to hurt mentally.”

  They walked out to her car and climbed in.

  “Where to?” asked Rogers.

  “I just feel like driving until I stop feeling like driving.”

  “Sounds like a plan to me.”

  “I’m surprised they let you walk away,” she said.

  Rogers touched the spot on his head. “They took it out, the implant. It changed me. I’m…better.”

  He took a prescription bottle out of his pocket, popped some pills, and swallowed them with his spit.

  She eyed him. “Where’d you get those?”

  “Friends. In high places.”

  “Are they helping?”

  “Yeah. In addition to removing the implant they got hold of the tests that Jericho did, and figured out some of what was going on with me. They think there might be a way to reverse it. For now, this keeps me from getting any worse.”

  She reached into her purse and held up a plastic baggie.

  “What’s that?”

  “Prime weed.”

  “Where’d you get that?”

  “From friends in low places.”

  Davis navigated them to a highway, where she sped up and put the car on cruise control. She settled back in her seat and looked at him.

  “How did it feel?”

  “How did what feel?”

  “Jericho?”

  Rogers stared out the windshield at the night sky.

  “I really didn’t feel good about it,” he said at last, his voice strained. “I wonder what that says about me?”

  Davis reached over and took his hand. “I think that’s actually a positive thing, Paul.”

  He glanced at her. “This is going to be a rocky road, Davis. Feel free to eject at any time.”

  “You remember when I told you my druggie dad died in prison and my mom croaked on crack?”

  “Yeah, but you were bullshitting.”

  “No, I wasn’t. I stuck with them to the end. I think I can manage you.”

  Rogers looked back out the window. “Maybe I can get a job…somewhere.”

  “Maybe I can too. Maybe we can get an apartment. Have, you know, a life or something.”

  “Is that what you want?” he asked, shooting her a glance.

  “Why the hell not?” She tightened her grip on his hand. “Doesn’t everybody deserve a life?”

  “It won’t be like living at Ballard’s,” he said.

  “That was all smoke and mirrors. I prefer reality, actually.”

  “I never thanked you for saving my life. Myers had a kill shot on me.”

  “I let you down before, I won’t again.”

  “What are you talking about?” he said.

  “When you were on the gurney all numbed up. I just walked away and left you there.”

  “What could you do?”

  “I could have tried, but I just walked away.”

  She looked over at him. “I’m sorry.”

  He shrugged. “You came through in the end. That’s what counts.”

  She held his gaze. “I’ll always have your back from now on, Paul. Always.”

  “And why is that?”

  “Because we’re a lot alike.”

  “How so?”

  “Damaged goods. But we have potential.”

  “I’ll have your back too.”

  “I never doubted it. It’s just the way you’re wired.”

  They exchanged a quick smile and then both looked ahead.

  They drove on.

  To somewhere other than here.

  Acknowledgments

  To Michelle, for always being there for me.

  To Michael Pietsch, for always being so supportive.

  To Jamie Raab, for always being in my corner.

  To Lindsey Rose, Andy Dodds, Karen Torres, Anthony Goff, Bob Castillo, Michele McGonigle, Andrew Duncan, Christopher Murphy, Dave Epstein, Tracy Dowd, Brian McLendon, Matthew Ballast, Lukas Fauset, Deb Futter, Beth deGuzman, Jessica Krueger, Oscar Stern, Michele Karas, Stephanie Sirabian, Brigid Pearson, Flamur Tonuzi,