CHAPTER
16
PULLER CHECKED INTO another motel about a half mile from the other one. He locked the door and put a bureau against it, pulled the shades, put his phone on silent mode, turned out all the lights, lay on the bed fully dressed, and fell dead asleep for over six hours with AWOL next to him purring and licking her paws.
When he woke it was dinnertime and he had a voice mail on his phone.
It was Knox. She wanted to meet. He didn’t call her back, at least not yet, because he didn’t know if he wanted to meet. And he also had a few phone calls to make.
Later, he showered and changed into jeans, a windbreaker, and a white collared shirt. He slipped on his shoes and finally called her back while sitting on the bed.
“So where the hell have you been?” she said after two rings.
Already got me on her contacts list, interesting, he thought.
“Sleeping,” he said.
“Nice.”
“Yes, it was, thanks. What’s up?”
“Developments.”
“What are they?”
“Let’s do it face-to-face,” she said.
They met at the same diner where they’d had dinner the previous night. He had a slab of ribs coated in a Jack Daniel’s rub, coleslaw heavy on the mayo, a side of salted steak fries, and a vegetable that looked green but was otherwise unrecognizable. He was washing it all down with a Budweiser.
Knox had a chef’s salad with dressing on the side and water.
She looked his meal over and said, “You know, you could eat a little better.?
??
“Yeah, and I’m sure the processed meat in that salad and the chemicals in the dressing won’t give you cancer in ten years.”
She sat back and glanced glumly down at her salad. He quickly looked her over. She was dressed in blue slacks, cream blouse, and a matching jacket. She didn’t look remotely military. He had wondered about this before.
INSCOM. INSCOM on the creds.
He figured he had mysteries at both ends of this sucker, and all down the middle too.
He finished eating, downed the last swallow of his beer, and looked at her expectantly. “Okay, let’s talk developments,” he said in a prompting tone.
“I have info on the people who took the blown transformers.”
He wiped his mouth with his napkin and sat back. “How’d you do that?” he asked slowly.
“Made some calls and ran down some leads while you were taking your beauty rest.”
“Uh-huh. And?”
“And they weren’t with the military.”
“You’ve got my attention, Knox. The bay doors are wide open, so drop the bomb.”
“That’s all I have on that. They weren’t military. I don’t know who they are. Yet.”
“Al Jordan said they ‘outranked’ him. That sounds military.”
“I checked with him. It was just a figure of speech. Guys were in suits.”
“No creds shown?”
“He said they were very intimidating.”
“Uh-huh,” said a clearly skeptical Puller. “By the way, technical question, do you treat INSCOM as military or not?”
She gazed sternly at him. “What exactly are you implying?”
“I’m not implying anything. I’m just asking a question.”
“INSCOM is most definitely military. It’s based at Fort Belvoir. That’s an Army installation, in case you didn’t know.”
“Know it well. My CID group used to be there before we got shipped to Quantico.”
“Well then?” she said, almost daring him to make another provocative comment.
He decided to take up the dare. Maybe it was the Jack Daniel’s rub on the ribs, or the little green things masquerading as veggies, which were now simmering uncomfortably in his gut.
“I made a few calls tonight too.”
“Calls to who?” she said stonily.
“I’ve been in the Army long enough to have a pretty deep Rolodex. INSCOM was formed in 1977 at Arlington Hall Station in Virginia. Intelligence, security, electronic warfare all at the level above corps, pretty big footprint.”
“Yes, it is.”
“You’re divided into eight brigades and various intelligence, operations, and support groups and companies, with a CO who’s a two-star, same rank as the guy currently heading up CID.”
“I know the breakdown of my command, Puller. Feel free to skip the military history lesson.”
“Why do you think? It’s not like I advertise my position.”
“So you are with Central Security?”
“Did anyone?” she persisted.
“No.”
“So it was just a guess on your part?”