CHAPTER
19
PULLER WAS DRIVING and Knox sat beside him staring moodily out the window.
“How did you think of the manner in which the neck was broken?” she asked, turning to him. “A horizontal break? You showed the ME how it could be done.”
“The snap-crackle-pop. At least that’s what we call it. It’s a technique they teach in the Rangers and the Marine Corps. It’s used to quickly kill, typically perimeter security of a target you’re trying to take. Hand and forearm cups the top of the head. Other hand and forearm rests at the base of the neck. You apply the requisite foot-pounds of force in separate directions, the neck snaps right in two. Clean and quick and silent.”
“But they don’t teach that in the Air Force?”
“I don’t know what they teach in the Air Force other than to tell their people not to jump out of a perfectly good plane. They leave that to us grunts toting rifles and eighty-pound rucks.”
“Okay, but did you by chance teach your brother the maneuver?”
Now Puller glanced at her. “Are you interrogating me?”
“No, just asking a simple question.”
“I don’t remember. That’s my simple answer.”
She glanced once more out the window. “Looks like a storm is rolling in,” she observed.
“Then maybe we’ll have another blackout and another prison escape,” retorted Puller.
She shot him a glance. “Don’t even joke about something like that.”
“We need to ID that guy.”
“I know.”
“And I don’t want to wait however long it’s going to take the guys in Dover to do it. And since I don’t think he’s an American, they probably won’t find anything anyway.”
“And the ME said he didn’t get a hit in the military database off the prints or facial recognition. So it’s doubtful he’s military.”
“At least not our military. Which leads to another question.”
“What’s that?”
“Four platoons.”
“Right, but now we think your brother might have taken the dead guy’s place. After killing him,” she tacked on, perhaps just to see Puller’s reaction.
He ignored this. “How did the dead guy get into Fort Leavenworth? And how did he manage to join a company of soldiers going to quell a possible crisis at DB?”
“Well, he must’ve gotten onto the base somehow. And it was chaotic. If he was dressed in riot gear I doubt anyone took the time to do roll call.”
“Which means this all was planned out, Knox. The transformers blowing. The backup gas generator breaking down. The sounds of explosion and gunfire. The Army manual is clear on that. You call in reinforcements. Whoever planned this, they knew how the Army would react and they had a guy at Leavenworth ready to join in.”
“But why, Puller? What was he going to accomplish?”
“Helping my brother to escape, maybe?”
“But the guy ended up dead.”
Puller said, “Maybe the plan changed. Maybe someone else other than my brother killed him.”
“How was he planning on getting your brother out? There’s no evidence that he had a second set of riot gear with him. Your brother probably took his gear. In fact, that’s the only way he could have gotten out. So, the guy had to die. And they were about the same size.” She looked at Puller. “Your brother’s about six-three? About two hundred pounds or so?”
“Around that.”
“So was the dead guy.”
“But why go in on a mission like that if you know it’s suicidal?”
“Maybe he didn’t know it was suicidal,” replied Knox.
“Well, if he didn’t then he had to believe he was going in there for some reason that had the possibility of him getting out alive. And we have to find out who came and took those transformers.” He eyed her pointedly when he said this. “That’s what started this whole chain of events. The transformers blowing.”
“Puller, I don’t know who did that. I’m telling you the truth.”
“I did some reading online. INSCOM conducts operations for military commanders.”
“No big secret.”
“So you think that’s at the center of this?”
“I have no idea. You know more about that world than I do. And it’s a big one. A lot bigger than most people realize.”
“Did you know that Cyber Command technically comes under STRATCOM’s leadership?”
He looked at her questioningly. “But how does that work with NSA?”
“It’s all very incestuous, Puller. NSA operates from under hundreds of intelligence platforms. You never know where the tentacles are going