Page 15 (1/2)

I was born in 1960, whichthe Summer of Love, and thirteen at the end of our effective involvement in Vietnam, and fifteen at the end of our official involvement there Which meant I missed most of the American military&039;s collision with narcotics The heavy-duty Purple Haze years passed ht the later, stable phase Like many soldiers I had sh to develop a preference ah to put h on the list of US users in terms of lifetiuys who bought, not sold

But as an MP, I had seen plenty sold I had seen drug deals I had seen them succeed, and I had seen the I knew for sure was that if a bad deal ends up with a dead guy on the floor, there&039;s nothing in the dead guy&039;s pocket No cash, no product No way Why would there be? If the dead guy was the buyer, the seller runs aith his dope intact and the buyer&039;s cash If the dead guy was the seller, then the buyer gets the whole stash for free The deal ht back ho profit in exchange for a couple of bullets and a little ru around

"It&039;s bullshit, Sanchez," I said "It&039;s faked"

"Of course it is I know that"

"Did you make that point?"

"Did I need to? They&039;re civilians, but they ain&039;t stupid"

"So why are they gloating?"

"Because it gives them a free pass If they can&039;t close the case, they can just write it off Brubaker ends up looking bad, not them"

"They found any witnesses yet?"

"Not a one"

"Shots were fired," I said "So to the cops"

"Willard is going to freak," I said

"That&039;s the least of our problems"

"Are you alibied?"

"Me? Do I need to be?"

"Willard&039;s going to be looking for leverage He&039;s going to use anything he can invent to get you to toe the line"

Sanchez didn&039;t answer right away Soht the background hiss up loud to cover the silence Then he spoke over it

"I think I&039; the accusations, not me"

"Just take care," I said

"Bet on it," he said

I clicked the phone off Su Her face was tense and her lower lids were

"What?" I said

"You sure it was faked?" she said

"Had to be," I said

"OK," she said "Good" She was still standing next to the er on the Fort Bird pin, index finger on the Coluree that it was faked We&039;re sure of it So there&039;s a pattern now The drugs and theas the branch up Carbone&039;s ass and the yogurt on his back Elaborate misdirection Concealment of the true uess anyuy did both He killed Carbone here and then jumped in his car and drove down to Columbia and killed Brubaker there It&039;s a clear sequence Everything fits Tiuy thinks"

I looked at her standing there Her small brown hand was stretched like a starfish She had clear polish on her nails Her eyes were bright

"Why would he ditch the crowbar?" I said "After Carbone but before Brubaker?"

"Because he preferred a handgun," she said "Like anyone normal would But he knew he couldn&039;t use one here Too noisy A , we&039;d have all co to think twice Which is how it turned out, apparently"

"Could he have been sure of that?"

"No," she said "Not entirely sure He set up the rendezvous, so he knehere he was going But he couldn&039;t be exactly certain about what he would find when he got there So I guess he would have liked to keep a backup weapon But the croas all covered with Carbone&039;s blood and hair by then There was no opportunity to clean it He was in a hurry The ground was frozen No patch of soft grass to wipe it on So he couldn&039;t see having it in the car with him Maybe he orried about a traffic stop on the way south So he ditched it"

I nodded Ultiun was a ainst a fit and wary opponent Especially in the tight confines of a city alley, as opposed to the kind of dark and wide-open spaces where he had taken Carbone down I yawned Closed my eyes From the wide-open spaces where he had taken Carbone down I opened ain

"He killed Carbone here," I repeated "And then he jumped in his car and drove to Columbia and killed Brubaker there"

"Yes," Suured he was already in a car," I said

"Yes," she said again "I did"

"You figured he drove out on the track with Carbone, hit hied the scene, and then drove back here to the post Your reasoning was pretty good And where we found the crowbar kind of confirmed it"

"Thank you," she said

"And then we figured he parked his car and went about his business"

"Correct," she said

"But he can&039;t have parked his car and gone about his business Because noe&039;re saying he drove straight to Columbia, South Carolina, instead To meet with Brubaker Three-hour drive He was in a hurry Not ain

"So he didn&039;t park his car," I said "He didn&039;t even touch the brake He drove straight out the ate instead There&039;s no other way off the post He drove straight out the ate, Summer, immediately after he killed Carbone, somewhere around nine or ten o&039;clock"

"Check the gate log," she said "There&039;s a copy right there on the desk"

We checked the gate log together Operation Just Cause in Panama had moved all domestic installations up one level on the DefCon scale and therefore all closed posts were recording entrances and exits in detail in bound ledgers that had preprinted page nuood clear Xerox of the page for January fourth I was confident it was genuine I was confident it was complete And I was confident it was accurate The Military Police have nus, but snafus with basic paperwork aren&039;t any of thee from me and taped it to the wall next to the map We stood side by side and looked at it It was ruled into six columns There were spaces for date, time in, time out, plate nuht," Su I was in no position to knohether nineteen entries represented light traffic or not I wasn&039;t used to Bird and it had been a long tiate duty anywhere else But certainly it seees I had seen for New Year&039;s Eve

"Mostly people reporting back for duty," Summer said

I nodded Fourteen lines had entries in the Ti entries in the Time Out column That meant fourteen people had come in and stayed in Back to work, after time away from the post for the holidays Or after tiht there a them: 1-4-90 2302, Reacher, J, Mjr, RTB January fourth, 1990, two , Major J Reacher, returning to base From Paris, via Garber&039;s old office in Rock Creek My vehicle plate nu in froht shift She had arrived at nine-thirty, driving so with North Carolina plates

Fourteen in, to stay in

Only five exits

Three of the trucks, probably An arry ht tothe early afternoon and then tiain a plausible hour or so later The last time out was just before three o&039;clock

Then there was a seven-hour gap

The last-but-one recorded exit was Vassell and Coomer themselves, on their way out after their O Club dinner They had passed through the gate at 2201 They had previously been timed in at 1845 At that point their Department of Defense plate number had been written down and their names and ranks had been entered Their reason had been stated as: Courtesy visit

Five exits Four down

One to go

The only other person to have left Fort Bird on the fourth of January was logged as: 1-4-90, 2211, Trifonov, S, Sgt There was a North Carolina passenger vehicle plate number written in the relevant space There was no ti in the reason colueant called Trifonov had been on-post all day or all week and then he had left at elevenNo reason had been recorded because there was no directive to inquire as to why a soldier was leaving The assu out for a drink or a meal or for soate guards asked of people trying to get in, not trying to get out

We checked again, just to be absolutely sure We came up with the same result Apart from General Vassell and Colonel Coomer in their self-driven Mercury Grand Marquis, and then a sergeant called Trifonov in soate in an outward direction in a vehicle or on foot at any time on the fourth of January, apart from three food trucks in the early part of the afternoon

"OK," Sueant Trifonov Whoever he is He&039;s the one"

"Has to be," I said

I called the uy I had spoken to before, when I was checking on Vassell and Coonized his voice I asked hie nu at Asked hieant named Trifonov had returned to Bird Told hi on January fifth There was athe stiff parch close attention

"Sir, five o&039;clock in the eant Trifonov, returning to base" I heard another page turn "He left at 2211 the previous evening"

"Re about him?"

"He left about tenme about before He was in a hurry, as I recall Didn&039;t wait for the barrier to go all the way up He squeezed right underneath it"

"What kind of car?"

"Corvette, I think Not a new one But it looked pretty good"

"Were you still on duty when he got back?"

"Yes, sir, I was"

"Re that stands out I spoke to hin accent"

"What was he wearing?"

"Civilian stuff A leather jacket, I think I assumed he had been off duty"

"Is he on the post now?"

I heard pages turning again I i slowly down all the lines written after 0500 on the ed hiht now So he must be on-post somewhere"

"OK," I said "Thanks, soldier"

I hung up Suot back at 0500," I said "Three and a half hours after Brubaker&039;s watch stopped"

"Three-hour drive," she said

"And he&039;s here now"

"Who is he?"

I called post headquarters Asked the question They told ht at Summer

"He&039;s Delta," I said "He was a defector froht hiuys don&039;t"

I got up from my desk and stepped over to the ers on the pushpins Little finger on Fort Bird, index finger on Colu a theory by touch alone A hundred and fifty et there, three hours and thirty-seven e speed of forty-seven ht, on empty roads, in a Chevrolet Corvette He could have done it with the parking brake on

"Should we have him picked up?" Summer said

"No," I said "I&039;ll do it o over there"

"Is that smart?"

"Probably not But I don&039;t want those guys to think they got to me"

"I&039;ll come with you," she said

"OK," I said

It was five o&039;clock in the afternoon, exactly thirty-six hours to the minute since Trifonov arrived back on-post The weather was dull and cold We took sidears We walked to the MP e partition bolted behind the front seats and no inside handles on the back doors Suate The sentry let us through on foot We walked around the outside of the main block until I found the entrance to their NCO Club I stopped, and Su in there?" she said

"Just for a minute"

"Alone?"

I nodded "Then we&039;re going to their armory"

"Not smart," she said "I should come in with you"

"Why?"

She hesitated "As a witness, I guess"

"To what?"

"To whatever they do to you"

I smiled, briefly

"Terrific," I said

I pushed in through the door The place was pretty crowded The light was dim and the air was full of smoke There was a lot of noise Then people saw me and went quiet I moved onward People stood where they were Stock-still Then they turned to face h the crowd Nobody moved out of ht I bumped back, in the silence I stand six feet five inches tall and I weigh two hundred thirty pounds I can hold h the lobby andhappened The noise died fast People turned toward h the roo and the scrape of feet on the floor and the soft thump of shoulder on shoulder I kept uy with the beard and the tan stepped out intostraight and he leaned to his right and we collided and his glass slopped half its contents on the linoleum tile

"You spilled my drink," he said

I stopped Looked down at the floor Then I looked into his eyes

"Lick it up," I said

We stood face-to-face for a second Then I moved on past hi at me But I wasn&039;t about to turn around No way Not unless I heard a bottle shatter against a table behind me

I didn&039;t hear a bottle I made it all the way to the far wall Touched it like a swimmer at the end of a lap Turned around and started back The return journey was no different The room was silent I picked up the pace a little Drove faster through the crowd Bues By the ti tooff a little

I figured we had communicated effectively So in the lobby I started to deviate slightly froht path Other people returned the compliment I made it back to the entrance like any other civilized person in a crowded situation I stopped at the door Turned around Scanned the faces in the rooroup at a time, one thousand, two thousand, three thousand, four thousand Then I turned my back on them all and stepped out into the cold fresh air

Summer wasn&039;t there

I looked around and a second later saw her slip out of a service entrance ten feet away It had gotten her in behind the bar I figured she had been watching my back

She looked at me

"Now you know," she said

"Knohat?"

"How the first black soldier felt And the first woman"

She showed ar where their armory was We walked across twenty feet of swept concrete and went in through a personnel door set in the side She hadn&039;t been kidding about equipping an African dictatorship There were arc lights blazing high in the roof of the hangar and they showed a small fleet of specialist vehicles and vast stacks of every kind of uessed David Brubaker had done a very effective lobbying job, up at the Pentagon

"Over here," Summer said

She led me to a wire pen It was about fifteen feet square It had three walls and a roofrun There was a wire door standing open with an open padlock hung on the chain-link by its tongue Behind the door was a stand-up writing table Behind the writing table was a man in BDUs He didn&039;t salute Didn&039;t come to attention But he didn&039;t turn away either He just stood there and looked at me neutrally, which was as close to proper etiquette as Delta ever got

"Help you?" he said, like he was a clerk in a store and I was a customer Behind him on racks ell-used sidearun uns Some were new and fresh, some were old and worn They were stored neatly and precisely, but without cere book

"You check them in and check theuy said "Post regulations won&039;t allow personal weapons in the accouessed he had been through the sa for Carbone&039;s new P7

"What does Sergeant Trifonov use for a handgun?" I asked

"Trifonov? He favors the Steyr GB"

"Show me"

He turned away to the pistol rack and ca it by the barrel It looked oiled and wellout and ready and he dropped it straight in I zipped the bag shut and looked at the gun through the plastic

"Nine-milliun, but an unlucky one Steyr-Dai orders fro in its eyes, but a rival outfit na and stole the prize Which left the GB an unhappy orphan, like Cinderella And like Cinderella it had hteen rounds, which was a lot, but it weighed less than two and a half pounds unloaded, which wasn&039;t You could take it apart and put it back together in twelve seconds, which was fast Best of all, it had a very se the explosion of gas in the chaet the spent case out and the next cartridge in But in the real world soes are old or weak or badly assembled They don&039;t all explode with the sauns, and the action just wheezes and won&039;t cycle at all Put a too-heavy load in, and the gun can blow up in your hand But the Steyr was designed to deal with anything that ca dubious-quality aing with, I&039;d use a Steyr I would want to be sure that whatever I was depending on would fire, ten tih the plastic I pressed theuntil the azine, and there were sixteen cartridges in it I gripped the slide and ejected one round frohteen in the azine, and one in the chamber He had coazine, and one in the chamber Therefore he had fired two

"Got a phone?" I said

The clerk nodded at a booth in the corner of the hangar, twenty feet froeant&039;s desk The Louisiana guy answered The corporal The night-shift wo her baby to bed, showering, getting ready for the trek to work

"Get me Sanchez at Jackson," I said

I held the phone by my ear and waited One minute Two

"What?" Sanchez said

"Did they find the shell cases?" I said

"No," he said "The guy must have cleaned up at the scene"

"Pity We could have uy?"

"I&039;ht now Steyr GB, fully loaded, less two fired"

"Who is he?"

"I&039;ll tell you later Let the civilians sweat for a spell"

"One of ours?"

"Sad, but true"

Sanchez said nothing

"Did they find the bullets?" I said

"No," he said

"Why not? It was an alley, right? How far could they go? They&039;ll be buried in the brick soood They&039;ll be flattened beyond recognition"

"They were jacketed," I said "They won&039;t have broken up We could weigh them, at least"

"They haven&039;t found the?"

"I don&039;t know"

"They dug up any witnesses yet?"

"No"

"Did they find Brubaker&039;s car?"

"No"

"It&039;s got to be right there, Sanchez He drove down and arrived at ht or one o&039;clock In a distinctive car Aren&039;t they looking for it?"

"There&039;s so I can feel it"

"Did Willard get there yet?"

"I expect him any minute"

"Tell him Brubaker is all wrapped up," I said "And tell hi accident after all That shouldup Walked back to the wire cage Summer had stepped inside and she was shoulder to shoulder with the arh his logbook together

"Look at this," she said

She used both forefingers to show ned out his personal Steyr GB nine- of January fourth He had signed it back in at a quarter past five on theand aard He was Bulgarian I guessed he had grown up with the Cyrillic alphabet and was neriting with Roman letters

"Why did he take it?" I said

"We don&039;t ask for a reason," the clerk said "We just do the paperwork"

We caar and walked toward the acco lot There were forty or fifty cars in it Typical soldiers&039; rides Not many imports There were some battered plain-vanilla sedans, butDetroit coupes, some of them painted with flames and stripes, some of them with hiked back ends and chrome wheels and fat raised-letter tires There was only one Corvette It was red, parked all by itself on the end of a row, three spaces fro else

We detoured to take a look at it

It was about ten years old It looked immaculately clean, inside and out It had been washed and waxed, thoroughly, within the last day or two The wheel arches were clean The tires were black and shiny There was a coiled hose on the hangar wall, thirty feet away We bent down and peered in through the s The interior looked like it had been soaked with detailing fluid and wiped and vacuumed It was a two-seat car, but there was a parcel shelf It was sh for a crowbar hidden under a coat Suers under the sills Carit from the track," she said "No blood on the seats"

"No yogurt pot on the floor," I said

"He cleaned up after hih their un in the front of our Humvee Then we turned around and headed back inside

I didn&039;t want to involve the adjutant I just wanted to get Trifonov out of there before anyone kneas going down So ent in through the mess kitchen door and I found a steward and told hih the kitchen on some kind of a pretext Then we stepped back into the cold and waited The steward came out alone five minutes later and told us Trifonov wasn&039;t anywhere in the mess

So we headed for the cells Found a soldier co out of the showers and he told us where to look We walked past Carbone&039;s empty room It was quiet and undisturbed Trifonov bunked three doors farther down We got there His door was standing open The guy was right there in his roo a book

I had no idea what to expect As far as I knew Bulgaria had no Special Forces Truly elite units were not coood airborne brigade, and Poland had airborne and amphibious divisions The Soviet Union itself had a few Vysotniki tough guys Apart froah bodies into the fray, and eventually you win, as long as you regard two-thirds of theuy?

NATO Special Forces put a lot of euys running fiftythe kitchen sink They keep the terrain for a week at a tiuys, built like e He was at least as big as er Maybe six-six,square face that would be so depending on the light At that point the fluorescent tube on the ceiling of his cell wasn&039;t doing hi eyes set deep and close together in hooded sockets He was a few years older than e hands He earing brand-neoodland BDUs, no name, no rank, no unit

"On your feet, soldier," I said

He put his book down on the bed next to hi his place

We put handcuffs on hi, but he was quiet He seened to his fate Like he knew it had been only a books in his life betrayed hiot him to my office without incident We sat him down and unlocked the handcuffs and redid the Then we took a second pair of cuffs and did the sa wrists They were as thick as most men&039;s ankles

Su at the pushpins, like she was leading his gaze toward the: We know

I sat at my desk

"What&039;s your name?" I said "For the record"

"Trifonov," he said His accent was heavy and abrupt, all in his throat

"First name?"

"Slavi"

"Slavi Trifonov," I said "Rank?"

"I was a colonel at hoeant"

"Where&039;s hoaria"

"You&039;re very young to have been a colonel"

"I was very good at what I did"

"And what did you do?"

He didn&039;t answer

"You have a nice car," I said

"Thank you," he said "A car like that was always a dreaht of the fourth?"

He didn&039;t answer