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Those were all good things for what he wanted to do

Six o’clock caroup of people headed out the doors of Building Q Puller found her in the crowd and hustled back to his car When she passed by in her Fiesta he dropped in behind her

They drove to as most likely her apartment She went directly inside

Puller stayed in his car conte maneuver now, or he could wait

She came back out dressed in a short skirt, a low-cut blouse, and three-inch heels

That was interesting

He continued to follow her

He looked at his watch It was nearly eight pm

Puller wondered where the lady was headed

She drove about a mile across town and parked her car on the street

Puller did likewise

He followed her down the street and around a corner

And ran into a long line of people waiting to get in somewhere

He looked up ahead and saw a sign over a door

The Grunt?

He’d never heard of it, but then he’d never spent much time down here since he’d been a child

The wo was in the line ahead of hiuy in unifore wo with each other Puller finally stepped behind the guys in unifor with the ladies

They finally worked their way up to the front, where a tall, well-builtwas checking IDs

The wo women behind her

Then the soldiers stepped up to the line and presented their IDs

The ht up to them, and handed them back

“Nice try, guys,” he said

“These are legit,” said one of the uniforms, a tall, thin male “I’m twenty-two”

“Maybe in another life”

“This is crap,” snapped the man

“My light says it’s a forgery, and the light is the judge,” said the bouncer

“Listen, old man—”

That’s when Puller stepped in He put a hand on the soldier’s arm

When the guy whipped around, ready for a fight, he was staring at the clawed eagle on Puller’s CID badge

The grunt stiffened

“Bad luck for you all around, son,” said Puller “Now, I have no jurisdiction over the water boy there,” he said, indicating the man in the Navy uniform “But I sure as hell do over both of your butts So turn back around and tell the et back to your post And consider yourself lucky I don’t haul your asses down to the stockade for using a fake ID, soldiers!”

Puller’s voice had steadily risen as he was speaking, and by the tieant mode The two uniforms jumped out of line and tried to do their best imitation of world-class sprinters After a uy followed They turned the corner and were soon out of sight

Paul Rogers looked up at John Puller and put out his hand He said, “Thanks for that I never want any trouble”

“That’s always a good way to look at things And by the way, I’h to drink” He showed his ID card

“Works for ood time”

Puller walked past him and into the bar

Rogers flicked a glance at him and then turned back to his work