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We ht the airport bus It was my sixth time on that bus in about a week The sixth time was no more comfortable than the previous five It was the discoot out at international departures and found the Air France ticket desk Swapped two vouchers for two seats to Dulles on the eleven o&039;clock red-eye That gave us a long wait We hus across the concourse and started out in a bar Suuess she couldn&039;t think of anything to say But the truth was, I was doing OK at that point Life was unfolding the same way it always had for everyone Sooner or later you ended up an orphan There was no escaping it It had happened that way for a thousand generations No point in getting all upset about it

We drank bottles of beer and looked for souessed Summer hadn&039;t eaten either We walked past all the little tax-exempt boutiques and found a place that was made up to look like a sidewalk bistro We pooled our few re dollars and checked the menu and worked out that we could afford one course each, plus juice for her and coffee for me, and a tip for the waiter We ordered steak frites, which turned out to be a decent slab of ood food anywhere in France Even an airport

After an hour we ate We were still early and it was alers, all shopped out, or broke like us We sat far away fro back," Suet how much trouble you&039;re in when you&039;re away"

"All we need is a result," I said

"We&039;re not going to get one It&039;s been ten days and we&039;re nowhere"

I nodded Ten days since Mrs Kramer died, six days since Carbone died Five days since Delta had given ot nothing," Summer said "Not even the easy stuff We didn&039;t even find the woman from Kramer&039;s motel That shouldn&039;t have been difficult"

I nodded again She was right That shouldn&039;t have been difficult

We boarded forty minutes before takeoff Summer and I had seats behind an old couple in an exit roished we could change places with thelad of the extra roo more and more cramped and uncomfortable The stewardess served a meal that I couldn&039;t have eaten even if I had wanted to, because I didn&039;t have enough room to move ht led to another

I thought about Joe flying in the night before He would have flown coach That was clear A civil servant on a personal trip doesn&039;t fly any other way He would have been cra, a little more than ain about putting him in the bus to town I recalled the hard plastic seats and his cramped position and the way his head was jerked around by thefor a cab fro at the curb I should have found a way to scare up soht led to another

I pictured Kra in from Frankfurt on New Year&039;s Eve A jet No more spacious than any other jet An early start fro down the jetway, stiff, airless, dehydrated, uncoht led to another

I pulled the George V bill out of h Read it through again Examined every line and every item

The hotel bill, the airplane, the bus to town

The bus to town, the airplane, the hotel bill

I closed s that Sanchez and the Delta adjutant and Detective Clark and Andrea Norton and Suht about the crowd of reeters we had seen in the Roissy-Charles de Gaulle arrivals hall I thought about Sperryville, Virginia I thought about Mrs Kramer&039;s house in Green Valley

In the end dominoes fell all over the place and landed in ways that ood Least of allone that I knew for sure was going to coht back and bitemy prioranother one I spent allabout the future About counter for us at Dulles We touched down at two in the h the custoht into a trap set by Willard

Standing in the same place they had stood six days earlier were the same three warrant officers from the Provost Marshal General&039;s office Two W3s and a W4 I saw the how the hell Willard had done it Did he have guys standing by at every airport in the country all day and all night? Did he have a Europe-wide trace out on our travel vouchers? Could he do that himself? Or was the FBI involved? The Department of the Army? The State Department? Interpol? NATO? I had no idea I made an absurd mental note that one day I should try to find out

Then I spent another second deciding what to do about the situation

Delay was not an option Not now Not in Willard&039;s hands I needed freedom of ht o see him happily Because at that point I would be ready to slap him around and arrest him

The W4 walked up to us with his W3s at his back

"I have orders to place you both in handcuffs," he said

"Ignore your orders," I said

"I can&039;t," he said

"Try"

"I can&039;t," he said again

I nodded

"OK, we&039;ll trade," I said "You try it with the handcuffs, I&039;ll break your aro quietly"

He thought about it He was aruys We weren&039;t But nobody wants to shoot people in the middle of an airport Not unarmed people from your own unit That would lead to a bad conscience And paperwork And he didn&039;t want a fistfight Not three against two I was too big and Summer was too small to make it fair

"Deal?" he said

"Deal," I lied

"So let&039;s go"

Last ti W3s had stayed on my shoulders I sincerely hoped he would repeat that pattern I guessed the W3s figured theuessed they were close to being correct, but it was the W4 I was enuine article But he didn&039;t have eyes in the back of his head So I hoped he would walk in front

He did Sus in our hands and the W3s formed up wide and behind us in an arrowhead pattern The W4 led the way We went out through the doors into the cold Turned toward the restricted lane where they had parked last ti and the airport approach roads were coht froround et

We crossed the public pickup lane and crossed the median where the bus shelters were We headed onward into the dark I could see the bulk of a parking garage half-left and the green Chevy Caprice far away to the right We turned toward it Walked in the roadway Most other times of the day ould have been ht then the whole place was still and silent Past two o&039;clock in theand used both hands and shoved Suht elbow backward and sht-hand W3 hard in the face Kept my feet planted and twisted the other way like a violent calisthenic exercise and smacked the left-hand W3 with my left elbow Then I stepped forward and met the W4 as he spun toward the noise and caht left to the chest His weight wasand the blow ht hook to his chin and put hiround Turned back to the W3s to check how they were doing They were both down on their backs There was some blood on their faces Broken noses, loosened teeth A lot of shock and surprise An excellent stun factor I was pleased They were good, and I was better I checked the W4 He wasn&039;t doing much I squatted down next to the W3s and took their Berettas out of their holsters Then I twisted away and took the W4&039;s out of his Threaded all three guns on er Then I used ht-hand W3 had them in his pocket I took them out and tossed the a little dised the W4 by his collar to the nearest bus shelter Then I went back for the W3s and dragged theot them all lined up facedown on the floor They were conscious, but they were groggy Heavy blows to the head are a lot more consequential in real life than they are in theThe adrenaline was kicking in So has an effect on both parties to the deal

I crouched down next to the W4

"I apologize, Chief," I said "But you got in the way"

He said nothing Just stared up at er, shock, wounded pride, confusion

"Now listen," I said "Listen carefully You never saw us We weren&039;t here We never came You waited for hours, but we didn&039;t show You caht That&039;s what happened, OK?"

He tried to say soht

"Yes, I know," I said "It&039;s pretty weak and it ood does it make you look that you let us escape? That you didn&039;t handcuff us like you were ordered to?"

He said nothing

"That&039;s your story," I said "We didn&039;t show, and your car was stolen Stick to it or I&039;ll put it about that it was the lieutenant who took you down A ninety-pound girl One against three People will love that They&039;ll go nuts for it And you kno rumors can follow you around forever"

He said nothing

"Your choice," I said

He shrugged Said nothing

"I apologize," I said "Sincerely"

We left thes and ran to their car Summer unlocked it and we slid in and she fired it up Put it in gear and moved away from the curb

"Go slow," I said

I waited until ere alongside the bus shelter and then wound the n and tossed the Berettas out on the sidewalk Their cover story wouldn&039;t hold up if they lost their weapons as well as their car The three guns landed near the three guys and they all got up on their hands and knees and started to craard theo," I said

Suas hard and the tires lit up and about a second later ell outside handgun range She kept her foot down and we left the airport doing about ninety miles an hour

"You OK?" I said

"So far," she said

"I&039;m sorry I had to shove you"

"We should have just run," she said "We could have lost them in the terminal"

"We needed a car," I said "I&039; the bus"

"But noe&039;re way out of line"

"That&039;s for sure," I said

I checkedWe were heading south fro nowhere, fast In the dark We needed a destination

"You know my phone number at Bird?" I said

"Sure," Summer said

"OK, pull over at the next place with a phone"

She spotted an all-night gas station about five miles later It was all lit up on the horizon We pulled in and checked it out There was a rocery store behind the puas through a bulletproofThere was a pay phone outside next to the air hose It was in an aluminum box mounted on the wall The box had phone shapes drilled into the sides Summer dialed my Fort Bird office nu tone and then ht-duty woman The one with the baby son

"This is Reacher," I said

"You&039;re in deep shit," she said

"And that&039;s the good news," I said

"What&039;s the bad news?"

"You&039;re going to join eirl stays From the trailer next door"

"Can she stay an hour longer?"

"Why?"

"I want you tome some stuff"

"It&039;ll cost you"

"How much?"

"Two dollars an hour For the babysitter"

"I haven&039;t got two dollars That&039;s so Money"

"You want ive you money?"

"A loan," I said "Couple of days"

"How ot"

"When and where?"

"When you get off At six At the diner near the strip club"

"What do you need ?"

"Phone records," I said "All calls ht on New Year&039;s Eve until maybe the third of January And an army phone book I need to speak to Sanchez and Franz and all kinds of other people And I need Major Marshall&039;s personal file The XII Corps guy I need you to get a copy faxed in fro else?"

"I want to knohere Vassell and Coomer parked their car when they came down for dinner on the fourth I want you to see if anyone noticed"

"OK," she said "Is that it?"

"No," I said "I want to knohere Major Marshall was on the second and the third Scare up some travel clerk somewhere and see if any vouchers were issued And I want a phone number for the Jefferson Hotel in DC"

"That&039;s an awful lot to do in three hours"

"That&039;s why I&039;uy You&039;re better than he is"

"Stick it," she said "Flattery doesn&039;t work on s eternal," I said

We got back into the car and got back on the road Headed east for I-95 I told Suo slow If I didn&039;t, then the way she was likely to drive on eet us to the diner well before eant would get there around six-thirty I wanted to get there after her, maybe six-forty I wanted to check she hadn&039;t done her duty and dropped a dime on me and set up an ambush It was unlikely, but not impossible I wanted to be able to drive by and check I didn&039;t want to be already in a booth drinking coffee when Willard showed up

"Why do you want all that stuff?" Summer asked

"I knohat happened to Mrs Kraured it out," I said "Like I should have at the beginning But I didn&039;t think I didn&039;t have enough iine things"

"It is," I said "Sometimes that&039;s what it&039;s all about Soot You have to iine what people ht and acted You have to think yourself into being the who?"

"Vassell and Coomer," I said "We knoho they are We knohat they&039;re like Therefore we can predict what they did"

"What did they do?"

"They got an early start and flew all day from Frankfurt On New Year&039;s Eve They wore Class As, trying to get an upgrade Maybe they succeeded, with American Airlines out of Germany Maybe they didn&039;t Either way, they couldn&039;t have counted on it They ht hours in coach"

"So?"

"Would guys like Vassell and Coomer be happy to wait in the Dulles taxi line? Or take a shuttle bus to the city? All cramped and uncomfortable?"

"No," Su"

"Exactly," I said "They wouldn&039;t do either thing They&039;re way too important for that They wouldn&039;t dream of it Not in a million years Guys like that, they need to be met by a car and a driver"

"Who?"

"Marshall," I said "That&039;s who He&039;s their blue-eyed gofer He was already over here, at their service He must have picked them up at the airport Maybe Kramer too Did Kramer take the Hertz bus to the rental lot? I don&039;t think so I think Marshall drove him there Then he drove Vassell and Coomer to the Jefferson Hotel"

"And?"

"And he stayed there with them, Summer I think he had a room booked Maybe they wanted hi He was going with the to Irwin too Or ently Just the three of them, Vassell, Coomer, and Marshall Maybe it was easier to talk without Kramer there And Marshall had a lot of stuff to talk about They started his temporary detached duty in November You tolddown Nove in So they sent hiround in the Pentagon That&039;s ht with Vassell and Coomer at the Jefferson Hotel I&039;m sure of it"

"OK, so?"

"Marshall was at the hotel, and his car was in valet parking And you knohat? I checked our bill fro Especially the phone calls But not all the phone calls The room-to-room calls we made didn&039;t show up at all You called ht, because I was lonely Those calls didn&039;t show up anywhere on the bill Hit three for another rooers the computer There were no calls on Vassell and Cooht they had made no calls But they had made calls It&039;s obvious They e from XII Corps in Germany, and then he called Coomer&039;s room to discuss what the hell to do about the situation And then one or the other of them picked up the phone and called Marshall&039;s rooofer and told him to run downstairs and jump in his car"

"Marshall did it?"

I nodded "They sent hiht to clean up their mess"

"Can we prove it?"

"We can s First, we&039;ll call the Jefferson Hotel and we&039;ll find a booking in Marshall&039;s name for New Year&039;s Eve Second, Marshall&039;s file will tell us he once lived in Sperryville, Virginia And third, his file will tell us he&039;s tall and heavy and right-handed"

She went quiet Her eyelids started h?" she said "Is Mrs Kraet us off the hook?"

"There&039;sin a parallel universe, watching Suhith the world going half-speed outside our s The big Chevy engine was loafing along a little above idle The tires were quiet We passed all our familiar landmarks The State Police facility, the spot where Kramer&039;s briefcase had been found, the rest area, the spur to the shway We crawled off at the cloverleaf and I scanned the gas station and the greasy spoon and the lounge parking and theand black shadow but I could see well enough There was no sign of a setup Su slow circuit There were three eighteen-wheelers parked like beached whales and a couple of old sedans that were probably abandoned They had the look They had dull paint and soft tires and they were low on their springs There was an old Ford pickup truck with a baby seat strapped to the bench I guessed that waselse Six-forty in the , and the world was dark and still and quiet

We put the car out of sight behind the lounge bar and walked across the lot to the diner Its ere ht inside It looked like a Hopper painting My sergeant was alone at a booth in back We walked in and sat down beside her She hauled a grocery bag up off the floor It was full of stuff

"First things first," she said

She put her hand in the bag and caht on the table in front of me It was a standard nine-millimeter Parabellum Standard NATO load Full un The shiny brass casing had so scratched on it I picked it up Looked at it There was a word engraved there It was rough and uneven It had been done fast and by hand It said: Reacher

"A bullet with eant said "Hand-delivered, yesterday"

"Who by?"

"The young one with the beard"

"Char," I said "Remind me to kick his ass"

"Don&039;t joke about it They&039;re awful stirred up"

"They&039;re looking at the wrong guy"

"Can you prove that?"

I paused Knowing and proving were two different things I dropped the bullet into my pocket and put my hands on the table

"Maybe I can," I said

"You knoho killed Carbone too?" Su at a tieant said "It&039;s all I could get"

She went into her bag again and put forty-seven dollars on the table

"Thanks," I said "Call it I owe you fifty Three bucks interest"

"Fifty-two," she said "Don&039;t forget the babysitter"

"What else have you got?"

She came out with a concertina of printer paper It was the kind with faint blue rulings and holes in the sides There were lines and lines of numbers on it

"The phone records," she said

Then she gave me a sheet of army memo paper with a 202 number on it

"The Jefferson Hotel," she said

Then she gave me a roll of curled fax paper

"Major Marshall&039;s personal file," she said