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‘What about you?’

‘Me? I’ll be OK’

‘Will you try hard?’

‘What’s the pass mark?’

‘Fifty per cent, probably’

‘Then I’ll ai effort When is it?’

‘Three days from now Before the semester starts’

‘Terrific,’ Reacher said ‘What kind of an education syste of a simple word like vacation?’

CHAPTER FOUR

REACHER WENT OUT to the concrete street and looked at the patch of ocean in the distance up ahead The East China Sea, not the Pacific The Pacific lay in the other direction Okinaas one of the Ryuku Islands, and the Ryuku Islands separated the two bodies of water

There were maybe forty homes between Reacher and the water on the left-hand side of the street, and another forty on the right He figured the homes closer to hi for Marine families, and the homes further from him an

d nearer the water would be locally owned, by Japanese families who lived there full-time He kne real estate worked Just steps to the beach People coenerally the military let the locals have the best stuff The DoD alorried about friction Especially on Okinawa The air station was right in the centre of Genohich was a fair-sized city Every ti for a minute or two, because of the noise

He turned his back on the East China Sea and walked inland, past identical little houses, across a four-way junction, into a perfect rectilinear matrix of yet more identical houses They had been built quick and cheap, but they were in good order They were meticulously maintained He saw small doll-like local ladies on some of the porches He nodded to them politely, but they all looked away He saw no local Japanese kids Maybe they were in school already Maybe their semester had already started He turned back and a hundred yards later found Joe out on the streets, looking for him

Joe said, ‘Did they tell you about the test?’

Reacher nodded ‘No big deal’

‘We have to pass’

‘Obviously we’ll pass’

‘No, IWe have to crush it We have to knock it out of the park’

‘Why?’

‘They’re trying to humiliate us, Reacher’

‘Us? They don’t even know us’

‘People like us Thousands of us We have to humiliate theht of this idea We have to piss all over their stupid test’

‘I’m sure ill How hard can it be?’

Joe said, ‘It’s a new policy, so it ht be all kinds of new things in it’

‘Like what?’

‘I have no idea There could be anything’

‘Well, I’ll do my best with it’

‘How’s your general knowledge?’

‘I know that Mickey Mantle hit 303 ten years ago And 285 fifteen years ago And 300 twenty years ago Which averages out to 296, which is ree of 298, which has to ’

‘They’re not going to ask about Mickey Mantle’