“He wants you back,” Harper said again. “This is getting way out of control. We need to start cutting some corners with the Army. And he figures you’ve demonstrated a talent for cutting corners.”
It was the wrong thing to say. It fell across the kitchen like a weight. Jodie switched her gaze from Harper to the refrigerator door.
“You should go, Reacher,” she said.
He made no reply.
“Go cut some corners,” she said. “Go do what you’re good at.”
sf/
lie went. Harper had a car waiting at the curb on Broadway. It was a Bureau car, borrowed from the New York office, and the driver was the same guy who had driven him down from Garrison with a gun at his head. But if the guy was confused about Reacher’s recent change of status, he didn’t show it. Just lit up his red light and took off west toward Newark.
The airport was a mess. They fought through crowds to the Continental counter. The reservation was coming in direct from Quantico as they waited at the desk. Two coach seats. They ran to the gate and were the last passengers to board. The purser was waiting for them at the end of the jetway. She put them in first class. Then she stood near them and used a microphone and welcomed everybody joining her for the trip to Seattle-Tacoma.
“Seattle?” Reacher said. “I thought we were going to Quantico.”
Harper felt behind her for the seat-belt buckle and shook her head. “First we’re going to the scene. Blake thought it could be useful. We saw the place two days ago. We can give him some direct before-and-after comparisons. He thinks it’s worth a try. He’s pretty desperate.”
Reacher nodded. “How’s Lamarr taking it?”
168
/”$*V
Harper shrugged. “She’s not falling apart. But she’s real tense. She wants to take complete control of everything. But she won’t join us out there. Still won’t fly.”
The plane was taxiing, swinging wide circles across the tarmac on its way to the takeoff line. The engines were whining up to pitch. There was vibration in the cabin.
“Flying’s OK,” Reacher said.
Harper nodded. “I know, crashing is the problem.”
“Hardly ever happens, statistically.”
“Like a Powerball win. But somebody always gets lucky.”
“Hell of a thing, not flying. A country this size, it’s kind of limiting, isn’t it? Especially for a federal agent. I’m surprised they let her get away with it.”
She shrugged again. “It’s a known quantity. They work around it.”
The plane swung onto the runway and stopped hard against the brakes. The engine noise built louder and the plane rolled forward, gently at first, then harder, accelerating all the way. It came up off the ground with no sensation at all and the wheels whined up into their bays and the ground tilted sharply below them.
“Five hours to Seattle,” Harper said. “All over again.”
“Did you think about the geography?” Reacher asked. “Spokane is the fourth corner, right?”
She nodded. “Eleven potential locations now, all random, and he takes the four farthest away for his first four hits. The extremities of the cluster.”
“But why?”
She made a face. “Demonstrating his reach?”
He nodded. “And his speed, I guess. Maybe that’s why he abandoned the interval. To demonstrate his efficiency. He was in San Diego, then he’s in Spokane a couple of days later, checking out a new target.”
“He’s a cool customer.”
Reacher nodded vaguely. “That’s for damn sure. He leaves an immaculate scene in San Diego, then he drives north like a madman and leaves what I bet is another immaculate scene in Spokane. A cool, cool customer. I wonder who the hell he is?”
Harper smiled, briefly and grimly. “We all wonder who the hell he is, Reacher. The trick is to find out.”
* # *
jfu/l/U/’M (filing 169
II
I* You’re a genius, is who you are. An absolute genius, a prodigy, a superhuman tal
ent.
Four down! One, two, three, four down. And the fourth was the best of all. Alison Lamarr herself. You go over and over it, replaying it like a video in your head, checking it, testing it, examining it. But also savoring it. Because it was the best yet. The most fun, the most satisfaction. The most impact. The look on her face as she opened the door! The dawning recognition, the surprise, the welcome!