Child, Lee – Without Fail

‘Stand what?’

‘You’re going to get yourself killed,’ she said. ‘Just like you

got Joe killed.’

‘Excuse me?’ he said.

‘You heard.’

‘I didn’t get Joe killed.’

‘He wasn’t cut out for that kind of stuff. But he went ahead

and did it anyway. Because he was always comparing himself.

He was driven to do it.’

‘By me?’

‘Who else? He was your brother. He followed your career.’

Reacher said nothing.

‘Why do you people have to be like this?’ she said.

‘Us people?’ he said back. ‘Like what?’

‘You men,’ she said. ‘You military people. Always charging

headlong into stupidity.’

‘Is that what I’m doing?’

‘You know it is.’

‘I’m not the one sworn to take a bullet for some worthless

politician.’

‘Neither am I. That’s just a figure of speech. And not all

politicians are worthless.’

‘So would you take a bullet for him? Or not?’

She shrugged. ‘I don’t know.’

‘And I’m not charging headlong into anything.’

‘Yes, you are. You’ve been challenged. And God forbid you

should stay cool and just walk away.’

‘You want me to walk away? Or do you want to get this thing

done?’

‘You can’t do it by butting heads, like you were all rutting

deer or something.’

229

‘Why not? Sooner or later it’s us or them. That’s how it is.

That’s how it always is. Why pretend any different?’

‘Why look for trouble?’

‘I’m not looking for trouble. I don’t see it as trouble.’ ‘Well, what the hell else is it?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘You don’t know?’ He paused.

‘You know any lawyers?’ he asked.

‘Any what?’

‘You heard,’ he said.

‘Lawyers? Are you kidding? In this town? It’s wall-to-wall

lawyers.’

‘OK, so picture a lawyer. Twenty years out of law school, lots

of hands-on experience. Somebody asks him, can you write this

slightly complex will for me? What does he say? What does he

do? Does he start trembling with nerves? Does he think he’s

been challenged? Is it a testosterone thing? No, he just says,

sure, I can do that. And then he goes ahead and does it.

Because it’s his job. Pure and simple.’

This isn’t your job, Reacher.’

‘Yes, it is, near as makes no difference. Uncle Sam paid me

your tax dollars to do exactly this kind of.stuff, thirteen straight

years. And Uncle Sam sure as hell didn’t expect me to run away

and get all psychological and conflicted about it.’

She stared forward through the windshield. It was misting

fast, from their breath.

ere are hundreds of people on the other side of the Secret

Service,’ she said. ‘In Financial Crimes. Hundreds of them. I

don’t know how many, exactly. Lots of them. Good people.

We’re not really investigative, but they are. That’s all they are.

That’s what they’re for. Joe could have picked any ten of them

and sent them down to Georgia. He could have picked fifty of

them. But he didn’t. He. had to go himself. He had to go alone.

Because he was challenged. He couldn’t back off. Because he

was always comparing himself.’

‘I agree he shouldn’t have done it,’ Reacher said. ‘Like

a doctor shouldn’t write a will. Like a lawyer shouldn’t do

surgery.’

230

‘But you made him.’

He shook his head. ‘No, I didn’t make him,’ he said.

She was silent.

Fwo points, Froelich,’ he said. ‘First, people shouldn’t have

to choose their careers with one eye on what their brother

might think. And second, the last time Joe and I had any

significant contact I was sixteen years old. He was eighteen. He

was leaving for West Point. I was a kid. The last thing on his

mind was copying me. Are you nuts? And I never really saw him

again after that. Funerals only, basically. Because whatever you

think about me as a brother, he was no better. He paid no

attention to me. Years would go by, I wouldn’t hear from him.’

‘He followed your career. Your mother sent him stuff. He was

comparing himself.’

‘Our mother died seven years before he did. I barely had a

career back then.’

‘You won the Silver Star in Beirut right at the beginning.’

‘I was blown up by a bomb,’ he said. I’hey gave me a medal

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188

Leave a Reply 0

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *