roadblocks on every thoroughfare around the White House.
Stuyvesant kept his strobes going and was waved through all of
them. He showed his ID at the White House vehicle gate and
parked outside the West Wing. A Marine sentry passed them to
a Secret Service escort who led them inside. They went down
two flights of stairs to a vaulted basement built from brick.
There were plant rooms down there. Other rooms with steel
doors. The escort stopped in front of one of them and knocked
hard.
The door was opened from the inside by one of Armstrong’s
personal detail. He was still wearing his Kevlar vest. Still wearing
his sunglasses, although the room had no windows. Just
bright fluorescent tubes on the ceiling. Armstrong and his wife
were sitting together on chairs at a table in the centre of the
room. The other two agents were leaning against the walls. The
room was silent. Armstrong’s wife had been crying. That was
clear. Armstrong himself had a smudge of Froelich’s blood on
the side of his face. He looked deflated. Like this whole White
House thing was no longer fun.
‘What’s the situation?’ he asked.
Two casualties,’ Stuyvesant said quietly, q’he sentry on the
warehouse roof, and M.E. herself. They both died at the
scene.’
Armstrong’s wife turned away like she had been slapped.
‘Did you get the people who did it?’ Armstrong asked.
°The FBI is leading the hunt,’ Stuyvesant said. ‘Just a matter
of time.’
‘I want to help,’ Armstrong said.
‘You’re going to help, Reacher said.
Armstrong nodded. ‘What can I do?’
‘You can issue a formal statement,’ Reacher said. ‘Imme
diately. In time for the networks to get it on the evening news.’
‘Saying what?’
‘Saying you’re cancelling your holiday weekend in North
274
Dakota out of respect for the two dead agents. Saying you’re
holing up in your Georgetown house and going absolutely
nowhere at all before you attend a memorial service for your
lead agent in her home town in Wyoming on Sunday morning.
Find out the name of the town and mention it loud and
clear.’
Armstrong nodded again. ‘OK,’ he said. ‘I could do that, I
guess. But why?’
‘Because they won’t try again here in D.C. Not against the
security you’re going to have at your house. So they’ll go home
and wait. Which gives me until Sunday to find out where they
live.’
‘You? Won’t the FBI find them today?’
‘If they do, that’s great. I can move on.’
‘And if they don’t?’
qhen I’ll find them myself.’
‘And if you fail?’
‘I don’t plan to fail. But if I do, then they’ll show up in
Wyoming to try again. At Froelich’s service. Whereupon I’ll be
waiting for them.’
‘No,’ Stuyvesant said. ‘I can’t allow it. Are you crazy? We can’t
secure a situation out west on seventy-two hours’ notice. And I
can’t use a protectee as bait.’
‘He doesn’t have to actually go,’ Reacher said. Fhere
probably won’t even be a service. He just has to say it.’
Armstrong shook his head. ‘I can’t say it if there isn’t going to
be a service. And if there is a service, I can’t say it and not show
up.’
‘If you want to help, that’s what you’ve got to do.’
Armstrong said nothing.
They left the Armstrongs in the West Wing basement and
were escorted back to the Suburban. The sun was still shining
and the sky was still blue. The buildings were still white and
golden. It was still a glorious day.
flake us back to the motel,’ Reacher said. ‘I want to get a
shower. Then I want to meet with Bannon.’
‘Why?’ Stuyvesant asked.
‘Because I’m a witness,’ Reacher said. ‘I saw the shooter. On
275
the roof. Just a glimpse of his back as he moved away from the
edge.’
‘You got a description?’
‘Not really,’ Reacher said. ‘It was only a glimpse. I couldn’t
describe him. But there was something about the way he moved.
I’ve seen him before.’
276
FOURTEEN
H
E PEELED OFF HIS CLOTHES. THEY WERE STIFF AND COLD AND clammy with blood. He dropped them on the closet
floor and stepped into the bathroom. Set the shower