Child, Lee – Without Fail

373

crawled over and pushed it into the clock mechanism. The gear

wheels jammed on it and the clock stopped. He pulled the wood

out again and crawled away and slotted it back in the frame.

The silence was suddenly deafening.

They watched and waited. It got colder, to the point where

they both started shivering. But the silence helped. Suddenly, it

helped a lot. Reacher crawled over and checked his partial view

to the west again and then crawled back and picked up the map.

Stared at it hard, lost in thought. He used his finger and thumb

like a compass and measured distances. Forty, eighty, a hundred

and twenty, a hundred and sixty miles. Slow, faster, fast, slow.

Overall average speed maybe forty. That’s four hours. ‘Sun sets in the west,’ he said. ‘Rises in the east.’

‘On this planet,’ Neagley said.

Then they heard the staircase creak below them. They heard feet on the ladder. The trapdoor lifted an inch and fell back and

then crashed all the way open and the vicar put his head up into

the bell chamber and stared at the sub-machine gun pointing at

him from one side and the M16 rifle from the other.

‘I need to talk to you about those things,’ he said. ‘You can’t

expect me to happy about having weapons in my church.’

He stood there on the ladder, looking like a severed head.

Reacher laid the M16 back on the floor. The vicar stepped up

another rung.

‘I understand the need for security,’ he said. ‘And we’re

honoured to host the Vice President-elect, but I really can’t

permit engines of destruction in a hallowed building. I would

have expected somebody to discuss it with me.’

‘Engines of destruction?’ Neagley repeated.

‘What time does the sun set?’ Reacher asked.

The vicar looked a little surprised by the change of subject.

But he answered very politely.

‘Soon,’ he said. ‘It falls behind the mountains quite early here.

But you won’t see it ,happen today. There are clouds. There’s a

snowstorm coming in from the west.’

‘And when does it rise?’

Fhis time of year? A little before seven o’clock, I suppose.’

‘You heard a weather report for tomorrow?’

q’hey say much the same as today.’

374

‘OK,’ Reacher said. ‘Thanks.’

‘Did you stop the clock?’

‘It was driving me nuts.’

I’hat’s why I came up. Do you mind if I set it going again?’

Reacher shrugged. ‘It’s your clock.’

‘I know the noise must be bothersome.’

‘Doesn’t matter,’ Reacher said. ‘We’ll be out of here as soon

as the sun sets. Weapons and all.’

The vicar hauled himself all the way up into the chamber and

leaned over the iron girders and fiddled With the mechanism.

There was a setting device linked to a separate miniature clock

that Reacher hadn’t noticed before. It was buried within the

gear wheels. It had an adjustment lever attached to it. The vicar

checked his wristwatch and used the lever to force the exterior

hands round to the correct time. The miniature clock hands

moved with them. Then he simply turned a gear wheel with his

hand until the mechanism picked up the momentum for itself

and started again on its own. The heavy thunk, thunk, thunk came back. The smallest bell rang in sympathy, one tiny reso

nance for every second that passed.

I’hank you,’ the vicar said.

‘An hour at most,’ Reacher said. Then we’ll be gone.’

The vicar nodded like his point was made and threaded

himself down through the trapdoor. Pulled it closed after

him.

‘We can’t leave here,’ Neagley said. ‘Are you crazy? They

could come in at night easy as anything. Maybe that’s exactly

what they’re waiting for. They could drive back in without

headlights.’

Reacher glanced at his watch.

hey’re already here,’ he said. ‘Or almost here.’

‘Where?’

‘I’ll show you.’

He pulled the louvre out of the frame, again and handed it to

her. Crawled under the clock shaft to the bottom of the next

ladder that led up through the roof to the outside. Climbed up it

and eased the roof trapdoor open.

‘Stay low,’ he called.

He swam out, keeping his stomach flat on the roof. The

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