think it’s the day we win or lose.’
‘I like that kind of a day.’
‘You do?’
246
‘Sure,’ he said. ‘Losing is not an option, which means it’s the
day we win.’
She pushed back the covers. The room heat had gone from
too cold to too hot.
‘Dress casual,’ she said. ‘Suits don’t look right on a holiday at
a soup kitchen. Will you tell Neagley?’
‘You tell her. You’ll be passing her door. She won’t bite.’
‘She won’t?’
‘No,’ he said.
She put her suit back on and left. He padded over to the
closet and pulled out the bag full of his Atlantic City clothes.
He spilled them on the bed and did his best to flatten out
the wrinkles. Then he showered without shaving. She wanted
me to look casual, he thought. He found Neagley in the lobby.
She was wearing her jeans and her sweatshirt with a battered
leather jacket over it. There was a buffet table with coffee and
muffins. The U.S. Marshals had already eaten most of them.
‘You two kiss and make up?’ Neagley asked.
‘A little of each, I guess,’ he said.
He took a cup and filled it with coffee. Selected a raisin bran
muffin. Then Froelich showed up, newly showered and wearing
black denim jeans with a black polo shirt and a black nylon
jacket. They ate and drank whatever the marshals had left and
then they walked out together to Stuyvesant’s Suburban. It was
before seven in the morning on Thanksgiving Day and the city
looked like it had been evacuated the night before. There was
silence everywhere. It was cold, but the air was still and soft.
The sun was up and the sky was pale blue. The stone buildings
looked golden. The roads were completely empty. It took no
time at all to reach the office. Stuyvesant was waiting for them
in the conference room. His interpretation of casual was a pair
of pressed grey slacks and a pink sweater under a bright
blue golf jacket. Reacher guessed all the labels said Brooks
Brothers, and he guessed Mrs Stuyvesant had gone to the
Baltimore hospital as was usual on a Thursday, Thanksgiving
Day or not. Bannon was sitting opposite Stuyv.esant. He was in
the same tweed and flannel. He would look like a cop whatever
day it was. He looked like a guy without too many options in
his closet.
247
‘Let’s get to it,’ Stuyvesant said. ‘We’ve got a big agenda.’
‘First item,’ Bannon said. if’he FBI formally advises cancellation
today. We know the bad guys are in the city and therefore
it’s reasonable to assume there may be some kind of imminent
hostile attempt.’
‘Cancellation is out of the question,’ Stuyvesant said. ‘Free
turkey at a homeless shelter might sound trivial, but this is a
town that runs on symbols. If Armstrong pulled out the political
damage would be catastrophic.’
‘OK, then we’re going to be there on the ground with you,’
Bannon said. ‘Not to duplicate your role. We’ll stay strictly out
of your way on all matters that concern Armstrong’s personal
security. But if something does go down, the closer we are the
luckier we’ll get.’
‘Any specific information?’ Froelich asked.
Bannon shook his head. ‘None,’ he said. ‘Just a feeling. But I
would urge you to take it very seriously.’
‘I’m taking everything very seriously,’ Froelich said. ‘In fact,
I’m changing the whole plan. I’m moving the event outdoors.’ ‘Outdoors?’ Bannon said. ‘Isn’t that worse?’
‘No,’ Froelich said. ‘On balance, it’s better. It’s a long low
room, basically. Kitchen at the back. It’s going to get very
crowded. We’ve got no realistic chance of using metal detectors
on the doors. It’s the end of November, and most of these
people are going to be wearing five layers and carrying God
knows what kind of metal stuff. We can’t search them. It would
take for ever and God knows how many diseases my people
would catch. We can’t wear gloves to do it because that would
be seen as insulting. So we have to concede there’s a fair
chance that the bad guys could mingle in and get close, and we
have to concede we’ve got no real way of stopping them.’