Die Trying by Lee Child

as he could, but they had reached the point where the math went absurd.

To be this far south without passing him, Stevie would need to be

driving at a hundred miles an hour. Or a hundred and twenty. Or a

hundred and fifty. He glanced at the others and spoke in a voice which

didn’t sound like his own.

“I blew it,” he said. “It must have been Minneapolis.”

Then the thump of the engines faded and for the second time that day

the huge bass roar of the bomb came back. He kept his eyes wide open

so he wouldn’t have to see it, but he saw it anyway. Not Marines this

time, not hard men camped out in the heat to do a job, but soft people,

women and children, small and smaller, camped out in a city park to

watch fireworks, vaporizing and bursting into a hazy pink dew like his

friends had done thirteen years before. The bone fragments coming out

of children and hissing away through the burning air and hitting other

children a hundred yards farther on. Hitting them and tearing through

their soft guts like shrapnel and putting the luckiest ones in the

hospital for a whole agonizing year.

They were all staring at him. He realized tears were rolling down his

cheeks and splashing onto his shirt.

“I’m sorry,” he said.

They looked away.

“I got calls to make,” Webster said. “Why is it Minneapolis now? Why

was it ever San Francisco?”

“Federal Reserve branches,” Reacher said quietly. There are twelve of

them. The nearest two to Montana are San Francisco and Minneapolis.

Borken hated the Fed. He thought it was the main instrument of the

world government. He thought it was a big conspiracy to eliminate the

middle classes. It was his special theory. He said it put him ahead

in his understanding. And he believed the Fed ordered his father’s

bank to finagle the old guy into taking a loan so they could

deliberately default him later.”

“So Borken’s attacking the Fed?” Johnson asked urgently.

Reacher nodded.

Twin blows,” he said. “In the war against the world government. Attack

the old system with a surprise move, like Pearl Harbor. At the same

time as setting up a brand-new system for converts to flock to. One

bird with two stones.”

He stopped talking. Too tired to continue. Too dispirited. Garber

was staring at him. Real pain in his face. The beating of the engines

was so loud it sounded like total silence.

The Declaration of Independence was only half of it,” McGrath said.

“Double decoy. We were supposed to be focused up there, worried about

Holly, worried about a suicide pact, going crazy, while they bombed the

Fed behind our backs. I figured San Francisco because of Kendall,

remember? I figured Borken would target the nearest branch to where

his old man’s farm was.”

Webster nodded.

“Hell of a plan,” he said. “Holiday weekend, agents on leave, big

strategic decisions to make, everybody looking in the wrong place. Then

the whole world looking at the bombing while Borken secures his

territory back up there.”

“Where is the Fed in Minneapolis?” Johnson asked urgently.

Webster shrugged vaguely.

“No idea,” he said. “I’ve never been to Minneapolis. I imagine it’s a

big public building, probably in a nice spot, parks all around, maybe

on the river or something. There’s a river in Minneapolis, right?”

Holly nodded.

“It’s called the Mississippi,” she said.

“No,” Reacher said.

“It damn well is,” Holly said. “Everybody knows that.”

“No,” Reacher said again. “It’s not Minneapolis. It’s San

Francisco.”

“Mississippi goes nowhere near San Francisco,” Holly said.

Then she saw a giant smile spreading across Reacher’s face. A final

gleam of triumph in his tired eyes.

“What?” she said.

“San Francisco was right,” he said.

Webster grunted in irritation.

“We’d have passed him already,” he said. “Miles back.”

Reacher thumbed his mike. Shouted up to the pilot.

Turn back,” he said. “A big wide loop.”

Then he smiled again. Smiled and closed his eyes.

“We did pass him,” he said. “Miles back. Right over his damn head.

They painted the truck green.”

The Night Hawk swung away into a high banked loop. The passengers