Die Trying by Lee Child

The cautious woman nodded again.

“Sure,” she said. “What can I get you?”

“Anything,” Reacher said. “As long as it’s got coffee with it.”

“Five minutes,” the woman said.

She led the other two away through a door where the kitchen was bumped

out in back. Fowler sat down at a table and Reacher took the bench

opposite.

“Three times a day, this place gets used for meals,” Fowler said. The

rest of the time, afternoons and evenings mainly, it gets used as the

central meeting place for the community. Beau gets up on the table and

tells the folk what needs doing.”

“Where is Beau right now?” Reacher asked.

“You’ll see him before you go,” Fowler said. “Count on it.”

Reacher nodded slowly and focused through the small window toward the

mountains. The new angle gave him a glimpse of a farther range, maybe

fifty miles distant, hanging there in the clear air between the earth

and the sky. The silence was still awesome.

“Where is everybody?” he asked.

“Working,” Fowler said. “Working, and training.”

“Working?” Reacher said. “Working at what?”

“Building up the southern perimeter,” Fowler said. The ravines are

shallow in a couple of places. Tanks could get through. You know what

an abatis is?”

Reacher looked blank. He knew what an abatis was. Any conscientious

West Pointer who could read knew what an abatis was. But he wasn’t

about to let Fowler know exactly how much he knew about anything. So

he just looked blank.

“You fell some trees,” Fowler said. “Every fifth or sixth tree, you

chop it down. You drop it facing away from the enemy. The trees round

here, they’re mostly wild pines, the branches face upward, right? So

when they’re felled, the branches are facing away from the enemy. Tank

runs into the chopped end of the tree, tries to push it along. But the

branches snag against the trees you left standing. Pretty soon that

tank is trying to push two or three trees over. Then four or five.

Can’t be done. Even a big tank like an Abrams can’t do it.

Fifteen-hundred horsepower gas turbine on it, sixty-three tons, it’s

going to stall when it’s trying to push all those trees over. Even if

they ship the big Russian tanks in against us, it can’t be done. That’s

an abatis, Reacher. Use the power of nature against them. They can’t

get through those damn trees, that’s for sure. Soviets used it against

Hitler, Kursk, the Second World War. An old commie trick. Now we’re

turning it around against them.”

“What about infantry?” Reacher said. “Tanks won’t come alone. They’ll

have infantry right there with them. They’ll just skip ahead and

dynamite the trees.”

Fowler grinned.

“They’ll try,” he said. Then they’ll stop trying. We’ve got machine

gun positions fifty yards north of the abatises. We’ll cut them to

pieces.”

The cautious woman came back out of the kitchen carrying a tray. She

put it down on the table in front of Reacher. Eggs, bacon, fried

potatoes, beans, all on an enamel plate. A metal pint mug of steaming

coffee. Cheap flatware.

“Enjoy,” she said.

Thank you,” Reacher said.

“I don’t get coffee?” Fowler said.

The cautious woman pointed to the back.

“Help yourself,” she said.

Fowler tried a man-to-man look at Reacher and got up. Reacher kept on

looking blank. Fowler walked back to the kitchen and ducked in the

door. The woman watched him go and laid a hand on Reacher’s arm.

“I need to talk to you,” she whispered. “Find me after lights-out,

tonight. I’ll meet you outside the kitchen door, OK?”

Talk to me now,” Reacher whispered back. “I could be gone by then.”

“You’ve got to help us,” the woman whispered.

Then Fowler came back out into the hall and the woman’s eyes clouded

with terror. She straightened up and hurried away.

There were six bolts through each of the long tubes in the bed frame.

Two of them secured the mesh panel which held up the mattress. Then

there were two at each end, fixing the long tube to the right-angle

flanges attached to the legs. She had studied the construction for a

long time, and she had spotted an improvement. She could leave one