Gone Tomorrow By Lee Child Novel Narratives Audiobooks Part 2

I felt like the clock in my head was back on track and I wanted to let it calibrate and settle in undisturbed right then it was showing 6:00 in the evening which meant I'd been out about another 8 hours I was very hungry and very thirsty my arm hurt the same way my leg had a hot little bruise right up there at the top I could feel that I still had no shoes but my wrists and ankles weren't fastened to the rails of the cot which was a relief I stretched lazily and rubbed a palm across my face more stubble I was heading for a regular beard I opened my eyes looked around discovered two things one Thea Lee was in the cage to my right two Jacob Mark was in the cage to my left both of them were cops neither one of them had shoes on that was when I started to worry if I was right and it was 6:00 in the evening then Theresa Lee had been hauled in from home and Jacob Mark had been brought in from work they were both looking at me Lee was standing behind her bars about 5 ft away she was wearing blue jeans and a white shirt she had bare feet Jake was sitting on his cot he was wearing a police officer's uniform minus the belt and the gun and the radio and the shoes I sat up on my cot and swung my feet to the floor and ran my hands through my hair then I I stood up and stepped over to the sink and drank from the faucet New York City for sure I recognized the taste of the water I looked at Theresa Lee and asked her do you know exactly where we are she said don't you I shook my head she said we have to assume this place is wired for sound I'm sure it is but they already know where we are so we won't be giving them anything they don't already have I don't think we should say anything we can discuss Geographic facts I don't think the Patriot Act prohibits street addresses at least not yet Lee said nothing I said what she looked uneasy I said you think I'm playing games with you she didn't answer I said you think I'm here to trap you into saying something on tape I don't know I don't know anything about you what's on your mind those clubs on bleer are nearer Sixth Avenue than broadway you had the A train right there or the b or the c or the D so why were you on the six train at all law of nature I said we're hardwired in our brains middle of the night full dark all mammals Head East instinctively really no I just made that up I had nowhere to go I came out of a bar and turned left and walked I can't explain it any better than that Lee said nothing I said what else she said you have no bags I never saw a homeless person with nothing most of them haul more stuff around than I own they use shopping carts I'm Different I said and I'm not a homeless person not like them she said nothing I asked her were you blindfolded when they brought you here she looked at me for a long moment and then she shook her head inside she said we're in a closed Firehouse in Greenwich Village on West Third Street level and above is disused we're in the basement you know exactly who these guys are she didn't speak just glanced up at the camera I said same principle they know who they are at least I hope they do doesn't hurt for them to know that we know too you think that's the point they can't stop us thinking do you know who they are they didn't show ID not today and not that first night either when they came to talk to you at the precinct but not showing ID can be the same thing as showing it if you're the only Bunch that never does we've heard some stories so who are they they work directly for the Secretary of Defense that figures I said the secretary of defense is usually the dumbest guy in the government Lee glanced up at the camera again as if I'd insulted it as if she had caused it to be insulted I said don't worry these guys look ex-military to me in which case they already know how dumb the secretary of defense is but even so defense is a cabinet position which means ultimately these guys are working for the White House Lee paused to beat eat and asked do you know what they want some of it don't tell us I won't I said but is it big enough for the White House potentially I guess [ __ ] when did they come for you this afternoon 2:00 I was still asleep did they have the NYPD with him Lee nodded and a little hurt showed in her eyes I asked did you know the patrolman she shook her head hotot counterterrorism guys they write their own rules and keep themselves separate they ride around in special cars all day long fake taxis sometimes one in the front two in the back did you know that big circles up on 10th down on second like The B-52s used to patrol the skies what time is it now about 6 after 6 she looked at her watch and looked surprised dead on she said I turned the other way Jake I said what about you it came for me first I've been here since noon watching you sleep any word from Peter nothing sorry you snore you know that I was full of gorilla tranquilizer from a dart gun you're kiding I showed him the blood stain on my pants and then the one on my shoulder that's insane he said were you at work he nodded yeah dispatcher called my car back to base and they were waiting for me so your department knows where you are not specifically he said but they know who took me away that's something I said not really he said the department won't do anything for me guys like these come for you suddenly you're tainted you presumed guilty of something people were already inching away from me Lee said like when Internal Affairs comes calling I asked her why isn't doery here he knows less than me in fact he went out of his way to know less than me didn't you notice that he's an old hand he's your partner today he is by next week he only forgotten he ever had a partner you know how these things work Jake said there were only three cells here maybe rockety is somewhere else I asked have these guys talked to you yet both of them shook their heads I asked are you worried both of them nodded Lee asked are you I'm sleeping well I said but I think that's mostly because of the tranquilizers at 6:30 they brought us food deli sandwiches and plastic clamshell packs that were turned sideways and pushed through the bar S Plus bottles of water I drank my water first and refilled the bottle from the tap my sandwich was salami and cheese finest meal I ever ate at 7:00 they took Jacob Mark away for questioning no restraints no chains Thea Lee and I sat on our CS about 8 ft apart separated by bars we didn't talk much Lee seemed depressed at one point she said I lost some good friends when the towers came down not just cops firefighters too people that I'd worked with people that I'd known for years she said it as if she thought those truths should insulate her from the craziness that came afterwards I didn't answer her mostly I sat quiet and reran conversations in my head all kinds of people had been talking at me for hours John Sansom Leela ho the guys in the Next Room I was running running through what they'd all said the same way a cabinet maker runs his palm over a length of pled wood looking for the rough spots there were a few there were strange half comments odd nuances little offkey implications I didn't know what any of them meant not then but knowing that they were there was useful in itself at 7:30 they brought Jacob mark back and took the Lee away in his place no restraints no chains Jake got on his cot and sat cross-legged with his back to the camera I looked at him an inquiry he gave a millimetric shrug and rolled his eyes then he kept his hands in his lap out of sight of the camera and made a gun with his right thumb and forefinger he tapped his thigh and looked at mine I nodded the dart gun he put two fingers down between his knees and held a third in front into the left I nodded again two guys behind the table and the third to the left with the gun probably in the doorway to the third room on guard hence no restraints and no chains I massaged my temples and while my hands were still up I mouthed where are our shoes Jake mouthed back I don't know after that we sat in silence I didn't know what Jake was was thinking about his sister probably or Peter I was considering a binary Choice there are two ways to fight something from the inside or from the outside I was an outside type of guy always had been at 8:00 they brought Theresa Lee back and took me away again chapter 45 no restraint no chains clearly they thought I was afraid of the dark gun which I was to a degree not because I fear small puncture wounds and not because I have anything against sleep in and of itself I like sleep as much as the next guy but I didn't want to waste any more time I felt like I couldn't afford another 8 hours on my back the room was populated exactly as Jacob Mark had semi fored it the main guy was already sitting in the center chair the guy who had fitted the chains that morning was the one who had brought me in and he left me in the middle of the room and went to take his place at the table on the main gu right the guy who had wielded the Frankie was standing off to the left with a dart gun in his hands my possessions were still on the table or they were back on the table I doubted that they'd been there while Jake or Lee had been in the room no point no reason no relevance for e for for for for for for for they've been laid out all over again especially for me Cash Passport bank card toothbrush metro card Le's business card the phony business card the memory stick and the cell phone nine items all present and correct which was good because I needed to take at least seven of them with me the guy in the center chair said sit down Mr Reacher I moved towards my chair and I felt all three of them relax they've been working all night and all day now they were into their third straight hour of interrogation an interrogation is heavy work it demands close attention and mental flexib ability it wears you out so the three guys were tired tired enough to have lost their Edge as soon as I headed for my chair they moved out of the present and into the future they thought their troubles were over they started thinking about their approach their first question they assumed I would get to my chair and sit down and be ready to hear it be ready to answer it they were wrong half a step short of my destination I raised my foot to the to the edge of the table and straightened my leg and shoved shoved not kicked because I had no shoes on the table jerked back and the far Edge hit the two seated guys in the stomach and pinned them against their chairbacks by that point I was already moving to my left I came up from a Crouch at the third guy and tore the dart gun up and out of his hands and while he was all straight and exposed I KNE him hard in the groin he gave up on the gun and folded forward and I high stepped and changed feet and kneed him in the face like a folk dance from Ireland I spun away and leveled the gun and pulled the trigger and shot the main guy in the chest then I went over to the table and battered the other guy in the head with the dark gun's butt once twice three times hard and vicious until he went quiet and stopped moving four noisy violent seconds from beginning to end four discret units of action and time separately packaged separately unleashed the table the dart gun the main guy the second guun die 1 2 3 4 smooth and easy the two guys I'd hit were unconscious and bleeding the guy on the floor from a shattered nose and the guy on the table from a gash to his scalp next to him the main guy was on his way under chemically assisted the same way I had been twice before it was interesting to watch there was some kind of muscle paralysis involved the guy was sliding down in his chair helpless but his eyes were mov moving like he was still aware of things I remembered the whirling shapes and I wondered if he was seeing them too then I turned and watched the door to the third room there was still the medical technician unaccounted for maybe others maybe lots of others but the door stayed closed the third room stayed quiet I knelt and checked under the third guy's jacket no Glock had a shoulder holster but it was empty standard procedure probably no firearms in any closed room with a prisoner present I checked the other two guys same result government issue nylon shoulder rigs both of them empty the third room stayed quiet I checked pockets they were all empty all sanitized nothing there at all except neutral items like tissues and lonely dimes and pennies trapped down in the seams no house Keys no car keys no phones certainly no wallets no badge holders and no IDs I picked up the darkart gun again and held it one-handed out and ready moved to the third room's door swung it open and raised the gun and pretended to aim a gun is a gun even if it's empty in the wrong kind it's all about First Impressions and subliminal reactions the third room was unoccupied no medical test technician no backup agents no support staff nobody at all nothing there except gray office furniture and fluorescent light the room itself was the same as the first two an Old Brick basement chamber painted flat white same size same proportions it had another door which I guessed LED onward either to a fourth room or a stairwell I crossed to it and eased it open a stairwell no paint Beyond an ancient peeling layer of institutional green I closed the door again and checked the office furniture three desks five cabinets four lockers all gray all plain and functional all made of steel all locked with combination locks like the cells which made sense because there had been no keys in the agent's Pockets the desks held no piles of paper just three sleeping computers and three console telephones I hit space bars and woke up each screen in turn each one asked for a password I lifted receivers and hit redial buttons and got the operator every time extremely conscientious security painstaking and consistent finish a call Dab the Cradle dial zero hang up the three guys weren't perfect but they weren't idiots either I Stood Still for a long moment I was disappointed about the combination locks I wanted to find their stores and reload the dark gun and shoot the other two agents with it and I wanted my shoes I wasn't going to get either satisfaction I patted my way back to the cells Jacob Mark and Theresa Lee looked up looked away looked back classic double takes because I was alone and I had the dark gun in my hands I guess they had heard the noises and assumed I was getting smacked around I guessed they hadn't expected me back so soon or at all Lee asked what happened I said they fell asleep how I guess my conversation bored them so now you're really in trouble as opposed to what you were innocent before I said grow up Thea she didn't answer I checked the locks on the cell Gates they were fine items they looked high quality and very precise they had mil Top Hat knobs graduated with neat engraving all around the edges from the number one to the number 36 the knobs turned both ways I spun them and felt nothing at all in my fingers except the purr of slight and consistent mechanical resistance the feel of great engineering certainly I didn't feel any tumblers falling I asked you want me to get you out Lee said you can't if I could would you want me to why wouldn't I because then you'd really be in trouble if you stay you're playing their game she didn't answer I said Jake what about you he asked did you find our shoes I shook my head but you could borrow theirs they're about your size what about you there are shoe stores on 8th Street you going to walk there barefoot this is Greenwich Village if I can't walk around Barefoot here where can I how can you get us out 19th century problems and solutions versus 21st century expediency but it'll be difficult so I need to know whether to start and you need to make up your mind real fast because we don't have much time before they wake up before the Home Depot closes Jake said Okay I want out I looked at Theresa Lee she said I don't know I didn't do anything you like sticking around and proving that because that's hard to do proving a negative always is she didn't answer I said I was telling Sansom about how we studied the Red Army you know what they were most afraid of not us they were most afraid of their own people their worst torment was spending their whole lives proving their own innocence over and over again Lee nodded I want out out she said okay I said I checked the things I needed to check estimated dimensions and weights by ey sit tight I said I'll be back in less than an hour First St was the Next Room the three federal agents were still out cold the main guy would stay that way for eight solid hours or maybe much longer because his body mass was less than 2 of mine for a bad second it struck me that I might have killed him a dose calibrated for a man of my size might have been dangerous for a smaller person but the guy was breathing steadily right then and he had started it so the risk was his the other two would be waking up much earlier maybe fairly soon concussion was unpredictable so I duck through to the anti room and tore all of the computer cords out of the walls and carried them back and used them to trust the two guys is up like chickens wrists elbows ankles necks all tight and interconnected multi-stand copper cores tough plastic sheathing unbreakable I peeled my socks off and tied them together in line and used them for a gag on the guy with the head wound unpleasant for him but I figured he was getting a hazardous Duty supplement in his pay and he might as well earn it I left the other guy's mouth alone his nose was smashed and gagging him would have been the same thing as suffocating him I hoped he'd appreciate my benevolence and the fullness of time I checked my work and reloaded my pockets with my possessions from the table and then I left the building chapter 46 the staircase led up to the first floor and came out at the back of what had once been the place where the firet trucks parked there was a wide empty floor full of Ratchet and the kind of mysterious random trash that accumulates in abandoned buildings the big vehic doors were locked shut with rusted iron bars and old padlocks but there was a Personnel door in the left hand wall getting to it wasn't easy there was a half cleared path the trash on the floor had been mostly kicked to the side by the passage of feet but there was still enough debris left around to make barefoot walking difficult I ended up sweeping stuff out of the way with the side of my foot and stepping into the spaces I'd made one pace at a time slow progress but I got there in the end the Personnel door was fitted with a new lock but it was designed to keep people out not in on the inside was just a simple lever on the outside was a combination dial I found a heavy brass hose coupler on the floor and used it to wedge the door open a crack I left it that way for my return and stepped out to an alley and two careful Paces later I was on West Third Street sidewalk I headed straight to 6th Avenue nobody looked at my feet it was a hot night and there was plenty more attractive skin on display I looked at some of it myself then I flagged down a cab and it took me 20 blocks north and a half a block east to the Home Depot on 23rd Street Dockery had mentioned the address hammers had been bought there prior to the Attack under the FDR Drive the store was getting ready to close up but they let me in anyway I found a 5-ft pry bar in the contractor section cold rolled steel thick and strong the trip back to the registers took me through the gardening section and I decided to kill two birds with one stone by picking up a pair of rubber gardening clogs they were ugly but better than literally nothing I paid with my ATM card which I knew would leave a computer Trail but there was no reason to conceal the fact that I was out buying tools that purchase was about to become obvious in other ways cabs Cruis the street outside side like vultures looking for people with stuff too awkward to carry which made no sense economically save five bucks at The Big Box store spend eight hauling at home but the arrangement suited me fine right then within a minute I was on my way back south I got out on Third near but not right next to the Firehouse 10 ft ahead of me I saw the medical Tech step into the alley the guy looked clean and rested he was wearing chinos and a white T-shirt and basketball shoes staff rotation I figured the agents held the fort all day and then the medical guy took over at night to make sure the prisoners were still alive in the morning efficient rather than Humane I imagined that the flow of information was considered more important than any individual's rights or welfare I put the pry bar in my left hand and hustled hard in my loose rubber shoes and made it to the Personnel door before the guy was all the way through it I didn't want him to kick the hose coupler away and let it close behind him that would give me a problem I didn't need the guy heard me and turned in the doorway and His Hands came up defensively and I shoved him hard and tumbled him inside he slid on the trash and went down on one knee I picked him up by the neck and held him at arms length and eased the brass coupler aside with my toe and let the door close until it clicked then I turned back and was about to explain the guy's options to him but I saw that he already understood them big good or get hit he chose to be good he went into a Crouch and raised his hands in a small abbreviated gesture of surrender I hefted the pry bar in my left hand and straight armed the guy onward towards the head of the stairs he was Meek all the way down to the basement he gave me no trouble on the way through the office room then we got to the second room and he saw the three guys on the floor and sensed what was in store for him he tensed up adrenaline kicked in fight ORF flight then he looked at me again a huge determined man in ludicrous shoes holding a big metal bar he went quiet I asked him do you know the combinations for the cells he said no so how do you give painkiller injections through the bars what happens if someone has a seizure and you can't get in the cell I have to call where's your equipment in my locker show me I said open it we went back to the Ane room and he led me to a locker and spun the combination dial the door swung open I asked him can you open any of the other cabinets he said no just this one his locker had a bunch of shelves inside piled high with all kinds of medical stuff wrapped syringes a stethoscope small files of colorless liquids packs of cotton balls pills bandages gauze tape Plus a shallow box of tiny nitrogen capsules and a box of wrapped darts which made some kind of bureaucratic sense I imagine the management conference back when they were writing the operations manual the Pentagon staff officers in charge some Junior Rags present an agenda some DOD Council insisting that the dart guns ammunition beh held by a qualified medical officer because anesthetic was a drug and so on and so forth forth then some other active duty type saying that compressed nitrogen wasn't medical a third guide pointing out it made no sense at all to keep the propellant separate from the load around and around I imagined exasperated agents eventually giving up and giving in okay whatever let's move on I asked what exactly is in the darts the guy said local anesthetic to help the wound sight plus a lot of barbiturate I'm much bitu enough for a gorilla the guy shook his head reduced dose calculated for a normal human who did the calculation the manufacturer knowing what it was for of course with specifications and purchase orders and everything yes and tests down at Guantanamo is this a great country or what the guy said nothing I asked him are there side effects none you sure you know why I'm asking right the guy nodded he knew why I was asking I was fresh out of computer cords so I had to keep half an eye on him while I found the gun and loaded it loading it was a jigsaw puzzle I wasn't familiar with the technology I had to proceed on Common Sense and logic alone clearly the trigger mechanism tripped the gas release clearly the gas propelled the dart and guns are basically simple machines they have fronts and backs cause and effect happens in a rational sequence I got the thing charged up inside 40 seconds I said you want to lie down on the floor the guy didn't answer I said you know the safe bump in your head the guy got down on the floor I asked him any preferences to wear arm leg he said it works best into muscle mass so roll over he rolled over and I shot him in the ass I reloaded the thing twice more and put darts into the two agents that were liable to wake up which gave me at least an 8 Hour margin unless there were other unanticipated arrivals on the horizon or unless the agents were supposed to call in with status checks every hour or unless there was a car already on its way to take us back to DC which conflicting thoughts made me feel half relaxed and half urgent I carried the pry bar through to the cell block Jacob Mark looked at me and said nothing Thea Lee looked at me and said they sell shoes like that on 8th Street now I didn't answer just stepped around to the back of her cell and jammed the flat end of the pry bar under the bottom of the structure then I leaned my weight on the bar and felt the whole thing move just a little just a fraction of an inch not much more than the natural Flex of the metal that's stupid Lee said this thing is a self-contained freestanding Cube you might be able to tip it over but I'll still be inside I said actually it's not freestanding it's not bolted to the floor but it's clamped down by the sewer connection under the toilet will that help I hope so if I tip it up and the sewer connection holds then the floor will tear off and you can crawl out will it hold it's a gamble it's kind of competition between what 19th century legislation and a sleazy 21st century welding shop with a government contract see how the floor isn't welded all the way around just in some places what that's the nature of spot welding how strong is it plenty strong stronger than the toilet pipe probably maybe not there was Cera in New York in the 19th century big epidemic it killed lots of people eventually the city fathers figured out what was causing it which was cess pools mixing with the drinking water so they built proper sewers and they specified all kinds of standards for the pipes and the connectors those standards are still in the building code all these years later a pipe like this has a flange lapping over the floor I'm betting it's fixed stronger than the spot welds those 19th century Public Works guys ER on the side of caution more so than some Modern Corporation wanting Homeland Security money Lee paused a beat then she smiled briefly so either I get illegally busted out of a government jail cell or the sewer pipe gets torn out of the floor either way I'm in the [ __ ] you got it great choice your call I said go for it two rooms away I heard a telephone start to ring I knelt down and eased the tip of the pry bar into the position it needed to be in which was under the bottom horizontal rail of the cell but not so far under that it also caught the edge of the floor tray then I kicked it sideways a little until it was directly below one of the upside down te- welds where the force would be carried upward through one of the vertical bars two rooms away the telephone stopped ringing I looked at Lee and said stand on the toilet seat let's give it all the help we can man she climbed up and balanced I took up all the slack in the pry bar and then leaned down hard and bounced once twice three times 250 lb of moving Mass multiplied by 60 in of Leverage three things happened first the pry bar dug itself a shallow channel in the concrete under the cage which was mechanically inefficient second the whole assemblage of bars distorted out of shape a little which was also inefficient but third a bright bead of metal pinged loose and skittered away that was a spot Lee called as in spot weld I moved the pry bar and found a similar position 12 in to the left wedged the bar tight took up the slack and bounced same three results the grind of powdered concrete the Screech of bending bars and the Ping of another metal bead torn loose two rooms away a second phone started to ring a different tone more urgent I stood back and caught my breath moved the pry bar again this time 2 ft to the right repeated the procedure and was rewarded with another broken weld three down many more to go but now I had approximate hand holds in the bottom rail where the pry bar had forced shallow u-shaped bends into the metal I put the pry bar down and squatted facing the cell and shoved my hands Palms up into the HS grasped hard and breathed hard and prepared to lift when I quit watching the Olympics the weightlifters were moving more than 500 lb I figured I was capable of much less than that but I figured much less than that might do the trick two rooms away the second telephone stopped ringing and a third started I heaved upward I got the side of the cell about a foot off the ground the treadplate floor shrieked and bent like paper but the welds held the third telephone stopped ringing I looked up at Lee and mouthed jump she got the message she was a smart woman she jumped high off the toilet and smashed her bare feet down together right where the two welds were under pressure I felt nothing through my hands no impact no shock because the welds broke immediately and the floor bent down into a radical v-shaped Chute like a mouth the opening was about a foot wide and a foot deep good but not good enough a kid might have gotten through it but Lee wasn't going to but at least we'd proved the principle score one for the 19th Century City fathers two rooms away all three phones started to ring simultaneously competing tones fast and urgent I caught my breath again and after that it was just a question of repeating the triple procedures over and over again two welds at a time the pry bar the weightlifting the jump Lee wasn't a big woman but even so we needed to tear free a line of welds nearly 6 ft long before the floor would bend down enough to let her out it was a question of simple arithmetic the straight edge of the floor became part of a curved circumference in a ratio of 1 to three against us it took us a long time to get the job done close to 8 minutes but we got it done eventually Lee came out on her back feet first like a limbo dancer her shirt got caught and rode up to reveal a smooth tan stomach then she wriggled free and crabbed clear and stood up and hugged me hard and longer than she needed to then she broke away and I rested for a minute and wiped my hands on my pants then I repeated the whole procedure all over again for Jacob mark two rooms away phones rang and stopped rang and stopped chapter 47 we got out fast Thea Lee took the lead agent shoes they were big on her but not by much Jacob Mark took the medical technician's whole outfit he figured that an incomplete out of town cop's uniform would be conspicuous on the street and he was probably right the change was worse the delay he looked much better in the chinos and the t-shirt and the basketball sneakers they fit close to perfectly there was a nickle sized blood stain on the back of the pants but that was the only disadvantage we left the medical guy sleeping in his underwear then we headed out up the stairs across the littered floor Through the Alley to the Third Street sidewalk it was crowded it was still hot we turned left no real reason just a random choice but a lucky one we got about five steps away and I heard the blare of a horn behind us and the Yelp of tires and I glanced back and saw a black car jamming to a stopped 10 ft the other side of the firehouse a crowned Vic new and shiny two guys Spilled Out I'd seen them before and I knew for sure that Theresa Lee had seen them before blue suits blue ties the FBI they had talked to Lee in the precinct house and they had talked to me on 35th Street they had asked me questions about Canadian phone numbers now 20 ft behind us they ran for the alley and ducked in they didn't see us at all but if we'd turned right we would have collided head on with them as they got out of their car so we'd been lucky we celebrated by hustling hard straight for 6th Avenue Jacob Mark got there first he was the only one of us with decent shoes we crossed Sixth Avenue and followed bleer for a spell and then found refuge on cornelus Street which was narrow and dark and relatively quiet except for diners at Sidewalk Cafe tables we stayed well away from them and they paid no attention to us they were more interested in their food I didn't blame them it smelled good I was still very hungry even after the salami and cheese we headed up to the quiet end of the street and took inventory there Lee and Jake had nothing all their stuff was locked away in the firehouse basement I had what I had reclaimed from the table in the second room the important components of which were my cash my ATM card my metro card and Leonid cell phone the cash amounted to $43 in change the metro card had four rides left on it Leonid cell was almost out of battery we agreed it was beyond certain that my ATM number and Leon's phone number were already flagged up in various computer systems if we used either one someone would know within seconds but I wasn't too worried information has to be useful to be damaging if we escaped from West Third and Days Later withdrew cash in Oklahoma City or New Orleans or San Francisco then that data would be significant if we withdrew cash immediately a couple of blocks from the firehouse then that data was useless it told them nothing they didn't already know and there are so many cell antennas in New York that triangulation is difficult a ball Park location is helpful out in the sticks not so much in the city a Target area two blocks wide and two deep can contain 50,000 people and take days to search so we moved on and found an ATM in a bright blue Bank lobby and I withdrew all the cash I could which was 300 bucks apparently I had a daily limit and the Machine was slow probably on purpose Banks cooperate with law enforcement they sound the alarm arm and then slow down the transaction the idea is to give the cops time to show up maybe possible in some places not very likely with City traffic to deal with the machine waited and waited and waited and then it coughed up the bills I took them and smiled at the machine most of them have surveillance C cameras built in connected to digital recorders we moved on again and Lee spent 10 of my new dollars in a deli she bought an emergency cell phone charger it operated off a penlight battery she plugged it into Leon's phone and called Doty her partner it was 10 after 10 and he'd be getting ready for work he didn't pick up the call Lee left a message and then switched off the phone she said cell phones had GPS chips in them I didn't know that she said the chips bleeped away every 15 seconds and could be pinned down within 15 ft she said GPS satellites were much more precise than antenna triangulation she said the way she used to sell on the Run was to keep it switched off except for brief moments just before leaving one location and moving on to the next that way the GPS trackers were were always one step behind so we moved on again we were all aware of cop cars on the streets we saw plenty of them the NYPD is a big operation the largest Police Department in America maybe the largest in the world we found a noisy beastro in the heart of NYU territory after skirting north of Washington Square Park and then heading east the place was dark and packed with undergraduate students some of the food it sold was recognizable I was hungry and still dehydrated I guessed my systems had been working overtime to flush out the double dose of arbitrate I drank whole glasses of tap water and ordered a kind of shake made of yogurt and fruit plus a burger and coffee Jake and Lee ordered nothing they said they were too shaken to eat then Lee turned to me and said you better tell us what exactly is going on I said I thought you didn't want to know we just crossed that line they didn't show ID you were entitled to assume the detention was illegal in which case busting out wasn't a crime in fact it was probably your duty she shook her head I knew who they were ID or no ID and it's not the busting out that I'm worried about it's the shoes that's what's going to screw me I stood over the guy and stole his Footwear I was looking right at him that's premeditation they'll say I had time to reflect and react appropriately I looked at Jake to see whether he wanted to be included or whether he still figured that innocence was Bliss he Shrugged as if to say in for a penny in for a pound so I let the waitress finish up serving my order and then I told him what I knew March of 1983 Sansom the Kangal Valley all the details and all the implications Lee said there are American troops in the coral Valley right now I just read about it in a magazine I guess it never stops I hope they're doing better than the Russians did they were ukrainians I said is there a difference I'm sure the ukrainians think so the Russians put their minorities out front and their minorities didn't like it Jake said I get it about World War III at the time I mean but this is a quarter Century later the Soviet Union isn't even a country anymore how can a country be AG grieved about something if it doesn't even exist today geopolitics Lee said it's about the future not the past maybe we want to do similar stuff again in Pakistan or Iran or wherever it makes a difference if the world knows we did it before it sets up preconceptions you know that you're a cop you like it when we can't mention prior convictions in court Jake said so how big of a deal do you think this is huge Lee said as big as can be for us anyway because overall it's still small which is ironic right you see what I mean if 3,000 people knew there's not much anyone could do about it or 300 even or 30 it'll be out there and a story but right now only the three of us know and three is a small number small enough to be contained they can make three people disappear without anyone noticing now it happens believe me who's going to pay attention you're not married me either she looked at me and asked Reacher are you married I shook my head she paused a second she said no one left behind to ask questions Jake said what about people where we work police departments do what they're told ah this is insane this is the new world are they serious it's a cost benefit analysis three innocent people versus a big geopolitical deal what would you do we have rights we used to Jake said nothing and reply to that I finished my coffee and washed it down with another glass of tap water Lee called for the check and waited until it had arrived and I'd paid it and then she turned Leon's phone back on it came to life with a Merry Little tune and locked onto its Network and 10 seconds after that its Network recognized it and told it there was a text message waiting Lee hit the appropriate button and started scrolling it's from doy she said he hasn't dumped me yet then she read and scrolled read and scrolled I counted 15c intervals in my head and imagined the GPS chip sending out a little burst of data for every one of them saying here we are here we are I got up to 10 150 seconds 2 and 1/2 minutes it was a long message and it was full of bad news according to Lee's face her lips compressed and her eyes narrowed she checked back on a couple of paragraphs and then she shut the thing down again and handed it back to me I put it in my pocket she looked straight at me and said you were right the dead guys under the FDR Drive were leelah Ho's crew I guess the 17 called everyone in the phone book and checked out the only one that didn't answer they broke into their offices and found billing records made out to Leela ho in car of the Four Seasons Hotel I didn't answer she said but here's the thing those billing records go back 3 months not 3 days and the other data is in homeland security has no record of two women called hoath ever entering the country certainly not 3 days ago on British Air Airways and Susan Mark never called London either from work or from Home chapter 48 use the phone and move on immediately was the rule we took Broadway north taxis and police cruisers sped past us headlight beams washed over us we hustled as far as Aster place and then ducked underground and burned three of my four remaining metro card rides on the six train North Where it All Began another bright new r142a car it was 11 in the evening and there were 18 passengers in addition to ourselves we got three spaces together on one of the eight person benches Lee sat in the middle on her left Jake half turned and bent his head ready for quiet talk on her right I did the same thing Jake asked so which is it are the host's phony or is the government already covering its ass by erasing data Lee said could be either I said the hoes of phony you think or you know it was too easy at Penn Station how they sucked me in Leon had let me see him he was wearing a jacket that looked bright orange Under The Lights it was practically the same as the safety vests I saw some railroad workers wearing it drew my eye I was supposed to notice it then he let me hit him because I was supposed to take the phone from them and find out about the Four Seasons they manipulated me there were layers upon layers here they needed to talk to me but they didn't want me to see everything they didn't want to show their whole hand so they set up a we in for me they lured me to the hotel and tried a sweet easy approach just one guy acting incompetent at the railroad station and then the soft soap they even had a backup plan which was coming to the precinct house and making the missing person's report either way I would have showed up eventually what do they want from you Susan's information which was what I don't know who are they not journalists I said guess I was wrong about that Leela was acting one thing acting another thing I don't know what she really is is the old woman for real I don't know where are they now they bailed out of the hotel they always had somewhere else they had two tracks running public consumption and private business so I don't know where they are now they alternative Place obviously some long-term secure location I guess here in the city probably maybe a townhouse because they have a crew with them people of their own bad people those private guys were right how bad they just found out the hard way with the Hammers Lee said so so the hoath are covering their asses too wrong tents I said they already covered them they're hunkered down someplace and anyone who might have known where is dead the train stopped at 23rd Street the doors opened no one got on no one got off Thea Lee stared at the floor Jacob Mark looked across her at me and said if Homeland Security can't even track Leela ho in of the country then they also can't tell if she went to California or not which means it could have been her with Peter yes I said it could have been the doors closed the train moved on the looked up from the floor and turned to me and said what happened to those four guys was our fault you know with the Hammers your fault specifically you told Leela you knew about them you turned them into a loose end I said thanks for pointing that out you tipped her over the edge your fault specifically the train rattled into the 28th Street Station we got out at 33rd Street none of us wanted to hit Grand Central too many cops and in Jacob Mark's case at least maybe too many negative associations at street level Park Avenue was busy two cop cop cars came past in the first minute to the West Was the Empire State Building too many cops we doubled back south and took a quiet cross street towards Madison I was feeling pretty good by then I'd spent 16 hours out of 17 fast asleep and I was full of food and fluids but Lee and Jake looked beat they had nowhere to go and weren't used to it obviously they couldn't go home they couldn't go to friends either we had to assume all their known haunts were being watched Lee said we need a plan I like the look at the Block we were on New York has hundreds of separate micro neighborhoods flavor and Nuance Vary Street by Street sometimes building by building Park and Madison in the high 20s are slightly seedy the cross streets are a little down at heel maybe once they were high-end and maybe one day they will be again but right right then they were comfortable we hid out under sidewalk scaffolding for a spell and watched drunks staggering home from bars and people from nearby apartment houses walking their dogs before bed we saw a guy with a Great Dane the size of a pony and a girl with a rat terrier the size of the great danne's head overall I preferred the rat terrier small dog big personality the little guy thought he was boss of the world we waited until the clock walked past midnight and then we snaked back and forth West and East until we found the right kind of Hotel it was a narrow place with an out ofate illuminated sign backed by low wattage bulbs it looked a little rundown and grimy smaller than I would have liked bigger Places work much better greater chance of empty rooms more anonymity less supervision but all in all the place we were looking at was feasible it was a decent Target for the $50 trick or maybe we could even get get away with 40 in the end we had to bid our way up to 75 probably because the night Porter suspected we had some kind of a sexual threesome in mind maybe because of the way Theresa Lee was looking at me there was something going on in her eyes I wasn't sure what but clearly the night Porter saw an opportunity to raise his rate the room he gave us was small it was at the back of the building and had twin beds and a narrow window on an air shaft it was never going to show up in a tourist brochure but it felt secure and clandestine and I could tell that Lee and Jake felt good about spending the night in it but equally I could tell that neither one of them felt good about spending two nights in it or five or 10 we need help Lee said we can't live like this indefinitely we can if we want to I said I've lived like this for 10 years okay a normal person can't live like this indefinitely we need help this problem isn't going to go away it could Jake said from how you were figuring it before if 3,000 people knew it wouldn't be a problem anymore so all we have to do is tell 3,000 people one at a time no we should call the newspapers would they believe us if we were convincing would they print the story why wouldn't they who knows what goes on with newspapers now maybe they' check with the government about a thing like this maybe the government would tell them to sit on it what about freedom of the press Lee said yes I remember that so who the hell will help us Sansom I said Sansom will help us he's got the biggest investment here well Sansom is a government he had his own guy tril and Susan because he has a lot to lose we can use that I took Leonard's phone out of my pocket and dropped it on the bed next to Theresa Lee text doerty in the morning get the number for the Cannon House Office Building in DC call sanson's office and demand to speak with him personally tell him you're a police officer in New York and that you're with me tell him we know his guy was on the train then tell him we know the DSM wasn't for the Val rifle tell him we know there's more chapter 49 Thea Lee picked up the phone and held it for a moment like it was a rare and precious Jewel then she put it on the nightstand and asked what makes you think there's more I said overall there has to be more Sansom won four medals not just one he was a regular go-to guy he must have done all kinds of things like what whatever needed doing for whoever needed it done not just the army delta guys were loaned out from time to time to the CIA on occasion to do what covert interventions coups assassinations Marshall Tito died in 1980 in Yugoslavia you think Sansom did that no I think Tito got sick but I wouldn't be surprised if there was a backup plan in case he stayed healthy BNF died in 1982 in Russia then andropov pretty soon after that then chenko real quick it was like an epidemic what are you a historian amateur but whatever all that led to gorbachov and progress you think that was us you think that was Sansom maybe I said I don't know but whatever none of that kind of stuff relates to March of 1983 in Afghanistan yeah but think about it stumbling into a Soviet sniper team in the dark was a totally random chance would they have sent a go-to ace like Sansom walking around in the Hills hoping for the best 100 times out of 101 he would have come up empty that's a massive risk for very little reward that's no kind of mission planning a mission needs an achievable objective a lot of them fail of course they do but they all start out with a realistic Target more realistic than blundering around in a thousand square miles of empty mountains hoping for a random face-to-face encounter so there must have been something else going on that's pretty vague there's more I said and it's not so vague people have been talking to me for days and I've been listening some of what I heard doesn't make much sense those Federal guys snarled me up at the Watergate in DC I asked them what was going on their reaction was weird it was like the sky was about to fall it was way out of proportion for some technical trespass 25 years ago GI politics isn't simple I agree and I'm the first to admit I'm no kind of expert but even so it seemed way over the top that's still vague I spoke to Sansom in DC at his office he seems sour about the whole thing gloomy and kind of troubled it's election season but grabbing up the rifle was kind of cool wasn't it nothing to be ashamed of it was all about what the Army used to call Dash and daring so his reaction was wrong still vague he knew the sniper's name Gregory ho from his dog tags I figured he had the tags as souvenirs he said no those tags were locked up with the after action reports and everything else it was like a slip of the tongue and everything else what did that mean Lee said nothing I said we talked about the fate of the sniper and the SP Sansom said he had no silenced weapons which was like another slip of the tongue Delta would never set up for a clandestine nighttime incursions without silenced weapons they're particular about stuff like that which suggests to me that the whole Val episode was an accidental byproduct of something else entirely I thought the rifle was the story but this thing's like an iceberg most of it still hidden Lee said nothing I said then we talked about the geopolitics oh he saw a danger for sure he's worried about Russia or the Russian Federation or whatever it is they call themselves now he thinks they're unstable he said things could blow up big if the coral part of the story gets out you hear that the coral part of the story it was like a third slip of the tongue it was effectively a direct admission that there's more direct from the horses mouth Lee didn't answer Jacob Mark asked what kind of more I don't know but whatever it is it's information intensive right from the start leelah ho was looking for a USB memory and the FEDS assume there's one out there somewhere they said their task is to recover the real memory stick real because they took a look at the one I bought and assumed it was a decoy they said it's empty and it's too small anyway he that too small which means there are some big files in play lots of information but Susan didn't have anything with her true but everyone assumed she did what kind of information I have no idea except that Springfield talked to me here in New York sent some security guy at the Sheran in a quiet Corridor he was very uptight he was warning me off he chose a specific metaphor he said you can't afford to turn over the wrong Rock so what happens when you turn over a rock things crawl out exactly present tense things crawl out this is not about things just lying there that died 25 years ago this is about things that are squirming and wriggling right now this is about things that are alive today I saw Thea Lee thinking it through she glanced at the phone on the night table her eyes narrowed I guess she was rehearsing the morning call to Sansom she said he's kind of careless isn't he he made three slips of the tongue I said he was a Delta officer the best part of 17 years and you don't last 17 days if you're careless so he seems very engaged to me he's aware of everything to do with his campaign how he looks what he says how he travels every last little implication so so I don't think he's careless he made three slips of the tongue did he I'm not so sure I wonder if he was setting a trap instead he read my record I was a good MP and pretty close to his generation I think maybe he was looking for help any old place he could get it you think he was recruiting you maybe I said I think maybe he was dropping a couple of breadcrumbs and waiting to see if I'd follow them because because he wants the lid back on and he's not sure who can do it for him he doesn't trust the dod guys would you that's not my world would you trust them about as far as I can spit doesn't he trust Springfield with his life but Springfield is just one guy and Sansom has a big problem so maybe he figures if some other guy is in he might as well stay in the more the merrier so he's bound to help us not bound I said his jurisdiction is strictly limited but he might be inclined which is why I want you to call him why don't you call him because I'm not going to be here at the start of business tomorrow you're not I'll meet you at 10 in Madison Square Park couple of blocks south of here and be careful getting there where are you going out where to look for Leela ho you won't find her probably not but she's got a crew maybe they'll find me I'm sure they're out looking for me and they've got my picture you're going to use yourself as bait whatever works I'm sure the cops are out looking for you too and the defense department and the FBI maybe people we've never even heard of busy night all around take care okay always when are you leaving now chapter 50 New York City 1:00 in the morning the best place and the worst place in the world to be hunted the streets were still warm traffic was light old 10-second intervals went by with no cars on Madison there were still people around some of them were asleep in doorways or on benches some of them were walking either purposefully or aimlessly I took the aimless route I chose 30th Street and crossed a park and then Lex I was never trained in the art of staying invisible they picked smaller guys for that the normal sized people they took one look at me and gave up on the whole proposition they assumed that a guy my size would always be too easy to make but I get by I taught myself a few techniques some of them are counterintuitive night is better than day because places are lonelier when places are loner I stand out less not more because when people look for me they look for a big guy and size is easier to judge when there are handy comparisons all around put me in a crowd of 50 civilians and I stand out literally Head and Shoulders Above the Rest on my own people are less sure no benchmarks people are bad at judging height and isolation we know that from experiments with eyewitness testimony stage an incident ask for First Impressions and the same guy can be described as anywhere between 5'8 and 6'4 people see but they don't look except for people trained to look I paid a lot of attention to cars no way to find an individual in New York City except by cruising the streets the place is just too big for any alternative method the nypd's blue and white Cruisers were easy to spot their light bars made a distinctive silhouette even far in the distance every time I saw one coming I paused in the nearest doorway and laid myself down just another homeless guy unconvincing in Winter because I didn't have a mound of old blankets over me but the weather was still hot the real homeless people were still in t-shirts unmarked cop cars were harder to make their front-end Silhouettes were the same as everything else's which was the point but domestic politics and law enforcement budgets restrict choice to a specific handful of makes and models and most individual vehicles are characteristically neglected they're dirty they sag they wallow except for unmarked Federal cars same makes same models but often new and clean and waxed and Polished easy enough to spot but not easy to distinguish from certain car service rides limousine companies use some of the same makes and models Crown vix and their Mercury equivalents and Livery drivers keep their cars clean I spent some time horizontal in doorways only to see tnlc plates flash past taxi and limousine commission which frustrated me until I remembered Theresa Lee's comment about the nypd's counterterrorism squad cruising around in fake cabs after that I ER on the side of caution I figured Leela hot's crew would have rentals Herz Avis Enterprise or whoever else was new on the scene again a fairly specific handful of makes and models mostly domestic pieces of [ __ ] but new and clean and well maintained I saw plenty of vehicles that fit the bill and plenty that didn't and took all reasonable precautions to stay out of law enforcement's way and I made all reasonable efforts to let Leela Ho's people see me the late hour helped it simplified things it categorized the population innocent bystanders were mostly home in bed I walked for half an hour but nothing happened until 1:30 in the morning until I looped around a 22nd in Broadway chapter 51 by chance I saw the girl with the rat terrier again she was walking South on Broadway heading for 22nd the little guy was peeing on some posts and ignoring others I passed them by and the dog noticed me and barked I turned around to reassure it that I was no kind of a major danger and I saw in the corner of my eye a black Crown Vic come through the 23rd street light clean shiny the spike of needle antennas on the trunk lid shown up by the headlights of a car 30 yard behind it it's slow to a walk Broadway is double wide on that block six Lanes all headed south divided after the light by a short pedestrian refuge in the middle I was on the left-and sidewalk next to me an apartment house beyond that retail stores on my right six Lanes away the flat iron building beyond that retail stores Dead Ahead a Subway entrance the girl with the dog turned left behind me and entered the apartment building I saw a doorman behind a desk the crown Vick stopped in the second of the six Lanes the car behind it pulled past and the wash of its headlight showed me two guys silhouetted in the crown Vick's front seats they were sitting still maybe checking photograph maybe calling in for instructions maybe calling for backup I sat down on a low brick wall that ran around a planted area in front of the apartment house the subway entrance was 10 ft away the ground Vic stayed where it was far south of me the Broadway sidewalk was wide adjacent to the retail operations it was cast from concrete the half neck to the curb was a long Subway grate the subway entrance 10 ft from me was a narrow staircase the south end of the 23rd Street Station the n and the r and the W trains the Uptown platform I made a bet with myself that it was a heat entrance a high entry exit Turn Style not a money wager something far more important life liberty in the pursuit of happiness I waited the guys in the car sat still at 1:30 in the morning the subway was well into its nighttime hours 20-minute gaps between trains I heard no rumbling or roaring From Below there was no rush of air the trash on the distant sidewalk grates lay still the Crown Vic turned its front wheels I heard the hiss of its power steering pump and the squelch of its tires on the road it turned sharply across four lanes and straightened through a tight s and stopped on the curb alongside me the two guys stayed inside I waited it was a federal car for sure a pool car standard LX specification not the police interceptor model black paint plastic wheel covers the sidewalk wasn't busy but it wasn't deserted either people were hurrying Home Alone or strolling more slowly in couples there were clubs on the cross streets to the South I could tell because small random knots of Dazed people appeared from time to time and craned out into the traffic Lanes looking for cruising cabs the guys in the car moved one tilted right and one tilted left the way two people do in a car when they're both groping for the interior door handles at the same time I watched the subway grates in the sidewalk for 40 yard south of me nothing doing still air no moving trash the two guys got out of their car they were both in dark suits their jackets were creased low down at the back from driving the passenger came around and stood with the driver in the gutter close to the crown Vick's Hood they were level with me maybe 20 ft away across the width of the sidewalk they had their Shields already clipped on their breast Pockets FBI gu I guessed although I wasn't close enough to be sure all those civilian Shields look the same to me the passenger called federal agents as if he needed to I didn't respond they stayed in the gutter didn't step up on the curb a subliminal defense mechanism I guessed the curb was like a tiny Rampart it offered no real protection but once they breached it they would have to commit they would have to act and they weren't sure how that would go the subway great stayed still and Silent the passenger called Jack Reacher I didn't answer when all else fails play dumb the driver called stay right where you are my shoes were made of rubber and much less tight and firm than I'm used to but even so I felt the first faint pre-echo of Subway Rumble through them a train either starting downtown from 28th Street or heading Uptown from 14th a 50/50 chance a downtown train was no good to me I was on the wrong side of Broadway an uptown train was what I wanted I watched the distant sidewalk grates the trash lay still the passenger called keep your hands where I can see them I put one hand in my pocket partly to locate my metro card and partly to see what would happen next I knew that quano training placed great emphasis on Public Safety agents are instructed to draw their weapons only in situations of dire emergency many never draw their weapons at all all the way from graduation to retirement not even once there were innocent people all around an apartment house Lobby directly behind me the field of fire was high and wide and hand some and full of collateral tragedies just waiting to happen passers by traffic babies asleep in low floor bedrooms the two agents Drew their weapons two identical moves two identical weapons Glock pistols taken smooth and fast and easy from shoulder holsters both guys were right-handed the passenger called don't move far of my left the trash on the subway gr stirred an uptown train heading my way the dam of air in front of it moving fast building pressure finding Escape I stood up and walked around the railing to the head of the stairs not fast not slow I went down one step at a time behind me I heard the agents coming after me hard soles on concrete they had better shoes than me I turned my metro card in my pocket and pulled it out facing the right way around the fair control was high floor to ceiling bars like a jail cell there were two turn Styles one on the left one on the right both were narrow and full height no supervision necessary no need for a man to Booth I slid my card and the last credit on it lit up the go light green and I pushed on through behind me the agents came to a dead stop a regular Turn Style they would have jumped right over and explained later but the unmanned heat entrance took away that option and they weren't carrying Metro cards of their own they probably lived out on Long Island and drove to work spent their days at desks or in cars they stood helplessly behind the bars no opportunity for shouted threats or negotiations either I'd timed it just right the dam of air was already there in the station skittering dust and rolling empty cups around the first three cars were already around the curve the train yelped and groaned and stopped and I stepped right on without even breaking stride the doors closed and the train bore me away and the last I saw of the agents was the two of them standing there on the wrong side of the Turn Style with their guns down by their sides chapter 52 I was on an R Train the R Train follows Broadway to Time Square and then straightens a little until 57th Street and 7th Avenue where it hangs a tight right and stops at 59th and 5th and then 60th and Lex before heading on under the river and East to Queens I didn't want to go to Queens a fine burough no question but unexciting at night and anyway I felt in my gut that the action lay elsewhere where in Manhattan for sure on the east side probably not far from 57th Street Leela ho had used the Four Seasons as a decoy which put her real base somewhere close by almost certainly not adjacent but comfortably proximate and her real base was a townhouse not an apartment or another hotel because she had a crew with her and they had to be able to come and go undetected there were a lot of tow houses on the east side of Manhattan I stayed on the train Through Time Square a bunch of people got on there but the minute it took to get up to 49th Street we had 27 passengers on board then five people got out at 49th and the population started to decline I got out at 59th and 5th didn't leave the station I just stood on the platform and watched the train go onward without me then I sat on a bench and waited I figured the agents at 22nd Street would have gotten on their radio I figured cops might be heading for the R train stations in a long sequential Cascade I pictured them sitting in their cars or standing on the sidewalks timing the Train's underground progress tensing up then relaxing again as they assumed I'd passed by beneath them and was headed farther up the line I pictured them staying around for 5 minutes or so and then giving it up so I waited 10 whole minutes then I left I came up from under the ground and found no one looking for me I was alone on a deserted corner with the famous old Plaza Hotel directly in front of me all lit up and the park behind me all dark I was two blocks north and a block and a half west of the Four Seasons I was exactly three blocks west of where Susan mark would have come up out of the six train right back at the beginning and right then I understood that sus and Mark had never been headed to the Four Seasons Hotel not dressed in black and ready for combat no combat was possible in a hotel lobby or Corridor or Suite No Advantage Was Won by wearing black where there were lights so Susan had been headed somewhere else directly to the secret location presumably which had to be on a dark discreet cross street but which still had to be in the original 68 block box between 42nd street and 59th between 5ifth Avenue and third most likely in one of the upper quadrants given the nature of the area either the upper left or the upper right one of two 16 block subboxes maybe which would contain what about 2 million different things which was four times better than 8 million different things but not so much better that I started jumping for joy instead I headed east across Fifth Avenue and resumed my aimless walking watching for cars staying in the shadows there were many fewer homeless people than down in the 20s and I figured that lying in doorways would be more provocative than not so I watched the traffic and prepared either to run or to fight depending on who found me first I crossed Madison Avenue and headed for park now I was directly behind the Four Seasons which was two blocks due south the street was quiet mostly Flagship retail and boutique commercial all closed up I turned South on Park and then East again on 58th didn't see much some tow houses but each one looked the same as all the others blank five and six stor Brownstone facades barred windows low down shuttered Windows above no lights some of them were consulates belonging to small Nations some of them were trophy offices for charitable foundations and small corporations some of them were residential but broken up into multiple Apartments some of them were definitely single family homes but all the single families appeared to be fast asleep behind locked doors I crossed Park and headed for Lex suton place was up ahead quiet and very residential mostly Apartments but some houses historically the neighborhood was centered more to the South and the East but optimistic Brokers had pushed its borders North and especially West all the way to Third Avenue the new fringes were fairly Anonymous ideal territory for a hideout I strolled on West and East North and South 58th 57th 56th Lexington third second I quartered a lot of blocks nothing jumped out at me and no one jumped out at me I saw plenty of cars but all of them were barreling happily from A to B none of them was showing the characteristic hesitant half pace of a car whose driver is also making visual sweeps of the side walks I saw plenty of people but most of them were far in the distance and entirely innocent Insomniac dog walkers medical personnel heading home from the East side hospitals garbage workers apartment house doormen out taking the air one of the dog walkers came close enough to speak the dog was an elderly gray mut and the Walker was an elderly white woman of about 80 her hair was done and she was fully made up she was wearing an old oldfashioned summer dress that really needed long white gloves to be complete the dog paused and looked at me mournfully and the woman took that to be a sufficient social introduction she said good evening it was close to 3:00 and therefore technically morning but I didn't want to appear quarrelsome so I just said hello she said did you know that word is a recent invention I said what word hello she said it was developed as a greeting only after the invention of the telephone people felt they needed something to say when they picked up the receiver it was a Corruption of the old word hallo which was really an expression of temporary shock or surprise you would come upon something unexpected and you would go hello perhaps people were startled by the shrillness of the telephone Bell yes I said perhaps they were you have a telephone I've used them I said certainly I've heard them ring do you find the sound to be disturbing I always assumed that was the point well goodbye the woman said it has been most Pleasant chatting with you only in New York I thought the woman moved on with her old dog by her side I watched her go she headed East and then South on Second Avenue and was lost to sight I turned around and got set to Head West again but 20 ft ahead of me a gold Chevy Impala jammed to a stop in the gutter and Leonid climbed out of the back chapter 53 Leonid stood on the curb and the car took off again and then stopped again 20 ft behind me driver got out good moves I was boxed on the sidewalk one guy in front of me another guy behind loned looked the same but different still tall still thin still bald apart from the ginger stubble but now he was in sensible clothes and he'd shed his sleepy demeanor he was in black shoes blackk Knit pants and a black hooded sweatshirt he looked alive and alert and very dangerous he looked more like a gangster more than a a brawler or a hoodlum he looked like a professional trained and experienced he looked like an ex Soldier I backed up against the wall of the building next to me so that I could watch both guys at once Leonid on my left and the other guy on my right the other guy was a squat man somewhere in his 30s he looked more Middle Eastern than East European dark hair no neck not huge like Leonid but but compressed vertically and therefore expanded laterally he was dressed the same in cheap black sweats I looked at the Knit pants and a word lodged in my mind the word was disposable the guy took a step towards me Leonid did the same two choices as always fight or flight we were on 56th Street Southern sidewalk I could have run straight across the road and tried to get away but Leonid and his pal were probably faster than me the law of averages most humans are faster than me the old lady in the summer dress was probably faster than me her old gray mut was probably faster than me and running away was bad enough running away and then getting caught immediately was totally undignified so I stayed where I was on on my left Leonid took another step closer on my right the short guy did the same thing whatever the Army had failed to teach me about staying out of sight they had made up for by teaching me a lot about fighting they'd taken one look at me and sent me straight to the gym I was like a lot of military children we had weird backgrounds we'd lived all over the world part of our culture was to learn from the locals not history or language or political concerns we learned fighting from them they favored techniques martial arts from the Far East full-on brawling from the seier parts of Europe blades and rocks and bottles from the seier parts of the states by the age of 12 we had it all boiled down to a kind of composite uninhibited ferocity especially uninhibited we had learned that inhibitions will hurt you faster than anything else just do it was our motto well before Nike started making shoes those of us who signed up for military careers of our own were recognized and mentored and offered further tuition where we were taken apart and put back together again we thought we were tough when we were 12 at 18 we thought we were unbeatable we weren't but we were very close to it by the age of 25 Leonid took another step the other guy did the same I looked back at Leonid and saw brass knuckles on his hand same for the short guy they'd slipped them on fast and easy loned Sid stepped so did the other guy they were perfecting their angles I was backed up against a building which gave me 180 degrees of empty space in front of me each one of them wanted 45° of that space on his right and 45 on his left that way if I bolted they had every exit Direction equally covered like doubles players in tennis long practice Mutual support and instinctive understanding they were both right-handed first rule when you're fighting against brass knuckles don't get hit especially not in the head but even blows against arms or ribs can break bones and paralyze muscles the best way not to get hit is to pull out a gun and shoot your opponents from a distance of about 10 ft close enough not to miss far enough to remain untouched game over but I didn't have that option I was unarmed the next best way is either to keep your opponents far away or crush them real close far away they can swing all night and never connect real close they can't swing at all the way to keep them far away is to exploit Superior reach if you have it or use your feet my reach is spectacular I have very long arms the silver back on the television show looks stumpy in comparison to me my instructors in the Army were always making puns about my reach based on my name but I was facing two guys and I wasn't sure if kicking was an option I could add in for one thing I had lousy shoes rubber gardening clogs they will loose on my feet they'd come off and kicking with bare feet leads to broken bones feet are even punier than hands except in karate school where there were rules there were no rules on the street second thing as soon as one foot is off the ground you're unbalanced and potentially vulnerable next thing you know you're on the floor and then you're dead I'd seen it happen i' made it happen I braced my right heel against the wall behind me I waited I figured they'd pile on together simultaneous launches 90° apart arrowing inward more or less in Step the good news was they wouldn't be trying to kill me Leela ho would have forbidden that she wanted things from me and corpses have nothing to offer the bad news was that plenty of serious injuries fall short of fatal I waited Leonid said you don't have to get hurt you know you can just come with us if you like and talk to Leela his English was less up Market than hers his accent was rough but he knew all the words I said go with you where you know I can't tell you that you have to wear a blindfold I said I'll take a pass on the blindfold but you don't have to get hurt either you can just move on and tell Leela you never saw me but that wouldn't be true don't be a slave to the truth Leonid sometimes the truth hurts sometimes it bites you right in the ass the upside of a concerted attack by two opponents is that they have to communicate a start signal maybe it's just a glance or a nod but it's always there it's a split second of warning I figured Leonid for the main man the one who speaks first usually is he would announce the attack I watched his eyes very carefully I said are you mad about what happened at the railroad station loned shook his head I let you hit me it was necessary Leila said so I watched his eyes I said tell me about Leela what do you want to know I want to know who she is come with us and ask her I'm asking you she's a woman with a job to do what kind of a job come with us and ask her I'm asking you an important job a necessary job which involves what come with us and ask her I'm at asking you no answer no further conversation I sensed them tensing up I watched Leon's face saw his eyes widen and his head dug forward in a tiny nod they came straight for me together I pushed off the wall behind me and put my fists against my chest and stuck my elbows out like airplane wings and charged them as hard as they were charging me we met at a singular point like a collapsing triangle and my elbows caught both of them full in the face on my right I felt the short guy's upper teeth punch out and on my left I felt Leon's lower jaw give way impact equals mass time velocity squared I had plenty of mass but my shoes were spongy and my feet were slick inside them from the heat so my velocity was slower than it might have been which reduced the impact a little which left them both on their feet which gave me a little more work to do I spun back instantly and clubbed the short guy with an enormous roundhouse right to the ear no Style no finesse just a big ugly punch his ear flattened against his head and took some of the force away but plenty more went straight on through the crushed gristle into his skull his neck snapped sideways and he hit his other ear with his own far shoulder by that point I was squelching back the other way in my lousy Footwear and driving my elbow deep into Leon's gut same place I'd hit him in Penn Station but 10 times harder I almost popped his spine out of his back I used the bounce to jump in the other direction to the short guy again he was hunching away and ready for a standing eight count I put a low right in his kidney that straightened him up and spun him around towards me I bent my knees and drove forward and buttered him between the eyes explosive whatever bones my elbow hadn't broken gave way and he went down like a sack Leonid tapped me on the shoulder with his knuckle duster he thought it was a punch but in his depleted State a tap was all he could manage I took my time and wound up and aimed carefully and dropped him with an uppercut to the jaw his jaw was already broken from my elbow now it got broken a little more bone and flesh spattered out in a lazy red Arc and showed up quite clearly in the street lights teeth I figured and maybe part of his tongue I was a little shaken as always excess adrenaline was burning me up the adrenal gland is a slow son of a [ __ ] then it overcompensates too much too late I took 10 seconds to get my breath 10 more to calm down then I hauled both Guys across the sidewalk and into a sitting position against the wall where I'd been standing their hooded sweatshirts stretched a yard long as I was hauling on them cheap clothes disposable in case they'd gotten soaked with my blood I got the two guys positioned so they wouldn't fall over and choke and then I dislocated their right elbows they were both right-handed and the odds were that I'd be seeing them again in which case I wanted them out of action no permanent damage 3 weeks and a light cast and fix them up good as new they had cell phones in their pockets I took both of them both had my picture both call registers were blank there was nothing else no money no keys No material evidence no clue as to where they had come from no likelihood that they would be in a position to tell me anytime soon either I'd hit them too hard they were out for the count and even when they woke up there was no guarantee they'd remember anything anyway maybe not even their names concussion has unpredictable effects paramedics aren't kidding around when they ask concussion victims what day it is and who the president is no regrets on my part better to ER on the side of safety guys in fights who think ahead to the aftermath usually don't get that far they become the aftermath so no regrets but no net gain either which was frustrating not even the brass knuckles fit my hand I tried both sets on and they were way too small I dropped them down a storm drain 20 ft away their car was still idling on the curb it had New York plates no navigation system therefore no digital memory with a base location I found a rental agreement in the door pocket made out to a name I'd never heard and a London address that I assumed was fake in the glove box I found instruction manuals for the car and a small spiral notebook and a ballpoint pen The Notebook had nothing written in it I took the pen and walked back to the two guys and held Leon its head steady with my left palm clamped down hard then I wrote on his forehead with the ball point digging deep in his skin and tracing big letters over and over again for clarity I wrote Leela call me then I stole their car and drove away chapter 54 I drove South on Second Avenue and took 50th Street All the Way East to the end and dumped the car on a hydrant half a block from FDR Drive I hope the guys from the 17th preset to find it and get suspicious and run some tests clothes are disposable cars not so much if Leela's people would use that Impala to drive away from the hammer attack then there'd be some trace evidence inside I couldn't see any with the naked eye but CSI units don't rely on human Vision alone I wiped the wheel and the shifter and the door handles with the tail of my shirt then I dro the keys down a grate and walked back to Second and stood in the shadow and looked for a cab there was a decent River of traffic flowing downtown and each car was lit up by the headlights behind it I could see how many people were inside each vehicle I was mindful of the Le's information fake taxis circling up town on 10th down on second one guy in the front two in the back I waited for a cab that was definitively empty apart from its driver and I stepped out and flagged it down the driver was a seek from India with a turban and a full beard and very little English not a cop he took me South to Union Square I got out there and sat on a bench in the dark and watched the rats Union Square is the best place in the city to see them by day the parks department dumps blood and bone fertilizer on the flower beds by Night the rats come out and feast on it at 4:00 I fell asleep at 5:00 one of the captured phones vibrated in my pocket I woke up and spent a second checking left and right and behind and then I fumbled the phone out of my pants it wasn't ringing just buzzing away to itself silent mode the small monochrome window on the front said restricted call I opened it up and the big color screen on the inside said the same thing I put the phone to my ear and said hello a new word recently invented Leela ho answered me her voice her accent her addiction she said so you decided to declare war clearly there are no rules of engagement for you I said who are you exactly you'll find out I need to know now I'm your worst nightmare as of about two hours ago and you still have something that belongs to me so come and get it better still send some more of your guys give me some more light exercise you got lucky tonight that's all I said I'm always lucky she asked where are you right outside your house there was a pause no you're not correct I said but you just confirmed that you're living in a house and that right now you're at a window thank you for that information where are you really Federal Plaza I said with the FBI I don't believe you your call tell me where you are close to you I said 3rd Avenue and 56th Street she started to reply and then she stopped herself immediately she got no further than an in coate Little T sound a voiced Dental frickative the start of a sentence that was going to be impatient and querulous and a little smug like that's not close to me she wasn't anywhere near third and 56th last chance she said I want my property her voice softened we can make arrangements if you like just leave it somewhere safe and tell me where I'll have it picked up we don't need to meet you could even get paid I'm not looking for work are you looking to stay alive I'm not afraid of you Leela that's what Peter Molina said where is he right here with us Alive come over and find out he left a message with his coach or maybe I played a tape he made before he died maybe he told me his coach never answers the phone at dinner time maybe he told me a lot of things maybe I forced him to I asked where are you Leela I can't tell you that she said but I could have you picked up 100 ft away I saw a police car cruising 14th Street when moving slow pink flashes at the window as the driver moved his head right and left I asked how long have you known Peter Molina since I picked him up in the bar is he still alive come over and find out I said you're on borrowed time Leela you killed four Americans in New York no one's going to ignore that I Killed Nobody your people did people that have already left the country we are fireproof we you ask too many questions if your people acted on your orders then you're not fireproof that's a conspiracy this is a nation of laws and trials there's no evidence car no longer exists you'll never be fireproof from me I'll find you I hope you do 100 ft away the police car slowed to a crawl I said come out and meet with me Leela or go home one or the other but either way you're beaten here she said we are never beaten who is we but there was no answer the phone went dead nothing there except the dumb Silence of an empty line 100 ft away the police car stopped I closed the phone and put it back in my pocket two cops climbed out of the car and headed into the square I stayed where I was too suspicious to get up and run better to sit tight I wasn't alone in the park there were maybe 40 people in there with me some of them seemed to be a permanent population others were temporary strays New York is a big city five burrows Journeys home are long often easier to rest along the way the cop sha a flashlight beam in a sleeping guy's face they moved on lit up the next guy and the next not good not good at all but I was not the only person to reach that conclusion here and there around the square I saw shapes rising up from benches and shuffling away in different directions maybe people with outstanding warrants dealers with stuff in their backpacks Surly loners who didn't want contact helpless paranoids wary of the system two cops an acre of ground maybe 30 people still on benches maybe 10 newly mobile I watched the cops kept on coming their flashlight beams jerk through the nighttime Haze Long Shadows were thrown they checked a fourth guy and then a fifth then a sixth more people stood up some left all together and others simply moved from bench to bench the square was full of shapes some inert some moving everything was in slow motion a tired lazy dance I watched new indecision and the Pop's body language like hurting cats they approached the people still on benches they turned away and jerk their beams on the people moving out they kept on walking bending turning no pattern just random movement they kept on coming they got within 10 yards of me then they quit they played their flashlight beams One Last Time Around a token Circle ccle and then they headed back to their car I watched it drive away I stayed on my bench and breathed out and started thinking about the GPS chips and the captured cell phones in my pockets part of me said it was impossible that Leela ho would have access to tracking satellites but another part of me focused on her saying we are never beaten and we is a big word only two letters but a large implication maybe the bad guys from the Eastern block had grabbed more than oil and gas leases maybe they'd taken over other kinds of infrastructure the old Soviet intelligence machine had to have gone somewhere I thought about laptop computers and Broadband connections and all kinds of technology I didn't fully understand I kept the phones in my pockets but I got up off the bench and headed for the subway which was a bad bad mistake to make chapter 55 the Union Square subway station is a major Hub it has an entrance hall as big as an underground Plaza multiple entrances multiple exits multiple lines multiple tracks stairs booths long rows of turn Styles plus long Banks of machines for refreshing Metro cards or buying new ones I used cash and bought a new card I fed two $220 bills Edge first into the slot and was rewarded with 20 rides plus three free as a bonus I collected my card and turned around and moved away 6:00 in the morning station was filling up with people the work day was starting I passed a news stand it had a thousand different magazines and squat bales of fresh tabloids ready for sale thick papers piled high two separate titles both headlines were huge one had three words big letters plenty of powdery Black Ink feds seek Trio the other had three words too feds hunt Trio practically a consensus on balance I preferred seek to hunt more passive less committed almost benign I figured anyone would prefer to be sought than hunted I turned away and saw two cops watching me carefully two mistakes in one first theirs which was then compounded by mine their mistake was conventional the federal agents at 22nd and Broadway had put the word out that I had escaped by Subway where thereupon law enforcement generally had assumed that I would Escape by Subway again because given the choice law enforcement always fights the last battle one more time my mistake was to walk straight into their lazy trap because there were booths there were supervisors because there were supervisors there were no high entry exit turn Styles just regular thigh high bars I swiped my new card and pushed on through the plaza changed shape to a long wide walkway arrows pointed left and right and up and down for different lines and different directions I passed by a guy playing a violin he had positioned himself where the echo would help him he was pretty good his instrument had a solid gutty tone he was playing a mournful old piece I recognized from a movie about the Vietnam War perhaps not an inspired choice for early commuters his violin case was open at his feet and not very full of contributions I turned casually as if I was checking him out and saw the two cops step over the Turn Style behind me I turned a random corner and followed a narrower passageway and found myself on an uptown platform it was crowded with people and it was part of a symmetrical pair ahead of me was the platform Edge and then the line and then a row of iron pillars holding up the street above and then the downtown line and then the downtown platform two sets of everything including two sets of commuters tired people facing each other numbly waiting to head out in opposite directions the live rails were back to back either side of the central iron pillars they were shrouded like live rails are in stations the shrouds were three-sided box sections open on the sides that face the trains behind me and far to my left the cops push their way onto the platform I checked the other way to my right two more cops pushed into the crowd they were wide and bulky with equipment they moved people gently out of their way Palms against shoulders short backhand moves rhythmic like swimming I moved to the middle of the platform I edged forward until my feet were on the yellow warning stripe I moved laterally until I had a pillar directly behind me I looked left looked right no trains were coming the cops kept moving behind them four more showed up two on one side of me two on the other threading through the crowd slowly and surely I craned forward no headlights in the tunnels the crowd moved and bunched beside me pushed on by new arrivals disturbed by the ripples of the cops Relentless progress pulled forward by the subliminal certainty any Subway Rider feels that the train must be coming soon I checked again over my shoulders left and right cops on my platform eight of them no cops at all on the platform opposite chapter 56 people are scared of the third rail no reason to be unless you plan on touching it hundreds of btts but they don't jump out at you you have to go looking for them to get in trouble easy enough to step over even in lousy shoes I figured whatever my rubber Footwear would subtract in terms of precision control it would add in terms of electrical insulation but even so I plan my moves very carefully like stage choreography jump down Land Two footed in the center of the Uptown line line right foot on the second rail left foot beyond the third rail squeeze through the gap between two pillars right foot over the next third rail left foot on the downtown track small careful mincing steps then a sigh of relief and a scramble up onto the downtown platform and Away easy enough to do easy enough for the cops to do right behind me they'd probably done it before I hadn't I waited checked behind me left and right the cops were close close enough to be slowing down and forming up and deciding exactly how they were going to do what would need to be done next I didn't know what their approach would be but whatever they were going to take it slow they didn't want a big Stampede the platform was crowded and any kind of sudden activity would put people over the edge which would lead to lawsuits I checked left checked right no trains were coming I wondered if the cops had stopped them presumably there was a well rehearsed procedure I took a half step forward people slipped in behind me between me and the pillar they started pressing against my back I braced the other way against them the warning strip at the edge of the platform was yellow paint over raised circular bumps no danger of slipping or sliding the cops had formed up into a shallow semicircle they were about 8 ft from me they were moving inward shoveling people outward collapsing their perimeter slow and cautious people were watching from the downtown platform opposite they were nudging each other and pointing at me and going up on tiptoe I waited I heard a train on my left a moving glow in the tunnel it was coming on Fast our train uptown behind me the crowd stirred I heard the rush of air and the squeal of iron rims saw the lighted cabs Sway and jerk through the curve I figured it was doing about 30 m hour about 44 ft per second I wanted 2 seconds I figured that' be enough so I would have to go when the train was 88 ft away the cops wouldn't follow their reaction time would Rob them of the margin they needed and they were 8 ft back from the platform Edge to start with and they had different priorities from me they had wives and families and Ambitions and pensions they had houses and yards and Lawns to mow and bulbs to plant I took another tiny step forward the headlight was coming straight at me head on rocking and jerking it made it hard to judge distance then I heard a train on my right a downtown train approaching fast from the the other direction symmetrical but not perfectly synchronized like a pair of drapes closing with the left hand drape leading the right by how much I needed a 3second lag for a total gap of five because climbing up the downtown platform was going to take me a whole lot longer than jumping off the Uptown I paused a whole second guessing estimating feeling it trying to judge the trains howled inward one from the left then one from the right 500 tons and 500 tons closing speed maybe 60 M an hour the cops edged closer decision time I went I jumped down with the Uptown Train 100 ft away I landed two-footed between the rails and got steady and minced through the steps I had planned like a dance diagram in a book right foot left foot high over the live rail hands on the pillars I paused a split second and checked right the downtown train was very close behind me the uptown train slammed past its brakes were shrieking and grinding a furious wind tore up my shirt lighted windows strobed by in the corner of my eye I stared right the downtown train looked huge decision time I went right foot high over the live rail Left Foot Down in the rail bed the downtown train was almost on me just yards away it was rocking and jerking its brakes were clamping hard I could see the driver his mouth was wide open I could feel the air daming ahead of his cab I abandoned the choreography just flung myself towards the far platform it was less than 5 ft away but it felt infinitely distant like the pl's Horizon but I got there I stared right and saw every rivet and bolt on the front of the downtown train it was coming right at me I got my Palms flat on the platform Edge and boled up I thought the dense press of people was going to knock me right back down but hands grabbed at me and pulled me up the train slammed past my shoulder and the wash of air spun me around windows flashed past oblivious passengers read books and papers or stood and sueded hands hauled on me and dragged me into the crowd people all around me were screaming I saw their mouths open in panic but I couldn't hear them the Yelp to the Train's brakes was drowning them out I put my head down and barged on through the crowd people stepped left and right to let me pass some of them slapped me on the back as I went by a ragged cheer followed me out only in New York I pushed through an exit Turn Style and headed for the street chapter 57 Madison Square Park was seven blocks north I had the best part of 4 hours to kill I spent the time shopping and eating on Park Avenue South not because I had things to buy not because I was especially hungry but because it's always best to give pursuers what they don't expect fugitives are supposed to run far and fast they're not supposed to Dole through the IM mediate neighborhood in and out of stores and cafes it was just after 6:00 in the morning Deli and supermarkets and diners and coffee shops were all that was open I started in a Food Emporium that had an entrance on 14th Street and an exit on 15th I spent 45 minutes in there I took a basket and wandered the aisles and pretended to choose stuff less conspicuous than just hanging out less conspicuous than wandering the aisles without a basket I didn't want an alert manager to call anything in I developed a fantasy where I had an apartment nearby I stocked its imaginary kitchen with enough stuff to last two whole days coffee of course plus pancake mix eggs bacon a loaf of bread butter some Jam a pack of salami a/4 PB of cheese when I got bored and the basket got heavy I left it in a deserted aisle and slipped out the back of the store door next up was a diner four blocks north I walked on the right hand sidewalk with my back to the traffic in the diner I ate pancakes and bacon that someone else had shopped and cooked more my style I spent another 40 minutes in there then I moved on half a block to a French Brasserie more coffee and a Quon someone had left the New York Times on a chair across from me I read it from end to end no mention of a man hunt in the city no mention of Sansom Senate race in the National section I split the final two hours four separate ways I moved from a supermarket on the corner of Park and 22nd to a Dwayne Reed Drug Store opposite and then to a CVS Pharmacy on Park and 23rd visible evidence suggested that the nation spent more on hair care than food then at 25 minutes to 10 I stopped shopping and stepped out to the bright new morning and looped around and took a good long careful look at my destination from the mouth of 24th Street which was a shadowed Anonymous Canyon between two huge buildings I saw nothing that worried me no unexplained cars no parked Vans no pairs or trios of dressed down people with wires in their ears so at 10:00 exactly I stepped into Madison Square Park I found Thea Le and Jacob Mark side by side on a bench near a dog run they looked rested but nervous and stressed each in their own way each for their own reasons presumably they were two of maybe a hundred people sitting peacefully in the Sun the park was a rectangle of trees and Lawns and paths it was a small Oasis one block wide and three tall fenced surrounded by four busy sidewalks parks are reasonably good places for clandestine rendevu most hunters are attracted by moving targets most believe that fugitives stay in motion three of a 100 people sitting still while the city swirls around them attract less attention than three of the hundred hustling hard down the street not perfect but an acceptable risk I checked all around one last time and and sat down next to Lee she handed me a newspaper one of the tabloids I'd already seen the hunt headline she said it claims we shot three federal agents we shot four I said don't forget the medical guy but they make it sound like we used real guns they make it sound like the guys died they want to sell papers we're in trouble we knew that already we didn't need a journalist to tell us she said Dockery came through again he was texting messages to me all night long while the phone was off she lifted up off the bench and took a sheath of paper out of her back pocket three sheets of yellowed Hotel stationery folded for ways I said you took notes she said they were long messages I didn't want to keep the phone on if there were things I needed to review so what do we know the 17th Precinct checked Transportation gateways standard procedure after a major crime four men left the country 3 hours after the likely time of death through JFK the 17th is calling them potential suspects it's a plausible scenario I nodded the 17th Precinct is right I said Leela ho told me so you met with her she called me on what another phone I took from Leonid he Appel found me it didn't work out exactly how I wanted but I made some limited contact she confessed more or less so where is she now I don't know exactly I'm guessing somewhere east of 5ifth south of 59th why she used the Four Seasons as a front why travel Lee said there was a burned out rattle car in Queens the 17th thinks the four guys used it to get out of Manhattan then they ditched it and used that elevated train thing to get to the airport I nodded again Leela said the car they use no longer exists but here's the thing Lee said the four guys didn't head back to London or Ukraine or Russia they were rooted through to Tajikistan which is where don't you know ah those new places confuse me Tajikistan is right next to Afghanistan they share a border also with Pakistan you can fly direct to Pakistan correct therefore either those guys were from Tajikistan or from Afghanistan itself Tajikistan is where you can get into Afghanistan without being too obvious about it he crossed the border in a pickup truck roads are bad but Kabul is not too far away okay and here's the other thing homeland security has a protocol some kind of computer algorithm they can trace groups of people through similar itineraries and linked bookings turns out those four guys entered the country 3 months ago from Tajikistan along with some other folks including two women with passports from turkistan one was 60 and the other was 26 they came through immigration together and claimed to be mother and daughter and Homeland Security is prepared to swear their passports with J genuine okay so the hosts were we're not Ukrainian everything they told us was a lie we all chewed on that for 20 long seconds in silence I went through all the stuff Leela told us and deleted it item by item like pulling files from a drawer and leafing through them and then pitching them in the trash I said we saw their passports at the Four Seasons they looked Ukrainian to me Lee said they were phony or they would have used them at immigration I said Leela had blue eyes Lee said I noticed where exactly is Turkmenistan also next to Afghanistan a longer border Afghanistan is surrounded by Iran Turkmenistan usbekistan Tajikistan and Pakistan clockwise from the Gulf easier when it was all the Soviet Union unless you lived there are Turkmenistan and Afghanistan ethnic similar probably all those borders are completely arbitrary they're accidents of History what matters are the tribal divisions lines on a map have got nothing to do with it are you an expert the NYPD knows more about that region than the CIA we have to we've got people over there we've got better intelligence than anyone could a person from Afghanistan get a passport from Turkmenistan by relocating by asking for help and getting it from an ethnic sympathizer I nodded maybe under the counter why do you ask some Afghan people have bright blue eyes especially the women some weird genetic strand in the population you think the hoes are from Afghanistan they knew a hell of a lot about the conflict with the Soviets a little dressed up but they got most of the details right maybe they read books no they got the feelings right and the atmosphere like the ancient great codes details like that were not widely available that's Insider information in public the Red Army made out it was superbly equipped for obvious reasons our propaganda said the same thing about them for equally obvious reasons but it wasn't true the Red Army was falling apart a lot of what the hoath said sounded like firsthand information to me so maybe Sedana really did fight there but on the other side Lee paused to beat you think the hoes are Afghan tribes women if Sedana fought there but not for the Soviets then they must be Lee paused again in which case Sedana was telling the whole story from the other side everything was inverted including the atrocities yes I said she didn't suffer them she committed them we all went quiet again another 20 seconds I kept my eyes moving all around the park look don't see listen don't hear the more you engage the longer you survive but nothing jumped out at me nothing on toward was happening people were coming going people were taking dogs to the run a line was forming at a hamburger stand early but every hour of the day or night is lunchtime for someone it depends on when the day starts Lee was going through her notes Jacob Mark was staring at the ground but his gaze was focused somewhere far below the surface finally he leaned forward and turned his head and looked at me I thought here it comes the big question the bump in the road he asked when Leela Hol called you did she mention Peter I nodded she picked him up in the bar well I spent 4 hours doing that tradecraft and for fun and finesse because she could where is he now she said he's here in the city is he okay she wouldn't tell me do you think he's okay I didn't answer he said talk to me Reacher I said no no you won't talk to me no I don't think he's okay but he might be I could be wrong what did she tell you I said I wasn't scared of her and she said that's what Peter Molina had said too I asked if he was okay and she said I should come over and find out for myself so we could be okay it's possible but I think you should be realistic what about what why would two Afghan tribes women want to mess with Peter to get to Susan of course for what the Pentagon is supposed to be helping Afghanistan I said if Sedana was a fighting tribeswoman then she was one of the mujahedin and when the Russians went home the mujahedin did not go back to tending their goats they moved right along some of them became the Taliban and the rest of them became Al-Qaeda Chapter 58 Jacob Mark said I have to go to the cops about Peter he got halfway Off the Bench before I leaned across the a Lee and put my hand on his arm think hard I said what's to think about my nephew was a kidnapping victim he's a hostage the woman confessed think about what the cops will do they'll call the feds immediately the feds will lock you up again and put Peter on the back burner because they got bigger fish to fry I have to try Peter's dead Jake I'm sorry but you got to face it there's still a chance then the fastest way to find him is to find Leela and we can do that better than those feds you think look at their track record they missed her once and they let us break got of jail I wouldn't send him to look for a book in a library well how the hell do we find her on our own I looked at Thea Lee did you speak to Sansom she Shrugged like she had good news and bad she said I spoke to him briefly he said he might want to come up here personally he said he'd call me back to coordinate the wear and the when I said he couldn't do that because I was keeping the phone switched off so he said he would call D cell and instead and I should call Dary and pick up the message so I did and Dary didn't answer so I tried the precinct switchboard the dispatcher said Dy was unavailable what does that mean I think it means he just got arrested which changed everything I understood that even before Lee got around to spelling it out she handed me her folded notes I took them like receiving the Baton in a relay race I was was to go onward as fast as I could she was spilling off the track her race finished she said you understand right I have to turn myself in now he's my partner I can't let him face this madness alone I said you thought he'd ditch you in a heartbeat but he didn't and I have my own standards anyway it won't do any good maybe not but I won't turn my back on my partner you're just taking yourself off the board you can't help anyone from a jail cell outside is always better than inside it's different for you you can be gone tomorrow I can't I live here what about Sansom I need a time and a place I don't have that information and you should take care with Sansom anyway he sounded weird on the phone I couldn't tell whether was real mad or real worried it's hard to say whose side he's going to be on when and if he gets here then she gave me Leonard's first cell phone and the emergency charger she put her hand on my arm and squeezed just briefly just a little an allpurpose substitute for a hug and a good luck gesture and right after that our temporary three-way partnership fell apart completely Jacob Mark was on his feet even before Lee had started to get up he said I owe it to Peter okay they might put me back in a Cell but at least they'll be out looking for him we could look for him I said we have no resources I looked at them both and asked you sure about this they were sure about it they walked away from me out of the park to the Fifth Avenue sidewalk where they stood and craned their necks looking for a police car the same way people stand when they're trying to hail a cab I sat alone for a minute and then I got up and walked the other way next stop somewhere east of 5th and south of 59th chapter 59 Madison Square Park Nestles against the south end of Madison Avenue right where it starts at 23rd Street Madison Avenue runs straight for 115 blocks to the Madison Avenue Bridge which leads to the Bronx you can get to Yankee Stadium that way although other routes are better I planned on covering maybe a third of its length to 59th Street which was a little north and west of where Leela ho had said she wasn't on 3rd and 56th it was as good a place to start as any I took the bus which was a slow lumbering vehicle which made it a counterintuitive choice for a wild-eyed fugitive which made it perfect cover for me traffic was heavy and we passed plenty of cops some on foot some in cars I looked out the window at them none of them looked back in at me a man on a bus is close to Invisible I stopped being invisible when I got out at 59th Street Prime retail territory therefore Prime tourist territory therefore reassuring pairs of policemen on every corner I took across street over to Fifth and found a line of vendors at the base of Central Park and bought a black T-shirt with New York City written on it and a pair of counterfeit sunglasses and a black baseball cap with a red apple on it I changed shirts in a restroom in a hotel lobby and came back to Madison looking a little different it was 4 hours since any on duty cop had spoken to his Watch Commander and people forget a lot in 4 hours I figured that tall and cocky shirt would be all that anyone remembered nothing could do about my height but the New Black upper body might let me slide by plus the writing on the shirt and the shades and the hat all of which made me look like a regular out of town idiot which I was basically I had no real clue as to what I was doing finding any concealed Hideout is difficult finding one in a densely populated big city is close to Impossible I was just quartering random blocks following a GE graphic hunch that could have been completely wrong to start with trying to find reasons to narrow it further the Four Seasons Hotel not adjacent but comfortably proximate which meant what a 2-minute drive a 5-minute walk in which direction not South I thought not across 57th Street which is a major cross town thoroughfare two way six Lanes always busy in the micro geography of Manhattan 57th Street was like the Mississippi River an obstacle a boundary much more inviting to slip away to the north to the quieter darker blocks Beyond I watched the traffic and thought not a 2-minute drive driving implied a lack of control a lack of flexibility and delays and one-way streets and avenues and parking difficulties and potentially memorable Vehicles waiting in loading zones and license plates that could be traced and checked walking was better than driving in the city whoever you were I took 58th Street and walked to the hotel's back entrance it was just as Splendid as the front entrance there was brass and stone and there were flags flying and porters in uniform and doormen and top hats there was a long line of limousines waiting at the curb Lincoln Mercedes maybacks rolls-royces well over a million dollars worth of Automotive product all crammed into about 80 ft there was a loading dock with a gray rollup door closed I stood next to a bell boy with my back to the hotel door where would I go across the street was nothing but a solid line of high buildings mostly apartment houses with the ground floors least to prestige clients directly opposite was an art gallery I squeezed between two chrome bumpers and crossed the street and glanced at some of the paintings in the window then I turned and looked back from the far sidewalk to the left of the hotel on the side nearer Park Avenue there was nothing very interesting then I looked to the right along the block as it approached Madison and I got a new idea the hotel itself was recent construction on an insane budget neighboring buildings were all quiet and prosperous and solid some some of them old some of them new but at the Western end of the block there were three old piles in a row narrow single front five-story brick weathered peeling spalling stained somewhat decrepit dirty Windows sagging lentils flat roofs weeds along the cornices old iron fire escape zigzagging down the top four floors the three buildings looked like three rotten teeth and a bright smile one had Ned out out a business restaurant for a ground floor tenant one had a hardware store the third had an Enterprise abandoned so long ago I couldn't tell what it had been each had a narrow door set unobtrusively alongside its commercial operation two of the doors had multiple Bell pushes signifying Apartments the door next to the old restaurant had a single Bell push signifying a sole occupier for the upper four floors ho was not a Ukrainian billionaire from London that had been a lie so whoever she really was she had a budget a generous budget certainly to allow for sweets in the Four Seasons as when necessary but presumably not an infinite budget and town houses in Manhattan run to 20 or more million dollars to buy minimum and multiple tens of thousands of dollars a month to rent privacy could be achieved much more cheaply in Tumbl down mixed use buildings like the three I was looking at and maybe there would be other advantages too no doormen nearby fewer prying eyes plus maybe a presumption that an operation like a restaurant or a hardware store would get deliveries at all hours of the night and day maybe all kinds of random comings and goings could happen without attracting much notice at all I moved down the street and stood on the curb opposite oppos at the three old piles and stared up at them people pushed past me in a continuous stream on the sidewalk I stepped into the gutter to get out of the way there were two cops on the far corner of Madison and 57th 50 yards away on a diagonal they were not looking my way I looked back at the buildings and reviewed my assumptions in my head the sixth train at 59th in Lexington was close by The Four Seasons was close by Third Avenue and 56th Street was not close by that's not close to me anonymity was guaranteed cost was limited 5 for five perfect so I figured maybe I was looking for a place just like one of the three right in front of me located somewhere within a fan-shaped 5 minute radius east or west of the hotel's back door not North or Susan mark would have parked in Midtown and aimed to get out of the Subway at 68th Street not South because of 57th Street's psychological barrier not somewhere else entirely because they had used the Four Seasons as a front somewhere else entirely they would have used a different Hotel New York City does not lack for impressive establishments impeccable logic maybe too impeccable confining certainly because if I stuck with the assumption that Susan mark would have gotten out at 59th Street and aimed to approach from the north and that 57th Street was a conceptual barrier to the south then 58th Street was the whole ball game right there and cross town blocks in Manhattan take about 5 minutes to walk therefore a 5 minute radius left to right out of the hotel's back door would end on either the exact block I was currently loitering on or the next one to the east between Park and Lex and Tumbl down mixed use properties are rare on blocks like those big money chased them away long ago it was entirely possible I was looking at the only three left standing in the whole of the ZIP code therefore it was entirely possible I was looking at Leela H's Hideout entirely possible but most unlikely I believe in luck as much as the next next guy but I'm not insane but I believe in logic too probably more so than the next guy and logic had led me to the spot I went over it all again and ended up believing myself because of one extra factor which was that the same logic led someone else there too Springfield stepped down in the gutter next to me and said you'd think chapter 60 Springfield was wearing the same suit I'd seen him in before gray summer weight Wool with a silky weave and a slight sheen it was creased and crumpled like he slept in it which maybe he did he said you think this is a place I didn't answer I was too busy checking all around me I looked at hundreds of people and dozens of cars but I saw nothing to worry about Springfield was alone I turned back Springfield asked the question again you think this is it I asked where's Sansom he stayed home why because this kind of thing is difficult and I'm better than he is I nodded it was an Article of Faith with NZ that they were better than their officers and they were usually right certainly I'd been happy with mine they'd done plenty of good work for me I asked so what's the deal what deal between you and me we don't have a deal he said yet are we going to have a deal we should talk maybe where your call he said which was a good sign it meant that if there there was going to be a trap or an ambush in my immediate future it was going to be improvised and therefore not optimally efficient maybe even to the point of being survivable I asked him how well do you know the city I get by make two lefts and go to 57 East 57th I'll be 10 minutes behind you I'll meet you inside what kind of a place is that we can get coffee there okay he said he took one more look at the building with the old restaurant at its base and then he crossed the street diagonally through the traffic and turned left onto Madison Avenue I went the other way just as far as the Four Seasons back door the Four Season back door was right there on 58th Street it was a block through building which meant its front door was on 57th Street at 57 East 57th to be precise I would be inside about four minutes ahead of Springfield I would know if he had brought a crew I would see whether anyone came in before him or with him or after him I walked through to the lobby from the rear and took off my hat and my glasses and stood in a quiet corner and waited Springfield came in alone right on time which was 4 minutes later no time for hurried deployment out on the street no time for conversation probably no time even for a cell phone call most people slow their walk a little dialing and talking there was a guy in formal morning dress near the door a black tail coat and a silver tie not a concierge not a bell captain some kind of a greeter although his title was probably much grander he started towards Springfield and Springfield glanced at him once and the guy ducked away like he'd been slapped Springfield had that kind of a face he paused a moment and got his bearings and headed for the t- room where i' had once met the hoes I stayed in my corner and watched the street door there was no backup no plain sedan stopped outside I gave it 10 minutes and then added two more just in case nothing happened just the regular EB and flow of a high-end City hotel rich people came rich people went poor people scurried around and did things for them I walked into the te- room and found Springfield in the same chair that Leela ho had used the same dignified old waiter was on duty he came over Springfield asked for mineral water I asked for coffee the waiter nodded imperceptibly and went away again Springfield said you met the hosts here twice I said once at this exact table which is technically a problem associating with them in any way at all could be classed as a felony because because of the Patriot Act who are the hoath exactly and running across the subway tracks was also a felony you could get up to 5 years in the state pen for that technically so they tell me I also shot four federal agents with darts no one cares about them who are the hoes I can't volunteer information so why are we here you help us we'll help help you how can you help me we can make all your felonies disappear and how can I help you you can help us find what we lost the memory stick Springfield nodded the waiter came back with his tray mineral water and coffee he arranged things carefully on the table and backed away I said I don't know what the memory stick is I'm sure you don't but you got as close to Susan Mark as anyone and she left the Pentagon with it and it isn't in her house or her car or anywhere else she ever went so we're hoping you saw something maybe it didn't mean anything to you but it might to us I saw her shoot herself that was about all there must have been more you had your chief of staff on the train what did he see nothing what was on the memory stick I can't volunteer information then I can't help you why do you need to know I said i' like to know at least the basic shape of the trouble I'm about to get myself into then you should ask yourself a question what question the one you haven't asked yet and the one you should have right at the start the key question you dumb ass what is this a contest NC's against officers that battle was over long ago so I spooled backward to the beginning looking for the question I had never asked the beginning was the sixth train and passenger number four on the right side of the car alone on her eight-person bench white in her 40s plain black hair black clothes black bag Susan Mark citizen ex-wife mother sister adop te resident of anandale Virginia Susan Mark civilian worker at the Pentagon I asked what exactly was her job chapter 61 Springfield took a long drink of water and then smiled briefly and said slow but you got there in the end so what was her job she was a systems administrator with responsibility for a certain amount of Information Technology I don't know what that means it means she knew a bunch of Master passwords for the computers which computers not the important ones she couldn't launch missiles or anything but obviously she was authorized for HRC records and some of the archives but not the Delta archives right they're in North Carolina at Fort Brag not the Pentagon computers networked everything is everywhere and nowhere now and she had access human error what there was a measure of human error a measure there are a lot of systems administrators they share common problems they help each other they have their own chat room and their own message board apparently there was a defective line of code which made individual passwords less opaque than they should have been so there was some leakage we think they knew all about it actually but they liked it that way one person could get in and help another person with minimum fuz even if the code had been correct they would probably have deleted it I remember Jacob mark saying she was good with computers I said so she had access to Delta's archives Springfield just nodded I said but you and Sansom quit 5 years before I did nothing was computerized back then certainly not the archives times change Springfield said the US Army as we know it is about 90 years old we've got 90 years worth of crap all built up rusty old weapons that somebody's grandfather brought back as souvenirs captured flags and uniforms all in away you name it plus literally thousands and thousands of tons of paper maybe millions of tons it's a practical problem fire risk mice real estate so so they've been cleaning house for the last 10 years the artifacts are either sent to museums or trashed and the documents are scanned and preserved on computers I nodded and Susan Mark got in and copied one Mort than copied one Springfield said she extracted one transferred it to an external drive and then deleted the original the external drive being the memory stick Springfield nodded and we don't know where it is why her because she fit the bill the relevant part of the archive I was traced through the medal award HRC people keep the metal records like you said she was the systems administrator and she was vulnerable through her son why did she delete the original I don't know it must have increased the risk significantly what was the document I can't volunteer information when was it dug out of the box room and scanned a little over three months ago it's a slow process 10 years into the program and they're only up to the early 1980s who does the work there's a specialist staff with a leak the hoath were over here more or less immediately evidently do you know who it was steps are being taken what was the document I can't volunteer information but it was a big file big enough and the HS want it I think that's clear why do they want it I can't volunteer information you say that a lot I mean it a lot who are the hoes he just smiled and made a circular once again gesture with his hand I can't volunteer information a great nco's answer four words the third of which was perhaps the most significant I said you could ask me questions I could volunteer guesses you could comment on them he said who do you think the hoes are I think they're native Afghans he said go on that's not much of a comment go on probably Taliban or Al-Qaeda sympathizers or operatives or flunkies no reaction Al-Qaeda I said the Taliban mostly stay home go on operatives I said no reaction leaders go on Al-Qaeda is using women leaders they're using whatever works doesn't seem plausible that's what they want us to think they want us searching for men that don't exist I said nothing go on he said okay the one who calls herself Sedana fought with the muja dean and knew you captured the Val rifle from gregori ho they used Ho's name and his story to get sympathy over here because because now Al-Qaeda wants documentary proof of whatever else it was that you guys were doing that night go on which Sansom got a big medal for so it must have looked pretty good Once Upon a Time way back when but now you're worried about exposure so I'm assuming it wouldn't look so good anymore go on Sansom is miserable but the government has got its panties in a w too so it's both personal and political go on did you get a medal that night the superior service medal which comes directly from the Secretary of Defense Springfield nodded a nice little Bobble for a lowly Sergeant so the trip was more political than military obviously L we weren't officially at war with anyone at the time you know the hoath killed four people and probably Susan Mark's son too right we don't know it but we suspect it so why haven't you busted them I work security for a congressman I can't bust anyone those feds could those feds work in mysterious ways apparently they consider the hoes to be a grade enemy combatants and a very significant Target and extremely dangerous but not currently operational which means what which means that right now there's more to be gained by leaving them in place which actually means they can't find them of course you happy about that the hoes don't have the memory stick or they wouldn't still be looking for it so I don't really care either way I think you should I said you think that's their place where you were this block or the next I think this one he said those fed searched their hotel suite while they were out Leela told me they had shopping bags like window dressing to make the place look right I saw them two from Bergdorf Goodman and two from Tiffany those stores are close together about a block from those old buildings if their base was on the block east of Park they'd have gone to bloomindales instead because they weren't really shopping they just wanted accessories and their sweet to fool people good point I said don't go looking for the hoes Springfield said you worried about me now you could lose two ways around they're going to think the same as us that even if you don't have the stick then somehow you know where it went and they might be even more vicious and persuasive than we are and they might actually tell you what's on it in which case from our point of view you would become a loose end how bad is it I'm not ashamed but major Sansom would be embarrassed in the United States that too the waiter came back and inquired as to whether we needed anything else Springfield said yes he reordered for both of us which meant he had more to talk about he said run down exactly what happened on the train why weren't you there instead of his chief of staff it was more like your line of work than his it came on as fast I was in Texas with Sansom raising money we didn't have time for proper deployment why didn't the feds have someone on the train they did they had two people on the train two women undercover borrowed from the FBI special agents Rodriguez and Emil you blundered into the wrong car and rode with them all the way they were good I said and they were the Hispanic woman small hot tired her Supermarket bag wrapped around her wrist the West African woman in the petique dress they were very good but how did you all know that she was going to take that train we didn't Springfield said it was a huge operation a big scramble we knew she was in in a car so we had people waiting at the tunnels the idea was to follow her from there to wherever she was going why wasn't she arrested on the Pentagon steps there was a short debate those feds wanted they wanted to roll up the whole chain in one go and they might have if I hadn't screwed it up you said it she didn't have the memory stick so nothing was going to get rolled up anyway she left the Pentagon with it and it isn't in her house or car you sure about that her house has been torn down to the slab and I could eat the largest remaining part of her car I well did they search the subway train car number 7622 was still in the yards at 207th Street they say it might take a month or more to rebuild what the hell was on that memory stick Springfield didn't answer one of the captured phones in my pocket started to vibrate chapter 62 I pulled all three phones out of my pocket and laid them on the table one of them was skittering around and ate them an inch at a time vigorous vibration its Windows had restricted call I opened it up and put it to my ear and said hello Leela ho asked are you still in New York I said yes are you near the Four Seasons I said not very go there now I left a package for you at the desk I asked when but the line went dead I glanced at Springfield and said wait here then I hustled out to the lobby saw no retreating back heading for the door the scene was tranquil the greeter in the tail coat was standing idle I walked to the desk and gave my name and asked if they were holding anything for me a minute later I had an envelope in my hands it had my name handwritten across the front in thick black letters it had Leela Ho's name up in the top left corner where the return address would be I asked the desk clerk when it had been delivered he said more than an hour ago I asked did you see who dropped it off a foreign gentleman did you recognize him no sir the envelope was padded about 6 in by 9 it was light it had something stiff in it round and maybe 5 in in diameter I carried it back to the te- room and sat down again with Springfield he said from the hoes I nodded he said it could be full of Anthrax spores feels more like a CD I said of what what Afghan folk music maybe I hope not he said I've heard Afghan folk music ad lengthen up close you want me to wait to open it until when until you're out of range I'll take the risk so I tore open the envelope and shook it a single disc Spilled Out and made a plastic sound against the wood of the table a CD I said a DVD actually Springfield said it was homemade it was a black disc manufactured by Memorex the words watch this had been written across the label side with a black permanent marker same handwriting as the envelope same pen Leela H's handwriting and Leela H's pen presumably I said I don't have a DVD player so I don't watch it I think I have to what happened on the train I don't know you can play DVDs on a computer like people watch movies on their laptops on airplanes I don't have a computer hotels have computers I don't want to stay here there are other hotels in the city where are you staying the Sheridan where we were before so Springfield paid our t- room bill with a platinum credit card and we walked from the Four Seasons to the Sheridan second time I'd made that trip it took just as long crowded sidewalks people moving slowly in the heat it was 1:00 in the afternoon and very warm I was watching for cops the whole way which didn't Aid our progress but we got there in the end the plasma screen in the lobby listed a whole bunch of events the ballroom was booked by a tra Association something to do with cable television which made me think of the National Geographic Channel and the Silverback Gorilla Springfield opened the door to the business center with his key card he didn't come in with me he told me he'd wait in the lobby and then he walked away three of the four workstations were occupied two women one man all of them in dark suits all of them with leather briefcases propped open and spilling paper I took the empty chair and set about trying to figure out how to play a DVD on a computer I found a slot in the tower unit that looked fit for the purpose I pushed the disc in and met with some temporary resistance and then a motor word and the unit sucked at the disc and pulled it from my grasp nothing much happened for 5 seconds just a lot of stopping and starting and worrying then a big window opened on the screen it was blank but it had a graphic in the bottom corner like a picture of a DVD player's buttons play pause fast forward rewind skip I moved The Mouse and the pointer Arrow changed to a chubby little hand as it passed over the buttons the phone in my pocket started to vibrate chapter 63 I took the phone out of my pocket and opened it up glanced around the room my three temporary colleagues were all hard at work one had a bar chart on her screen Columns of bold bright colors some of them high some of them low the man was reading email the other woman was typing fast I put the phone to my ear and said hello Leela ho asked if you got it yet I said yes have you watched it yet no I think you should why you'll find it educational I glanced again at the occupants of the room and asked is there sound on it no it's a silent movie unfortunately it would be better with sound I didn't answer she asked where are you in a hotel business center before Seasons no are there computers in the business center yes you can play a DVD on the computer you know so I was told can anyone else see the screen I didn't answer play it she said I'll stay on the line I'll do a commentary like a special edition I didn't answer she said like a director's cut and laughed a little I moved the mouse and put the chubby little hand over the play button it went waited there Patiently I clicked the mouse the tower unit made more woring sounds and the blank window on the screen lit up and showed two distorted horizontal lines they flashed twice and then the picture settled to a wide angle view of an open outdoor space it was night the camera was steady mounted high on a tripod I guessed the scene was brightly lit by harsh hallogen lights just out of shot the color was raw the space looked foreign beaten Earth a dark cocky tone small stones and one large Rock The Rock was flat bigger than a king-sized bed it had been drilled and fitted with four iron Rings one at Each corner there was a naked man tied to the Rings he was short and thin and wiry he had olive skin and a black beard he was maybe 30 years old he was on his back stretched into a wide X shape the camera was positioned maybe a yard from his feet at the top of the picture his head was jerking from side to side his eyes were closed his mouth was open tendons in his neck stood out like ropes he was screaming but I couldn't hear him it was a silent movie Leela ho spoke in my ear she asked what are you seeing I said a guy on a slab keep watching who is he he was a taxi driver who ran an errand for an American journalist the camera angle was about 45° I guessed it made the taxi driver's feet look large and his head looked small he thrashed and bucked for a whole minute he was raising his head and banging it down on the Rock trying to knock himself out or trying to kill himself maybe no luck a slender figure ducked into shot at the top of the frame and slipped a folded square of cloth under the guy's head the figure was Leela ho no question about it the video definition was not great but there was no mistaking her the hair the eyes the way she moved the square of cloth was probably a towel I said I just saw you with the pad it's necessary to avoid self-inflicted injury and it puts their heads at an angle it tempts them to look at what keep watching I glanced around the room my three temporary colleagues were all still working they were all focused hard on their own business on my screen nothing happened for close to 20 seconds the taxi driver wailed away silently then swetlana ho stepped into the frame from the side she was unmistakable too the fire plug body the blunt steel gray hair she had a knife in her hand she crawled up on the Rock and squatted beside the guy she stared up at the camera for a long second not vanity she was judging its angle trying not to block its view she adjusted her position until she was crouching on unobtrusively in the angle made by the guy's left arm and the side of his chest the guy was staring at the knife Sedana leaned forward and to her right and placed the tip of the blade on a spot about halfway between the guy's groin and his navl she pressed down the guy jerked uncontrollably a fat worm of blood welled out of the cut the blood looked black Under The Lights the guy screamed on and on I could see that his mouth was forming words no when please are clear in any language where was this I asked Leela hope said not far from kabo Sedana moved the blade up towards the guy's Naval blood chased it all way she kept it moving Like a Surgeon or a wholesale butcher casual and practiced and expert she had made Sim ER Cuts many times before the blade kept on moving it stopped above the guy's sternum Sedana Put The Knife Down she used her index finger and traced the line of the cut blood lubricated its progress she pressed down and put her finger right in the cut to the first knuckle she slid it up and down she paused occasionally Leela ho said she's checking that she's all the way through the muscle wall I said how do you know you can't see these pictures I can hear your breathing Sedana picked up the knife again and returned to the places where her finger had paused she used the tip of the blade quite delicately and nicked through what seemed to be minor obstructions then she sat back the tax driver's belly was open like a zipper had been pulled the long straight cut gaped a little the wall of muscle was ruptured it was no longer able to hold back the pressure from inside spet Lana rocked forward again she used both hands she worked them into the cut and parted the skin quite carefully and rooted around inside she was in there up to her wrists she tensed and squir her shoulders she lifted out the guy's intestines they made a shining glistening pink Mass about the size of a soft soccer ball coiled sloppy moving wet and steaming she laid the mass on the guy's chest quite gently then she slid off the Rock and stepped out of the frame the camera's unblinking eye stared on the taxi driver looked down in horror Leela H said now it's just a matter of time the cut doesn't kill them we don't sever any important vessels the bleeding stops quite fast it's all about pain and shock and infection the strong ones resist all three they die of hypothermia we think their core temperature is compromised obviously it depends on the weather our record is 18 hours people say they've seen two full days but I don't believe them you're crazy you know that that's what Peter Molina said he saw this he's on it keep watching Fast Forward if you like without the sound it's not so much fun anyway I checked all around the room again three people working hard I put the fat hand on the fast forward button and clicked the picture leapt into fast motion the taxi driver's head moved back and forth through a tiny jerky Arc Leela ho said normally we don't do this one at a time it's better to have a sequence the second guy Waits until the first guy dies and so on it builds up the dread you should see them just willing the previous guy to live a minute longer but eventually they die and the spotlight moves on that's when they have heart attacks you know if they're going to if they're susceptible but we can't always arrange a live sequence that's why we use the video now for an approximation I wanted to tell her she was crazy again but I didn't because she would have told me about Peter Molina again keep watching she said the picture spooled onward the taxi driver's arms and legs twitched strange brittle movements at Double speed his head rolled left and right Leela ho said Peter Molina saw all of this he was willing to guy to hold on which was strange because of course the guy died months ago but that's the effect like I told you the video is a fair equivalent you're sick I said you're also dead you know that like you just stepped out in the road the truck hasn't hit you yet but it's going to are you the truck you bet your ass I'm glad keep watching I clicked the fast forward button again and again and the picture sped up to four times normal speed then 8 then 16 then 32 time rushed by an hour 90 minutes then the image went perfectly still the taxi driver stopped moving he lay completely inert for a long time and then leel La ho rushed into the frame I hit the play button to get a back to normal speed Leela B near the guy's head and felt for a pulse then she raised her head and smiled a happy smile straight at the camera straight at me on the phone she asked is it over yet I said yes a disappointment he didn't last long he was sick he had parasites worms we could see them riding in his guts the whole time was disgusting I guess they died too parasites die if their host dies like you're going to die we are all going to die Reacher the only questions are when and how behind me one of the business Executives got up and headed for the door I turned in my chair and tried to keep my body between him and the screen I don't think I succeed he looked at me strangely and left the room or maybe he'd heard my end of the phone conversation keep watching Leela said in my ear I head fast forward again the taxi driver laid dead near Kabul for a spell and then the picture shut down and was replaced by a flurry of video noise then it opened up on a new scene I hit play normal speed an interior some kind of harsh light impossible to say whether it was night or day impossible to say where it was a basement maybe floors and walls seemed to be painted white there was a broad stone slab like a table smaller than the Afghan Rock rectangular manufactured for a purpose part of an old kitchen possibly a huge young man was tied to the slab he Wasing be half my age and 20% bigger all around he's 300 lb of muscle Jacob Mark had said he's going to the NFL Leela ho asked do you see him yet I see him he was naked very white Under The Lights different in every way from the kabo taxi driver pale skin tousled Fair hair no beard but he was was moving just the same his head was jerking back and forth and he was screaming words no and please are recognizable in any language and this was English I could lip read quite easily I could even sense the tone disbelief mainly the kind of tone a person uses when what was assumed to be an empty thread or even a cruel joke turns out to have been deadly serious I said I'm not going to watch this is Leela hot said you should or you'll never be sure maybe we let him go when was this we set a deadline and we kept it I didn't reply watch it no she said but I want you to watch it I need you to watch it it's a question of maintaining the secret because I think you're going to be next think again watch it I watched it maybe we let him go you'll never be sure they didn't let him go chapter 64 afterwards I hung up the phone and put the DVD in my pocket and made it to the lobby restroom room and threw up in a stall not really because of the pictures I've seen worse but because of anger and fury and frustration all those corros e e of emotions boiled up in inside me and had to find some release I rinsed my mouth and washed my face and drank some water from the tap and stood for a moment in front of the mirror then I emptied my pockets I kept my cash and my passport and my ATM card and my Subway card and the Le's NYPD business card I kept my toothbrush I kept the phone that had rung I dumped the other two phones in the trash with the emergency charger and the business card from the four dead guys and the notes Theresa Lee had made from her partner's messages I dumped the DVD too and the Radio Shack memory stick pink sleeve and all I didn't need a decoy anymore then cleansed I headed out to see if Springfield was still around he was he was in the lobby bar in a chair with his back to a right angle corner he had a glass of water on the table in front of him he was relaxed but he was watching everything you can take the man out of the special forces and so on and so forth he saw me coming I sat down next to him he asked was it folk music yes I said it was folk music on a DVD there was some dancing too I don't believe you he gone all pale Afghan folk dancing is pretty bad I know but it ain't that bad it was two guys I said they had their bellies slid open and their guts lifted out live on camera and then dead on camera soundtrack silent who were the guys one was a taxi driver from Kabul and the the other was Susan Mark's son I don't take taxis in kabo I prefer my own transportation but it sucks for USC they're down to defensive tackle hard to find I checked them out great feet they say not anymore are the HS on the tape I nodded like a confession doesn't matter they know we're going to kill them anyway doesn't really matter what we kill them for it matters to me wise up Breer that was a whole point of sending you the package they want to make you mad and suck you in they can't find you so they want you to come find them which I will your future plans are your business but you need to take care you need to understand because this has been their tactic for 200 years that's why their abuse was always within a shot of the front lines they wanted to bring out the rescue parties or provoke Revenge attacks they wanted a never end in supply of prisoners ask the British or the Russians I'll take plenty of care I'm sure you'll try but you're not going anywhere until we finished with you about the train your guy saw what I saw it's in your interests to help us not so far all I have is promises all charges will be dropped when we have the memory stick in our possession not good enough you want it in writing no I want the charges drop now I need some freedom of action here I can't be looking out for cops the whole time freedom of action for what you know what well okay I'll do what I can not good enough I can't give you guarantees all I can do is try what are the chances you can succeed none at all but Sansom can are you authorized to speak for him I'll have to call him tell him no more [ __ ] okay we're past that stage now okay and talk to him about the a Lee and Jacob Mark too and dockerty I want a clean slate for all of them okay and Jacob Mark is going to need counseling especially if he sees a copy of that DVD he won't but I want him looked after the ex-husband as well Molina okay two more things I said huh you drive a hard bargain for a guy with nothing to offer Homeland Security traced the hoath coming in from Tajikistan with their crew 3 months ago some kind of a computer algorithm I want to know how many people were in the party to estimate the size of the opposing Force exactly and I want to meet with Sansom again why I want him to tell me what's on that memory stick not going to happen then he doesn't get it back I'll keep it and take a look for myself what you heard me you've actually got the stick no I said but I know where it is chapter 65 Springfield asked where is it I said I can't volunteer information you're full of [ __ ] I shook my head not this time you sure you can take us there I can get you within 15 ft the rest is up to you why is it buried in a bank vault in the house none of the above so where is it call Sansom I said set up a meeting Springfield finished what was left of his water and a waiter came by with the check Springfield paid with his platinum card the same way he had for both of us at the Four Seasons which I had taken to be a good sign it had indicated a positive Dynamic so I chose to push my luck a little further want I get me a room I asked why because it's going to take time for Sansom to get me off the most wanted list and I'm tired I was up all night I want to take a nap 10 minutes later we were on a high floor in a room with a queen-sized bed a nice space but tactically unsatisfactory like all high floor hotel rooms it had a window that was no good to me and therefore only one way out I could see that Springfield was thinking the same thing he was thinking I was a lunatic to put myself in there I asked him can I trust you he said yes Pro it ow give me your gun I'm not armed answers like that don't help with the trust thing why do you want it you know why so if you bring the wrong people to my door I can defend myself I won't reassure me he stood still for a long moment I knew he would rather stick a needle in his eye than give up his weapon but he Ransom calculations in his head and reached around under his suit coat to the small of his back and came out with a 9mm sty GB pistol the sty GB had been the sidearm of choice for 1980 US Special Forces he reversed it and handed it to me but first it was a fine old piece well worn but wellmaintained it had 18 rounds in the magazine and One in the Chamber thank you I said he didn't reply just walked out of the room I double locked the door after him and put the chain on and propped the chair under the handle I emptied my pockets on the nightstand I put my clothes under the mattress to press I took a long hot shower then I lay down and went to sleep with Springfield's gun under the pillow I was woken up 4 hours later by a knock at the door I don't like to look through spy holes in hotel doors too vulnerable all an as salant in the corridor has to do is wait until the lens darkens and then fire a gun straight through it even a silence 22 would be completely lethal there's nothing very substantial between the cornea and the brain stem but there was a ful length mirror on the wall inside the door for last minute clothing checks I guess before going out I took a towel from the bathroom and wrapped it around my waist and collected the gun from under the pillow I moved the chair and opened the door against the chain stood back on the hinge side and checked the view in the mirror Springfield and Sansom it was a narrow crack and the image was reversed by the mirror and the corridor lighting was dim but I recognized them easily enough they were alone as far as I could tell and they were going to stay alone unless they brought more than 19 people with them no safety catch on the sty just a hefty double-action pull for the first shot and then 18 more I took the slack out of the trigger and the chain off the door they were alone they came in Sansom first and then Springfield Sansom looked the same as the morning I first saw him tanned Rich powerful full of energy and Charisma he was in a navy suit and a white shirt and a red tie and he looked as fresh as a d Daisy he took the chair I'd been using under the door handle and carried it back to the table near the window and sat down Springfield closed the door and put the chain back on I kept hold of the gun I nudged the mattress off the box spring with my knee and pulled my clothes out one-handed 2 minutes I said talk among yourselves I dressed in the bathroom and came back out and Sansom asked do you really know where that me stick is yes I said I really do why do you want to know what's on it because I want to know how embarrassing it is you don't want me in the Senate I don't care how you spend your time I'm curious that's all he asked why won't you tell me where it is right now because I have something else to do first and I need you to keep the cops out of my hair while I'm doing it so I I need a way of keeping your mind on the job you could be conning me I could be but I'm not he said nothing back I asked why do you want to be in the Senate anyway why wouldn't I you were a good soldier and now you're Richard than God why not go live on the beach these things are a way of keeping score I'm sure you have your own way of keeping score I nodded I compare the number of answers I get to the number of questions I ask and how are you doing with that lifetime average close to 100% why ask at all if you know where the stick is just go get it I can't why not it's going to take more resources than I could mobilize where is it I didn't answer is it here in New York I didn't answer he asked is it secure I said it's safe enough can I trust you plenty of people have and I think most of them would be willing to give me a character reference and the others oh there's no pleasing some folks he said I saw your service record I said you told me that it it was mixed I tried my best but I had a mind of my own why did you quit I got bored you I got old what's on that stick he didn't answer Springfield was standing mute in the Lee of the TV cabinet closer to the door than the window pure habit I guessed simple reflex he was invisible to a potential external sniper and close enough to the corridor to be all over an intruder the second the door swung open training stays with a person especially Delta training I stepped over and gave him his gun back he took it without a word and put it in his waistband Sansom said tell me what you know so far I said you were airlifted from brag to Turkey and then Oman then India probably then Pakistan and the Northwest Frontier he nodded and said nothing yet had a far away look in his eyes I guessed he was reliving the journey in his mind transport planes helicopters trucks long miles on foot all long ago then Afghanistan I said go on he said probably you stayed on the flank of the abis gar and headed south South and West following the line of the coral Valley maybe a th000 ft from the floor go on he stumbled over gregori ho and took his rifle and let him wander away go on then you kept on walking to wherever it was you'd been ordered to go he nodded I said that's all I know so far he asked where were you in March of 1983 West Point what was the big news the Red Army was trying to stop the bleeding he nodded again it was an insane campaign no one has ever beaten the tribesmen in the Northwest Frontier not in the whole of history and they had our own experience in Vietnam to study some things just can't be done it was a slow motion meat grinder like getting pecked to death by birds we were very happy about it obviously we helped I said we sure did we gave the muah hadine everything they wanted for free like Lend Lease worse Sansom said Lend Lease was about helping friends that happen to be bankrupt at the time the muah hadine were not bankrupt quite the reverse there were all kinds of weird tribal alliances that stretched all the way to Saudi the mujah hadine had more money than we did practically and when you're in the habit of giving people everything they want it's very hard to stop what more did they want recognition he said tribute acknowledgement courtesy FaceTime it's hard to know exactly how to characterize it so what was the mission can we trust you you want to get the file back yes so what was the mission we went to see the mujah Haden's top boy bearing gifts all kinds of Gody trinkets from Ronald Reagan himself we were his personal envoys we had a White House briefing we were told to pucker up and kiss ass at every possible opportunity and did you you bet it was 25 years ago so so who cares anymore it's a detail of history and it worked anyway it was the end of Communism but it wasn't the end of the muah hadine they stayed in business I know I said they became the Taliban and Al-Qaeda but that's a detail too voters in North Carolina aren't going to remember the history most voters can't remember what they had for breakfast depends Sansom said on what name recognition what name the coral was where the action was just a small Salient but that was Where The Red Army met its end the muine there were doing a really fine job therefore the local mu Dean leader was a really big deal he was a rising star he was was the one we were sent to meet and we did we met with him and you kissed his ass every which way we could who was he he was a fairly impressive guy initially young tall goodlooking very intelligent very committed and very rich by the way very connected he came from a billionaire family in Saudi his father was a friend of Reagan's vice president but the guy himself was was a revolutionary he quit the easy life for the cause who was he Osama Bin Laden chapter 66 the room stayed quiet for a long moment just muted City sounds from the window and the hiss of air from a vent above the bathroom Springfield moved away from his position by the TV cabinet and sat down on the bed I said name recognition Sansom said it's a [ __ ] got that right tell me about it but it's a big file I said so so it's a long report and we've all read Army reports and they're very dry which they were take Springfield sty GB for instance the Army had tested it it was a miracle of modern engineering not only did it work exactly like it should it also worked exactly like it shouldn't it had a complex gas delayed blowback system that meant it could be loaded with substandard or elderly or badly assembled rounds and still fire most guns have problems with variable gas pressures either they blow up with too much or failed the cycle with too little but the Styer could handle anything which was why Special Forces loved it they were often far from home with no Logistics forced to rely on whatever they could scr up locally the sty GB was a metal Marvel the Army report called it technically acceptable I said maybe they didn't mention you by name maybe they didn't mention him by name maybe it was all acronyms for Delta leader and local Commander all buried in 300 pages of map references tansom said nothing Springfield looked away I asked what was he like Sansom said see this is exactly what I'm talking about my whole life counts for nothing now except I'm the guy who kissed oam Ain Laden's ass that's all anyone will ever remember but what was he like he was a creep he was clearly committed to killing Russians which we were happy about at first but pretty soon we realized he was committed to killing everyone who wasn't exactly the same as him he was weird he was a psychopath he smelled bad it was a very uncomfortable weekend my skin was crawling the whole time you were there a whole weekend honored guests except not really he was an AR an son of a [ __ ] he lorded it over us the whole time he lectured us on tactics and strategy told us how he would have won in Vietnam we had to pretend to be impressed what gifts did you give him I don't know what they were they were wrapped he didn't open them just tossed them in a corner he didn't care like they say at wedding our presence was present enough he thought he was proving something to the world the great Satan was bending its knee before him I nearly puked a dozen times and not just because of the food wae with him we were staying in his tent which will be called their HQ in the report the language will be very neutral the ass kissing won't be mentioned it'll be 300 tedious pages about a Ru attempted and a rendevu kept people will die AB boredom before you halfway over the Atlantic why are you so worried the politics is awful the Lend Lease thing in as much as Bin Laden wasn't dipping into his own personal Fortune it's like we were subsidizing him paying him almost not your fault that's White House stuff did any sea captain get it in the neck for delivering lend Le stuff to the Soviets during World War II they didn't stay our friends either Sansom said nothing I said it's just words on a page they won't resonate people don't read Sansom said it's a big file the bigger the better the bigger it is the more buried the bad parts will be and it'll be very dated I think we used to spell his name differently back then with a u it was Usama or ubl maybe people won't even notice or you could say it was someone else entirely you sure you know where that stick is certain because you sound like you don't you sound like you're trying to console me because you know it's staying out there for the world to see I know where it is I'm just trying to get a handle on why you're so uptight people have survived worse you ever used a computer I used one today what makes for the biggest files I don't know take a guess long documents wrong large numbers of pixels make for the biggest files pixels I said he didn't answer okay I said I see it's not a report it's a photograph chapter 67 the room went quiet again the city sounds the forc a Sansom got up and used the bathroom Springfield moved back to his former position by the TV cabinet there were bottles of water on the cabinet with paper collars that said if you drank the water you'd be charged $8 Sansom came out of the bathroom Reagan wanted the photograph he said partly because he was a Sentimental old geizer and part L because he was a suspicious old man he wanted to check we'd followed his orders the way I remember it I'm standing next to Ben Len with the mother of all [ __ ] eating grins on my face Springfield said with me on the other side Sansom said Bin Laden knocked down the Twin Towers he attacked the Pentagon he's the world's worst terrorist he's a very very recognizable figure he's completely unmistakable that photograph will kill me in politics stoned Dead Forever I asked is that why the hoes wanted he nodded so that Al-Qaeda can humiliate me and the United States along with me or vice versa I stepped over to the TV cabinet and took a bottle of water unscrewed the cap and took a long drink the Run was on Springfield's card which meant that Sansom was paying and Sansom could afford for eight bucks then I smiled briefly hence the photograph in your book I said and on your office wall Donald Rumsfeld with Saddam Hussein in Baghdad yes Sansom said just in case to show that someone else had done the very same thing like a trump card just lying there in the weeds no one knew it was a trump no one even knew it was a card it's not a trump Sansom said it's not even close it's like a lousy for of clubs because Bin Laden is way worse than Saddam ever was and Rumsfeld wasn't looking to get elected to anything afterwards he was appointed to everything he did after that by his friends he had to be no sane person would have voted for him you got friends not many no one ever said much about rumsfeld's photograph because he wasn't running for office if he'd ever gotten into an election campaign that would have been the most famous photograph in the world you're a better man than Rumsfeld you don't know me educated guess okay maybe but Bin Laden is worse than sedan and that image is poison it doesn't even need a caption there I am grinning up at the world's most evil man like a puppy dog people fake pictures like that for attack ads and this one is real you'll get it back when how we doing with the felony charges slow but sure not very there's good news and bad news give me the bad news first it's very unlikely that the FBI will want to play ball and it's certain the department of Def fence won't those three guys they're off the case apparently they're injured one has a broken nose and one has a cut head but they've been replaced the dod is still hot to trot they should be grateful they need all the help they can get doesn't work like that there are turf wars to be won so what's the good news we think the NYPD is prepared to be relaxed about the subway oh terrific I said that's like canceling a parking ticket for Charles Manson Sansom didn't reply I asked him what about the Lee and Jacob Mark and dockerty they're back at work with Federal paper on file commending them for helping Homeland Security with a sensitive investigation so they're okay and I'm not they didn't hit anybody they didn't bruise any egos what are you going to do with the memory stick when you get it back I'm going to check its right and then I'm going to smash it up and burn the pieces and grind the ash to dust and flush it down about eight separate toilets suppose I asked you not to do that why would you I'll tell you later depending on your point of view it was either late in the afternoon or early in the evening but I'd just woken up so so I figured it was time for breakfast I called down to room service and ordered a big tray about 50 bucks worth at Sheran New York prices with taxes and tips and charges and fees Sansom didn't bat an ey he was sitting forward in his chair seething with frustration and impatience Springfield was much more relaxed he had shared that mountain Journey a quarter of a century earlier and he had shared the ignon sometimes our friends become our en enemies and sometimes our enemies become our friends but Springfield had nothing riding on it no Aimes no plans no Ambitions and it showed he was still exactly what he had been back then just a guy doing his job I asked could you have killed him he had bodyguards Sansom said like an inner circle loyalties over there are fanatical think of the Marines or the teamsters and multiply by a thousand we were disarmed 100 yards from the camp we were never alone with him there were always people Milling about plus kids and animals they lived like the Stone Age he was a long lanky streak of piss Springfield said I could have reached up and snapped his scrawny neck any old time I wanted to did you want to you bet I did because I knew right from the start maybe I should have done it right when the flash bulb went off like a bread stick in an Italian restaurant that would have made a better picture I said suicide mission but it would have saved a lot of lives later I nodded just like if Rumsfeld had stuck a shiv in sedan the room service Guy brought my meal and I moved Sansom out of his chair and ate at the table Sansom took a cell phone call and confirmed that as of that moment I was off the hook for the subway transgression I was no longer a person of interest as far as the NYPD was concerned but then he made a second call and told me the jury was still out at the FBI and the signs did not look good at all then he made a third call and confirmed that the dod brass definitely would not let go they were like dogs with a bone I was in all kinds of trouble at the federal level obstruction of justice assault and battery wounding with a deadly weapon and a story Sansom said I'd have to go to the secretary direct or the president I said I can't do either on on the face of it the dod is currently in Hot Pursuit of an active Al-Qaeda cell can't argue against that in today's climate politics is a mine field damned if you do damned if you don't okay I said just as long as I know the shape of the battlefield it's not your battle strictly speaking Jacob Mark will feel better with a little closure you're doing this for Jacob Mark the f FS can give him all the closure he needs you think the feds are nowhere how long do you want to drag this out so were you doing it for Jacob Mark or for me I'm doing it for myself you're not involved I like a challenge there are lots of other challenges in the world they made it personal they sent me that DVD which was tactical if you react they win no if I react they lose this isn't the wild west you got that right this is the timid West we need to roll the clock back do you even know where they are Springfield glanced at me I said I'm working on a couple of ideas do you still have an open channel of communication she hasn't called me since the DVD since she set you up you mean but I think she's going to call again why because she wants to she might win one false step and you're her prisoner you'll end up telling her what she wants to know I asked him how many times have you flown commercials since September 11th he said hundreds and I bet every single time some small corner your mind was hoping there were hijackers on board so you could see them marching up the aisle so you could jump up and beat the [ __ ] out of them or die trying Sansom inclined his head and his mouth turned down in a rof of little smile the first I'd seen from him for a long time you're right he said every single time why I would want to protect the airplane and you would want to unload your frustration ations and burn off your hate I know I would I like the Twin Towers I like the way the world used to be you know before I have no political skills I'm not a diplomat or a strategist I know my weaknesses and I know my strengths so all in all for a guy like me the chance to meet an active Al-Qaeda cell seems pretty much like all my birthdays and Christmases rolled into one