No Plan B

The second guy jumped back. He lifted his shirt and scrabbled for his own gun. Another Beretta. Reacher matched his movement. He stepped in close, stretched out his left hand, and pinned the guy’s wrist against his abdomen. He took the guy’s weapon. Then shoved him in the chest and sent him staggering away, too far to try to snatch the gun back.

Reacher said, “Your friend took my picture. Why?”

The guy didn’t answer.

Reacher said, “You wanted to finish the conversation outside. We’re outside. So converse.”

The guy shook his head.

Reacher raised the gun. “Try this instead. You picked this particular spot. No witnesses. No cameras. Why was that?”

The guy held out his hands, palms up. “I don’t know anything. If you’re going to shoot me, just get it over with.”

“You’re wrong,” Reacher said. “You do know some things. You know my name.”

“Oh. Yeah. OK.”

“You know you were sent out here to look for me.”

“I guess.”

“So you know who sent you.”

The guy shook his head.

“You know. Who was it?”

The guy didn’t answer.

Reacher prodded the body on the ground with his toe.

The guy closed his eyes for a moment. “Our boss sent us.”

“Name?”

“Mr. Brockman.”

“Organization?”

“Minerva Correctional.”

“You work at the prison in Winson?”

The guy nodded.

Reacher said, “How did Brockman know I’d be here?”

“He didn’t. He sent guys to a bunch of places. Just in case.”

“How many guys?”

“I don’t know. Eight? Ten? It wasn’t like a regular team briefing. We got given our orders in pairs. Word filtered out between us later.”

“Which places?”

“I only know one place for sure. The Greyhound station in Jackson. One of the guys who got sent there is my brother-in-law. He called me. A few minutes ago. They just caught a couple of punks trying to kidnap a homeless kid who’d come in from California. Said he wanted to see if we were having any fun like that. Which was horseshit. Really he wanted to break my balls because he knew we would be totally bored.”

“Guess his call was a little premature. What were you supposed to do if you saw me?”

“Verify your ID.”

“And then?”

“Stop you.”

“From doing what?”

“Getting to Winson.”

“Why?”

“So you couldn’t cause any trouble.”

“Why would I cause trouble in Winson?”

The guy shrugged. “Mr. Brockman said you were crazy. Crazy people do crazy things.”

“You had to verify my ID. How?”

“We sent your picture to some guys who know what you look like.”

“Which guys?”

“A couple of co-workers.”

“How would they recognize me?”

“Your paths crossed a couple of days ago. In some town in Colorado.”

Reacher smiled. “I see. Where are these guys?”

“In Winson. I guess. They’re still out sick.”

“I’ll make sure to drop by their houses while I’m in town. Maybe bring them some flowers. Now, Brockman. Is he a good boss?”

“I guess.”

“Is he a nice guy?”

“If he likes you.”

“Right. I saw what happens to people he doesn’t like. In Colorado. So here’s what I’m going to do. I will go to Winson. I will cause some trouble for Mr. Brockman. Maybe a little more than he’s expecting. And when I’m done I’ll make sure he knows how much you helped me.”

“No. Please. Don’t do that. He’ll kill me.”

“Sorry. My mind’s made up. Unless…”

“Unless what? What do you want? Money? ’Cause that’s no problem. I can get you—”

“Not money. Information. There’s something weird going on with the accounting at Minerva. I want to know what.”

The guy’s eyes stretched wide. “Accounting? I don’t know anything about that. How would I?”

Reacher looked at the guy for a long moment. Over the years he had gotten pretty good at sensing when people were telling the truth. Normally he encouraged that kind of response. But on this occasion he was disappointed to be given an honest answer. It meant the guy was no more use to him. So he punched him in the face and watched him crumple and collapse onto the ground.

—

“Was that necessary?” Hannah was standing with her hands on her hips. “He was no threat. You’d already taken his gun.”

Reacher said, “What about the backup piece in his ankle holster? And the knife in his sock?”

“He has another gun? And a knife?”

“He might have. You wait to find out, you’ll be the one who winds up on the ground. And you won’t be getting up again. These guys are working with the people who killed Sam. Who killed Angela. And they didn’t bring us out here for coffee and cakes.”

Hannah was quiet for more than a minute then she moved closer to the first guy Reacher had knocked down. “Is this one dead?”

Reacher shrugged. “Could have broken his neck, I guess.”

“Don’t you care?”

“Would you care if you stepped on a cockroach?”

“He’s not a cockroach.”

“No. He’s worse. He’s human. He had a choice.”

“You know something? You’re right.” Hannah took another step then kicked the guy in the ribs. “He did choose this. He chose to help the people who murdered Sam. Not just killed him. Killed could be an accident. They took Sam’s life on purpose. For some sort of gain. They’re assholes. I hate them. I think we should get every last one of them.”

“You’ll get no argument from me.”

“Good. So what do we do next?”

Chapter 26

It was a question of balance.