Page 36 of Chain Reaction

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Reacher got black coffee and a roast beef sandwich. With Swiss cheese, American mayo, French mustard, and no lettuce or tomato of any nationality. Turner got sparkling spring water and avocado toast. Across the street not much was happening. A FedEx truck dropped off a bunch of slim overnight envelopes. Maybe fifth-draft contracts for someone’s final review. A guy on an electric bicycle carried in a brown bag of lunch. No one else came or went. The Sequoia Suites’ customers were either in or out for the day.

“Perfect,” Reacher said, for the third time.

Turner didn’t answer. She was looking tense. She was waiting for the spinning coin to fall to earth, either heads or tails. Either Elwood or not Elwood. She checked her watch. She said, “He has another three hours in the air.”

“Tell me about the Chief of Staff.”

“What about him?”

“Is he solid?”

“He got confirmed by the Senate. He hasn’t offended me yet. He has a stick up his ass about certain things, but mostly he lives in the real world.”

“What would your people say about you?”

“The same, probably, apart from the Senate thing. What did your people say about you?”

“They didn’t like me at first. The 110th was new, and it was designed to fail. The army needed it, but didn’t really want it. So I was drafting people to serve on a sinking ship. We were all supposed to crash and burn. But it worked out OK. So ultimately we all got along.”

“More than OK. You had some big cases.”

“It was a target-rich environment.”

“What are they all doing now?”

“Some died. Some hung out their own shingles. Private security, private investigations. Some got jobs, small firms, same kind of thing.”

“But you didn’t.”

“I was done with it. I just wanted to be left alone.”

“You said yes to this.”

“This is different. I had a choice.”

Across the street a brown UPS truck pulled up. The driver carried a package inside, and came out, and drove away again.

—

Inside the expensive Mountain View building Saxby Cameron dialed his phone again. Axel Brill’s private number. He said, “General Turner is still on the air. More than fifteen minutes now. I think she’s doing a day’s work.”

“Why work there?” Brill asked. “Why not somewhere military?”

“The nearest significant army facility seems to be Fort Hunter Liggett, about a hundred and fifty miles south, down in Monterey County. Too far away, if she’s worried about what we think she’s worried about. I think her current location is plausible for a temporary work site, given the nature of the place.”

“Have you got access to their system?”

“I’m looking at it right now. I went back through their video. She’s still with the big man. Same as last night. Same as this morning on the Four Seasons video. They checked in at the Sequoia Suites about twenty minutes ago. She got straight to work. I’m watching the lobby camera now. They haven’t come out again. She’s still transmitting, full strength.”

“Who’s the guy?”

“Facial recognition is telling us nothing. It doesn’t cover everyone yet. Only people with biometric passports and driver’s licenses.”

“Who doesn’t have a driver’s license?”

“This guy, obviously.”