Page 86 of Chain Reaction

He said, “Sure, we can live with the status quo as it is right now, if we have to.”

Then the three men made their move. One went inside the coffee shop. One sat down at the other sidewalk table. It had only two chairs. The third man stepped over and put his hand on the spare chair at Reacher’s table and mimed a silent request. Can I take this? Reacher nodded and made a generous palm-up gesture with his free hand. Sure, help yourself. The guy dragged the chair away and set it at the other table. He sat down.

In his ear Turner said, “We’ll be eyes-on in two minutes.”

He said, “There’s no real urgency for that, given current market conditions.”

The first guy came back out, carrying a tray with three china cups. He set it down on their table. The other two guys claimed their choices. A tight unit. They had been together a while. They knew each other’s coffee orders.

In his ear Turner said, “What do you need?”

He said, “No, no, I agree, I don’t think we’re looking for third-party involvement just yet. That’s an option we should keep up our sleeves.”

“What’s happening?”

“Yeah, I’ll be there soon. I just stopped for a cup of coffee. You know how it is. You finish one thing, you feel like a little me-time before you start the next thing.”

At the other table he heard the guy who bought the coffee say, “I guess I better call H and give him the news.” He took out his phone and dialed and waited. The call was answered. “The room was empty,” the guy said. “They were long gone. The place was a mess. No one could work there.” Then he listened, and said, “Sure, no problem, it was worth a try. Of course. No stone unturned.” He listened some more, and said, “We’re at a coffee shop. We’ll watch the place a few minutes more, just in case they come back. We have photos of the general and the colonel. Mr. Cameron uploaded them while we were en route.”

In his ear Reacher heard Turner say, “OK, we see you.”

He didn’t look up. Instead he said, “Sure, I agree, it’s fantastic we have a couple of heavy-duty investors in the background, but that’s where we need to keep them right now. They’re public figures. Very recognizable, in this context. If we make them visible too soon, we’ll upset the dynamic completely. They should stay hidden for the moment.”

At the other table the guy finished his call. He put his phone back in his pocket and picked up his cup. His gaze fell on Reacher and he shrugged and made a rueful shape with his mouth. Some kind of random solidarity. Just two guys at tables dealing with bullshit on their phones. Reacher made a tell-me-about-it face. The guy looked away. He was the first one, who had gone in through the lobby. The guy who had borrowed the chair looked similar, but was maybe an inch shorter and twenty pounds wirier. The third guy was the same, but paler. He had ginger stubble and blond eyelashes. All three looked like they spent serious time in the gym. All three were the same kind of age. Somewhere in their middle forties. Which meant they had cut their teeth on long first-generation tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. Twenty-plus years before. Probably they had been back for many more. It showed in their faces. Tired, weary, lined, weatherbeaten. Dead eyes that had seen a lot.

Their briefcases were at their feet. Unlocked, for sure. Needing to stop and enter a combination at the critical moment would be extremely inefficient, which was the exact opposite of what U.S. Army NCOs grew up to be.

Into his phone he said, “Yeah, actually I’m thinking about opening an unscheduled negotiation with them. I’m sure they have non-compete clauses and all, but we should be able to think of a powerful incentive. We might find common ground.”

“Negative,” Turner said in his ear. “Right now they don’t know who you are. Let’s keep it that way.”

“Concur,” Elwood said. “Also unlikely to succeed. These guys have a code. Whoever buys their time buys their loyalty.”

“Walk away now,” Turner said.

“OK, catch you later,” Reacher said. He clicked off the call and drained his cup of its last cooling dregs. He stood up and stretched. He flexed his right elbow. It was sore from holding his phone to his ear for so long. He nudged his chair back and stepped out from behind his table. He stretched again and eased his neck. No one at the other table paid him the slightest attention. He walked away.

—

Turner and Elwood were on California Avenue, waiting for him out of sight, about level with the Sequoia Suites lobby. Reacher joined them there. They set out walking back to where Elwood had parked his rental, which was halfway down the street with the restaurants.

Reacher said, “The first guy called in a report to someone he referred to as H. Just the initial only. The tone of the conversation implied they were expecting a wasted trip. But they were happy to do it, because no stone unturned. Cameron uploaded photos of you, but evidently not of me. That’s all I overheard.”

“I hope not H for another Hugo.”

“How many Hugos are there in America?”

“One less.”

“Mission accomplished here,” Elwood said. “We got the intelligence we came to get. An opposing force of six.”

“Seven including H,” Reacher said.

“Protecting what?” Turner said. “I wish Bisley had told us what he knew.”

“He did,” Reacher said. “He wrote it down. We can’t understand it. That’s not Bisley’s fault.”

“In the future I’m going to insist on verbal reports in plain English.”