Lee Child - Die Trying

Because of the holiday weekend, the Peterson dispatcher assigned a skeleton crew of two. No separate spotter. He figured he didn’t need one. How difficult could it be to find five Army trucks on some shoulder in Montana?›

“YOU SHOULD HAVE stayed here,” Borken said. “Right, Joe?”

Reacher glanced into the gloom inside the punishment hut. Joseph Ray was standing to attention on the yellow square. He was staring straight ahead. He was naked. Bleeding from the mouth and nose.

“Right, Joe?” Borken said again.

Ray made no reply. Borken walked over and crashed his fist into his face. Ray stumbled and fell backward. Staggered against the back wall and scrambled to regain his position on the square.

“I asked you a question,” Borken said.

Ray nodded. The blood poured off his chin.

“Reacher should have stayed here,” he said.

Borken hit him again. A hard straight right to the face. Ray’s head snapped back. Blood spurted. Borken smiled.

“No talking when you’re on the square, Joe,” he said. “You know the rules.”

Borken stepped back and placed the muzzle of the Sig-Sauer in Reacher’s ear. Used it to propel him out into the clearing. Gestured Stevie to follow.

“You stay on the square, Joe,” he called over his shoulder.

Stevie slammed the door shut. Borken reversed his direction and used the Sig-Sauer to shove Reacher toward him.

“Tell Fowler to get rid of this guy,” he told him. “He’s outlived his usefulness, such as it ever was. Put the bitch back in her room. Put a ring of sentries right around the building. We got things to do, right? No time for this shit. Parade ground at six-thirty. Everybody there. I’m going to read them the proclamation, before we fax it.”

MCGRATH COULDN’T SLEEP. He walked back to the accommodations trailer with the others and got back on his bunk, but he gave it up after ten minutes. Quarter to seven in the morning, he was back in the command vehicle with Brogan and Milosevic.

“You guys take a break if you want,” he said. “I’ll look after things here.”

“We could go organize some breakfast,” Brogan said. “Diners in Kalispell should be open by now.”

McGrath nodded vaguely. Started into his jacket for his wallet.

“Don’t worry about it,” Brogan said. “I’ll pay. My treat.”

“OK, thanks,” McGrath said. “Get coffee. Lots of it.”

Brogan and Milosevic stood up and left. McGrath stood in the doorway and watched them drive an Army sedan south. The sound of the car faded and he was left with the silent humming of the equipment behind him. He turned to sit down. The clock ticked around to seven. The fax machine started whirring.

HOLLY SMOOTHED HER hands over the old mattress like Reacher was there on it. Like it was really his body under her, scarred and battered, hot and hard and muscular, not a worn striped cotton cover stuffed with ancient horsehair. She blinked the tears out of her eyes. Blew a deep sigh and focused on the next decision. No Reacher, no Jackson, no weapon, no tools, six sentries in the street outside. She glanced around the room for the thousandth time and started scoping it out all over again.

MCGRATH WOKE THE others by thumping on the sides of the accommodations trailer with both fists. Then he ran back to the command post and found a third copy of the message spooling out of the machine. He already had two. Now he had three.

Webster was the first into the trailer. Then Johnson, a minute behind. Then Garber, and finally the General’s aide. They rattled up the ladder one by one and hurried over to the table. McGrath was absorbed in reading.

“What, Mack?” Webster asked him.

“They’re declaring independence,” McGrath said. “Listen to this.”

He glanced around the four faces. Started reading out loud.

“‘Governments are instituted among men,’ ” he read. “ ‘Deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. It is the right of the people to alter or abolish them after a long train of abuses and usurpations.’ ”

“They’re quoting from the original,” Webster said.

“Paraphrasing,” Garber said.

McGrath nodded.

“Listen to this,” he said again. “ ‘The history of the present government of the United States is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations all designed to establish an absolute tyranny over the people.’ ”

“What the hell is this?” Webster said. “1776 all over again?”

“It gets worse,” McGrath said. “ ‘We therefore are the representatives of the Free States of America, located initially in what was formerly Yorke County in what was formerly Montana, and we solemnly publish and declare that this territory is now a free and independent State, which is absolved of allegiance to the United States, with all political connection totally dissolved, and that as a free and independent State has full power to levy war, conclude peace, defend its land borders and its airspace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other things as all independent States may do.’ ”

He looked up. Shuffled the three copies into a neat stack and laid them on the table in silence.

“Why three copies?” Garber asked.

“Three destinations,” McGrath said. “If we hadn’t intercepted them, they’d be all over the place by now.”

“Where?” Webster asked.

“First one is a D.C. number,” McGrath said. “I’m guessing it’s the White House.”

Johnson’s aide scooted his chair to the computer terminal. McGrath read him the number. He tapped it in, and the screen scrolled down. He nodded.

“The White House,” he said. “Next?”

“New York somewhere,” McGrath said. Read out the number from the second sheet.

“United Nations,” the aide said. “They want witnesses.”

“Third one, I don’t know,” McGrath said. “Area code is 404.”

“Atlanta, Georgia,” Garber said.

“What’s in Atlanta, Georgia?” Webster asked.

The aide was busy at the keyboard.

“CNN,” he said. “They want publicity.”

Johnson nodded.

“Smart moves,” he said. “They want it all on live TV. Christ, can you imagine? The United Nations as umpires and round-the-clock coverage on the cable news? The whole world watching?”

“So what do we do?” Webster asked.

There was a long silence.

“Why did they say airspace?” Garber asked out loud.

“They were paraphrasing,” Webster said. “1776, there wasn’t any airspace.”

“The missiles,” Garber said. “Is it possible they’ve disabled the IFF?”

There was another long silence. They heard a car pull up. Doors slammed. Brogan and Milosevic rattled up the ladder and stepped into the hush. They carried brown bags and Styrofoam cups with plastic lids.

THE GIANT SEARCH-AND-RESCUE Chinook made it north from Peterson in Colorado to Malmstrom Air Force Base outside of Great Falls in Montana without incident. It touched down there and fuel bowsers came out to meet it. The crew walked to the mess for coffee. Walked back twenty minutes later. Took off again and swung gently in the morning air before lumbering away northwest.

“WE’RE GETTING NO reaction,” Fowler said. “Makes us wonder why.”

Reacher shrugged at him. They were in the command hut. Stevie had dragged him through the trees to the Bastion, and then Fowler had dragged him back again with two armed guards. The punishment hut was unavailable. Still occupied by Joseph Ray. They used the command hut instead. They sat Reacher down and Fowler locked his left wrist to the arm of the chair with a handcuff. The guards took up position on either side, rifles sloped, watchful. Then Fowler walked up to join Borken and Stevie for the ceremony on the parade ground. Reacher heard faint shouting and cheering in the distance as the proclamation was read out. Then he heard nothing. Ninety minutes later, Fowler came back to the hut alone. He sat down behind Borken’s desk and lit a cigarette, and the armed guards remained standing.