Lee Child - Never Go Back

The black one turned out to be sun-hazed down to a steely dark purple, and its window tints were lifting and bubbling, and its seats were cracked and sagging. It was from the 1990s, Turner thought. No longer a premium vehicle. But it started, and it turned right, and it rolled down the road. Turner said, ‘It’s lasted this long. Why should it stop now?’

It stopped a mile later, but on command, for breakfast at the first diner they saw, which was a family-run place on Long Beach Boulevard. It had all the good stuff, including a long-delayed omelette for Turner. She called Sergeant Leach from the payphone and told her to take care. Reacher watched the parking lot, and saw no one. No pursuit, no surveillance, no interest at all. So they got back on the road and headed north and west, looking for a 710 on-ramp, Reacher driving for the first time. The stately old boat suited him well. Its window tints were reassuring. They were nearly opaque. And the mechanical parts seemed up to their task. The car floated along, as if the road surface was just a vague rumour, somewhere far, far away.

Turner said, ‘What are you going to do if you see them?’

Reacher said, ‘Who?’

‘Your daughter and her mother.’

‘You mean what am I going to say?’

‘No, I mean from a distance, the very first time you lay eyes on them.’

‘I don’t see how I would recognize them.’

‘Suppose you did.’

‘Then I’m going to look for the trap.’

‘Correct,’ Turner said. ‘They’re bait, until proven otherwise. The MPs and the FBI will be there for sure. It’s a known destination. Every single person you see could be undercover. So proceed accordingly.’

‘Yes, ma’am.’

‘Between here and North Hollywood the danger doubles with every mile. We’re heading straight for the centre of the inferno.’

‘Is this a preaction briefing?’

‘I’m your CO. I’m obliged to give one.’

‘You’re preaching to the choir.’

‘You might recognize them, you know.’

‘Daughters don’t necessarily resemble their fathers.’

‘I meant you might remember the mother.’

Juliet called Romeo, because some responsibilities were his, and he said, ‘I have some very bad news.’

Romeo said, ‘Does it relate in any way to Baldacci using his credit card at a car rental called Cool Al’s?’

‘What kind of Al’s?’

‘It’s a West Coast thing. What happened?’

‘Reacher got to them on the plane. He put them out of action and stole their wallets.’

‘On the plane?’

‘He broke Lozano’s fingers and Baldacci’s arms and no one noticed.’

‘That’s not possible.’

‘Apparently it is. One against two, on an airplane, with a hundred witnesses. It’s a blatant humiliation. And now he’s renting cars on our dime? Who does this guy think he is?’

Reacher thought he was a bad driver. At first he had meant it as a safety-first subterfuge, rightly assuming it would remind him to concentrate, but then he had learned it was true. His spatial awareness and his reaction times were all based on a human scale, not a highway scale. They were up close and personal. Animal, not machine. Maybe Turner was right. Maybe he was feral. Not that he was a terrible driver. Just worse than the average driver. But not worse than the average I-710 driver, on that particular morning, on the section known as the Long Beach Freeway. People were eating, and drinking, and shaving, and brushing their hair, and applying make-up, and filing nails, and filing papers, and reading, and texting, and surfing, and holding long conversations on cell phones, some of which were ending in screams, and some of which were ending in tears. In the midst of it all Reacher tried to hold his speed and his line, while watching the drift and the wobble up ahead, and calculating which way he should swerve if he had to.

He said, ‘We should stop and call Captain Edmonds. I want to know if she can get what we need.’

‘Keep it on the back burner,’ Turner said.

‘I would if I could. But they won’t let us. Their other two guys might have been on that flight to Orange County. Or else on the next Long Beach departure. Either way they’re only an hour or two behind us.’

‘Knowing what Edmonds can or can’t get won’t help us with them.’

‘It’s tactically crucial,’ Reacher said. ‘Like in the field manual. We have to assess whether they need to retain unimpaired cognitive function for future interrogation.’

‘That’s not in the field manual.’

‘Maybe they cleaned it up.’

‘You mean if Edmonds has failed, you’ll keep the two guys alive so you can beat it out of them?’

‘I wouldn’t beat it out of them. I would ask them nicely, like I did with the Big Dog. But if I know I don’t need to ask them anything, then I can let nature take its course beforehand.’

‘What course will that be?’

‘The future’s not ours to see. But something uncomplicated, probably.’

‘Reacher, you’re on the way to see your daughter.’

‘And I’d like to live long enough to get there. We can’t do a front burner and a back burner thing. Not on this. We have to do two front burners. Ma’am. Respectfully submitted.’

Turner said, ‘OK. But we’ll buy a phone, so we don’t have to keep on stopping. In fact we’ll buy two phones. One each. Prepaid, for cash. And a street map.’

Which they did about a mile later, by coming off the freeway into a dense retail strip anchored by a chain pharmacy, which carried pre-paid cell phones and maps, and whose registers accepted cash along with every other form of payment known to man. They put the map in the car, and stored each other’s numbers in their phones, and then Reacher leaned on the Range Rover’s warm flank and dialled Edmonds’ cell.

She said, ‘I made the application at start of business today.’

‘And?’

‘So far there have been no motions to deny.’

‘How soon would you expect them?’

‘Instantly. Or sooner.’

‘So that’s good.’

‘Yes, it is.’

‘So how long?’

‘Later today, or early tomorrow.’

‘Got a pen?’

‘And paper.’

‘I want you to check Peter Paul Lozano and Ronald David Baldacci with HRC.’

‘Who are they?’

‘I don’t know. That’s why I want you to check.’

‘Relevant to anything in particular?’

‘To being on the right side of history.’

‘I heard something you should know.’

‘As in?’

‘Detective Podolski found your clothes in the landfill. They’ve been tested.’

‘And?’

‘The blood didn’t match.’

‘Should I hold my breath waiting for an apology from Major Sullivan?’

‘She’s coming around. She was very touched you left her an IOU.’

‘Is the Metro PD dropping out now?’

‘No. You fled after a lawful police challenge.’

‘That’s not allowed any more?’

‘I’ll do my best with Lozano and Baldacci.’

‘Thank you,’ Reacher said.

And then they got back on the freeway and headed north, just one of ten thousand moving vehicles winking in the sun.

Romeo called Juliet and said, ‘I spoke to the gentleman known as Cool Al directly, on a pretext, and he tells us they’re in a twenty-year-old black Range Rover.’

Juliet said, ‘That’s good to know.’

‘Not the fastest car on the planet. Not that any would be fast enough. I put our boys on a helicopter. Orange County to Burbank. They’ll be in position at least an hour ahead of time.’

‘Who paid for it?’

‘Not the army,’ Romeo said. ‘Don’t worry.’

‘Did you cancel Baldacci’s credit card? Lozano’s, too, I suppose.’