by Lee Child
“Go wake your boys up,” Webster said. “We’ll stand down for a spell.”
McGrath nodded and walked down to the accommodation trailers. Roused Milosevic and Brogan. They were fully dressed on their bunks. They got up and yawned. Came down the ladder and found Webster standing there with Johnson and his aide. Garber standing behind them.
“The telephone line is done,” Webster said.
“Already?” Brogan said. “I thought it was being done in the morning.”
“We figured sooner was better than later,” Webster said. He inclined his head toward General Johnson. It was a gesture which said: he’s worried, right?
“OK,” Milosevic said. “We’ll look after it.”
“Wake us at eight,” Webster said. “Or earlier if necessary, OK?”
Brogan nodded and walked north to the command vehicle. Milosevic followed. They paused together for a look at the mountains in the moonlight. As they paused, the fax machine inside the empty command trailer started whirring. It fed its first communication face upward into the message tray. It was ten to five in the morning, Friday the fourth of July.
BROGAN WOKE GENERAL Johnson an hour and ten minutes later, six o’clock exactly. He knocked loudly on the accommodation trailer door and got no response, so he went in and shook the old guy by the shoulder.
“Peterson Air Force Base, sir,” Brogan said. “They need to talk to you.”
Johnson staggered up to the command vehicle in his shirt and pants. Milosevic joined Brogan outside in the predawn glow to give him some privacy. Johnson was back out in five minutes.
“We need a conference,” he called.
He ducked back into the trailer. Milosevic walked down and roused the others. They came forward, Webster and the General’s aide yawning and stretching, Garber ramrod-straight. McGrath was dressed and smoking. Maybe hadn’t tried to sleep at all. They filed up the ladder and took their places around the table, bleak red eyes, hair fuzzed on the back from the pillows.
“Peterson called,” Johnson told them. “They’re sending a helicopter search-and-rescue out, first light, looking for the missile unit.”
His aide nodded.
“That would be standard procedure,” he said.
“Based on an assumption,” Johnson said. “They think the unit has suffered some kind of mechanical and electrical malfunction.”
“Which is not uncommon,” his aide said. “If their radio fails, their procedure would be to repair it. If a truck also broke down at the same time, their procedure would be to wait as a group for assistance.”
“Circle the wagons?” McGrath asked.
The aide nodded again.
“Exactly so,” he said. “They would pull off the road and wait for a chopper.”
“So do we tell them?” McGrath asked.
The aide sat forward.
“That’s the question,” he said. “Tell them what exactly? We don’t even know for sure that these maniacs have got them at all. It’s still possible it’s just a radio problem and a truck problem together.”
“Dream on,” Johnson said.
Webster shrugged. He knew how to deal with such issues.
“What’s the upside?” he said.
“There is no upside,” Johnson said. “We tell Peterson the missiles have been captured, the cat’s out of the bag, we lose control of the situation, we’re seen to have disobeyed Washington by making an issue out of it before Monday.”
“OK, so what’s the downside?” Webster asked.
“Theoretical,” Johnson said. “We have to assume they’ve been captured, so we also have to assume they’ve been well hidden. In which case the Air Force will never find them. They’ll just fly around for a while and then go home and wait.”
Webster nodded.
“OK,” he said. “No upside, no downside, no problem.”
There was a short silence.
“So we sit tight,” Johnson said. “We let the chopper fly.”
McGrath shook his head. Incredulous.
“Suppose they use them to shoot the chopper down?” he asked.
The General’s aide smiled an indulgent smile.
“Can’t be done,” he said. “The IFF wouldn’t allow it.”
“IFF?” McGrath repeated.
“Identify Friend or Foe,” the aide said. “It’s an electronic system. The chopper will be beaming a signal. The missile reads it as friendly, refuses to launch.”
“Guaranteed?” McGrath asked.
The aide nodded.
“Foolproof,” he said.
Garber glowered at him. But he said nothing. Not his field of expertise.
“OK,” Webster said. “Back to bed. Wake us again at eight, Brogan.”
ON THE TARMAC at Peterson, a Boeing CH-47D Chinook was warming its engines and sipping the first of its eight hundred and fifty-eight gallons of fuel. A Chinook is a giant aircraft, whose twin rotors thump through an oval of air a hundred feet long and sixty wide. It weighs more than ten tons empty, and it can lift another eleven. It’s a giant flying box, the engines and the fuel tanks strapped to the top and the sides, the crew perched high at the front. Any helicopter can search, but when heavy equipment is at stake, only a Chinook can rescue.
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.
38
“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.
“We faxed it an hour ago,” Fowler said. “No reaction.”
Reacher smelled his smoke and gazed at the banners on the walls. Dark reds and dull whites, vivid crooked symbols in black.
“Do you know why we’re getting no reaction?” Fowler asked.
Reacher just shook his head.
“You know what I think?” Fowler said. “They cut the line. Phone company is colluding with the federal agents. We were told it would happen at seven-thirty. It obviously happened earlier.”
Reacher shrugged again. Made no reply.
“We would expect to be informed about a thing like that,” Fowler said.
He picked up his Glock, and propped it in front of him, butt on the desktop, swiveling it like naval artillery left and right.
“And we haven’t been,” he said.
“Maybe your pal from Chicago has given you up,” Reacher said.
Fowler shook his head. His Glock came to rest, aimed at Reacher’s chest.
“We’ve been getting a stream of intelligence,” he said. “We know where they are, how many of them there are, what their intentions are. But now, when we still need information, we aren’t getting it. Communication has been interrupted.”
Reacher said nothing.
“We’re investigating,” Fowler said. “We’re checking the radio right now.”
Reacher said nothing.
“Anything you want to tell us about the radio?” Fowler asked.
“What radio?” Reacher said.
“It worked OK yesterday,” Fowler said. “Now it doesn’t work at all, and you were wandering around all night.”
He ducked down and rolled open the drawer where Borken kept the Colt Marshal. But he didn’t come out with a revolver. He came out with a small black radio transmitter.
“This was Jackson’s,” he said. “He was most anxious to show us where it was hidden. In fact he was begging to show us. He screamed and cried and begged. Just about tore his fingernails off digging it up, he was so anxious.”
He smiled and put the unit carefully in his pocket.
“We figure we just switch it on,” he said. “That should put us straight through to the federal scum, person to person. This stage of the process, we need to talk direct. See if we can persuade them to restore our fax line.”
“Terrific plan,” Reacher said.
“The fax line is important, you see,” Fowler said. “Vital. The world must be allowed to know what we’re doing here. The world must be allowed to watch and witness. History is being made here. You understand that, right?”
Reacher stared at the wall.
“They’ve got cameras, you know,” Fowl
er said. “Surveillance planes are up there right now. Now it’s daylight again, they can see what we’re doing. So how can we exploit that fact?”
Reacher shook his head.
“You can leave me out of it,” he said.
Fowler smiled.
“Of course we’ll leave you out of it,” he said. “Why would they care about seeing you nailed to a tree? You’re nothing but a piece of shit, to us and to them. But Holly Johnson, there’s a different story. Maybe we’ll call them up on their own little transmitter and tell them to watch us do it with their own spy cameras. That might make them think about it. They might trade a fax line for her left breast.”
He ground out his cigarette. Leaned forward. Spoke quietly.
“We’re serious here, Reacher,” he said. “You saw what we did to Jackson. We could do that to her. We could do that to you. We need to be able to communicate with the world. We need that fax line. So we need the shortwave to confirm what the hell they’ve done with it. We need those things very badly. You understand that, right? So if you want to avoid a lot of unnecessary pain, for you and for her, you better tell me what you did to the radio.”
Reacher was twisted around, looking at the bookcase. Trying to recall the details of the inexpert translations of the Japanese Pearl Harbor texts he’d read.
“Tell me now,” Fowler said softly. “I can keep them away from you and from her. No pain for either of you. Otherwise, nothing I can do about it.”