by Lee Child
He stayed in the trees and skirted the western end of the rifle range. Tracked back east around the parade ground. Fifty yards north, he turned again and paralleled the road up to the mines. He stayed in the trees and moved at a fast jog. Used the time to start laying out some priorities. And a timescale. He figured he had maybe three hours. Bringing down the Chinook was going to provoke some kind of a violent reaction. No doubt about that. But in all his years in the service, he had never known anything to happen faster than three hours. So he had three hours, and a lot of ground to cover.
He slowed to a fast walk when the rocky ground started rising under his feet. Followed a wide uphill circle west and cut straight in to the edge of the bowl where the mine entrances were. He heard diesel engines idling. He bent double and crept across to the cover of a rock. Looked out and down.
He was just above halfway up the slope surrounding the bowl. Looking more or less due east across its diameter. The log doors of the farther shed were standing open. Four of the missile unit’s trucks were standing on the shale. The four with the weapon racks in back. The troop carrier was still inside.
There was a handful of men in the bowl. They were set in an approximate circle around the cluster of trucks. Reacher counted eight guys. Fatigues, rifles, tense limbs. What had the kitchen woman said? The mines were off limits. Except to the people Borken trusted. Reacher watched them. Eight trusted lieutenants, acting out a reasonable imitation of sentry duty.
He watched them for a couple of minutes. Slid his rifle to his shoulder. He was less than a hundred yards away. He could hear the rattle of the shale as the sentries moved around. He clicked the selector to the single-shot position. He had nineteen shells in the box, and he needed to fire a minimum of eight. He needed to be cautious with ammunition.
The M-16 is a good rifle. Easy to use, easy to maintain. Easy to aim. The carrying handle has a grooved top which lines up with an identical groove in the front sight. At a hundred yards, you squint down the handle groove and let it merge with the front groove, and what you see is what you hit. Reacher rested his weight on the rock and lined up the first target. Practiced the slight sweep that would take him onto the second. And the third. He rehearsed the full sequence of eight shots. He didn’t want his elbow snagging somewhere in the middle.
He returned to the first target. Waited a beat and fired. The sound of the shot crashed through the mountains. The right front tire of the first truck exploded. He swept the sights onto the left front. Fired again. The truck dropped to its rims like a stunned ox falling to its knees.
He kept firing steadily. He had fired five shots and hit five tires before anybody reacted. As he fired the sixth he saw in the corner of his eye the sentries diving for cover. Some were just dropping to the ground. Others were running for the shed. He fired the seventh. Paused before the eighth. The farthest tire was the hardest shot. The angle was oblique. The sidewall was unavailable to him. He was going to have to fire at the treads. Possible that the shell might glance off. He fired. He hit. The tire burst. The front of the last truck dropped.
The nearest sentry was still on his feet. Not heading for the shed. Just standing and staring toward the rock Reacher was behind. Raising his rifle. It was an M-16, same as Reacher’s. Long magazine, thirty shells. The guy was standing there, sighting it in on the rock. A brave man, or an idiot. Reacher crouched and waited. The guy fired. His weapon was set on automatic. He loosed off a burst of three. Three shots in a fifth of a second. They smashed into the trees fifteen feet above Reacher’s head. Twigs and leaves drifted down and landed near him. The guy ran ten yards closer. Fired again. Three more shells. Way off to Reacher’s left. He heard the whine of the bullets and the thunking as they hit the trees before he heard the muzzle blast. Bullets which travel faster than sound do that. You hear it all in reverse order. The bullet gets there before the sound of the shot.
Reacher had decisions to make. How close was he going to let this guy get? And was he going to fire a warning shot? The next burst of three was nearer. Low, but nearer. Not more than six feet way. Reacher decided: not much damn closer, and no warning shot. The guy was all pumped up. No percentage in trying a warning shot. This guy was not going to get calmed down in any kind of a hurry.
He lay on his side. Straightened his legs and came out at the base of the rock. Fired once and hit the guy in the chest. He went down in a heap on the shale. The rifle flew off to his right. Reacher stayed where he was. Watched carefully. The guy was still alive. So Reacher fired again. Hit him through the top of the head. Kinder not to leave him with a sucking chest wound for the last ten minutes of his life.
The echoes of the brief firefight died into the mountain silence and then the air was still. The other seven guys were nowhere. The trucks were all resting nose down on their front rims. Disabled. Maybe they could be driven out of the bowl, but the first of the mountain hairpins was going to strip the blown tires right off. The trucks were neutralized. No doubt about that.
Reacher crawled backward ten yards and stood up in the trees. Jogged down the slope and headed back toward the Bastion. Seventeen shells in the Glock, nine in the rifle. Progress, at a price.
THE DOGS FOUND him halfway back. Two big rangy animals. German shepherds. He saw them at the same time as they saw him. They were loping along with that kind of infinite energy big dogs display. Long bounding strides, eager expressions, wet mouths gaping. They stopped short on stiff front legs and switched direction in a single fluid stride. Thirty yards away. Then twenty. Then ten. Acceleration. New energy in their movement. Snarls rising in their throats.
People, Reacher was certain about. Dogs were different. People had freedom of choice. If a man or a woman ran snarling toward him, they did so because they chose to. They were asking for whatever they got. His response was their problem. But dogs were different. No free will. Easily misled. It raised an ethical problem. Shooting a dog because it had been induced to do something unwise was not the sort of thing Reacher wanted to do.
He left the Glock in his pocket. The rifle was better. It was about two and a half feet longer than the handgun. An extra two and a half feet of separation seemed like a good idea. The dogs stopped short of him. The fur on their shoulders was raised. The fur down their backs was raised, following their spines. They crouched, front feet splayed, heads down, snarling loudly. They had yellow teeth. Lots of them. Their eyes were brown. Reacher could see fine dark eyelashes, like a girl’s.
One of them was forward of the other. The leader of the pack. He knew dogs had to have a pecking order. Two dogs, one of them had to be superior to the other. Like people. He didn’t know how dogs worked it out for themselves. Posturing, maybe. Maybe smell. Maybe fighting. He stared at the forward dog. Stared into its eyes. Time to time, he had heard people talking about dogs. They said: never show fear. Stare the dog down. Don’t let it know you’re afraid. Reacher wasn’t afraid. He was standing there with an M-16 in his hands. The only thing he was worried about was having to use it.
He stared silently at the dog like he used to stare at some service guy gone bad. A hard, silent stare like a physical force, like a cold, crushing pressure. Bleak, cold eyes, unblinking. It had worked a hundred times with people. Now it was working with the lead dog.
The dog was only partially trained. Reacher could see that. It could go through the motions. But it couldn’t deliver. It hadn’t been trained to ignore its victim’s input. It was eye to eye with him, backing off fractionally like his glare was a painful weight on its narrow forehead. Reacher turned up the temperature. Narrowed his eyes and bared his own teeth. Sneered like a tough guy in a bad movie. The dog’s head dropped. Its eyes swiveled upward to maintain contact. Its tail dropped down between its legs.
“Sit,” Reacher said. He said it calmly but firmly. Plenty of emphasis on the plosive consonant at the end of the word. The dog moved automatically. Shuffled its hind legs inward and sat. The other dog followed suit, like a shadow. They sat side by side and stared u
p at him.
“Lie down,” Reacher said.
The dogs didn’t move. Just stayed sitting, looking at him, puzzled. Maybe the wrong word. Not the command they were accustomed to.
“Down,” Reacher said.
They slid their front paws forward and dropped their bellies to the forest floor. Looking up at him.
“Stay,” Reacher said.
He gave them a look like he meant it and moved off south. Forced himself to walk slow. Five yards into the trees, he turned. The dogs were still on the ground. Their necks were twisted around, watching him walk away.
“Stay,” he called again.
They stayed. He walked.
HE COULD HEAR people in the Bastion. The sound of a fair-sized crowd trying to keep quiet. He heard it when he was still north of the parade ground. He skirted the area in the trees and walked around the far end of the rifle range. Came through the trees behind the mess hall. Opposite the kitchen door. He walked a circle deep in the woods behind the buildings until he got an angle. Crept forward to take a look.
There were maybe thirty people in the Bastion. They were standing in a tight group. Edging forward into a cluster. All men, all in camouflage fatigues, all heavily armed. Rifles, machine guns, grenade launchers, pockets bulging with spare magazines. The crowd ebbed and flowed. Shoulders touched and parted. Reacher glimpsed Beau Borken in the center of the mass of people. He was holding a small black radio transmitter. Reacher recognized it. It was Jackson’s. Borken had retrieved it from Fowler’s pocket. He was holding it up to his ear. Staring into space like he’d just switched it on and was waiting for a reply.
40
MCGRATH SNATCHED THE radio from his pocket. Flipped it open and stared at it. It was crackling loudly in his hand. Webster stepped forward and took it from him. Ducked back to the cover of the rock face and clicked the button.
“Jackson?” he said. “This is Harland Webster.”
McGrath and Johnson crowded in on him. The three men crouched against the rock wall. Webster moved the unit an inch from his ear so the other two could listen in. In the cover of the rock, in the silence of the mountains, they could hear it crackling and hissing and the fast breathing of a person on the other end. Then they heard a voice.
“Harland Webster?” the voice said. “Well, well, the head man himself.”
“Jackson?” Webster said again.
“No,” the voice said. “This is not Jackson.”
Webster glanced at McGrath.
“So who is it?” he asked.
“Beau Borken,” the voice said. “And as of today, I guess that’s President Borken. President of the Free States of America. But feel free to speak informally.”
“Where’s Jackson?” Webster asked.
There was a pause. Nothing to hear except the faint electronic sound of FBI telecommunications technology. Satellites and microwaves.
“Where’s Jackson?” Webster asked again.
“He died,” the voice said.
Webster glanced at McGrath again.
“How?” he asked.
“Just died,” Borken said. “Relatively quickly, really.”
“Was he sick?” Webster asked.
There was another pause. Then there was the sound of laughter. A high, tinny sound. A loud, shrieking laugh which overloaded Webster’s earpiece and spilled into distortion and bounced off the rock wall.
“No, he wasn’t sick, Webster,” Borken said. “He was pretty healthy, up until the last ten minutes.”
“What did you do to him?” Webster asked.
“Same as I’m going to do to the General’s little girl,” Borken said. “Listen up, and I’ll tell you the exact details. You need to pay attention, because you need to know what you’re dealing with here. We’re serious here. We mean business, you understand? You listening?”
Johnson pushed in close. White and sweating.
“You crazy bastards,” he yelled.
“Who’s that?” Borken asked. “That the General himself?”
“General Johnson,” Webster said.
There was a chuckle on the radio. Just a short, satisfied sound.
“A full house,” Borken said. “The Director of the FBI and the Joint Chairman. We’re flattered, believe me. But I guess the birth of a new nation deserves nothing less.”
“What do you want?” Webster asked.
“We crucified him,” Borken said. “We found a couple of trees a yard apart, and we nailed him up. We’re going to do that to your daughter, General, if you step out of line. Then we cut his balls off. He was pleading and screaming for us not to, but we did it anyway. We can’t do that to your kid, her being a woman and all, but we’ll find some equivalent, you know what I mean? Do you think she’ll be screaming and pleading, General? You know her better than me. Personally, I’m betting she will be. She likes to think she’s a tough cookie, but when she sees those blades coming close, she’s going to change her damn tune pretty quick, I’m just about sure of that.”
Johnson turned whiter. All his blood just drained away. He fell back and sat heavily against the rock. His mouth was working soundlessly.
“What the hell do you bastards want?” Webster yelled.
There was another silence. Then the voice came back, quiet and firm.
“I want you to stop yelling,” it said. “I want you to apologize for yelling at me. I want you to apologize for calling me a rude name. I’m the President of the Free States, and I’m owed some courtesy and deference, wouldn’t you say?”
His voice was quiet, but McGrath heard it clearly enough. He looked across at Webster in panic. They were close to losing, before they had even started. First rule was to negotiate. To keep them talking, and gradually gain the upper hand. Establish dominance. Classic siege theory. But to start out by apologizing for yelling was to kiss goodbye any hope of dominance. That was to lie down and roll over. From that point on, you were their plaything. McGrath shook his head urgently. Webster nodded back. Said nothing. Just held the radio without speaking. He knew how to do this. He had been in this situation before. Several times. He knew the protocol. Now, the first one to speak was the weaker one. And it wasn’t going to be him. He and McGrath gazed at the ground and waited.
“You still there?” Borken asked.
Webster kept on staring down. Saying nothing.
“You there?” Borken said again.
“What’s on your mind, Beau?” Webster asked, calmly.
There was angry breathing over the air.
“You cut my phone line,” Borken said. “I want it restored.”
“No, we didn’t,” Webster said. “Doesn’t your phone work?”
“My faxes,” Borken said. “I got no response.”
“What faxes?” Webster said.
“Don’t bullshit me,” Borken said. “I know you cut the line. I want it fixed.”
Webster winked at McGrath.
“OK,” he said. “We can do that. But you’ve got to do something for us first.”
“What?” Borken asked.
“Holly,” Webster said. “Bring her down to the bridge and leave her there.”
There was another silence. Then the laughter started up again. High and loud.
“No dice,” Borken said. “And no deals.”
Webster nodded to himself. Lowered his voice. Sounded like the most reasonable man on earth.
“Listen, Mr. Borken,” he said. “If we can’t deal, how can we help each other?”
Another silence. McGrath stared at Webster. The next reply was crucial. Win or lose.
“You listen to me, Webster,” the voice said. “No deals. You don’t do exactly what I say, Holly dies. In a lot of pain. I hold all the cards, and I’m not doing deals. You understand that?”
Webster’s shoulders slumped. McGrath looked away.
“Restore the fax line,” the voice said. “I need communications. The world must know what we’re doing here. This is a big moment in history, Webster. I won’
t be denied by your stupid games. The world must witness the first blows being struck against your tyranny.”
Webster stared at the ground.
“This decision is too big for you alone,” Borken said. “You need to consult with the White House. There’s an interest there too, wouldn’t you say?”
Even over the tinny handheld radio, the force of Borken’s voice was obvious. Webster was flinching like a physical weight was against his ear. Flinching and gasping, as his heart and lungs fought each other for space inside his chest.
“Make your decision,” Borken said. “I’ll call back in two minutes.”
Then the radio went dead. Webster stared at it like he had never seen such a piece of equipment before. McGrath leaned over and clicked the button off.
“OK,” he said. “We stall, right? Tell him we’re fixing the line. Tell him it will take an hour, maybe two. Tell him we’re in contact with the White House, the UN, CNN, whoever. Tell him whatever the hell he wants to hear.”
“Why is he doing this?” Webster asked, vaguely. “Escalating everything? He’s making it so we have to attack him. So we have to, right? Like he wants us to. He’s giving us no choice. He’s provoking us.”
“He’s doing it because he’s crazy,” McGrath said.
“He must be,” Webster said. “He’s a maniac. Otherwise I just can’t understand why he’s trying to attract so much attention. Because like he says, he holds all the cards already.”
“We’ll worry about that later, chief,” McGrath said. “Right now, we just need to stall him.”
Webster nodded. Forced himself back to the problem in hand.
“But we need longer than two hours,” he said. “Hostage Rescue will take at least four to get over here. Maybe five, maybe six.”
“OK, it’s the Fourth of July,” McGrath said. “Tell him the linemen are all off duty. Tell him it could take us all day to get them back.”