Jack Reacher - 06 - Without Fail by Lee Child

Author:Lee Child
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Thriller
ISBN: 9780515144314
Publisher: Jove
Published: 2008-02-26T14:37:21+00:00

ELEVEN

Froelich stood in the chill and spoke to Armstrong at the foot of the plane's steps. It was a short conversation. She told him about the discovery of the concealed rifle and told him it was more than enough to justify the extraction. He didn't argue. Didn't ask any awkward leading questions. He seemed completely unaware of any larger picture. And he seemed completely unconcerned about his own safety. He was more anxious to calculate the public-relations consequences for his successor. He looked away and ran through the pluses and minuses in his head like politicians do and came back with a tentative smile. No damage done. Then he ran up the steps to the warmth inside the plane, ready to resume his agenda with the waiting journalists.

Reacher was faster with the seat selection second time round. He took a place in the forward-facing front row, next to Froelich and across the aisle from Neagley. Froelich used the taxi time doing the rounds of her team, quietly congratulating them on their performance. She spoke to each of them in turn, leaning close, talking, listening, finishing with discreet fist-to-fist contact like ballplayers after a vital hit. Reacher watched her. Good leader, he thought. She came back to her seat and buckled her belt. Smoothed her hair and pressed her fingertips hard into her temples like she was clearing her mind of past events and preparing to concentrate on the future.

"We should have stayed around," Reacher said.

"The place is swarming with cops," Froelich said. "FBI will join them. That's their job. We focus on Armstrong. And I don't like it any better than you do."

"What was the rifle? Did you see it?"

She shook her head. "We'll get a report. They said it was in a bag. Some kind of vinyl carrying case."

"Hidden in the grass?"

She nodded. "Where it's long at the base of the fence."

"When was the church locked?"

"Last thing Sunday. More than sixty hours ago."

"So I guess our guys picked the lock. It's a crude old mechanism. The keyhole's so big you can practically get your whole hand in there."

"You sure you didn't see them?"

Reacher shook his head. "But they saw me. They were in there with me. They saw where I hid the key. They let themselves out."

"You probably saved Armstrong's life. And my ass. Although I don't understand their plan. They were in the church and their rifle was a hundred yards away?"

"Wait until we know what the rifle was. Then maybe we'll understand."

The plane turned at the end of the runway and accelerated immediately. Took off and climbed hard. The engine noise throttled back after five minutes and Reacher heard the journalists starting their foreign-relations conversation again. They didn't ask any questions about the early return. They touched down at Andrews at six thirty local time. The city was quiet. The long Thanksgiving weekend had already started, halfway through the afternoon. The motorcade headed straight in on Branch Avenue and drove through the heart of the capital and out again to Georgetown.

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