Blue Moon (Jack Reacher #24)(100)

Then Hogan and Vantresca left for an imaginary discussion about commercial real estate. Reacher and Abby stayed at the table. Theirs were the only faces on Ukrainian phones. They figured they better not start the party too early.

The counterman tried a third call.

It wasn’t answered.

Abby said, “I guess this means we can go back to my place tonight.”

“No reason why not,” Reacher said.

“Unless you leave before tonight.”

“Depends what happens. All five of us might be running.”

“Suppose we aren’t.”

“Then we’ll go back to your place tonight.”

“For how long?”

He said, “What would be your answer to that question?”

She said, “I guess not forever.”

“That’s my answer, too. Except my forever horizon is closer than most. Full disclosure.”

“How close?”

He looked out the window, at the street, at the brick, at the afternoon shadows. He said, “I already feel like I’ve been here forever.”

“So you’ll leave anyway.”

“Come with me.”

“What’s wrong with sticking around?”

“What’s wrong with not?”

“Nothing,” she said. “I’m not complaining. I just want to know.”

“Know what?”

“How long we’ve got. So I can make the most of it.”

“You don’t want to come with me?”

“Seems to me I have a choice of two things. Either a good memory with a beginning and an end, or a long slow fizzle, where I get tired of motels and hitchhiking and walking. I choose the memory. Of a successful experiment. Much rarer than you think. We did good, Reacher.”

“We’re not at the end yet. Don’t count your chickens.”

“You worried?”

“Professionally concerned.”

“Maria told me what you said to her. One day you’re going to lose. Just not today.”

“I was trying to cheer her up. That was all. She was really feeling it. I would have said anything.”

“I think you meant it.”

“It’s something they teach you in the army. The only thing under your direct control is how hard you work. In other words, if you really, really buckle down today, and you get the intelligence, the planning, and the execution each a hundred percent exactly correct, then you are bound to prevail.”

“Sounds empowering.”

“It’s the army. What they really mean is, if you fail today, it’s completely your own fault.”

“We’ve done OK so far.”

“But now the game has changed. Now we’re fighting Moscow. Not just a bunch of pimps and thieves.”

“Same actual people.”

“But a better system, guaranteed. Better planning. The pick of the litter. Fewer weaknesses. Fewer mistakes.”

“Sounds bad.”

“I’m guessing about fifty-fifty. Win or lose. Which is OK. I like the simplicity.”

“How do we do it?”

“Intelligence, planning, execution. First we think like them. Which isn’t difficult. We studied them endlessly. Vantresca could tell you. They’re smart people, organized, bureaucratic, cautious, careful, scientific, and painfully rational.”

“So how can we win?”

“We can exploit the rational part of their natures,” Reacher said. “We can do something a rational person would never even consider. Something completely unhinged.”

Then the first intelligence report came back. Barton stepped in, and nodded a greeting, and headed to the counter. He got coffee, and walked over to the table. He sat down, but before he could say anything the second report arrived. Hogan and Vantresca, stepping in together. They came straight to the table. They jostled for space and squeezed themselves in. Five people at a four-top.

Barton said, “The front wall of the lobby is all glass. You go in a revolving door. The back wall of the lobby is the front face of the building’s core. There are five openings in it. A fire stair door, three elevators, and another fire stair door. Between you and them are security turnstiles and a security desk. Behind the security desk is what looks to me like a regular civilian rent-a-cop.”

“Is that all?” Reacher said.

“I guess it’s all that the building provides,” Barton said. “But there are also four men in suits and ties. I guess provided by someone else. Two of them were waiting just inside the revolving door. They asked my business. I said the dentist. They stepped aside and waved me forward, toward the security desk. Where the rent-a-cop asked my business all over again.”

Reacher looked at Hogan and Vantresca.

“Same for you?” he asked.

“Exactly the same,” Vantresca said. “It’s a pretty good upstream screen. Then it gets even better. The other two guys are on the other side of the security turnstiles. By the elevators. Which have been upgraded, with a new control panel. Like you see in really tall buildings with thousands of people. You punch in the floor you want, and the screen tells you which car to go wait for. Then the car takes you where you said. There are no buttons inside. It’s a very efficient system. But totally unnecessary for a building that small. Obviously there for a reason. Which is, the two guys won’t let you punch in your floor yourself. They have to do it for you. They ask where you’re going, you tell them, they press the buttons, they show you where to wait. Then you get in the elevator car, and you get out again when the doors open. No other option.”