Personal (Jack Reacher, #19)(82)

‘Comparatively, I suppose,’ Casey Nice said.

I said, ‘We need a vehicle.’

‘General Shoemaker gave us credit cards. We could rent one.’

‘Not a good idea. Too much paperwork.’

‘Maybe Mr Bennett would lend us one.’

‘I’m sure his are all fitted with satellite trackers, in which case he’d be worried about subpoenas.’

‘So how?’

‘Second choice would be steal one. But ideally we should find another pair of foot soldiers and take their panel van. That would buy us a couple of seconds, with Miller or Thompson. They wouldn’t see the threat right away. We’d look like their own people. At least at first.’

‘So that’s two attacks we’re making, not one.’

‘With two more still to go,’ I said. ‘The foot soldiers, then Miller or Thompson, then Little Joey Green, then whoever is still holed up in his house.’

‘So we have to survive four separate times. How likely is that?’

‘Like the World Series. A big ask, but someone does it every year.’

‘It’s a total of eighteen people.’

‘Twenty. You’re forgetting the drivers. Miller and Thompson have one, and Joey has one. But it’s not twenty all at once. That’s the good news here. Maximum of six at a time, when we get to the big names, with the driver each and the four bodyguards.’

‘Some of which are the pick of the litter, standing in front of a guy nearly seven feet tall.’

‘We can aim over their heads.’

‘This seems crazy to me.’

‘Because you aren’t quite sure what to expect. To which I say what?’

She thought back, and repeated it straight up. She had a good memory for words. She said, ‘You say no one ever is sure what to expect. On either side. Which is a good thing. It means the game goes to the fastest thinker. That’s all I need to be.’

‘Correct,’ I said. ‘Weird things are going to happen, and things are going to change, and the ground is going to move under our feet, but if we keep on thinking fast, we’ll be OK.’

‘You sure?’

‘Like you said before, it’s all comparative. Bottom line, it’s about thinking faster than Joey Green. And the data was in on that a long time ago. Modern humans outlasted Neanderthal Man.’

‘What did you mean when you said weird things are going to happen?’

‘Just that nothing turns out like you think it will.’

‘It sounded like you meant something more specific. Do you know things you’re not telling me?’

I didn’t answer.

Then Bennett showed up again in person, and raised the stakes. We got a call in Nice’s room that he was downstairs. He asked us to meet him in the restaurant. He said he would buy us lunch. Nice shut down the tablet computer, which locked his semi-useful pictures behind our twin passwords, and then we rode up in the elevator, and we found him at a table by the window, with our drinks already ordered, bottled water for Nice and black coffee for me, at which point I knew he was about to ask for some real big favour.

Which he did.

He said the behavioural psychology subcommittee had met again, to review the report he had submitted that morning. And apparently the subcommittee had exceeded its brief, by thinking for itself. It had started from the same feeling I had gotten about internecine strife. If Miller or Thompson went down, then depending on the exact distribution between Charlie White and his lieutenants, which was an unknown at that point, then somewhere between perhaps 15 and 20 per cent of the Romford Boys’ net profit was up for grabs. Which would be interesting.

But not as interesting as it might perhaps become, if the stakes were somewhat higher still, and certainly more Oedipal. Suppose our initial attack was on Charlie White himself? That would cut the head off the octopus, not just an arm. And it would certainly bring all three lieutenants to the scene, and even if I didn’t get them all there, then they might well take care of each other later, because there would be an immediate war of succession. The two old heads against the young usurper, for the whole enchilada. The old heads knew all the business details, and the young usurper was nearly seven feet tall, which would make their opening skirmishes lively, which might make them all forget for a minute that old Charlie paid his cops and his councillors weekly, which might lead to a brief bribe-free window, during which time arrests could be made and prosecutions sought.

So, what did we think?

I said, ‘How are you doing with my information about the bulletproof glass?’

Bennett said, ‘It’s coming.’

‘When?’

‘How urgent can it be?’

‘I want it one minute after you get it. And I want you to get it soon.’

He nodded. ‘So what are we going to do about Charlie White?’

‘We?’

‘OK, you.’

I said, ‘Where does he live?’

‘He’s still in Romford. Born and bred. He fancies himself an authentic man of the people.’

‘Single-family house?’

‘What does that mean?’

‘Detached,’ Nice said, like a translator.

‘Of course,’ Bennett said. ‘Normal size, but it has a wall just like Joey’s. Or a fence, or whatever you want to call it. Brick and wrought iron. To keep the grateful proletariat out.’