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“OK, whatever,” Brill said. “How long do you need?”
“Just say the word. I’m ready to turn their cameras off. I’m ready to send their master key codes. The floor plan shows a fire door that exits to a neighbor’s parking lot. I can lock it, to stop them running. If they were to see someone coming.”
“Cool, bro,” Brill said. “Do all that shit exactly two minutes from now.”
Brill clicked off the call and changed phones, to a cheap flip Cameron had gotten him from a Walmart a hundred miles away. He dialed a number he had dialed before. He said, “Now she’s in the Sequoia Suites on California Avenue. Not far from your office. Probably the end room on the east side of the building. Feels like she’s set to stay all day. She still has the big guy with her. He can be collateral damage, same as before. Cameras will be off and key codes will be with you ninety seconds from now. Find someone right this minute and tell them to go get the bitch.”
—
Reacher got another mug of coffee. Turner got another glass of water. She watched the window. She checked the time. She said, “They’re not coming. It’s a negative result.”
“Not yet,” Reacher said. “Think about it from their point of view. They’re only just starting the clock right about now. They didn’t want another waste of time. They needed to be sure.”
“How long does it take to be sure? By now I’ve been transmitting more than twenty minutes. We’re right here in the exact epicenter of cyber town. We’re a hop and a skip from Lazarus Lorenzo’s actual office. They don’t need burner phones anymore. They could step out their door and shout.”
“Relax,” Reacher said.
She checked her watch again. She said, “Elwood has another two hours and forty-five minutes before landing in Denver.”
“The experiment will be over long before then. And Elwood is going to win. And you’re going to feel lousy for doubting him.”
“I’m sure I will, if you’re right. But if you are, then I’ll feel equally lousy about the alternative. Our computer system is full of holes. Which means I have evidence of a national security risk just hours before I meet with the Chief of Staff. What do I tell him? How do I tell him? Do I say, oh, by the way, sir, I was conducting a weird private investigation off the books because I don’t trust my own people, and along the way I found out the NSA computer we just installed is a billion-dollar piece of crap?”
“He’s a four-star general. Safest option is tell him nothing at all.”
She sipped her water. She watched the window.
She leaned forward.
“Wait,” she said. “Who’s this?”
Chapter 16
They came in a desert tan SUV. A make and a model Reacher didn’t recognize. It was big and boxy, but smaller than a Humvee, therefore just a car to him. It rolled to a stop outside the Sequoia Suites lobby. Three men climbed out. All in desert tan chinos and padded brown Carhartt jackets. The driver backed up and parked on a meter. He stayed at the wheel. The three passengers formed up and headed for the lobby door. Two were big, and the third was bigger. A head taller and forty pounds heavier. Two XLs and an XXL. Good business for the Carhartt store.
They went inside.
Turner breathed out.
“Thank God for that,” she said. “Elwood’s in the clear.”
In his mind Reacher paced out their walk down the corridor. They would be arriving at their door right about then. No real doubt about which one. Plus or minus fifteen feet from the welcome basket would fall within just one suite. The width of the bedroom, the width of the living space. He pictured a dirty white master key, the red light on the lock flashing green, the door easing open, all three sliding in.
But no one there.
He leaned back in his chair and waited. Turner did the same.
“You were right,” she said. “I feel lousy for doubting him.”
“It was a logical possibility. You were obliged to consider it. To ignore it would have been derelict.”
“You ignored it.”
“I’m not a brigadier general. I’m allowed a leap of faith. You’re not.”
By then the three guys would be creeping around the suite, cautious, stealthy, searching, guns out. More Glocks, probably, with suppressors. Too long for a Carhartt pocket, so carried broken down, reassembled in the corridor, before going in.
—
