Running Blind

sideways with his feet still out on the road. He leaned over and picks up his radio mike. Holds it in his hand for thirty seconds, looking at it, thinking. Then he puts it back. Obviously he’s not going to call it in. He’s not going to tell his sergeant, Sir, she won’t let me pee anymore. So what’s he going to do? Is this going to change anything?

THEY GOT TO Andrews by driving most of the way on the shoulder and pushing in and out of the inside lane when necessary. The base itself was an oasis of calm. Nothing much was happening. There was a helicopter in the air, but it was far enough away to be noiseless. Trent had left Reacher’s name at the gate. That was clear, because the guard was expecting them. He raised the barrier and told them to park at the Marine transport office and inquire within.

Harper put the yellow car in line with four dull olive Chevrolets and killed the motor. Joined Reacher on the blacktop and followed him to the office door. A corporal stared at her and passed them to a sergeant who stared at her and passed them to a captain. The captain stared at her and told them a new transport Boeing’s flight test was being rerouted to Portland instead of San Diego. He said they could hitch a ride on it. He said they would be the only passengers. Then he said takeoff was scheduled in three hours.

“Three hours?” Reacher repeated.

“ Portland ’s a civilian airport,” the captain said. “It’s a flight plan problem.”

Reacher was silent. The guy just shrugged.

“Best the colonel could do,” he said.

28

THE CAPTAIN SHOWED them to a preflight waiting room on the second floor. It was a utilitarian space, lit by fluorescent tubes, linoleum on the floor, plastic stacking chairs in untidy formation around low tables. Old coffee rings on the tables, a trash can in the corner full of discarded cups.

“It’s not much,” the captain said. “But then it’s all we got. All kinds of top brass wait in here.”

Reacher thought do they wait three hours? But he said nothing. Just thanked the guy and stood at the window and stared out at the runways. Nothing much was happening down there. Harper joined him for a second and then turned back and sat down in a chair.

“Talk to me,” she said. “What is it?”

“Start with the motive,” he said. “Who’s got a motive? ”

“I don’t know.”

“Go back to Amy Callan. Suppose she’d been the only victim? Who would you be looking at for a motive? ”

“Her husband.”

“Why her husband?”

“Dead wife, you always look at the husband,” she said. “Because motives are often personal. And the closest connection to a wife is a husband.”

“And how would you be looking at him?”

“How? Same as always. We’d sweat him, sweat his alibi, keep on going until something busted open.”

“And he wouldn’t hold up, right?”

“Sooner or later, he’d crack.”

Reacher nodded. “OK, so suppose it is Amy Callan’s husband. How does he avoid getting sweated like that?”

“He can’t avoid it.”

“Yes, he can. He can avoid it by going out and finding a bunch of women with some kind of a similarity with his wife and killing them too. Doing it in some bizarre fashion that he knows is going to get everybody rushing off on some flight of fancy. In other words he can camouflage his chosen target behind a farrago of bullshit. He can take the spotlight off of himself by burying the personal connection in a crowd. Like where’s the best place to hide a grain of sand?”

She nodded. “On the beach.”

“Right,” he said.

“So is it Callan’s husband?”

“No, it isn’t,” he said. “But?”

“But we only need a motive against one of the women,” she said. “Not all of them together. All but one are just decoys. Sand on the beach.”

“Camouflage,” he said. “Background noise.”

“So which one? Which one is the real target?”

Reacher said nothing. Moved away from the window and sat down to wait.

YOU WAIT. IT’S cold up there in the hills. Cold, and uncomfortable, crouched next to the rocks. The wind is blowing in from the west, and it’s damp. But you just wait. Surveillance is important. Certainty is everything. You know that if you stay focused, you can do anything. Anything at all. So you wait.

You watch the cop in his car and amuse yourself thinking about his plight. He’s a few hundred feet away, but he’s in a different world. You can step away from your rock and you’ve got a million acres of mountainside to use as a bathroom. He’s down there in civilization. Streets, sidewalks, people’s yards. He can’t use them. He’d be arrested. He’d have to arrest himself. And he’s not running the motor. So the car must be cold. Does that make it better or worse?

You watch him, and you wait.

THE CAPTAIN CAME back a little before the three hours were up. He led them downstairs and out through the same door they had used on the way in. A staff car was waiting there.

“Have a pleasant flight,” he said.

The car drove them a mile around the perimeter track and then cut across toward a Boeing airliner standing alone on the apron. Fuel bowsers were disconnecting and ground crew were swarming. The plane was brand-new and stark white.

“We don’t paint them until we know they work right,” the driver said.

There was a wheeled ladder at the forward cabin door. Flight crew in uniform clustered at the top, with fat briefcases and clipboards thick with paper.

“Welcome aboard,” the copilot said. “You should be able to find an empty seat.”

There were two hundred and sixty of them. It was a regular passenger plane with the fripperies stripped out. No televisions, no in-flight magazines, no stewardess call buttons. No blankets, no pillows, no headsets. The seats were all the same color, khaki. The fabric was crisp and it smelled new. Reacher took three seats for himself and sat sideways, propped up against the window.

“We’ve done a lot of flying, the last few days,” he said.

Harper sat down behind him. Buckled her belt.

“That’s for sure,” she said.

“Listen up, guys,” the copilot called to them down the aisle. “This is a military flight, not FAA, so you get the military preflight announcement, OK? Which is, don’t worry, because we ain’t going to crash. And if we do, you’re mashed into ground beef and burned to a cinder anyway, so what’s to worry about?”

Reacher smiled. Harper ignored the guy.

“So which one is the real target?” she asked again.

“You can figure it out,” Reacher said.

The plane moved back and turned. Headed out for the runway. A minute later it was in the air, smooth, quiet, and powerful. Then it was over the sprawl of D.C., climbing hard. Then it was high in the clouds, settling to a westward cruise.

THE GUY’S STILL holding it in. He hasn’t moved out of his car, and his car has stayed right there in front of her house. You watched his partner bring his lunch bag. There was a twenty-ounce cup of coffee with it. Poor bastard is going to be real miserable real soon. But it doesn’t affect your plan. How could it? It’s two o’clock, and time for the call.