Bad Luck and Trouble

speak. Because he had nothing to say.
    Neagley’s phone rang again. Her personal cell. She answered. Listened. Clicked off. Closed her eyes.
    “My Pentagon guy,” she said. “The missiles just rolled out the gate in Colorado.”

70
    If Mahmoud has got the missiles, then this thing is bigger than we are. We have to suck it up and move on. Reacher looked at Neagley. She opened her eyes and stared right back.
    “How much do they weigh?” Reacher asked.
    “Weigh?”
    “As in weight. Pounds and ounces.”
    “I don’t know. They’re new. I never saw one.”
    “Guess.”
    “Heavier than a Stinger. Because they do more. But still man-portable. Crated, with launch tubes and spare parts and manuals, say fifty pounds each.”
    “That’s sixteen and a quarter tons.”
    “A semi,” Neagley said.
    “Average speed on the interstates, fifty miles an hour?”
    “Probably.”
    “North on I-25 to I-80, then west to Nevada, that’s about nine hundred miles. So we’ve got eighteen hours. Call it twenty-four, because the driver will take a rest period.”
    “They’re not going to Nevada,” Neagley said. “Nevada is bullshit, because they’re going to use these things, not destroy them.”
    “Wherever. Anywhere significant is eighteen hours from Denver.”
    Neagley shook her head. “This is insane. We can’t wait twenty-four hours. Or eighteen. You said it yourself, there could be ten thousand KIAs.”
    “But not yet.”
    “We can’t wait,” Neagley said again. “Easier to stop the truck on the way out of Denver. It could be headed anywhere. It could be headed to New York. JFK, or LaGuardia. Or Chicago. You want to think about Little Wing deployed at O’Hare?”
    “Not really.”
    “Every minute we delay makes that truck harder to find.”
    “Moral dilemma,” Reacher said. “Two people we know, or ten thousand we don’t.”
    “We have to tell someone.”
    Reacher said nothing.
    “We have to, Reacher.”
    “They might not listen. They didn’t listen about September eleventh.”
    “You’re clutching at straws. They’ve changed. We have to tell someone.”
    “We will,” Reacher said. “But not yet.”
    “Karla and Dave will have a better chance with a couple of SWAT teams on their side.”
    “You’re kidding. They’ll wind up as collateral damage in a heartbeat.”
    Neagley said, “We can’t even get through the fence. Dixon will die, O’Donnell will die, ten thousand other people will die, and we’ll die.”
    “You want to live forever?”
    “I don’t want to die today. Do you?”
    “I really don’t care one way or the other.”
    “Seriously?”
    “I never have. Why would I?”
    “You are psychotic.”
    “Look on the bright side.”
    “Which is what?”
    “Maybe none of the bad stuff will happen.”
    “Why wouldn’t it?”
    “Maybe we’ll win. You and me.”
    “Here? Maybe. But later? Dream on. We have no idea where that truck is going.”
    “We can find out later.”
    “You think?”
    “It’s what we’re good at.”
    “Good enough to gamble ten thousand lives against two?”
    “I hope so,” Reacher said.

    He drove a mile south and parked again on a curving side street outside a custom Harley motorcycle shop. He could see New Age’s helicopter in the far distance.
    He asked, “What is their security going to be like?”
    “Normally?” Neagley said. “Motion detectors on the fence and big locks on all the doors and a guy in the sentry hut twenty-four hours a day. That’s all they need, normally. But today isn’t going to be normal. You can forget about that. They know we’re still out here. The whole of New Age security is going to be in there, locked and loaded.”
    “Seven men.”
    “Seven we know about. Maybe more.”
    “Maybe.”
    “And they’re going to be inside the fence. We’re going to be outside the fence.”
    “Let me worry about the fence.”
    “There’s no way through it.”
    “Doesn’t need to be. There’s a gate. What time does it get full dark?”
    “Say nine o’clock, to be safe.”
    “They won’t fly before dark. We’ve got seven hours. Seven out of our twenty-four.”
    “We never had twenty-four.”
    “You elected me CO. We’ve got what I say we’ve got.”
    “They could have shot them both already.”
    “They didn’t shoot Franz or Orozco or Swan. They’re worried about ballistics.”
    “This is insane.”
    “I’m not going to lose another two,” Reacher said.

    They drove around New Age’s block one