Die Trying

around, but that was it. The terrible energy of the explosion had blasted outward and met absolutely nothing at all in its path. Nothing soft, nothing vulnerable. It had blasted outward and then weakened and slowed and died to a puff of breeze miles away and it had hurt nothing. Nothing at all. He stood in the silence and closed his eyes.
    Then he heard footsteps behind him. It was Holly. He heard her good leg alternating with her bad leg. A long stride, then a shuffle. He opened his eyes and looked at the road. She walked around in front of him and stopped. Laid her head on his chest and put her arms around him. Squeezed him tight and held on. He raised his hand to her head and smoothed her hair behind her ear, like he had seen her do.
    “All done,” she said.
    “Get a problem, solve a problem,” he said. “That’s my rule.”
    She was quiet for a long time.
    “I wish it was always that easy,” she said.
    The way she said it, after the delay, it was like a long speech. Like a closely reasoned argument. He pretended not to know which problem she was talking about.
    “Your father?” he said. “You’re way, way out of his shadow now.”
    She shook her head against his chest.
    “I don’t know,” she said.
    “Believe it,” he said. “That thing you did for me on the parade ground was the smartest, coolest, bravest thing I ever saw anybody do, man or woman, young or old. Better than anything I ever did. Better than anything your old man ever did. He’d give his front teeth for guts like that. So would I. You’re way out of anybody’s shadow now, Holly. Believe it.”
    “I thought I was,” she said. “I felt like it. I really did. For a while. But then when I saw him again, I felt just the same as I always did. I called him Dad.”
    “He is your dad,” Reacher said.
    “I know,” she replied. “That’s the problem.”
    He was quiet for a long moment.
    “So change your name,” he said. “That might do it.”
    He could feel her holding her breath.
    “Is that a proposal?” she asked.
    “It’s a suggestion,” he said.
    “You think Holly Reacher sounds good?” she asked.
    His turn to stay quiet for a long time. His turn to catch his breath. And finally, his turn to talk about the real problem.
    “It sounds wonderful,” he said. “But I guess Holly McGrath sounds better.”
    She made no reply.
    “He’s the lucky guy, right?” he said.
    She nodded. A small motion of her head against his chest.
    “So tell him,” he said.
    She shrugged in his arms.
    “I can’t,” she said. “I’m nervous.”
    “Don’t be,” he said. “He might have something similar to tell you.”
    She looked up. He squinted down at her.
    “You think so?” she asked.
    “You’re nervous, he’s nervous,” Reacher said. “Somebody should say something. I’m not about to do it for either of you.”
    She squeezed him harder. Then she stretched up and kissed him. Hard and long on the mouth.
    “Thank you,” she said.
    “For what?” he asked.
    “For understanding,” she said.
    He shrugged. It wasn’t the end of the world. Just felt like it.
    “Coming?” she asked.
    He shook his head.
    “No,” he said.
    She left him on the shoulder of U.S. 93, right there in Idaho. He watched her all the way back to the Night Hawk. Watched her climb the short ladder. She paused and turned. Looked back at him. Then she ducked up and in. The door closed. The rotor thumped. He knew he would never see her again. His clothes tore at him and the dust swirled all around him as the helicopter took off. He waved it away. Watched it until it was lost to sight. Then he took a deep breath and looked left and right along the empty highway. Friday, the Fourth of July. Independence Day.

    SATURDAY THE FIFTH and Sunday the sixth, Yorke County was sealed off and secret Army units were moving in and out around the clock. Air Artillery squads recovered the missile unit. They took it south in four Chinooks. Quartermasters went in and recovered all the ordnance they could find. They collected enough for a small war.
    Medical corpsmen removed the bodies. They found the twenty men from the missile unit in the cave. They found the skeletons Reacher had crawled through. They found five mutilated bodies in another cave. Dressed like workmen. Like builders or carpenters. They took Fowler out of the command hut and Borken from the road in front of the courthouse. They brought Milosevic down from the mountain bowl and Brogan out of the small