Never Go Back: (Jack Reacher 18)

pre-paid cell phones is the military. Because some of them don’t make enough for a regular monthly contract. Which is shameful, frankly. And because some of them lead necessarily disorganized lives, and pre-paid suits them better.’
    ‘That’s a leap.’
    ‘The phone is showing up on three cell towers north and west of the Pentagon.’
    ‘I see.’
    ‘Rock Creek is north and west of the Pentagon.’
    ‘Yes, it is.’
    ‘I think she was calling the mothership. And someone aboard the mothership took her call.’
    ‘Our boys are on their way to Pittsburgh.’
    ‘Doesn’t matter. No one at Rock Creek can help her now.’

FORTY

    TURNER TOOK A shower, but Reacher didn’t bother. He wrapped up in a robe and lounged in a chair, warm, deeply satisfied, as relaxed as he could ever remember being. Then Turner came out in the other robe and asked, ‘What time is it?’
    ‘Four minutes,’ Reacher said. ‘Until you’re due to call Leach again. Does she know I’m with you?’
    Turner nodded. ‘I’m sure the whole world knows by now. And I told her, anyway.’
    ‘Was she OK with that?’
    ‘She’s a sergeant in the U.S. Army. I don’t think she’s a prude.’
    ‘That’s not the point. If you beat your thing, then no one can touch her for helping you. She’ll come out smelling of roses. But if I don’t beat my thing, then she’s still in trouble for helping me. Or vice versa. And so on and so forth. She’s doubling her risk and halving her chances.’
    ‘She didn’t object.’
    ‘You should hang on to her.’
    ‘I will,’ Turner said. ‘If I ever get back.’
    And then she picked up the phone and dialled.

    A little more than fourteen miles away, a phone rang inside the FBI Field Office on East Carson Street, Pittsburgh, which was a little south and east of the downtown area. A duty agent answered, and found himself talking to the Hoover Building in D.C. He was told that the Homeland Security computers were showing the names Sullivan and Temple as guests in an airport hotel nearby. The duty agent spooled back through his bulletins and his BOLOs, and saw that the D.C. Metro cops and the army MPs were looking for two fugitives presumed to be travelling under those names.
    The duty agent called his Special Agent in Charge, and asked, ‘Do you want me to spread the word to D.C. and the army?’
    His SAC was quiet for a moment, and then he said, ‘No need to complicate things.’
    No need to share the credit , the duty agent thought.
    His SAC said, ‘Send one of our own to check it out.’
    ‘Now?’
    ‘Whenever you can. No big rush. We’ve got until the morning. I’m sure they aren’t going anywhere.’

    Turner had the room phone trapped between her shoulder and her neck again, as before, and Reacher could hear the ring tone. Then he heard Leach answer. He couldn’t make out her words, but he could make out her mood. Which was not good. She launched into a long fast monologue, all of it reduced to a rapid plastic quack by the earpiece, but all of it frustrated and angry. Turner said, ‘Thanks anyway,’ and hung up, looking very tired, and bitterly disappointed.
    Reacher said, ‘What?’
    ‘Take a guess.’
    ‘There was no number after all.’
    ‘The transcript is missing. Someone took it out of the file room.’
    ‘Morgan?’
    ‘Has to be. No one else would or could.’
    ‘So either he’s one of them or he’s following orders blindly.’
    Turner nodded. ‘They’re cleaning house. And they’re covering all the bases. Because they’re better than I thought they were. And therefore I’m screwed. There’s no way out for me now. Not without that A.M. number.’
    ‘Isn’t it still in a computer somewhere?’
    ‘We don’t really trust computers. The feeling is we might as well send stuff straight to the New York Times . Or China.’
    ‘So your physical transcript is your only record?’
    She nodded again. ‘It’s the only one I’m aware of. Maybe Bagram keeps a copy. Why? You thinking of asking JAG to issue a subpoena? Good luck with that.’
    ‘Could it be misfiled?’
    ‘No, and Leach checked everywhere anyway. She’s not dumb.’
    ‘There has to be another way around this.’
    ‘Wake me up if you think of it,’ she said. ‘Because right now I’m all done thinking. I have to get some sleep.’
    She dropped her robe to the floor and padded naked around the room, straightening the drapes, turning out the lights, and then she climbed under the covers, and rolled