Never Go Back: (Jack Reacher 18)

thank you , sergeant.’

    Leach left after that, in a hurry, facing a four-hour drive back, followed by a full day at the office. Reacher looked at Turner and said, ‘You must be a hell of a good commander, to inspire loyalty like that.’
    ‘No more than you were,’ she said. ‘You had Frances Neagley.’
    ‘You been reading her file too?’
    ‘I’ve been reading all the files. All the operational histories, too. I wanted to know the 110th inside out.’
    ‘Like I said, you’re a great commander.’ Reacher flattened the page from the legal pad against the top of the hotel desk, and he smoothed one of the torn halves of the scratch pad paper next to it. Then he picked up the phone and dialled Captain Tracy Edmonds’ private cell number.

FORTY-TWO

    THERE WAS A lot of ring tone, but Reacher expected that. Cell networks can take eight seconds to route a call. And very few sleepers jump up like the movies. Most people wake up slow, and then blink and fumble.
    But Edmonds answered eventually. She said, ‘Hello?’ Her tone was a little anxious, and the sound of her voice was a little plummy, as if her tongue was thick, or her mouth was full.
    Reacher said, ‘Captain Edmonds?’
    ‘Who is this?’
    ‘Your client, Jack Reacher. Major, United States Army. Recently recommissioned. Currently manoeuvring with the 110th MP. Are you alone?’
    ‘What kind of a question is that?’
    ‘We’re about to have a privileged conversation, counsellor. We have legal matters to discuss.’
    ‘You’re damn right we do.’
    ‘Calm down, captain.’
    ‘You broke out of jail.’
    ‘That’s not allowed any more?’
    ‘We have to talk.’
    ‘We are talking.’
    ‘Really talk, I mean.’
    ‘Are you alone?’
    ‘Yes, I’m alone. So what?’
    ‘Got a pen?’
    She paused a beat. ‘Now I have.’
    ‘Paper?’
    ‘Got it.’
    ‘OK, pay attention. To better mount an adequate defence, I need hard copies of everything anyone has on a citizen of Afghanistan known to us only as A.M. 3435.’
    ‘That’s probably secret.’
    ‘I’m entitled to due process. Courts take that shit very seriously.’
    ‘Whatever, it’s a big ask.’
    ‘Fair’s fair. They have their bullshit with the affidavit.’
    ‘Reacher, I’m representing you in a paternity suit. Not the Juan Rodriguez thing. That’s Major Sullivan. And to get hard copies of military intelligence out of Afghanistan would be huge even in a criminal case. You won’t get it in a paternity suit. I mean, why would you?’
    Reacher said, ‘You told me the Uniform Code of Military Justice still lists adultery as a crime. What’s the penalty?’
    ‘Potentially substantial.’
    ‘So it’s not just a paternity suit. It’s a criminal case too.’
    ‘That’s tenuous.’
    ‘They can’t have it both ways, counsellor. They mentioned adultery as a crime. Either that means something or it doesn’t.’
    ‘Reacher, we have to talk.’
    ‘Is this where you tell me coming in from the cold would be the best thing to do?’
    ‘It would be.’
    ‘Perhaps. But I’ve chosen Plan B anyway. So I need that information.’
    ‘But how does it relate? Afghanistan hadn’t even started when you were in Korea. Or when you saw the Big Dog.’
    Reacher said nothing.
    Edmonds said, ‘Oh.’
    ‘Correct,’ Reacher said. ‘You’re pretty quick, for a lawyer. This is about Major Turner, not me. Or maybe it’s about Major Turner and me, because what we’ve got here is someone laying down a challenge to two COs of the 110th Special Unit. Which means there are going to be winners and losers, and the smart money says you need to be with the winners, because being on the right side of history brings bounty beyond imagining, in this man’s army.’
    ‘Are you going to be the winners?’
    ‘Count on it. We’re going to beat them like rented mules. And we need to, captain. They killed two of our own in Afghanistan. And beat one of your colleagues half to death.’
    Edmonds said, ‘I’ll see what I can do.’

    Turner was still in her robe, and she was showing no signs of going back to bed. Reacher asked her, ‘What was in the envelope?’
    ‘The other thing I asked Sergeant Leach for.’
    ‘Evidently. But what was it?’
    ‘We’re going to Los Angeles next.’
    ‘Are we?’
    She nodded. ‘You need to take care of the Samantha situation.’
    ‘I’ll get to it.’
    ‘Worst case, we’re going to fail here, and they’re going to lock us up and throw away the key. I