Nothing to Lose

nose to nose and their rear ends lifted off the ground and sheet metal crumpled and hoods flew open and glass burst and airbags exploded and steam jetted everywhere. Reacher was smashed forward against his seat belt. He had his hands off the wheel and his elbows up to fend off the punch of his airbag. Then the airbag collapsed again and Reacher was tossed back against the headrest. The rear of his car thumped back to earth and bounced once and came to rest at an angle. He pulled the Mossberg pump out of its between-the-seats holster and forced the door open against the crumpled fender and climbed out of the car.
    The other guy hadn’t been wearing his seat belt.
    He had taken the impact of his airbag full in the face and was lying sideways across the front bench with blood coming out of his nose and his ears. Both cars were wrecked as far back as the windshield pillars. The passenger compartments were basically OK. Full-sized sedans, five-star crash ratings. Reacher was pretty sure both cars were undrivable but he was no kind of an automotive expert and so he made sure by racking the Mossberg twice and firing two booming shots into the rear wheel wells, shredding the tires and ripping up all kinds of other small essential components. Then he tossed the pump back through the first Crown Vic’s window and walked over and climbed into Vaughan’s Chevy and backed away from all the wreckage. The waitress and the nine customers inside the restaurant were all staring out through the windows, mouths wide open in shock. Two of the customers were fumbling for their cell phones.
    Reacher smiled. Who are you going to call?
    He K-turned the Chevy and made a right and headed north for Main Street and made another right and cruised east at a steady fifty. When he hit the lonely road after the gas station he kicked it up to sixty and kept one eye on the mirror. Nobody came after him. He felt the roughness under his tires but the roar was quieter than before. He was a little deaf from the airbags and the twin Mossberg blasts.
    Twelve minutes later he bumped over the expansion joint and cruised into Hope, at exactly three o’clock in the afternoon.

    He didn’t know how long Vaughan would sleep. He guessed she had gotten her head on the pillow a little after nine that morning, which was six hours ago. Eight hours’ rest would take her to five o’clock, which was reasonable for an on-deck time of seven in the evening. Or maybe she was already up and about. Some people slept worse in the daytime than the night. Habit, degree of acclimatization, circadian rhythms. He decided to head for the diner. Either she would be there already or he could leave her keys with the cashier.
    She was there already.
    He pulled to the curb and saw her alone in the booth they had used before. She was dressed in her cop uniform, four hours before her watch. She had an empty plate and a full coffee cup in front of her.
    He locked the truck and went in and sat down opposite her. Up close, she looked tired.
    “Didn’t sleep?” he asked.
    “Is it that obvious?”
    “I have a confession to make.”
    “You went to Despair. In my truck. I knew you would.”
    “I had to.”
    “Sure.”
    “When was the last time you drove out to the west?”
    “I try to stay out of Despair.”
    “There’s a military base just inside the line. Fairly new. Why would that be?”
    Vaughan said, “There are military bases all over.”
    “This was a combat MP unit.”
    “They have to put them somewhere.”
    “Overseas is where they need to put them. The army is hurting for numbers right now. They can’t afford to waste good units in the back of beyond.”
    “Maybe it wasn’t a good unit.”
    “It was.”
    “So maybe it’s about to ship out.”
    “It just shipped back in. It just spent a year under the sun. The guy I spoke to had squint lines like you wouldn’t believe. His gear was worn from the sand.”
    “We have sand here.”
    “Not like that.”
    “So what are you saying?”
    The waitress came by and Reacher ordered coffee. Vaughan’s cup was still full. Reacher said, “I’m asking why they pulled a good unit out of the Middle East and sent it here.”
    Vaughan said, “I don’t know why. The Pentagon doesn’t explain itself to neighboring police departments.”
    The waitress brought a cup for Reacher and filled it from a Bunn flask. Vaughan asked, “What does a combat MP unit do exactly?”
    Reacher took a sip of coffee and said, “It guards