Persuader

always console myself by basking in their reflected glow. It was my company, after all. There was a certain amount of collective recognition. Sometimes.
    But anyway, I really liked the idea of an MP noncom busting an intel light colonel.
    Because I knew a guy like Quinn would absolutely hate it. He would see it as the ultimate indignity. A guy who bought Lexuses and sailboats and wore golf shirts didn't want to be taken down by a damn sergeant.
    "Will you let me make the arrest?" she asked again.
    "I want you to," I said.
    "It's a purely legal issue," Duffy said.
    "Not to me," I said.
    "We have no authority."
    "I don't work for you."
    "It's suicide," Eliot said.
    "I survived so far."
    "Only because she cut the phones."
    "The phones are history," I said. "The bodyguard problem resolved itself. So I don't need backup anymore."
    "Everybody needs backup. You can't go undercover without it."
    "ATF backup did the maid a whole lot of good," I said.
    "We lent you a car. We helped you every step of the way."
    "I don't need cars anymore. Beck gave me my own set of keys. And a gun. And bullets.
    I'm his new right-hand man. He trusts me to protect his family." They said nothing.
    "I'm an inch away from nailing Quinn," I said. "I'm not butting out now." They said nothing.
    "And I can get Teresa Daniel back," I said.
    "ATF can get Teresa Daniel back," Eliot said. "We go to ATF now, we're off the hook with our own people. The maid was theirs, not ours. No harm, no foul."
    "ATF isn't up to speed," I said. "Teresa will be caught in the crossfire." There was a long silence.
    "Monday," Villanueva said. "We'll sit on it until Monday. We'll have to tell ATF by Monday at the latest."
    "We should tell them right now," Eliot said.
    Villanueva nodded. "But we won't. And if necessary I'll make sure that we don't. I say we give Reacher until Monday." Eliot said nothing more. He just looked away. Duffy laid her head back on the pillow and stared up at the ceiling.
    "Shit," she said.
    "It'll be over by Monday," I said. "I'll bring Teresa back to you here and then you can head home and make all the calls you want." She was quiet for a whole minute. Then she spoke.
    "OK," she said. "You can go back. And you should probably go back right now. You've been gone a long time. That's suspicious in itself."
    "OK," I said.
    "But think first," she said. "Are you absolutely sure?"
    "I'm not your responsibility," I said.
    "I don't care," she said. "Just answer the question. Are you sure?"
    "Yes," I said.
    "Now think again. Still sure?"
    "Yes," I said again.
    "We'll be here," she said. "Call us if you need us."
    "OK," I said.
    "Still sure?"
    "Yes," I said.
    "So go." She didn't get up. None of them did. I just eased myself off the bed and walked out through the silent room. I was halfway back to the Cadillac when Terry Villanueva came out after me. He waved me to wait and walked across to me. He moved stiff and slow, like the old guy he was.
    "Bring me in," he said. "Any chance you get, I want to be there." I said nothing.
    "I could help you out," he said.
    "You already did."
    "I need to do more. For the kid."
    "Duffy?" He shook his head. "No, Teresa."
    "You got a connection?"
    "I got a responsibility," he said.
    "How?"
    "I was her mentor," he said. "It worked out that way. You know how that is?" I nodded. I knew exactly, totally, and completely how that was.
    "Teresa worked for me for a spell," he said. "I trained her. I broke her in, basically. Then she moved up. But ten weeks ago she came back to me and asked if I thought she should accept this mission. She had doubts."
    "But you said yes." He nodded. "Like a damn fool."
    "Could you really have stopped her?"
    "Probably. She would have listened to me if I had made a case why she shouldn't do it.
    She'd have made up her own mind, but she'd have listened."
    "I understand," I said.
    And I did, no question about it. I left him standing there in the motel lot and slid into the car and watched him watch me drive away.
    I stayed on Route One all the way through Biddeford and Saco and Old Orchard Beach and then struck out east on the long lonely road out to the house. I checked my watch as I got close and figured I had been away two whole hours, of which only forty minutes were legitimate. Twenty minutes to the warehouse, twenty back. But I didn't expect to have to explain myself to anybody. Beck would never know I hadn't come straight home and the others would never know I had been supposed to. I figured I was