Persuader

that she faced the room. The daylight was bright behind her.
    It made her hard to see. She cleared her throat. The room went quiet.
    "OK, listen up, people," she said. "One more time, this is off the books, this is not officially sanctioned, and this will be done on our own time and at our own risk.
    Anybody wants out, just leave now." Nobody moved. Nobody left. It was a smart tactic. It showed me she and Eliot had at least five guys who would follow them to hell and back.
    "We have less than forty-eight hours," she said. "Day after tomorrow Richard Beck heads home for his mother's birthday. Our source says he does it every year. Cuts classes and all. His father sends a car with two pro bodyguards because the kid is terrified of a repeat abduction. We're going to exploit that fear. We're going to take down the bodyguards and kidnap him." She paused. Nobody spoke.
    "Our aim is to get into Zachary Beck's house," she said. "We can assume the supposed kidnappers themselves wouldn't exactly be welcome there. So what will happen is that Reacher will immediately rescue the kid from the supposed kidnappers. It will be a tight sequence, kidnap, rescue, like that. The kid comes over all grateful and Reacher is greeted like a hero around the family hearth." People sat quiet at first. Then they stirred. The plan was so full of holes it made a Swiss cheese look solid. I stared straight at Duffy. Then I found myself staring out the window.
    There were ways of plugging the holes. I felt my brain start to move. I wondered how many of the holes Duffy had already spotted. I wondered how many of the answers she had already gotten. I wondered how she knew I loved stuff like this.
    "We have an audience of one," she said. "All that matters is what Richard Beck thinks.
    The whole thing will be phony from beginning to end, but he's got to be absolutely convinced it's real." Eliot looked at me. "Weaknesses?"
    "Two," I said. "First, how do you take the bodyguards down without really hurting them? I assume you're not that far off the books."
    "Speed, shock, surprise," he said. "The kidnap team will have machine pistols with plenty of blank ammunition. Plus a stun grenade. Soon as the kid is out of the car, we toss a flashbang in. Lots of sound and fury. They'll be dazed, nothing more. But the kid will assume they're hamburger meat."
    "OK," I said. "But second, this whole thing is like method acting, right? I'm some kind of a passerby, and coincidentally I'm the type of guy who can rescue him. Which makes me smart and capable. So why wouldn't I just haul his ass around to the nearest cops? Or wait for the cops to come to us? Why wouldn't I stick around and give evidence and make all kinds of witness statements? Why would I want to immediately drive him all the way home?" Eliot turned to Duffy.
    "He'll be terrified," she said. "He'll want you to."
    "But why would I agree? It doesn't matter what he wants. What matters is what is logical for me to do. Because we don't have an audience of one. We have an audience of two.
    Richard Beck and Zachary Beck. Richard Beck there and then, and Zachary Beck later.
    He'll be looking at it in retrospect. We've got to convince him just as much."
    "The kid might ask you not to go to the cops. Like last time."
    "But why would I listen to him? If I was Mr. Normal the cops would be the first thing on my mind. I'd want to do everything strictly by the book."
    "He would argue with you."
    "And I would ignore him. Why would a smart and capable adult listen to a crazy kid? It's a hole. It's too cooperative, too purposeful, too phony. Too direct. Zachary Beck would rumble it in a minute."
    "Maybe you get him in a car and you're being chased."
    "I'd drive straight to a police station."
    "Shit," Duffy said.
    "It's a plan," I said. "But we need to get real." I looked out of the window again. It was bright out there. I saw a lot of green stuff. Trees, bushes, distant wooded hillsides dusted with new leaves. In the corner of my eye I saw Eliot and Duffy looking down at the floor of the room. Saw the five guys sitting still.
    They looked like a capable bunch. Two of them were a little younger than me, tall and fair. Two were about my age, plain and ordinary. One was a lot older, stooped and gray. I thought long and hard. Kidnap, rescue, Beck's house. I need to be in Beck's house. I really do. Because I need to find Quinn. Think about the long game. I looked at the whole thing from the kid's point of view. Then I looked at it