The Affair: A Reacher Novel

another state. The authorities in Tennessee will take care of all that. We can’t really stand in their way. Our powers are limited.”
    “They were ordered there.”
    “No, I don’t really think so. Those groups have extensive underground communications. We think it will prove to be a civilian initiative.”
    “I don’t agree.”
    “This is not debate class. Facts are facts. This country is overrun with groups like that. Their agendas are decided internally. There’s really no doubt about that.”
    “What about the three dead women?”
    “The perpetrator has been identified, I believe.”
    “When?”
    “The news became public three hours ago, I think.”
    “Who is it?”
    “I don’t have all the details.”
    “One of ours?”
    “No, I believe it was a local person. Down there in Mississippi.” I said nothing.
    Frazer said, “Anyway, thank you for coming in.”
    I said nothing.
    Frazer said, “This meeting is over, major.”
    I said, “No, colonel, it isn’t.”

Chapter
65
    The Pentagon was built because World War Two was coming, and because World War Two was coming it was built without much steel. Steel was needed elsewhere, as always in wartime. Thus the giant building was a monument to the strength and mass of concrete. So much sand was needed for the mix it was dredged right out of the Potomac River, not far from the rising walls themselves. Nearly a million tons of it. The result was extreme solidity. And silence.
    There were thirty thousand people the other side of Frazer’s closed door, but I couldn’t hear any of them. I couldn’t hear anything at all. Just the kind of hissing quiet typical of a C ring office.
    Frazer said, “Don’t forget you’re talking to an officer senior to you in rank.”
    I said, “Don’t forget you’re talking to an MP authorized to arrest anyone from a newborn private to a five-star general.”
    “What’s your point?”
    “The Tennessee Free Citizens were ordered to Kelham. That’s clear, I think. And I agree, they acted with an excess of zeal when they got there. But that’s on the guy who gave the order, as much as it’s on them. More so, in fact. Responsibility starts at the top.”
    “No one gave any orders.”
    “They were dispatched at the same moment I was. And Munro. Weall converged. It was one single integrated decision. Because Reed Riley was there. Who knew that?”
    “Perhaps it was a local decision.”
    “What was your personal position?”
    “Purely passive. And reactive. I was ready to handle the fallout, if any. Nothing more.”
    “You sure?”
    “Senate Liaison is always passive. It’s about putting out fires.”
    “Is it never proactive? Never about cutting firebreaks ahead of time?”
    “How could I have done that?”
    “You could have seen the danger coming. You could have made a plan. You could have decided to defend Kelham’s fence from pesky civilians asking awkward questions. But you couldn’t ask the Rangers to do that themselves. No commander on earth would recognize that as a legal order. So you could have called some unofficial buddies. From Tennessee, say, which is your home state. Where you know people. That’s possible, isn’t it?”
    “No, that’s ridiculous.”
    “And then to integrate your whole approach you could have decided to tap MP phones, to monitor things, and to give yourself an early warning in case anything seemed to be heading in the wrong direction.”
    “That’s ridiculous too.”
    “Do you deny it?”
    “Of course I deny it.”
    “So humor me,” I said. “Let’s talk theoretically. If a person did those two things, what would you think?”
    “What two things?”
    “Called Tennessee, and tapped phones. What would you think?”
    “That laws were broken.”
    “Would a person do one thing and not the other? Speaking as a professional soldier?”
    “He couldn’t afford to. He couldn’t afford to have an unauthorized force in the field without a way of knowing if it was close to being discovered.”
    “I agree,” I said. “So whoever deployed the yahoos also tapped the phones, and whoever tapped the phones also deployed the yahoos. Am I making sense? Theoretically?”
    “I suppose so.”
    “Yes or no, colonel?”
    “Yes.”
    I asked, “How good is your short-term memory?”
    “Good enough.”
    “What was the first thing you said to me when I came in here today?”
    “I told you to close the door.”
    “No, you said hello. Then you told me to close the