The Hard Way

never see her again, either. You can count on that, too.”
    “You wouldn’t get out of here alive,” Lane said. “Not unless I chose to let you.”
    Reacher shook his head. “You won’t use firearms in here. Not inside the Dakota. I’m sure that would break the terms of your co-op lease. And I’m not worried about hand-to-hand combat. Not against little guys like these. You remember how it was back in the service, don’t you? Your guys stepped out of line, who did you call? The 110th Special Unit, that’s who. Hard men need harder cops. I was one of those cops. And I’m willing to be one again. Against all of you at once, if you like.”
    Nobody spoke.
    “I’m not here to steer you wrong,” Reacher said. “If I wanted to steer you wrong, I’d have given you descriptions of two fantasy guys this morning. Short, tall, fat, thin, whatever. Eskimos in fur hats. Africans in full tribal dress. I’d have had you chasing shadows all over the place. But I didn’t. I came back here and told you I’m sorry that actually I’m not steering you anyplace yet. Because I am sorry about that. Really. I’m sorry about the whole damn thing.”
    Nobody spoke.
    “But you need to hang with it,” Reacher said. “We all do. Things like this are never easy.”
    The room stayed quiet. Then Lane exhaled. He nodded.
    “I apologize,” he said. “Most sincerely. Please forgive me. It’s the stress.”
    Reacher said, “No offense taken.”
    Lane said, “One million dollars to find my wife.”
    “For me?” Reacher said.
    “As a fee.”
    “That’s some raise. It was twenty-five grand a few hours ago.”
    “The situation is more serious now than it was a few hours ago.”
    Reacher said nothing.
    “Will you accept?” Lane asked.
    “We’ll talk about a fee afterward,” Reacher said. “If I succeed.”
    “If?”
    “I’m way behind the curve here. Success depends on how much longer we can keep this thing going.”
    “Will they call back again?”
    “Yes, I think they will.”
    “Why did you mention Africans?”
    “When?”
    “Just now. You said Africans in full tribal dress. As an example of a fantasy description.”
    “It was an example. Like you said.”
    “What do you know about Africa?”
    “It’s a large continent south of Europe. I’ve never been there.”
    “What do we do next?”
    “We think,” Reacher said.

----

    Lane went to his office and five men went out for breakfast. Reacher stayed in the living room. Gregory stayed in there with him. They sat across from each other on a pair of low sofas. Between the sofas was a coffee table. The coffee table was topped with French polished mahogany. The sofas were covered with flowery chintz. There were velvet throw pillows. The whole room seemed ludicrously overdecorated and overstyled and overcivilized, given the issues at hand. And it was totally dominated by the portrait of Kate Lane. Her eyes were everywhere.
    “Can you get her back?” Gregory asked.
    “I don’t know,” Reacher said. “Usually this kind of a thing doesn’t end happily. Kidnapping is a brutal business. Usually it’s the exact same thing as homicide, just delayed a little.”
    “That’s pretty defeatist.”
    “No, it’s realistic.”
    “Any chance at all?”
    “Maybe some, if we’re only halfway through. Probably none, if we’re near the end. I don’t have any traction yet. And any kidnap, the endgame is always the hardest part.”
    “You think they were really in the building when I dropped the keys?”
    “It’s possible. And it would make sense. Why wait outside when they could wait inside?”
    “OK,” Gregory said. “So how about this: That’s their base. That’s where they
are.
Not upstate.”
    “Where are the cars?”
    “In parking garages all around the city.”
    “Why the five-hour delays?”
    “To create a false impression.”
    “It would be one hell of a double-bluff,” Reacher said. “They led us right there. Gave us the exact address.”
    “But it’s conceivable.”
    Reacher shrugged. “Not very. But stranger things have happened, I guess. So go call those numbers. Find out what you can. If possible, aim to have someone meet us with a key. But not right there. On the corner of Thompson. Out of sight. Just in case.”
    “When?”
    “Now. We need to be back here before the next ransom demand.”

----

    Reacher left Gregory working with his cell phone on the sofa and wandered back through the kitchen to Lane’s office. Lane was