The Hard Way

him for running, I guess. They were hopelessly outnumbered and strategically weak.”
    “But not everyone got out.”
    The guy nodded. “It seemed that way. But getting information out of those places is like trying to get a radio signal from the dark side of the moon. It’s mostly silence and static. And when it isn’t, it’s faint and garbled. So usually we rely on the Red Cross or Doctors Without Borders. And eventually we got a solid report that two Americans had been captured. A year later we got names. It was Knight and Hobart. Recon Marines back in the day, mixed records.”
    “It surprises me that they stayed alive.”
    “The rebels won. They became the new government. They emptied the jails, because the jails were full of their buddies. But a government needs full jails, to keep the population scared. So the old good guys became the new bad guys. Anyone who had worked for the old regime was suddenly in big trouble. And a couple of Americans were like trophies. So they were kept alive. But they suffered very cruelly. The Doctors Without Borders report was horrific. Appalling. Mutilation for sport was a fact of life.”
    “Details?”
    “I guess there are lots of bad things a man can do with a knife.”
    “You didn’t think about a rescue attempt?”
    “You’re not listening,” the guy said. “The State Department can’t admit that there are bunches of renegade American mercenaries running wild in Africa. And like I told you, the rebels became the new government. They’re in charge now. We have to be nice to them. Because all those places have got stuff that we want. There’s oil, and diamonds, and uranium. Alcoa needs tin and bauxite and copper. Halliburton wants to get in there and make a buck. Corporations from Texas want to get in there and run those same damn jails.”
    “Anything about what happened in the end?”
    “It’s sketchy, but you can join the dots. One died in captivity, but the other one got out, according to the Red Cross. Some kind of humanitarian gesture that the Red Cross pushed for, to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the coup. They let out a whole bunch. End of story. That’s all the news there is from Africa. One died and one got out, relatively recently. But then, if you do some detective work and jump to the INS, you find a lone individual entering the U.S. from Africa shortly afterward on Red Cross documentation. And then, if you jump to the Veterans Administration, there’s a report of someone just back from Africa getting the kind of remedial outpatient care that might be consistent with tropical diseases and some of the mutilations that DWB reported on.”
    Reacher asked, “Which one got out?”
    “I don’t know,” the guy said. “All I’ve heard is that one got out and the other didn’t.”
    “I need more than that.”
    “I told you, the initial event was before my time. I’m not specifically in the loop. All I’ve got is water-cooler stuff.”
    “I need his name,” Reacher said. “And I need his address, from the VA.”
    “That’s a tall order,” the guy said. “I would have to go way beyond my remit. And I would need a very good reason to do that.”
    “Look at me,” Reacher said.
    The guy took his eyes off the mirror and glanced at Reacher.
    Reacher said, “Ten-sixty-two.”
    No reaction.
    Reacher said, “So don’t be an asshole. Pony up, OK?”
    The guy looked at the mirror again. Nothing in his face.
    “I’ll call Ms. Pauling’s cell,” he said. “When, I don’t know. I just can’t say. It could be days. But I’ll get what I can as soon as I can.”
    Then he slid out of the booth and walked straight to the door. Opened it and made a right turn and was lost to sight. Lauren Pauling breathed out.
    “You pushed him,” she said. “You were a little rude there.”
    “But he’s going to help.”
    “Why? What was that ten-sixty-two thing?”
    “He was wearing a military police lapel pin. The crossed pistols. MP is his day job. Ten-sixty-two is MP radio code for
fellow officer in trouble, requests urgent assistance.
So he’ll help. He has to. Because if one MP won’t help another, who the hell will?”
    “Then that’s a lucky break. Maybe you won’t have to do it all the hard way.”
    “Maybe. But he’s going to be slow. He seemed a little timid. Me, I’d have busted straight into somebody’s file cabinet. But he’s going to go through channels and ask nicely.”
    “Maybe that’s why he’s getting promoted