The Hard Way

as they walked. She kept her distance and looked straight ahead. Avoided looking even close to Reacher’s direction.
    “What?” he asked.
    “We heard everything from the bathroom,” she said.
    “And?”
    “You signed on with Lane. You sold out. You’re working for him now.”
    “I’m working for Kate and Jade.”
    “You could do that for free.”
    “I wanted to test him,” Reacher said. “I still need proof it’s for real this time. If it wasn’t, he’d have backed off. He’d have said the money was off the table because I was too late. But he didn’t. He wants the guy. Therefore there is a guy.”
    “I don’t believe you. It’s a meaningless test. Like Patti Joseph said, Lane’s gambling. He’s putting on a show for his men and gambling that he’s smarter than you are.”
    “But he had just found out that he’s not smarter than I am. I found Hobart before he did.”
    “Whatever, this is about the money, isn’t it?”
    “Yes,” Reacher said. “It is.”
    “At least you might try to deny it.”
    Reacher smiled and kept on walking.
    “You ever seen a million dollars in cash?” he asked. “Ever held a million dollars in your hands? I did, today. It’s a hell of a feeling. The weight, the density. The
power.
It felt warm. Like a little atom bomb.”
    “I’m sure it was very impressive.”
    “I wanted it, Pauling. I really did. And I can get it. I’m going to find the guy anyway. For Kate and Jade. I might as well sell his name to Lane. Doesn’t change the basic proposition.”
    “It does. It makes you a mercenary. Just like them.”
    “Money is a great enabler.”
    “What are you going to do with a million dollars anyway? Buy a house? A car? A new shirt? I just don’t see it.”
    “I’m often misunderstood,” he said.
    “The misunderstanding was all mine. I liked you. I thought you were better than this.”
    “You work for money.”
    “But I choose who I work for, very carefully.”
    “It’s a lot of money.”
    “It’s dirty money.”
    “It’ll spend just the same.”
    “Well, enjoy it.”
    “I will.”
    She said nothing.
    He said, “Pauling, give me a break.”
    “Why would I?”
    “Because first I’m going to pay you for your time and your services and your expenses, and then I’m going to send Hobart down to Birmingham or Nashville and get him fixed up right. I’m going to buy him a lifetime’s supply of spare parts and I’m going to rent him a place to live and I’m going to give him some walking-around money because my guess is he’s not very employable right now. At least not in his old trade. And then if there’s anything left, then sure, I’ll buy myself a new shirt.”
    “Seriously?”
    “Of course. I need a new shirt.”
    “No, about Hobart?”
    “Dead serious. He needs it. He deserves it. That’s for damn sure. And it’s only right that Lane should pay for it.”
    Pauling stopped walking. Grabbed Reacher’s arm and stopped him, too.
    “I’m sorry,” she said. “I apologize.”
    “Then make it up to me.”
    “How?”
    “Work with me. We’ve got a lot to do.”
    “You told Lane you’d give him a name tomorrow.”
    “I had to say something. I had to get him out of there.”
    “Can we do it by tomorrow?”
    “I don’t see why not.”
    “Where are we going to start?”
    “I have absolutely no idea.”

CHAPTER 48
    THEY STARTED IN Lauren Pauling’s apartment. She lived in a small co-op on Barrow Street, near West 4th. The building had once been a factory and had vaulted brick ceilings and walls two feet thick. Her apartment was painted mostly yellow and felt warm and friendly. There was an alcove bedroom with no window, and a bathroom, and a kitchen, and a room with a sofa and a chair and a television set and a lot of books. There were muted rugs and soft textures and dark woods. It was a single woman’s place. That was clear. One mind had conceived it and decorated it. There were small framed photographs of children, but Reacher knew without asking that they were nephews and nieces.
    He sat on the sofa and rested his head back on the cushion and stared up at the vaulted brick above. He believed that anything could be reverse-engineered. If one human or group of humans put something together, then another human or group of humans could take it apart again. It was a basic principle. All that was required was empathy and thought and imagination. And he liked pressure. He liked deadlines. He liked a short and finite time to