Tripwire

him was a shimmering patchwork of metallic colors, sedan roofs winking in the sun, dodging left, dodging right, crawling forward, fumes rising, horns blasting. He hauled left again and turned and went through a crosswalk against the light, a crowd of jostling people skittering out of his way. The jeep was juddering and bouncing and pulling hard to the right. The temperature gauge was off the scale. Steam was boiling up through the gaps around the buckled hood. The collapsed airbag was hanging down to his knees. He jerked forward and hauled left again and jammed into an alley full of restaurant waste. Boxes, empty drums of cooking oil, rough wooden trays piled with spoiled vegetables. He buried the nose in a pile of cartons. They spilled down on the wrecked hood and bounced off the windshield. He killed the motor and pulled the keys.
    He had put it too close to the wall for Jodie’s door to open. He grabbed her briefcase and her purse and threw them out through his door. Squeezed out after them and turned back for her. She was scrambling across the seats behind him. Her dress was riding up. He grabbed her around the waist and she ducked her head to his shoulder and he lifted her through the gap. She clung on hard, bare legs around his waist. He turned and ran her six feet away. She weighed nothing at all. He set her on her feet and ducked back for her bags. She was smoothing her dress over her thighs. Breathing hard. Damp hair all over the place.
    “How did you know?” she gasped. “That it wasn’t an accident?”
    He gave her the purse and carried the heavy briefcase himself. Led her by the hand back down the alley to the street, panting with adrenaline rush.
    “Talk while we walk,” he said.
    They turned left and headed east for Lafayette. The morning sun was in their eyes, the river breeze in their faces. Behind them, they could hear the traffic snarl on Broadway. They walked together fifty yards, breathing hard, calming down.
    “How did you know?”
    “Statistics, I guess. What were the chances we’d be in an accident on the exact same morning we figured there were guys out looking for us? Million to one, at best.”
    She nodded. A slight smile on her face. Head up, shoulders back, recovering fast. No trace of shock. She was Leon’s daughter, that was for damn sure.
    “You were great,” she said. “You reacted so fast.”
    He shook his head as he walked.
    “No, I was shit,” he said. “Dumb as hell. One mistake after another. They changed personnel. Some new guy in charge. I never even thought about that. I was figuring what the original pair of assholes might do, never even thought about them putting in somebody smarter. And whoever that guy was, he was pretty smart. It was a good plan, almost worked. I never saw it coming. Then when it happened, I still wasted a shitload of time talking to you about the damn airbags deploying.”
    “Don’t feel bad,” she said.
    “I do feel bad. Leon had a basic rule: Do it right. Thank God he wasn’t there to see that screwup. He’d have been ashamed of me.”
    He saw her face cloud over. Realized what he’d said.
    “I’m sorry. I just can’t make myself believe he’s dead.”
    They came out on Lafayette. Jodie was at the curb, scanning for a cab.
    “Well, he is,” she said, gently. “We’ll get used to it, I guess.”
    He nodded. “And I’m sorry about your car. I should have seen it coming.”
    She shrugged. “It’s only leased. I’ll get them to send another one just like it. Now I know it stands up in a collision, right? Maybe a red one.”
    “You should report it stolen,” he said. “Call the cops and say it wasn’t there in the garage when you went for it this morning.”
    “That’s fraud,” she said.
    “No, that’s smart. Remember I can’t afford for the cops to be asking me questions about this. I don’t even carry a driver’s license.”
    She thought about it. Then she smiled. Like a kid sister smiles when she’s forgiving her big brother for some kind of waywardness, he thought.
    “OK,” she said. “I’ll call them from the office.”
    “The office? You’re not going to the damn office.”
    “Why not?” she said, surprised.
    He waved vaguely west, back toward Broadway. “After what happened there? I want you where I can see you, Jodie.”
    “I need to go to work, Reacher,” she said. “And be logical. The office hasn’t become unsafe just because of what happened over there. It’s a completely separate