Without Fail

stashed him somewhere? They’re taking him everywhere with them?”
    “Couldn’t work,” Neagley said. “Can’t expect us to find him if he’s not home.”
    “He’s home,” Reacher said. “But his thumb isn’t.”
    Nobody spoke.
    “Fire up a computer,” Reacher said. “Search NCIC for the word thumb .”

    “We’ve got a big field office in Sacramento,” Bannon said. “Three agents are already mobile. A doctor, too. We’ll know in an hour.”
    This time Bannon had come to them. They were in the Secret Service conference room, Stuyvesant at the head of the table, Reacher and Neagley and Swain together on one side, Bannon alone on the other.
    “It’s a bizarre idea,” Bannon said. “What would they do? Keep it in the freezer?”
    “Probably,” Reacher said. “Thaw it a bit, rub it down their nose, print it on the paper. Just like Stuyvesant’s secretary with her rubber stamp. It’s probably drying out a bit with age, which is why the squalene percentage keeps getting higher.”
    “What are the implications?” Stuyvesant said. “Assuming you’re right?”
    Reacher made a face. “We can change one major assumption. Now I would guess they’ve both got prints on file, and they’ve both been wearing the latex gloves.”
    “Two renegades,” Bannon said.
    “Not necessarily ours,” Stuyvesant said.
    “So explain the other factors,” Bannon said.
    Nobody spoke. Bannon shrugged.
    “Come on,” he said. “We’ve got an hour. And I don’t want to be looking in the wrong place. So convince me. Show me these are private citizens gunning for Armstrong personally.”
    Stuyvesant glanced at Swain, but Swain said nothing.
    “Time is ticking by,” Bannon said.
    “This isn’t an ideal context,” Swain said.
    Bannon smiled. “What, you only preach to the choir?”
    Nobody spoke.
    “You’ve got no case,” Bannon said. “I mean, who cares about a Vice President? They’re nobodies. What was it, a bucket of warm spit?”
    “It was a pitcher,” Swain said. “John Nance Garner said the Vice Presidency isn’t worth a pitcher of warm spit. He also called it a spare tire on the automobile of government. He was FDR’s first running mate. John Adams called it the most insignificant office man had ever invented, and he was the first Vice President of all.”
    “So who cares enough to shoot a spare tire or an insignificant pitcher of spit?”
    “Let me start from the beginning,” Swain said. “What does a Vice President do?”
    “He sits around,” Bannon says. “Hopes the big guy dies.”
    Swain nodded. “Somebody else said the Vice President’s job is merely about waiting. In case the President dies, sure, but more often for the nomination in his own right eight years down the track. But in the short term, what is the Vice President for ?”
    “Beats the hell out of me,” Bannon said.
    “He’s there to be a candidate,” Swain said. “That’s the bottom line. His design life lasts from when he’s tapped in the summer until election day. He’s useful for four or five months, tops. He starts out as a pick-me-up for the campaign. Everybody’s bored to death with the presidential nominees by midsummer, so the VP picks put a jolt into the campaigns. Suddenly we’ve all got something else to talk about. Somebody else to analyze. We look at their qualities and their records. We figure out how well they balance the tickets. That’s their initial function. Balance and contrast. Whatever the presidential nominee isn’t, the VP nominee is , and vice versa. Young, old, racy, dull, northern, southern, dumb, smart, hard, soft, rich, poor.”
    “We get the picture,” Bannon said.
    “So he’s there for what he is ,” Swain said. “Initially he’s just a photograph and a biography. He’s a concept . Then his duties start. He’s got to have campaigning skills, obviously. Because he’s there to be the attack dog. He’s got to be able to say the stuff the presidential candidate isn’t allowed to say himself. If the campaign scripts an attack or a put-down, it’s the VP candidate they get to deliver it. Meanwhile the presidential candidate stands around somewhere else looking all statesmanlike. Then the election happens and the presidential candidate goes to the White House and the VP gets put away in a closet. His usefulness is over, first Tuesday in November.”
    “Was Armstrong good at that kind of stuff?”
    “He was excellent. The truth is he was a very negative