Without Fail

inside the main door. The duty officer was busy at the other end. Everything looked completely normal except for a telephone directly in front of Stuyvesant. It had been dragged up out of position and was sitting on the front part of the counter, facing outward, trailing its wire behind it. Stuyvesant was staring at it.
    “We got a call,” he said.
    “Who from?” Froelich asked.
    “Didn’t get a name. Or a number. Caller ID was blocked. Male voice, no particular accent. He called the switchboard and asked to speak with the big guy. Something in the voice made the duty officer take it seriously, so he patched it through, thinking perhaps the big guy was me, you know, the boss. But it wasn’t. The caller didn’t want to speak with me. He wanted the big guy he’s been seeing around recently.”
    “Me?” Reacher said.
    “You’re the only big guy new on the scene.”
    “Why would he want to speak with me?”
    “We’re about to find out. He’s calling back at nine-thirty.”
    Reacher glanced at his watch. Twenty-two minutes past.
    “It’s them,” Froelich said. “They saw you in the church.”
    “That’s my guess,” Stuyvesant said. “This is our first real contact. We’ve got a recorder set up. We’ll get a voice print. And we’ve got a trace on the line. You need to talk for as long as you can.”
    Reacher glanced at Neagley. She looked at her watch. Shook her head.
    “Not enough time now,” she said.
    Reacher nodded. “Can we get a weather report for Chicago?”
    “I could call Andrews,” Froelich said. “But why?”
    “Just do it, OK?”
    She stepped away to use another line. The Air Force meteorological people took four minutes to tell her Chicago was cold but clear and expected to stay that way. Reacher glanced at his watch again. Nine twenty-seven.
    “OK,” he said.
    “Remember, talk as long as you can,” Stuyvesant said. “They can’t explain you. They don’t know who you are. They’re worried about that.”
    “Is the Thanksgiving thing on the website?” Reacher asked.
    “Yes,” Froelich said.
    “Specific location?”
    “Yes,” she said again.
    Nine twenty-eight.
    “What else is upcoming?” Reacher asked.
    “Wall Street again in ten days,” Froelich said. “That’s all.”
    “What about this weekend?”
    “Back to North Dakota with his wife. Late tomorrow afternoon.”
    “Is that on the website?”
    Froelich shook her head.
    “No, that’s completely private,” she said. “We haven’t announced it anywhere.”
    Nine twenty-nine.
    “OK,” Reacher said again.
    Then the phone rang, very loud in the silence.
    “A little early,” Reacher said. “Somebody’s anxious.”
    “Talk as long as you can,” Stuyvesant said. “Use their curiosity against them. Keep it going.”
    Reacher picked up the phone.
    “Hello,” he said.
    “You won’t get that lucky again,” a voice said.
    Reacher ignored it and listened hard to the background sounds.
    “Hey,” the voice said. “I want to talk to you.”
    “But I don’t want to talk to you, asshole,” Reacher said, and put the phone down.
    Stuyvesant and Froelich just stared at him.
    “Hell are you doing?” Stuyvesant asked.
    “I wasn’t feeling very talkative,” Reacher said.
    “I told you to talk as long as you could.”
    Reacher shrugged. “You wanted it done different, you should have done it yourself. You could have pretended to be me. Talked to your heart’s content.”
    “That was deliberate sabotage.”
    “No, it wasn’t. It was a move in a game.”
    “This isn’t a damn game .”
    “That’s exactly what it is.”
    “We needed information.”
    “Get real,” Reacher said. “You were never going to get information.”
    Stuyvesant was silent.
    “I want a cup of coffee,” Reacher said. “You dragged us out of the restaurant before we were finished.”
    “We’re staying here,” Stuyvesant said. “They might call back.”
    “They won’t,” Reacher said.

    They waited five minutes at the reception counter and then gave it up and took plastic cups of coffee with them to the conference room. Neagley was keeping herself to herself. Froelich was very quiet. Stuyvesant was very angry.
    “Explain,” he said.
    Reacher sat down alone at one end of the table. Neagley occupied neutral territory halfway down one side. Froelich and Stuyvesant sat together at the far end.
    “These guys use faucet water to seal their envelopes,” Reacher said.
    “So?” Stuyvesant said.
    “So there’s