Worth Dying For

load.’
    ‘The guy couldn’t haul it himself?’
    ‘They had all sold their trucks. No need for them, as far as they could see, because of the contracts, and they needed the money for mortgages anyway.’
    ‘The guy could have rented. One time only.’
    ‘He wouldn’t have gotten out of his gate. The fine print said only a Duncan truck could haul anything off a farm. No way to contest it, not in court, and definitely not on the ground, because the football players were on the scene by then. The first generation. They must be old men themselves by now.’
    ‘Total control,’ Reacher said.
    Vincent nodded.
    ‘And very simple,’ he said. ‘You can work all year, but you need your harvest trucked away, or it’s the same thing as sitting on your butt and growing nothing. Farmers live season to season. They can’t afford to lose a whole crop. The Duncans found the perfect pinch-point. Whether by accident or design, I don’t really know. But as soon as they realized what they had, they sure started enjoying it.’
    ‘How?’
    ‘Nothing real bad. People pay a little over the odds, and they mind their manners. That’s about all, really.’
    ‘You too, right?’
    Vincent nodded again. ‘This place needed some fixing, ten years ago. The Duncans loaned me the money, interest free, if I signed up with them for my deliveries.’
    ‘And you’re still paying.’
    ‘We’re all still paying.’
    ‘Why sit still and take it?’
    ‘You want a revolution? That’s not going to happen. People have got to eat. And the Duncans are smart. No one thing is really that bad. You understand?’
    ‘Like a frog in warm water,’ Reacher said. ‘That’s how the doctor’s wife described it to me.’
    ‘That’s how we all describe it.’
    ‘You still get boiled to death in the end.’
    ‘Long time coming.’ Vincent turned away and filled a mug with coffee. Another NASA logo. He pushed it across the bar. He said, ‘My mother was related to Neil Armstrong. The first man on the moon. Fifteenth cousin or something.’
    Reacher sniffed the steam and tried the coffee. It was excellent. It was fresh, hot, and strong. Vincent said, ‘President Nixon had a speech prepared, you know, just in case they got stuck up there. In case they couldn’t lift off the surface. Can you imagine? Just sitting there, looking up at Earth in the sky, waiting for the air to run out?’
    Reacher said, ‘Aren’t there laws? Monopolies, or restraint of trade or something?’
    Vincent said, ‘Going to a lawyer is the same thing as going bankrupt. A lawsuit takes what? Two, three years? Two or three years without your crop getting hauled is suicide. And have you ever worked on a farm? Or run a motel? Believe me, at the end of the day you don’t feel like cracking the law books. You feel like getting some sleep.’
    Reacher said, ‘Wrecking the doctor’s car wasn’t a small thing.’
    Vincent said, ‘I agree. It was worse than usual. We’re all a little unsettled by that.’
    ‘All?’
    ‘We all talk to each other. There’s a phone tree. You know, for when something happens. We share information.’
    ‘And what are people saying?’
    ‘The feeling is maybe the doctor deserved it. He was way out of line.’
    ‘For treating his patient?’
    ‘She wasn’t sick. It was an intervention.’
    ‘I think you’re all sick,’ Reacher said. ‘I think you’re all a bunch of spineless cowards. How hard would it be to do something? One guy on his own, I agree, that’s difficult. But if everyonebanded together and called another trucker, they’d come. Why wouldn’t they? If there’s enough business here for the Duncans, there’s enough for someone else.’
    ‘The Duncans might sue.’
    ‘Let them. Then they’ve got three years of legal bills and no income. The shoe would be on the other foot.’
    ‘I don’t think another trucker would take the business. They carve things up. They don’t poach, in a place like this.’
    ‘You could try.’
    Vincent didn’t answer.
    ‘Whatever,’ Reacher said. ‘I really don’t care who gets an ear of corn hauled away, or how, or if, or when. Or a bushel of beans. Or a peck or a quart or however the hell you measure beans. You can sort it out for yourselves. Or not. It’s up to you. I’m on my way to Virginia.’
    ‘It’s not that easy,’ Vincent said. ‘Not here. People have been scared so long they can’t even remember what it’s like not to be scared any more.’
    Reacher said