Worth Dying For

to hand it over, but he lost his grip on it for a moment and juggled it and dropped it in the passenger foot well.
    ‘Shit,’ he said. ‘I’m sorry.’
    Reacher smiled. ‘Good try, John,’ he said. ‘Now I bend over to pick it up, right? And you cave the back of my skull in with your right fist. I wasn’t born yesterday, you know.’
    The guy said nothing.
    Reacher said, ‘So I guess we’ll leave it right where it is. If it rings, we’ll let it go to voice mail.’
    ‘I had to try.’
    ‘Is that an apology? You promised me.’
    ‘You’re going to break my legs and dump me on the side of the road.’
    ‘That’s a little pessimistic. Why would I break both of them?’
    ‘It’s not a joke. Those four guys you hurt will never work again.’
    ‘They’ll never work for the Duncans again. But there are other things to do in life. Better things.’
    ‘Like what?’
    ‘You could shovel shit on a chicken farm. You could whore yourself out in Tijuana. With a donkey. Either thing would be better than working for the Duncans.’
    The guy said nothing. Just drove.
    Reacher asked, ‘How much do the Duncans pay you?’
    ‘More than I could get back in Kentucky.’
    ‘In exchange for what, precisely?’
    ‘Just being around, mostly.’
    Reacher asked, ‘Who are those Italian guys in the overcoats?’
    ‘I don’t know.’
    ‘What do they want?’
    ‘I don’t know.’
    ‘Where are they now?’
    ‘I don’t know.’
    They were in the blue Impala, already ten miles north of the Marriott, Roberto Cassano at the wheel, Angelo Mancini sitting right beside him. Cassano was working hard to stay behind Safir’s boys in their red Ford, and both drivers were working hard to keep Mahmeini’s guys in sight. The big black Cadillacwas really hustling. It was doing more than eighty miles an hour. It was way far outside of its comfort zone. It was bouncing and wallowing and floating. It was quite a sight. Angelo Mancini was staring ahead at it. He was obsessed with it.
    He asked, ‘Is it a rental?’
    Cassano was much quieter. Occupied by driving, certainly, concentrating on the crazy high-speed dash up the road, definitely, but thinking, too. Thinking hard.
    He said, ‘I don’t think it’s a rental.’
    ‘So what is it? I mean, what? Those guys have their own cars standing by in every state? Just in case? How is that possible?’
    ‘I don’t know,’ Cassano said.
    ‘I thought at first maybe it’s a limo. You know, like a car service. But it isn’t. I saw the little squirt driving it himself. Not a car service driver. Just a glimpse, but it was him. The one who mouthed off at you.’
    Cassano said, ‘I didn’t like him.’
    ‘Me either. And even less now. They’re way bigger than we are. Way bigger than we thought. I mean, they have their own cars on standby in every state? They fly in on the casino plane, and there’s a car there for them, wherever? What’s that about?’
    ‘I don’t know,’ Cassano said again.
    ‘Is it a funeral car? Do the Iranians run funeral parlours now? That could work, right? Mahmeini could call the nearest parlour and say, send us one of your cars.’
    ‘I don’t think the Iranians took over the funeral business.’
    ‘So what else? I mean, how many states are there? Fifty, right? That’s at least fifty cars standing by.’
    ‘Not even Mahmeini can be active in all fifty states.’
    ‘Maybe not Alaska and Hawaii. But he’s got cars in Nebraska, apparently. How far up the list is Nebraska likely to be?’
    ‘I don’t know,’ Cassano said again.
    ‘OK,’ Mancini said. ‘You’re right. It has to be a rental.’
    ‘I told you it’s not a rental,’ Cassano said. ‘It can’t be. It’s not a current model.’
    ‘Times are tough. Maybe they rent older cars now.’
    ‘It’s not even last year’s model. Or the year before. That’spractically an antique. That’s an old-guy car. That’s your neighbour’s granddad’s Cadillac.’
    ‘Maybe they have rent-a-wreck here.’
    ‘Why would Mahmeini need that?’
    ‘So what is it?’
    ‘It doesn’t really matter what it is. You’re not looking at the big picture. You’re missing the point.’
    ‘Which is what?’
    ‘That car was already at the hotel. We parked right next to it, remember? Late afternoon, when we got back. Those guys were there before us. And you know what that means? It means they were on their way before Mahmeini was even asked to send them. Something really weird is going on