The Sentinel (Jack Reacher #25) - Lee Child Page 0,18
you let the defence and the backup slide, and that came back and bit you on the ass?’
‘No.’ Rutherford closed his eyes for a moment. ‘I did something even more stupid.’
Twenty-five minutes had passed, and Natasha’s phone did not ring.
The motel was a single structure, long and low, clad with brown wood. It was divided into nineteen sections. An office at the east end, with a covered entrance and an alcove for ice and soft drinks. Then eighteen guest rooms, each with a door and a window, starting with room one next to the office and stretching away to the west. Natasha’s team had taken rooms fifteen through eighteen. They left fifteen vacant, as a buffer, in case of adjacent occupants and thin walls. Vasili and Anatole, from the Suburban, slept in sixteen. Ilya and Petya in seventeen. And Natasha and Sonya in eighteen. When they got back from swapping cars the two women had carried Ilya to their own room and laid him, unconscious, on the couch. Petya had followed them in, nursing his arm. A moment later the other two men had joined them.
To wait.
Thirty minutes passed. Natasha’s phone did not ring.
She checked its signal three times. Three times she found it was at full strength. Some kind of proverb probably applied, she thought. Watched pots. Something like that. Or maybe something more up to date. She pushed the thought aside and tried to focus on practical matters. Like Petya’s shoulder. At first he was reluctant to let her examine it but he eventually relented. She found it was dislocated and eased it back into place. Then she checked on Ilya and found his breathing and pulse were returning to normal.
Thirty-five minutes passed. Her phone didn’t ring.
‘Should we do something?’ Vasili asked.
‘Yes,’ Natasha said. ‘Wait.’
‘For how long?’
‘For as long as it takes.’
‘But why’s it taking so long? Something must be wrong.’
‘Nothing’s wrong.’
‘How can you be so certain? What other explanation is there?’ Vasili lowered his voice. ‘We screwed up. We all know what happens when you screw up. We’ve all heard the rumours.’
‘Cut that kind of talk out right now. You shouldn’t listen to rumours.’
‘Then why is it taking so long for them to decide what they want us to do?’
‘What if they have decided?’ Sonya looked up from the table. ‘Decided, but not told us?’
‘Why wouldn’t they tell us?’ Vasili said. ‘How can we act on our orders if they’re not given to us?’
‘What if it’s not us they’re giving orders to?’ Sonya said. ‘What if they’ve brought in another team? And don’t want any loose ends?’
‘Stop it,’ Natasha said. ‘You’re being paranoid.’
‘Are we?’ Sonya said. ‘Think about it. They know where we are. They know we’re all together. We’re making it easy for them.’
Ilya grunted from the couch and opened his eyes.
Vasili crossed to the window. ‘All clear. For now.’
Reacher bit into his first burger. ‘So what did you do that was so stupid?’
Rutherford shook his head. ‘I tried to fix it myself. I was working on a system to detect and neutralize cyber attacks. I called it the guard dog. That friend I mentioned? The FBI agent? She was helping me. She wanted to call it Cerberus. If it worked we were going into business together. We were going to industrialize it. And make our fortunes.’
‘I’m guessing your system didn’t work.’
‘Nope. And neither did the backup I tried to build. And yet I get the blame. Which is so unfair. None of these bozos who are on my back have any idea what I was up against. A lot of these attacks are state sponsored. They have giant warehouses full of people. It’s their only job. They have endless resources. Then there’s me, on my own, cobbling together repurposed parts salvaged from wherever I can find them.’
‘Like David and Goliath. Only Goliath won.’
‘Right. Which was always the more likely outcome, if you think about it.’
‘But however likely or unlikely it was, you still have no job. And everyone hates you. The town is nice, sure, but there’s a whole world out there. Why not hit the road for a while?’
‘I might do that. Eventually. But first I need to clear my name.’
‘How?’
‘There are documents on my old laptop that prove I’m innocent. I’ve hired a lawyer and she’s subpoenaed the town to get it. I can show how I warned and warned my boss, and how he ignored me. And there’s something else. The asshole is spreading a rumour