showing off, hoping for action that night. Or hurrying home after an earlier indiscretion. Five more minutes passed. Ten. Then he heard a vehicle coming the right way. Something slower and softer. Reacher pulled up into a crouch, ready to race forward.
There was movement on the roof. The woman’s head appeared again. She was rising faster this time. She stood all the way up, touching her ear, and started running towards the centre of the building. She would have been looking right at Reacher if she wasn’t so focused on the rooftop beneath her feet. When the southbound vehicle rolled by she didn’t even turn her head. Then she was gone. Reacher guessed she’d jumped down through a hatch. He dropped down too, nestling into the ground. Ninety seconds later the woman wriggled out through a gap at the end of a length of plywood hoarding near the midpoint of the rear wall. The guy Reacher had knocked out squeezed through after her and they ran to the Toyota. The two shorter guys Reacher had exchanged words with emerged from the kiosk and sprinted to the Suburban. Then both vehicles fired up and sped away, wheels spinning on the loose surface, heading away from town.
EIGHT
Speranski was in his dining room, eating his breakfast, when the secure phone rang again.
‘We have a problem,’ the voice at the other end of the line said. ‘We’ve lost Rutherford.’
‘How the hell did that happen?’ Speranski hurled his newspaper across the room. ‘Two people were supposed to be watching his building. Were my instructions not clear?’
‘They were clear. Two people were watching. One was the senior agent. She got a text from Rutherford’s doorman. Rutherford had asked him to call a cab.’
‘So how did that lead to Rutherford disappearing?’
‘The agent told the doorman to go ahead. And to order a second cab to arrive at the same time. So they could follow. The two operational vehicles were both in use at the ambush site. She figured that if the doorman didn’t get him a cab Rutherford would have just run out and hailed one on his own. Or taken his own car. Either way, just as bad. Maybe worse.’
‘So what went wrong?’
‘I don’t know. Either the doorman screwed up or the cab company did. Only one car came and Rutherford took it.’
‘Tell me we at least know its number?’
‘We do. Number, description, and photograph.’
‘Did Rutherford state his destination?’
‘He did. You’re not going to like it. Nashville airport.’
‘No.’ Speranski stood up. ‘Rutherford cannot be allowed to board a plane. That would be an absolute disaster. Where are the agents who were watching him?’
‘En route to the airport. So is the balance of the team. Given the urgency of the situation I recalled them from the ambush site.’
‘Good. Keep me posted. I want to know the moment Rutherford is intercepted.’ Speranski paused. ‘Wait. What about the drifter? What’s his status?’
‘That’s unclear. There must have been some kind of a delay after he was taken from the courthouse. He hadn’t been delivered when the team pulled out. I judged that finding Rutherford was a higher priority.’
‘So where is he?’
There was a momentary silence on the line. ‘That’s another thing we don’t know.’
Reacher stayed where he was, silent, and still. He didn’t want to reveal himself only to come face to face with another half dozen ambushers who had been lying in wait all along, so he gave it fifteen more minutes before he risked leaving. He crawled back the way he’d come until he reached the trees parallel to the road. Then he stood and started moving faster. He’d covered a quarter of a mile when he felt something vibrating in his pocket. He took out Marty’s phones. The burner was buzzing. Reacher opened the phone and held it to his ear.
‘Yes,’ he said.
‘Where the hell are you?’ It was a man’s voice, broken up and distorted.
The signal must be weak, Reacher guessed. Probably due to the remote location. Probably not great for clarity. But just in case he pulled up his shirt, doubled over the material, and used it to cover the little microphone.
‘Two minutes out,’ Reacher said.
‘What’s taking so long?’ The other man’s words were almost drowned out by the pops and howls on the line.
‘That guy you sent me to deliver? He’s a piece of work. I had to knock him out.’
‘He’s unconscious?’
‘Pretty much.’
‘That’s good. There’s been a change of plan. The team that was sent to meet you has been reassigned, temporarily. Another situation.