The Sentinel (Jack Reacher #25) - Lee Child Page 0,61

he could shift and set off slowly back to the road. He drove with no lights, as smoothly as he could manage, in the direction of the town.

The Toyota was still under the bridge. It was tucked in with its passenger side close to the thick brick pillars that must have supported the structure for the last hundred years. Reacher pulled across so the Beetle was tight up against its driver’s side, making it the meat in a sandwich. He pulled the T-shirt away from his face. The driver stared at him. She looked surprised for a moment. Then suspicious. Reacher gestured for her to roll down her window.

‘How are you guys doing?’ Reacher flashed what he hoped was a friendly smile. ‘Surveillance duty can be pretty dull, can’t it? That’s why I’ve brought you something. Should liven things up.’

Reacher removed the lid, stretched his arm across the driver’s lap, and tipped the contents of the cup all over the Toyota’s centre console. Then he wound up his own window and sat for a moment and watched as curly fingers of thin green smoke began to rise and twist inside the other car. High school chemistry. He’d remembered it pretty well. The four occupants squealed and clawed at their eyes then scrabbled for their door handles. The doors on the opposite side slammed into the brick pillars leaving a gap too narrow to escape through. The doors on Reacher’s side were snagged against the Beetle’s running board. Reacher held his position for another moment then pulled away. In his mirror he saw the first pair tumble out. Then the second pair followed, stumbling around with their arms stretched out like horror movie zombies.

Reacher felt like he was getting a peek into the future when he arrived back at Mitch’s apartment. Rutherford was stooped. Hunched. He dragged his feet along the floor as he walked. His eyes seemed dim and unfocused, as if he’d aged fifty years in the course of the evening.

‘Have you been drinking?’ Reacher said.

Rutherford didn’t reply.

‘Where’s Sarah?’ Reacher said.

‘Bathroom.’ Rutherford made it as far as the couch and slumped down.

‘How did you do?’

‘We have some good news,’ Rutherford said. ‘Some OK news. And some absolutely catastrophic news. Which do you want first?’

‘Start with the good.’

Rutherford gestured towards the kitchen. A large grey laptop was sitting on the countertop, connected to an outlet by a twisted grubby wire. ‘We got that.’

‘A computer?’ Reacher said.

‘Not just any computer.’ A hint of defiance crept into Rutherford’s voice. ‘The computer the asshole town lawyers wanted me to pay fourteen thousand dollars to see. Which leads to the OK news. I at least have a future as a cat burglar ahead of me if I can’t get my job back. We got in. We got out. No one had a clue we were ever there.’

‘And the server things?’

‘That’s the bad news. They’re gone. We looked everywhere. Not even the broken glass from the cabinet door was left.’

‘But we’re not giving up, are we, Rusty?’ Sarah emerged from a door to the side of the kitchen. Her hair was wrapped in a towel and she was wearing a black satin robe that was several sizes too big for her. ‘We’re going to find those damn things. Starting tomorrow. We’ll search the whole state. The whole country, if we have to. They must be somewhere.’

‘What do they look like?’ Reacher said. ‘Could you describe them to me?’

‘I can get you pictures, if you like,’ Rutherford said. ‘Model numbers. Serial numbers. Why?’

‘You should let me find them. You and Sarah should leave town.’

‘No way.’ Rutherford crossed his arms. ‘We’ve been over this before.’

‘We should find the servers, then leave.’ Sands sat on the couch next to Rutherford. ‘They’re portable. We can work on them anywhere. There’s nothing to be gained by staying in harm’s way longer than we have to.’

‘You should leave now,’ Reacher said. ‘Someone wants these things badly enough to send six guys after you. Those six failed. Do you think they’ll give up? No. They’ll send twelve guys. Eighteen. Who knows how many? And if they get their hands on you, how far do you think I don’t know where the servers are will get you?’

Sands adjusted the towel on her head. Rutherford said nothing.

‘You should leave,’ Reacher said. ‘If I can find the servers I’ll get them to the FBI. They can do whatever they need to with this digital fingerprint you think is in one of them. Then when it’s