Page 46 of Chain Reaction

“Are you going to tell the Chief of Staff?”

“I should.”

“But?”

“I’m not going to. Not yet. Remember the first rule about the people above you in the chain of command. You don’t bring them problems. You bring them solutions. And right now we don’t have any.”

“You need to tell Elwood to stay off the air. Now they’re tracking him too.”

“I’ll call him from my landline when I get home. I’m going to give him an overnight in Summertown and then I’m going to send him here. Under the radar. I’ll tell him the focus has moved on fast. I’ll get back here as soon as I can.”

“Will he want to work with me?”

“Why wouldn’t he?”

“He’s a colonel.”

“So was I, not long ago. I work with you.”

“Tell him to watch his back out there. Bisley was ten hours between the first call and mission accomplished. They could mobilize a replacement crew before morning.”

“I’ll warn him,” she said. “I’ll give you his ETA as soon as I have it.”

“Meanwhile I’ll look for the mysterious Hugo.”

“And then what?”

“Nothing,” Reacher said. “I’ll keep an eye on him, and when you get back we’ll go ask him who his client is. Then we’ll make some real progress. Maybe you’ll never have to tell the Chief of Staff. That’s always the best solution for the chain of command. Ignorance is bliss. What they don’t know can’t hurt them.”

—

Down on the nerd floor Saxby Cameron dialed his phone. Axel Brill’s private number. Brill answered and Cameron said, “General Turner’s phone just switched off.”

“Does that mean we found it?”

“I don’t know what it means. All I know is someone just turned it off.”

“Leave it with me, bro,” Brill said. He dialed his flip and got the concierge. He asked, a little excited, “Did we just find the phone?”

“I haven’t heard anything from them yet.”

“Apparently it just switched off.”

“Let me check with them. I’ll get back to you.”

—

Five miles short of the airport a phone rang in one of Reacher’s many pockets. He guessed right and pulled out the crew leader’s burner. The pale fellow with the sandy beard. His phone was trilling an urgent tune. Lazarus Lorenzo’s number was on the screen.

“I guess someone noticed your work phone went dark,” he said. “Now Hugo wants to know what’s going on.”

“Don’t answer it,” Turner said. “Leave him not knowing. Uncertainty and doubt are our friends right now.”

Reacher buzzed his window down and threw the phone out on the 101. He followed it with the five others they had taken. Didn’t need them anymore. He kept the tall guy’s phone, from Denver. It was still a minor source of information. It would ring again pretty soon, when Elwood checked in at the Summertown motel. The kid at the desk would feel obliged to report it. I think they told you to call them any time someone comes by who isn’t either an engineer or a software guy. Then it would ring again some time later, when the job-done call still had not been made. Hugo would want to know what the hell was taking so long.

The cab took the airport exit. It funneled through the curves and up to departures. All the domestic carriers. It pulled into a space. Passengers streamed by, dragging luggage, carrying dogs, holding children by the hand. Turner leaned over and kissed Reacher on the mouth, long and hard.

“Keep the cab,” she said. “Don’t come in. I hate goodbyes. Especially at the airport. I feel like I’m in a movie.”