Page 69 of Chain Reaction

Then Hugo said, “Yes.”

Elwood set his phone. The San Francisco International Airport, domestic arrivals. The phone came up with a thick blue line toward a northbound ramp onto the 101. Elwood drove, slow and quiet. Hugo said nothing. He glanced left, glanced right, tested the strength of the tape, and gave up. Elwood hit the 101. Traffic was slow. Reacher buzzed his window down and tossed the tall guy’s burner. He didn’t need it anymore.

Chapter 26

They parked last in line with a bunch of limos and Ubers on the shoulder of the airport approach road. An unofficial cell phone lot. The sky was almost dark. The day was done. Nighttime was upon them. Reacher called Turner and left a voicemail message. Call me when you land and come out the door where we got the taxi. Then they waited. Hugo didn’t speak. Elwood used a flight tracker on his phone. The only eight p.m. arrival from D.C. was on approach.

—

Reacher’s burner rang three minutes after Elwood’s tracker showed Turner’s flight had arrived at the gate. Reacher answered and Turner said, “I’m getting off the plane right now.” Reacher bit off a length of duct tape and leaned forward and smoothed it over Hugo’s mouth. Elwood cut out of the line of waiting cars and headed for baggage claim. They crawled past crowds of people spilling out of doors, hauling cases, toting bags, some with dogs, some with kids, most on phones, searching left and right for their rides. Some glanced at them, and then glanced away. Not their husband or wife or whoever else was supposed to come pick them up. None of them noticed Hugo’s situation. There were no surprised double takes. The tan tape was doing its unobtrusive job.

Turner came out nine minutes after her call. Same wheeled suitcase, same shoulder bag, but a different outfit. Blue jacket, blue jeans, yellow T-shirt. Reacher thought she looked just fine. Elwood stopped alongside her. Reacher leaned over and opened her door. She got in next to him, behind Elwood, who said, “Ma’am.”

Reacher said, “Say hi to Hugo.”

She craned forward and looked him up and down. He turned his head and stared back at her, eyes wide and wild. Some kind of desperate mute appeal. She caught his meaning but shook her head. She said, “Sorry, Hugo. You messed with the wrong people this time.”

She turned away and said, “Hello, Elwood.”

Who said, “Evening, ma’am.”

“All well?”

“Satisfactory so far.”

To Reacher she said, “I guess you kicked von Moltke’s butt again.”

“Colonel Elwood provided the critical skills,” Reacher said. “Timely pursuit was the key to success.”

“Where now?”

“Out of here, for sure. Too crowded. Let’s head south. Deep in the woods somewhere. That would work. Like a Zen question. If Hugo screams in a forest, where there’s no one to hear him, has he really screamed at all?”

Elwood scrolled the map on his phone. He said, “There’s a place called the Burleigh H. Murray Ranch State Park. The road out passes by a funeral home.”

“Winner all around,” Reacher said. “Set the controls.”

He pitched Turner’s case over the seat back into the load bay behind. Elwood dabbed at his phone and the robot voice gave him the turns. Out of the airport, south on the 101. Turner watched Elwood and as soon as he was settled into an attentive cruise on the freeway she leaned over and kissed Reacher on the mouth. He kissed her back and they kept it going for a long and exciting mile. Then suddenly he remembered the crucial thing about a car with a driver. There was someone to look in the rearview mirror. The same thought must have hit her, right at the same time. Less of a problem for him than her. She had chain of command issues to consider. They both straightened up, smiling, but a little sheepish.

Reacher leaned forward and tore the tape off Hugo’s mouth. No danger in him yelling now. Not against the howl of the traffic. No one to hear him.

Hugo said, “I’ll tell you what you want to know. No need for the forest.”

“You sure?” Reacher said.

“I want to make this right.”

“You got a time machine?”

“No.”

“Then making it right is going to be kind of difficult.”

“I’ll cooperate. Whatever you need.”

“The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?”

“I promise.”