A Wanted Man

SEVENTY-EIGHT

AFTER THAT IT got harder, not easier. First Reacher couldn’t get McQueen out of the chair. He was tied to it with thin cord pulled very tight and the knots were hard as stones. And second, the survivors somewhere in the rooms beyond had finally gotten the message. They must have heard the shot close by and as soon as King didn’t come out all triumphant they started up with a half-assed version of Custer’s last stand. Either that or they were all planning to run for it. And either thing would put live bodies in the way. Reacher heard them all crowding together in the corridor. He heard the snick of slides being pulled. Automatic weapons, being checked and readied. He heard an urgent muffled conference, not far from the door, half in English and half in Arabic.

He asked, ‘What does Wadiah mean, anyway?’

McQueen said, ‘Safekeeping.’

‘I thought so.’

‘You speak Arabic?’

‘The odd word.’

‘Don’t you have a knife?’

‘I have a toothbrush.’

‘That won’t help.’

‘It’s good against plaque.’

‘Just get me out of this damn chair.’

‘I’m trying.’

The cord was too tough to break. It was some kind of a blend, maybe cotton and nylon, woven tight, about a quarter of an inch across. Probably tested against all kinds of strains and weights.

Reacher said, ‘I have a key.’

McQueen said, ‘I’m not in handcuffs, for God’s sake.’

Reacher pulled out the fat man’s key. He nicked at the rope with the rough-edged tang, down by McQueen’s right hand. The tang cut some fibres. Maybe two or three. Out of maybe ten thousand. Reacher said, ‘Put some tension on it. As much as you can. You’re FBI, right? Make like you’re trying to lift your pension.’

McQueen’s shoulder and biceps bunched and the cord went hard as iron. Reacher sawed at it. Not back and forth. He had to pluck at it. The key worked only one way. But it made progress. Outside the door the voices were loud. Two factions. Doubt and questions, resolve and encouragement. Reacher was rooting for the doubt. Just for a little while longer. McQueen kept the pressure on. Fibres snapped and severed, first a few, then several, then many, then an eighth of an inch, then most of them, then only a few remained, and finally McQueen tore his right hand loose.

Reacher picked up Peter King’s Beretta from the floor. He put it in McQueen’s right hand. McQueen said, ‘That Colt on your shoulder would be better. These corridors are pretty long.’

Reacher said, ‘It only has five rounds left in it. I’m planning to use it as a club.’ He started on McQueen’s left wrist, plucking, cutting, fibres popping under the strain. McQueen said, ‘You could reload it.’

Reacher said, ‘No time. We don’t want to be caught with our pants down.’

‘How many in your Glock?’

‘Thirteen.’

‘Unlucky.’

‘True.’ Reacher stopped sawing and swapped out the magazine for the full one he had taken from Bale, in the motel room in Kansas, about a million years ago. Click, click, hand to hand, not a blur like the showboats could do it, but no more than a second and a half. He started sawing again. The voices were still loud in the corridor.

Reacher said, ‘Do you have an accurate headcount?’

McQueen said, ‘Twenty-four tonight, not including me.’

‘Six left, then.’

‘Is that all? Jesus.’

‘I’ve been here at least twenty minutes.’

‘Who the hell are you?’

‘Just a guy, hitching rides.’

‘Well, good work, whoever you are.’

‘Did you have a private room, when you were here?’

‘No, those were for Peter King and the big boss.’

‘I thought Peter King was the big boss.’

‘No, King was number two.’

‘So who’s the big boss?’

‘I don’t know. I never met him.’

‘Where is he now?’

‘I have no idea.’

The door opened. McQueen fired from his chair. A dark shape fell backward. Reacher stepped across and kicked the door shut again. He said, ‘Five left.’

McQueen said, ‘How would you do it?’

‘If I was them? I’d open every door in the corridor and put a guy in the first five rooms with blue spots. They’d see us before we saw them. We couldn’t go anywhere at all.’

‘That’s what I’m worried about.’

‘Are they smart enough?’

‘I don’t know,’ McQueen said. ‘They’re plenty smart in some ways.’

‘I’m certainly getting that feeling.’

‘How? You know what this is all about?’

Reacher said, ‘I think I’ve figured most of it out.’

‘So you understand we absolutely need to capture this building intact, right?’

‘Speak for yourself. All I absolutely need to do is to get to Virginia.’

‘What’s in Virginia?’

‘Many things. It’s an important state. Twelfth largest in terms of population, and thirteenth in terms of GDP.’

McQueen’s left hand came free. Reacher gave him the Colt and crouched down and started work on his ankles, from behind.

The ankle ropes went slower. The tough fibres were doing the work the hardware store guy should have done with his buffing wheel. The key was getting smooth. Not good. So Reacher adapted his technique. He used the last of the burr on the tang to tug up part of the knot, and he used the key from the FBI’s motel in Kansas as a spike to force the knot apart. A different approach, and slower, but it got the job done a small fraction at a time. Five minutes later McQueen was three-quarters free, and five minutes after that he was out of the chair completely. He was trailing bracelets of severed rope from his wrists. He had the Colt sub-machine gun in his left hand and Peter King’s Beretta in his right. Good to go. They were about two hundred feet from the first mechanized door, and three hundred feet from the second. Three hundred feet from the sweet night air. Three hundred feet from safety.

‘Ready?’ Reacher said.

McQueen nodded.

Reacher opened the door to the corridor.