Free 61 Hours by Lee Child Page A

is the trial?’
    ‘A month if we’re lucky.’
    ‘And she won’t leave? You could stash her in a hotel. Maybe in the Caribbean. That’s a deal I would take right now.’
    ‘She won’t leave.’
    ‘Does she know the danger she’s in?’
    ‘We explained the situation to her. But she wants to do the right thing. She says it’s a matter of principle.’
    ‘Good for her.’
    Peterson nodded. ‘Good for us, too. Because we’ll nail the whole lot of them. But hard on us, also. Because we’re using a lot of resources.’
    Reacher nodded in turn. ‘Which is why you’re pussyfooting. Why you’re not confronting the bikers. Because an all-out war right now would stretch you too thin.’
    ‘And because we have to sell this thing to a jury. We can’t let defence counsel make out it’s all part of a harassment campaign. Plus, the bikers aren’t dumb. They keep their noses clean. Technically as individuals they haven’t done anything wrong yet. At least not in public.’
    ‘In fact the opposite seems to be true. I saw the photographs.’
    ‘Exactly,’ Peterson said. ‘It looks like one of our good citizens beat one of theirs to death.’
    The clock on the refrigerator ticked on and hit five to midnight. Fifty-two hours to go. Outside the window the moon had crept higher. The fallen snow was bright. The air was still. No wind. The cold was so intense Reacher could feel it striking through the farmhouse walls. There was a buffer zone about a foot deep, where the cold came creeping in before the heat from the iron stove overwhelmed it and beat it back.
    Reacher asked, ‘Is Chief Holland up to the job?’
    Peterson said, ‘Why do you ask?’
    ‘First impressions. He looks a little overmatched to me.’
    ‘Holland is a good man.’
    ‘That’s not an answer to my question.’
    ‘Did you discuss your superiors when you were in the army?’
    ‘All the time. With people of equal rank.’
    ‘Are we of equal rank?’
    ‘Approximately.’
    ‘So what were your superiors like?’
    ‘Some of them were good, and some of them were assholes.’
    ‘Holland’s OK,’ Peterson said. ‘But he’s tired. His wife died. Then his daughter grew up and left home. He’s all alone, and he feels a little beaten down.’
    ‘I saw the photograph in his office.’
    ‘Happier days. They made a nice family.’
    ‘So is he up to the job?’
    ‘Enough to ask for help when he needs it.’
    ‘Who’s he asking?’
    ‘You.’
    Reacher finished his Miller. He was warm, and comfortable, and tired. He said, ‘What could I possibly do for him?’
    Peterson said, ‘There was an old army facility where they built the construction camp.’
    ‘You told me that already.’
    ‘We need to understand exactly what it was.’
    ‘Don’t you know?’
    Peterson shook his head. ‘It was put in a long time ago. There’s a single stone building, about the size of a house.’
    ‘Is that all?’
    Peterson nodded. ‘A long straight road leading to a single small building all alone on the prairie.’
    ‘And it’s the size of a house?’
    ‘Smaller than this one.’
    ‘What shape?’
    ‘Square. Rectangular. Like a house.’
    ‘With a roof?’
    ‘Of course.’
    ‘Because I’m wondering if it was a missile silo. There are plenty of them in the Dakotas.’
    ‘It’s not a silo.’
    ‘Then it could be anything. Could be something they started and didn’t finish.’
    ‘We don’t think so. There’s a kind of folk memory with the older people. They say there were hundreds of engineers out there for months. And a security cordon. And a lot of coming and going. That’s a lot of effort for a thing the size of a house.’
    ‘I’ve heard of stranger things.’
    ‘We need to know. Chances are we’re going to need to go out there and make a hundred arrests. We need to know what we’re dealing with.’
    ‘Call somebody. Call the Department of the Army.’
    ‘We have. We’ve called, the county board has called, the state government has