Tripwire

So how would they aim to grab her up? Think like the enemy. Think like the two guys. Physical, unsubtle, favoring a direct approach, willing and dangerous, but not really schooled beyond the point of amateur enthusiasm. It was pretty clear what they would do. They would have a four-door vehicle waiting in a side street maybe three blocks south, parked in the right lane, facing east, ready to swoop out and hang the right on Broadway. They would be waiting together in the front seats, silent. They would be sca

He bent forward from the waist and put his whole upper body out through the window. Craned his head around to the right and gazed down the street. Looked hard at the corners, two and three and four blocks south. It would be one of those.

“Ready,” Jodie called to him.

THEY RODE DOWN ninety floors together to the underground garage. Walked through to the right zone and over to the bays leased along with Hobie’s office suite.

“We should take the Suburban,” the enforcer said. “Bigger.”

“OK,” Tony said. He unlocked it and slid into the driver’s seat. The enforcer hoisted himself into the passenger seat. Glanced back at the empty load bed. Tony fired it up and eased out toward the ramp to the street.

“So how do we do this?” Tony asked.

The guy smiled confidently. “Easy enough. She’ll be walking south on Broadway. We’ll wait around a corner until we see her. Couple of blocks south of her building. We see her pass by on the crosswalk, we pull around the comer, get alongside her, and that’s that, right?”

“Wrong,” Tony said. “We’ll do it different.”

The guy looked across at him. “Why?”

Tony squealed the big car up and out into the sunlight.

“Because you’re not very smart,” he said. “If that’s how you’d do it, there’s got to be a better way, right? You screwed up in Garrison. You’ll screw up here. She’s probably got this Reacher guy with her. He beat you there, he’ll beat you here. So whatever you figure is the best way to do it, that’s the last thing we’re going to do.”

“So how are we going to do it?”

“I’ll explain it to you real careful,” Tony said. “I’ll try to keep it real simple.”

REACHER SLID THE window back down. Clicked the lock and rattled the blind down into position. She was standing just inside the doorway, hair still darkened by the shower, dressed in a simple sleeveless linen dress, bare legs, plain shoes. The dress was the same color as her wet hair, but would end up darker as her hair dried. She was carrying a purse and a large leather briefcase, the size he had seen commercial pilots using. It was clearly heavy. She put it down and ducked away to her garment bag, which was on the floor against a wall, where he had dumped it the previous night. She slid the envelope containing Leon’s will out of the pocket and unclicked the lid of the briefcase and stowed it inside.

“Want me to carry that?” he asked.

She smiled and shook her head.

“Union town,” she said. “Bodyguarding doesn’t include drayage around here.”

“It looks pretty heavy,” he said.

“I’m a big girl now,” she replied, looking at him.

He nodded. Lifted the old iron bar out of its brackets and left it upright. She leaned past him and turned the locks. The same perfume, subtle and feminine. Her shoulders in the dress were slim, almost thin. Small muscles in her left arm were bunching to balance the heavy case.

“What sort of law you got in there?” he asked.

“Financial,” she said.

He eased the door open. Glanced out. The hallway was empty. The elevator indicator was showing somebody heading down to the street from three.

“What sort of financial?”

They stepped across and called the elevator.

“Debt rescheduling, mostly,” she said. “I’m more of a negotiator than a lawyer, really. More like a counselor or a mediator, you know?”

He didn’t know. He had never been in debt. Not out of any i

“Millions of dollars?” he asked.

The elevator arrived. The doors slid open.

“At least,” she said. “Usually tens of millions, sometimes hundreds.”

The elevator was empty. They stepped inside.

“Enjoy it?” he asked.

The elevator whined downward.

“Sure,” she said. “A person needs a job, it’s as good as she’s going to get.”

The elevator settled with a bump.

“You good at it?”

She nodded.

“Yes,” she said simply. “Best there is on Wall Street, no doubt about that.”

He smiled. She was Leon’s daughter, that was for damn sure.

The elevator doors slid open. An empty lobby, the street door sucking shut, a broad woman heading slowly down the steps to the sidewalk.

“Car keys?” he said.

She had them in her hand. A big bunch of keys on a brass ring.

“Wait here,” he said. “I’ll back it up to the stairs. One minute.”

The door from the lobby to the garage opened from the inside with a push bar. He went through and down the metal steps and sca

He unlocked the door and slid in. Fired it up and eased into the aisle. Backed up level with the bottom of the stairs. Leaned across inside and sprang the passenger door as she came through from the lobby behind him. She skipped down the steps and climbed straight in the car, all one smooth fluid movement. She slammed the door and he took off forward and made the right up the ramp and the right on the street.

The morning sun in the east flashed once in his eyes, and then he was through it, heading south. The first corner was thirty yards ahead. Traffic was slow. Not stopped, just slow. The light caught him three cars back from the turn. He was in the right lane, and he had no angle to see into the mouth of the cross street. Traffic poured right to left out of it, ahead of him, three cars away. He could see the far stream was slowed, spilling around some kind of obstacle. Maybe a parked vehicle. Maybe a parked four-door, just waiting there for something. Then the sideways flow stopped, and the light on Broadway went green.