Foreign and Domestic: A Get Reacher Novel (20 page)

Cameron stayed quiet, and Lucas pulled the picture back. He glanced down at it a last time and placed it back into his wallet and returned his wallet to the inner pocket of his jacket.

Cord said, “We’ll do whatever it takes to get her back. We’re Secret Service and ex-special ops. We aren’t helpless. We can get her back.”

Cameron looked at Li, and then he said, “When was she taken? What time exactly?”

“We think she was abducted two nights ago at around nine o’clock. Maybe ten.”

“How’s it that she’s still alive? That’s more than twenty-four hours ago.”

Cord said, “The video message wasn’t uploaded until last night. We didn’t hear anything for twenty-four hours.”

Cameron said, “They wanted you to be afraid. They wanted you to be terrified. They wanted her parents to think the worst as most parents do when their children go missing.”

Lucas said, “Well, it worked. We’re terrified.”

Cameron said, “How much time do we have left? Exactly.”

“Air Force One lands at 6:30 pm. After it lands, the president will disembark and face the press corps. That’ll be our last chance. If John Lane sees that the cameras have gone off and the president is still alive, then Raggie is dead.”

“How do you know he’s serious?”

Cord said, “We know him. Believe me, he’s serious.”

Cameron said, “I don’t mean about killing her. Obviously, he can do that. I mean how do you know that he’ll return her unharmed if we do as he asks?”

Cord looked at Li. He said, “You should leave.”

Li said, “Why?”

Cord stepped back onto the patio, his shoes scuffing the concrete and making a low echo that bounced between the walls and the privacy fence and the neighbor’s houses.

He said, “Because you’ve heard too much already.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Silence. She looked at her boss and then at Cameron.

Cameron said, “He’s right. You should go home now. Forget about this whole thing.”

Li’s face turned pale. She said, “What the hell? What do you mean? I’m not good enough to help?”

Cord said, “No. That’s not it at all.”

Cameron said, “He means that you have your whole career ahead of you. After this thing is over, there will be hearings and investigations and trials. You’ll be called in front of Congress and probably be on the news. He means that your career will be over.”

Li thought for a moment and understood.

Cameron said, “Whatever the hell happens, this thing will be over by tonight. I can call you after.”

Li said, “Cameron,” and signaled for him to follow her off to the side. She walked onto the grass. It was dry, and the dirt underneath was hard. She walked far enough away to be out of earshot from Cord and Lucas. She pulled Cameron by the arm and then stopped in the middle of the yard. She looked around, and then she said, “I’m going to go home, but I don’t think you should be involved, either. They don’t want you for your powers of investigation. It sounds like they want you as bait, and bait gets eaten. Obviously, they know cops and have friends they trust in the bureau. Plus, there’s Graine, who’s a cop. They could call any number of people to search for this girl. They didn’t need to call the obscure son of some guy that maybe can help them.”

Cameron said, “I don’t think that they have much of a choice. If Graine was good enough, then they’d have him out there investigating and not babysitting the mother. And if they could use any of their friends, then they would have. You can’t just call up anyone and say, ‘Hey. I need you to investigate a missing girl. Oh, and by the way, she’s the daughter of the director of the United States Secret Service. Plus, the maniac who took her wants us to kill the president.’”

Li raised her voice. “This isn’t kid stuff.” Then she lowered it and said, “This is really serious. They wanted your father. He was an Army cop. How’re you supposed to help them other than standing in for him? You’re like a crash test dummy—you’re just going to get in the front seat and wait to be killed.”

“Don’t worry about me.”

“Cameron, they don’t care about you.”

“I know. They want this little girl back alive. I get it. That’s all they care about. But what am I supposed to do? Walk away? I want her back, too.”

Li said, “This isn’t your fight. Walk away.”

“Not my style.”

“You don’t even know this girl.”

Cameron said, “I know her enough. She’s fourteen years old. She’s a surfer, and she’s been taken. She’s out there somewhere, and she’s scared that she’s gonna die. And you know what? She’s right. She’s gonna die. Look at these guys. They’re so desperate that they called up the son of a hobo to help them. They’re hoping I have the magic bullet that will help them save a little girl’s life.” Cameron looked over Li’s head at the edge of the privacy fence and then back into her eyes. He said, “I don’t know what the hell these guys did to piss off this guy, Lane. I don’t know if they’re telling the truth about that or not. I do know that Jack killed this guy’s brother, and if giving myself over to him will buy this girl some time, then it’s worth it.

“I’ve lost people before. I’ve lost friends and people who depended on me. And I lost them because of my own arrogance. But you know what? I’ve been walking around for months blaming myself for their deaths. I blamed myself because I thought I acted like a know-it-all, an arrogant prick. But when I doubt myself, we lose. People die. I know things because my father is this homeless crusader with great genes. And I know things because my mother trained me every day like I was about to be shipped off to war. Maybe I even just know things like great musicians know how to play music.”

Li said, “This isn’t music.”

“I know that. But this is the kinda thing I’m good at. I’m good at fighting and investigations. And I’m good at winning. That’s what Jack gave me.”

Li stayed quiet for a long moment, and then she said, “Whatever you think you’ve experienced in some small town in Mississippi is nothing compared to this. You’ll get killed, and they don’t care.”

Cameron said, “I’ll be fine. I can help them. I’m sure that their harebrained plan was to trade Jack for Raggie. This Lane guy probably won’t go for it anyway, but that doesn’t matter. I have to try to save this girl.”

“Why, because Jack would?”

“I’m not Jack. And I don’t care about what he’d do. I only care about doing what’s right. So go home. I’ll come by later. Don’t worry—one way or the other, this will be over. And I’ll be fine. But you should go.”

Li said, “Why should I go if you’re going to stay?”

“You have a career and a future.” He paused. “One difference between Jack and me is that he’s a guy who had a past. I’m a guy with no past and no future. I have nothing to lose.”

Li reached up and kissed him. A long kiss.

She said, “You have a future.”

Cord and Lucas stared at them.

Lucas said, “What is that?”

“Looks like Li is saying goodbye,” said Cord.

“Do you think the kid will live through this?”

Cord paused a moment and then said, “There’s no question Lane will kill Raggie if Rowley doesn’t kill the president.”

Lucas said, “I meant
this
kid. Cameron.”

“Lane will kill him. No question.”

Chapter 29

CAMERON WALKED THROUGH THE ROWLEY HOUSE
one last time before following Cord, Li, and Lucas out.

They said goodbye to Graine and Mrs. Rowley, who looked like she was in the kind of shock that wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon. She kept her composure, but she barely spoke. Even though she hadn’t seen the video of Raggie, she’d still had the life scared out of her. Cameron wondered if it was a good idea to keep the video from her. A parent’s imagination could be much worse than reality.

Cameron had no experience with kidnappings that involved ransoms, but he’d had some experience with abductions—Faye Matlind, a little Mexican boy, and others from his small town life. There had been more than one occasion when a child from Carter Crossing went missing, and more often than not, it turned out that one of the parents had kidnapped the child from the custody of the other parent.

They stopped in the driveway, and Cameron told Li to wait for him in the car. She did, and he turned to Cord and Lucas and said, “So what’s the plan? You want me to turn myself over to Lane in hopes that maybe it’ll buy some time? You know he’s going to know I’m not Jack. So what’s really the play here?”

Cord said, “We expect he’ll still want you. Better than nothing. We’ll go with you, and Rowley will call Lane. He’ll tell him that we have Jack’s son and want to make a trade for Raggie. Of course, he won’t go for that, but he’ll be very interested.”

Cameron said, “So what’s the endgame here? You hope he’ll extend the deadline if you hand me over?”

“That’s exactly what we’re hoping for.”

“It’s a stupid plan.”

Cord asked, “You got a better one?”

“You guys are ex-Special Forces and now Secret Service. Tell me the truth.”

“Obviously, we don’t plan to just give you up. One dead man isn’t going to stop Raggie from being killed as soon as Rowley doesn’t follow through and kill the president.”

Cameron nodded and said, “I figured that. So what’s the real plan?”

“A rescue attempt.”

“How?”

Cord said, “Simple plan. We put a tracking device on you. Then we send in the cavalry.”

Cameron said, “That doesn’t sound reassuring.”

“I know. But it’s all we got.”

Cameron stayed quiet.

Cord said, “Then I guess that’s our best option. We sit tight until Lane calls Rowley back and then we get on the move.”

Chapter 30

JOHN LANE WAS IN VIRGINIA,
not far from Cameron and the Rowley residence. Of course, he was even closer to Raggie. She was in a room with one hand handcuffed to a steel pipe from the plumbing. She wasn’t far from a sink, but it was too far for her to reach with her feet because she’d tried to kick at it—at the bottom. She was doubtless that leaking water would attract attention from any of the neighbors, but it was at least a small glimmer of hope. Better that she kept her mind occupied rather than worrying about what the men who had kidnapped her were going to do to her.

She remembered seeing the man that she knew, but that was about all she remembered. She had been awake for a while but wasn’t quite sure how long she’d been there or how long she’d been restrained. She had looked around the room several times, but it did no good. She wasn’t in complete darkness, but the room she was in had no natural light, and the lights were turned off. She was handcuffed to a pipe near an old farmer’s sink. There was a metal hose hanging over it like a restaurant dish room would have, but Raggie was sure she wasn’t in a restaurant. She thought she was in an animal hospital because she heard lots of barking. And the barking was coming from the next room. It was either an animal hospital or an animal shelter.

In the next room,
on the other side of the barking dogs, John Lane sat at an office desk and stared at his phone. He had just acted surprised to get a call he’d actually been expecting.

Rowley had called him from Air Force One begging to see his daughter, begging for Lane to spare her, and begging for Lane to swap her for a guy named Cameron—not Jack Reacher but supposedly the next best thing, his son. In a way, it was much more fitting to kill the son of the guy who had killed his brother rather than killing Jack himself since Lane’s little brother had been his responsibility. Ever since they were children, Lane had looked after his little brother like he was the parent.

Of course, killing Reacher’s son wouldn’t be as satisfying because supposedly Jack didn’t even know he had a kid. So he’d probably never know that Lane had killed his only son. But he enjoyed the idea nevertheless.

Rowley had called with the proposition that they trade Cameron for Raggie, but Lane quickly dismissed that. Then Rowley had begged him to reconsider, and he’d replied that he wasn’t interested. Lane countered with proof of life from Raggie as well as the promise to extend the original demand by an extra day. But he had no intention of extending it. He was on a deadline. The president would be dead on TV by the end of the day. And Raggie would be dead no matter what by the end of the day.

This guy Cameron, however, wouldn’t be dead until he told Lane where the hell Jack was. Lane texted Mr. Jekyll’s burner phone:
It worked. Cameron is on his way to me. Thanks for the bonus. Our employer will wire you the rest of your money when POTUS is retired. I’ll send you payment personally when Cameron is in my hands.

Lane set his phone down and turned in his chair to look at the monitor that had night vision lenses. He watched a grainy and greenish live video feed of Raggie in the other room as she tried to kick at the pipes of a sink used to clean animals. She kicked and kicked, and the sink rattled. He wasn’t sure what the hell she was trying to do. Maybe trying to make the pipes burst and leak water everywhere. Or perhaps, since she was a surfer, water was a security blanket. Lane wasn’t sure.

It didn’t matter. The pipes were switched off. They had done that before locking her in there. Lane had been in the abduction business for quite a while now, and he knew it was good to give the captive something to do. The only time you needed to take away all hope was when you wanted to scare them. And she had already been scared enough when Grant popped her in the face before filming the video for her parents.