Unable to stay in the steakhouse parking lot, Jack called Jubal and asked him to notify the local FBI office to come and clean up the mess with the police. The two cars continued towards New York.
It wasn't until they were nearing downtown New Haven that they found a 24-hour roadside restaurant to fill their stomachs. There was a motel next door.
Jack had learned his lesson this time and chose a room several doors away from Reacher, finally avoiding the intrusive noise.
Reacher was actually quite reserved, but Dixon, a true American woman, was less considerate. Perhaps she had been coveting someone for so long that now that she finally got what she wanted, she wasn't going to stop until she had a satisfying meal.
The next morning, they split up. O'Donnell drove the Cayenne and took Jack and Reacher home first.
His house showed that he had made a lot of money from his dirty little dealings in Washington. Not everyone could afford a two-story brick house near Washington, D.C.
O'Donnell's wife looked no more than 30, with long, dark hair and the slender figure typical of wealthy Americans. She hardly looked like the mother of two sixty- or seven-year-old boys.
Jack and Reacher, each holding a bottle of beer, stared blankly at the two youngsters, seemingly too young to care about, chasing and fighting around the house.
The children, of course, had no idea what was going on, but O'Donnell's wife's behavior was quite impressive. Upon hearing her husband's evasive request to take the children to North Carolina for two days, she immediately packed her things without a word.
"Have you got the epinephrine injectors?" O'Donnell asked, stuffing several stuffed animals into her small backpack.
"And the asthma inhaler, take everything." The woman deftly packed a suitcase.
O'Donnell, still somewhat concerned, warned, "Take your anonymous phone with you. Don't contact anyone, not your parents. Most importantly, don't contact your sister; she posts everything on Facebook.
When you get to Asheville, stay downtown. There are a lot of tourists there at this time of year, so try to blend in. Try to use cash, not credit cards."
"I know the rules," O'Donnell's wife said after packing her things. "On a scale of one to ten, how bad is this situation?"
O'Donnell reassured her with a twinkle in his eye. "You'll be fine. We're just being cautious."
Seeing his wife's gaze fixed on him, he sighed. "Okay, for you, a four at most."
"What about you?" the woman said softly, her primary concern clearly not for herself and the children.
"We're dealing with some very bad guys, but they've exhausted their methods by now. And I have these friends around me. Nothing will happen. It'll be over in a few days at most," O'Donnell assured her.
"Be sure to stay safe, for me and the kids." The woman kissed O'Donnell on the cheek and yelled for the two naughty kids to go upstairs and pack their clothes.
"She doesn't seem panicked at all, she's taking it all in very calmly." Reacher probably understood why a certain former playboy was being taken advantage of.
"She's the daughter of an ER head nurse and a fire captain, she's very strong." O'Donnell's tone was filled with unconcealable pride.
"Smart, beautiful, brave, strong, so why would a woman like you marry you? Lost the bet, or did the beauty save the hero?" Jack teased.
Reacher opened another beer and sipped slowly. "I thought you'd die in agony as your lower body rotted away, and then a bunch of ex-girlfriends would fight over your '04 Mazda."
O'Donnell raised a middle finger at each of them. "I just finally met the right person. And you, Jack, are you sure you have the right to laugh at me?"
Jack looked at Reacher angrily. Seeing him look away embarrassed, he knew he must have betrayed him. O'Donnell had only considered Jiejie his girlfriend before.
But he quickly rationalized it. "Actually, I'm just like you. I've had better luck. I've met more girls who are right for me, and I don't want to let them down."
-
"According to your suggestion, DHS has been focusing on searching for the mysterious 'AM.' We suspect he's involved in the murder of a Pennsylvania state trooper last night."
Jack and Reacher were greeted at the DHS office by the same two agents who had accompanied Reacher's brother, Joey, to New York. Jack remembered the older one as Omar Karim.
Agent Karim continued, "The state trooper stopped a car with Colorado plates and was murdered while reporting the driver's identity. The killer stabbed her in the heart with a precise blow."
"Why do you suspect the state trooper's killer is connected to 'AM'? Did the body camera capture anything?" Jack asked curiously.
Agent Karim shook his head regretfully. "Nothing. It was late at night, and there were no witnesses. The killer was very experienced and destroyed the officer's body camera and took the memory card, including the police car camera.
But the conscientious female officer had already reported the driver's license information to the command center, and we found that the driver's identity matched that of a plastic surgeon who was murdered in Denver, Colorado a day earlier."
He placed a photo in front of the two men. It showed a white man with dark hair and dark eyes, deep features, and looked to be in his thirties or forties, very handsome.
"You suspect 'AM' killed the plastic surgeon, who looked somewhat like him, and took his identity?" Reacher understood his meaning.
"It's not a suspicion, it's almost certain." Agent Karim displayed several photos from the scene, showing two victims: the nurse at the clinic's front desk and the doctor himself in his office.
"While our previous operation failed to apprehend the cunning 'AM,' it forced him to abandon his potentially exposed aliases. He had no choice but to temporarily find a replacement identity and drive to New York."
"The cash in the clinic was intact, and the killer only took the victim's driver's license? I agree with the DHS's assessment,"
Jack said, flipping through the autopsy report. The fatal wounds were both on the side of the neck. The operation was expertly executed, severing the carotid artery and trachea with a single cut, leaving the victim no chance to call for help.
They also shared their current intelligence, including the details of the "Little Wings" project. Hearing that the case involved 650 portable air defense missiles and a $65 million transaction, the two DHS agents became excited.
"We must take immediate action to seal off the Denver plant and determine the whereabouts of those missiles. 'AM' must be heading to New York to complete the final deal."
Just as Jack was hesitating whether to ask them to call Joey Reacher and inform them that a senator was also involved, his phone suddenly rang.
The call was from Clay and Aubrey, who had gone to the New Age Technologies' munitions plant in Denver this morning, posing as inspectors from the Defense Contract Management Agency.
They had just experienced a dangerous gunfight, killing five armed robbers, but because their vehicle was damaged, they were unable to stop a hijacked 18-wheeler from leaving.
(End of this chapter)