The Hard Way Part 41

"You're certainly here early."

"First come first served," Reacher said, because the London guy had, and therefore it might sound authentic.

"What do you want?"

"We're here to buy farms."

"You're Americans, aren't you?"

"We represent a large agricultural corporation in the United States, yes. We're looking to make investments. And we can offer very generous finders' fees."

The direct approach. A variant.

"How much?" Kemp asked.

"It's usually a percentage.'

"What farms?" Kemp asked.

"You tell us. Generally we look for tidy well-run places that might have issues with owners.h.i.+p stability."

"What the h.e.l.l does that mean?"

"It means we want good places that were recently bought up by amateurs. But we want them quick, before they're ruined."

"Grange Farm," Kemp said. "They're b.l.o.o.d.y amateurs. They've gone organic."

"We heard that name."

"It should be top of your list. It's exactly what you said. They've bitten off more than they can chew there. And that's when they're both at home. Which they aren't always. Just now the chap was left alone there for a few days. It's far too much for one man to run. Especially a b.l.o.o.d.y amateur. And they've got too many trees. You can't make money growing trees."

"Grange Farm sounds like a good prospect," Reacher said. "But we heard that someone else is snooping around there, too. He's been seen, recently. On the property. A rival, maybe."

"Really?" Kemp said, excited, conflict in the offing. Then his face fell, deflated. "No, I know who you mean. That's not a b.l.o.o.d.y rival. That's the woman's brother. He's moved in with them."

"Are you sure about that? Because it makes a difference to us, how many people we have to relocate."

Kemp nodded. "The chap came in here and introduced himself. Said he was back from somewhere or other and his wandering days were over. He was posting a packet to America. Airmail. We don't get much of that here. We had quite a nice chat."

"So you're sure he's going to be a long-term resident? Because it makes a difference."

"That's what he said."

Pauling asked, "What did he post to America?"

"He didn't tell me what it was. It was going to a hotel in New York. Addressed to a room, not a person, which I thought was strange."

Reacher asked, "Did you guess what it was?"

Dave Kemp, the farmer in the bar had said. Nosy b.u.g.g.e.r.

"It felt like a thin book," Kemp said. "Not many pages. A rubber band around it. Maybe he had borrowed it. Not that I squeezed it or anything."

"Didn't he fill out a customs declaration?"

"We put it down as printed papers. Don't need a form for that."

"Thanks, Mr. Kemp," Reacher said. "You've been very helpful."

"What about the fee?"

"If we buy the farm, you'll get it," Reacher said.

If we buy the farm, he thought. Unfortunate turn of phrase. He felt suddenly cold. Dave Kemp had no take-out coffee so they bought c.o.ke and candy bars and stopped to eat them on the side of the road a mile west, where they could watch the front of the farmhouse. The place was still quiet. No lights, the same thin trickle of smoke catching the wind and dispersing sideways.

Reacher said, "Why did you ask about the airmail to the States?"

"An old habit," Pauling said. "Ask about everything, especially when you're not sure about what's important and what isn't. And it was kind of weird. Taylor just got out, and the first thing he does is mail something back? What could it have been?"

"Maybe something for his partner," Reacher said. "Maybe he's still in the city."

"We should have gotten the address. But we did pretty well, overall. You were very plausible. It fit very well with last night. All that false bonhomie in the bar? a.s.suming Kemp spreads the word, Taylor's going to put you down as a conman looking to make a fast buck buying farms for fifty cents on the dollar."

"I can lie with the best of them," Reacher said. "Sadly."

Then he shut up fast because he caught a glimpse of movement a half-mile away. The farmhouse door was opening. There was morning mist and the sun was on the other side of the house and the distance was at the outer limit of visibility but he made out four figures emerging into the light. Two big, one slightly smaller, one very small. Probably two men, a woman, and a little child. Possibly a girl.

"They're up," he said.

Pauling said, "I see them, but only just. Four people. The bird scarer probably woke them. Louder than a rooster. It's the Jackson family and Taylor, right? Mommy, Daddy, Melody, and her loving uncle."

"Must be."

They all had things on their shoulders. Long straight poles. Comfortable for the adults, way too big for the girl.

"What are they doing?" Pauling asked.

"Those are hoes," Reacher said. "They're going out to the fields."

"To dig weeds?"

"Organic farming. They can't use herbicides."

The tiny figures grouped together and moved north, away from the road. They dwindled to nothingness, just faint remote blurs in the mist that were more ghostly illusion than reality.

"He's staying," Pauling said. "Isn't he? He must be staying. You don't go out to hoe weeds for your sister if you're thinking about running."

Reacher nodded. "We've seen enough. The job is done. Let's get back to London and wait for Lane."

CHAPTER 62

THEY HIT COMMUTER traffic on the road to London. Lots of it. It seemed like for hundreds of miles England was one of two things: either London or a dormitory serving London. The city was like a gigantic sprawling magnet sucking inward. According to Reacher's atlas the M-l 1 was just one of twenty or so radial arteries that fed the capital. He guessed they were all just as busy, all full of tiny flowing corpuscles that would get spat back out at the end of the day. The daily grind. He had never worked nine to five, never commuted. At times he felt profoundly grateful for that fact. This was one of them.

The stick s.h.i.+ft was hard work in the congestion. Two hours into the ride they pulled off and got gas and he changed places with Pauling, even though he wasn't on the paperwork and wasn't insured to drive. It seemed like a minor transgression compared to what they were contemplating for later. He had driven in Britain before, years earlier, in a large British sedan owned by the U.S. Army. But now the roads were busier. Much busier. It seemed to him like the whole island was packed to capacity. Until he thought back to Norfolk. That county was empty. The island is unevenly packed, he thought. That was the real problem. Either full or empty. No middle ground. Which was unusual for Brits, in his experience. Normally Brits fudged and muddled like champions. The middle ground was where they lived.

They came to the M-25 beltway and decided that discretion was the better part of valour. Decided to hit it for a quarter-circle counterclock-wise and then head down to the West End on an easier route. But the M-25 itself was pretty much a parking lot.

"How do people stand this every day?" Pauling said.

"Houston and LA are as bad," Reacher said.

"But it kind of explains why the Jacksons escaped."

"I guess it does."

And the traffic moved on slowly, circulating like water around a bathtub drain, before yielding to the inexorable pull of the city. They came in through St. John's Wood, where the Abbey Road studios were, past Regent's Park, through Marylebone, past Baker Street, where Sherlock Holmes had lived, through Marble Arch again, and onto Park Lane. The Hilton hotel was at the south end, near the truly world-cla.s.s automotive insanity that was Hyde Park Corner. They parked in a commercial garage underground at a quarter to eleven in the morning. Maybe an hour before Lane and his guys were due to check in.

"Want lunch?" Pauling said.

"Can't eat," Reacher said. "I'm too knotted up."

"So you're human after all."

"I feel like I'm delivering Taylor to an executioner."

"He deserves to die."

"I'd rather do it myself."

"So make the offer."

"Wouldn't be good enough. Lane wants the partner's name. I'm not up for torturing it out of the guy personally."

"So walk away."

"I can't. I want retribution for Kate and Jade and I want the money for Hobart. No other way of getting either. And we have a deal with your Pentagon buddy. He delivered, so now I have to deliver. But all things considered I think I'll skip lunch."

Pauling asked, "Where do you want me?"

"In the lobby. Watching. Then go get yourself a room somewhere else. Leave me a note at the Hilton's desk. Use the name Bayswater. I'll take Lane to Norfolk, Lane will deal with Taylor, I'll deal with Lane. Then I'll come back and get you, whenever. Then we'll go somewhere together. Bath, maybe. To the Roman spas. We'll try to get clean again."

They walked past an automobile showroom that was displaying brand-new models of the Mini Cooper they had been driving. They walked past discreet set-back entrances to blocks of mansion flats. They went up a short flight of concrete steps to the Park Lane Hilton's lobby. Pauling detoured to a distant group of armchairs and Reacher walked to the desk. He stood in line. Watched the clerks. They were busy with their phones and their computers. There were printers and Xerox machines behind them on credenzas. Above the Xerox machines was a bra.s.s plaque that said: By statute some doc.u.ments may not be photocopied. Like banknotes, Reacher thought. They needed a law, because modern Xerox machines were just too good. Above the credenzas was a line of clocks set to world time, from Tokyo to Los Angeles. He checked New York's against the time in his head. Spot on. Then the person in front of him finished up. He moved to the head of the line.

"Edward Lane's party," he said. "Have they checked in yet?"

The clerk tapped his keyboard. "Not yet, sir."

"I'm waiting for them. When they get here, tell them I'm across the lobby."

"Your name, sir?"

"Taylor," Reacher said. He walked away, clear of the busiest areas, and found a quiet spot. He was going to be counting eight hundred thousand dollars in cash and he didn't want an audience. He dumped himself down in one of a group of four armchairs. He knew from long experience that n.o.body would try to join him. n.o.body ever did. He radiated subliminal stay away signals and sane people obeyed them. Already a nearby family was watching him warily. Two kids and a mother, camped out in the next group of chairs, presumably off of an early flight and waiting for their room to be ready. The mother looked tired and the kids looked fractious. She had unpacked half their stuff, trying to keep them amused. Toys, colouring books, battered teddy bears, a doll missing an arm, battery-driven video games. He could hear the mother's half-hearted suggestions of how to fill the time: Why don't you do this? Why don't you do that? Why don't you draw a picture of something you're going to see? Like therapy.

He turned away and watched the door. People came in, a constant stream. Some weary and travel-stained, some busy and bustling. Some with mountains of luggage, some with briefcases only. All kinds of nationalities. In the next group of chairs one kid threw a bear at the other kid's head. It missed and skidded across the tile and hit Reacher's foot. He leaned down and picked it up. All the stuffing was out of it. He tossed it back. Heard the mother suggesting some other pointless activity: Why don't you do this? He thought: Why don't you shut the h.e.l.l up and sit still like normal human beings?

He looked back at the door and saw Perez walk in. Then Kowalski. Then Edward Lane himself, third in line. Then Gregory, and Groom, and Addison, and Burke. Roll-on bags, duffels, suit carriers. Jeans and sport coats, black nylon warm-up jackets, ball caps, sneakers. Some shades, some earphones trailing thin wires. Tired from the overnight flight. A little creased and crumpled. But awake and alert and aware. They looked exactly like what they were: a group of Special Forces soldiers trying to travel incognito.

He watched them line up at the desk. Watched them wait. Watched them shuffle up one place at a time. Watched them check in. Watched the clerk give Lane the message. Saw Lane turn around, searching. Lane's gaze moved over everybody in the lobby. Over Pauling, without stopping. Over the fractious family. Onto Reacher's own face. It stopped there. Lane nodded. Reacher nodded back. Gregory took a stack of key cards from the clerk and all seven men hoisted their luggage again and started through the lobby. They eased their way through the crowds shoulders first and stopped in a group outside the ring of armchairs. Lane dropped one bag and kept hold of another and sat down opposite Reacher. Gregory sat down too, and Carter Groom took the last chair. Kowalski and Perez and Addison and Burke were left standing, making a perimeter, with Burke and Perez facing outward. Awake and alert and aware, thorough and cautious.

"Show me the money," Reacher said.

"Tell me where Taylor is," Lane said.

"You first."

"Do you know where he is?"

Reacher nodded. "I know where he is. I made visual contact twice. Last night, and then again this morning. Just a few hours ago."

"You're good."

"I know."

"So tell me where he is."

"Show me the money first."

Lane said nothing. In the silence Reacher heard the hara.s.sed mother say: Draw a picture of Buckingham Palace. He said, "You called a bunch of London private eyes. Behind my back. You tried to get ahead of me."

Lane said, "A man's ent.i.tled to save himself an unnecessary expense."

"Did you get ahead of me?"

"No."

"Therefore the expense isn't unnecessary."

"I guess not."

"So show me the money."