Nothing To Lose Part 23

The foreman said, "A new deputy should want to visit the security office. Meet useful folks. Establish liaison. If that's what you really are."

Reacher didn't move. He glanced west again and saw the Tahoes halfway through their half-mile of approach. He glanced south again and saw knots of men walking his way. The crew in the ap.r.o.ns and the welders' masks was among them. Ten guys, clumping along awkwardly in heavy spark-proof boots. Plenty of others were coming in from other directions. Altogether maybe two hundred men were converging. Five minutes into the future there was going to be a big crowd by the oil drums. The giant with the wrench took a step forward. Reacher stood his ground and looked straight at him, and then checked west again, and south. The Tahoes were already close and slowing. The workers were forming up shoulder to shoulder. They were close enough that Reacher could see tools in their hands. Hammers, pry bars, cutting torches, foot-long cold chisels.

The foreman said, "You can't fight them all."

Reacher nodded. The giant on his own would be hard, but maybe feasible, if he missed with the first swing of the wrench. Then four-on-one or even six-on-one might be survivable. But not two-hundred-on-one. No way. Not two hundred and fifty pounds against twenty tons of muscle. He had two captured switchblades in his pocket, but they would be of limited use against maybe a couple of tons of improvised weaponry.

Not good.

Reacher said, "So let's go. I can give you five minutes."

The foreman said, "You'll give us whatever we want." He waved to the nearer Tahoe and it turned in close. Reacher heard oily stones and curly fragments of metal crus.h.i.+ng under its tires. The giant opened its rear door and used his wrench to make a sweepingGet in gesture. Reacher climbed up into the back seat. The vehicle had a plain utilitarian interior. Plastic and cloth. No wood or leather, no bells or whistles. The giant climbed in after him and crowded him against the far door panel. The foreman climbed in the front next to the driver and slammed his door and the vehicle took off again and turned and headed for the line of office buildings south of the vehicle gate. It drove through the middle of the approaching crowd, slowly, and Reacher saw faces staring in at him through the windows, gray skin smeared with grease, bad teeth, white eyes wide with fascination. gesture. Reacher climbed up into the back seat. The vehicle had a plain utilitarian interior. Plastic and cloth. No wood or leather, no bells or whistles. The giant climbed in after him and crowded him against the far door panel. The foreman climbed in the front next to the driver and slammed his door and the vehicle took off again and turned and headed for the line of office buildings south of the vehicle gate. It drove through the middle of the approaching crowd, slowly, and Reacher saw faces staring in at him through the windows, gray skin smeared with grease, bad teeth, white eyes wide with fascination.

The security office was at the north end of the array, closest to the vehicle gate. The Tahoe stopped directly outside of it next to a tangled pile of webbing straps, presumably once used to tie down junk on flat-bed trailers. Reacher spilled out of the car ahead of the giant and found himself at the bottom of a short set of wooden steps that led up to the office door. He pushed through the door and found himself inside a plain metal prefabricated box that had probably been designed for use on construction sites. There were five small windows fitted with thick plastic gla.s.s and covered from the outside with heavy steel mesh. Other than that it looked a lot like the ready room he had seen at the Halfway county morgue. Desk, paper, bulletin boards, armchairs, all of it showing the signs of casual abuse a place gets when its users are not its owners.

The foreman pointed Reacher toward a chair and then left again. The giant dragged a chair of his own out of position and turned it around and dumped himself down in it so that he was blocking the door. He laid the wrench on the floor. The floor was warped plywood and the wrench made an iron clatter as it dropped. Reacher sat in a chair in a corner. Wooden arms, tweed seat and back. It was reasonably comfortable.

"Got coffee?" he asked.

The giant paused a second and said, "No." A short word and a negative answer, but at least it was a response. In Reacher's experience the hardest part of any adversarial conversation was the beginning. An early answer was a good sign. Answering became a habit.

He asked, "What's your job?"

The giant said, "I help out where I'm needed." His voice was like a normal guy's, but m.u.f.fled by having to come out of such a huge chest cavity.

"What happens here?" Reacher asked.

"Metal gets recycled."

"What happens in the secret section?"

"What secret section?"

"To the south. Behind the part.i.tion."

"That's just a junkyard. For stuff that's too far gone to use. Nothing secret about it."

"So why is it locked and guarded?"

"To stop people getting lazy. Someone gets tired of working, dumps good stuff in there, we lose money."

"You part of management?"

"I'm a supervisor."

"You want to supervise my way out of here?"

"You can't leave."

Reacher glanced out the window. The sun was over the horizon. In five minutes it would be over the east wall.I could leave, he thought. The vehicle gate was open and trucks were moving out. Time it right, get past the big guy, run for the gate, hop aboard a flat-bed, game over. With the wrench on the floor the big guy was less of a problem than he had been before. He was unarmed, and down in a low chair. He was heavy, and gravity was gravity. And big guys were slow. And Reacher had knives. he thought. The vehicle gate was open and trucks were moving out. Time it right, get past the big guy, run for the gate, hop aboard a flat-bed, game over. With the wrench on the floor the big guy was less of a problem than he had been before. He was unarmed, and down in a low chair. He was heavy, and gravity was gravity. And big guys were slow. And Reacher had knives.

"I played pro football," the big guy said.

"But not very well," Reacher said.

The big guy said nothing.

"Or you'd be doing color commentary on Fox, or living in a mansion in Miami, not slaving away here."

The big guy said nothing.

"I bet you're just as bad at this job."

The big guy said nothing.

I could leave,Reacher thought again.

But I won't.

I'll wait and see what happens.

He waited twenty more minutes before anything happened. The giant sat still and quiet by the door and Reacher whiled the time away in the corner. He wasn't unhappy. He could kill time better than anyone. The morning sun rose higher and came streaming in through the plastic window. The rays cast a clouded beam over the desk. All the colors of the rainbow were in it.

Then the door opened and the giant sat up straight and scooted his chair out of the way and the foreman walked in again. He still had his two-way radio in his hand. Behind him in the bright rectangle of daylight Reacher could see the plant working. Trucks were moving, cranes were moving, swarms of men were beavering away, sparks were showering, loud noises were being made. The foreman stopped halfway between the door and Reacher's chair and said, "Mr. Thurman wants to see you."

Seven o'clock,Reacher thought. Vaughan was ending her watch. She was heading to the diner in Hope, looking for breakfast, looking for her truck, maybe looking for him. Or maybe not.

He said, "I can give Mr. Thurman five minutes."

"You'll give Mr. Thurman however long he wants."

"He might own you, but he doesn't own me."

"Get up," the foreman said. "Follow me."

38

The trailer next door was an identical metal box, but better appointed inside. There was carpet, the armchairs were leather, and the desk was mahogany. There were pictures on the walls, all of them dime-store prints of Jesus. In all of them Jesus had blue eyes and wore pale blue robes and had long blond hair and a neat blond beard. He looked more like a Malibu surfer than a Jew from two thousand years ago.

On the corner of the desk was a Bible.

Behind the desk was a man Reacher a.s.sumed was Mr. Thurman. He was wearing a three-piece suit made of wool. He looked to be close to seventy years old. He looked pink and plump and prosperous. He had white hair, worn moderately long and combed and teased into waves. He had a big patient smile on his face. He looked like he had just stepped out of a television studio. He could have been a game show host, or a televangelist. Reacher could picture him, clutching his chest and promising G.o.d would fell him with a heart attack unless the audience sent him money.

And the audience would,Reacher thought. With a face like that, the idiots would bury him under fives and tens.

The foreman waited for a nod, then left again. Reacher sat down in a leather armchair and said, "I'm Jack Reacher. You've got five minutes."

The guy behind the desk said, "I'm Jerry Thurman. I'm very pleased to meet you."

Reacher said, "Now you've got four minutes and fifty-six seconds."

"Actually, sir, I've got as long as it takes." Thurman's voice was soft and mellifluous. His cheeks quivered as he spoke. Too much fat, not enough muscle tone. Not an attractive sight. "You've been making trouble in my town and now you're trespa.s.sing on my business premises."

"Your fault," Reacher said. "If you hadn't sent those goons to the restaurant I would have eaten a quick lunch and moved on days ago. No reason to stay. You're not exactly running the Magic Kingdom here."

"I don't aim to. This is an industrial enterprise."

"So I noticed."

"But you knew that days ago. I'm sure the people in Hope were quick to tell you all about us. Why poke around?"

"I'm an inquisitive person."

"Evidently," Thurman said. "Which raised our suspicions a little. We have proprietary processes here, and methodologies of our own invention, which might all be called industrial secrets. Espionage could hurt our bottom line."

"I'm not interested in metal recycling."

"We know that now."

"You checked me out?"

Thurman nodded.

"We made inquiries," he said. "Last night, and this morning. You are exactly what you claimed to be, in Judge Gardner's vagrancy hearing. A pa.s.serby. A n.o.body who used to be in the army ten years ago."

"That's me."

"But you're a very persistent n.o.body. You made a ludicrous request to be sworn in as a deputy. After taking a badge from a man in a fight."

"Which he started. On your orders."

"So we ask ourselves, why are you so keen to know what happens here?"

"And I ask myself, why are you so keen to hide it?"

Thurman shook his great white head.

"We're not hiding anything," he said. "And you're no danger to me commercially, so I'll prove it to you. You've seen the town, you've met some of the folks who live here, and now I'm going to give you a tour of the plant. I'll be your personal guide and escort. You can see everything and ask me anything."

They went in Thurman's personal vehicle, which was a Chevy Tahoe the same style and vintage as the security vehicles, but painted black, not white. Same modest interior. A working truck. The keys were already in the ignition. Habit, probably. And safe enough. n.o.body would use the boss's car without permission. Thurman drove himself and Reacher sat next to him in the front. They were alone in the vehicle. They headed to the west wall, away from the vehicle gate, moving slow. Thurman started talking immediately. He described the various office functions, which in order of appearance were operations management, and invoicing, and purchasing, and he pointed out the first-aid station, and described its facilities and capabilities, and made a mildly pointed comment about the people Reacher had put in there. Then they moved on to the line of storage tanks, and he described their capacities, which were five thousand gallons each, and their contents, which were gasoline for the Tahoes and some of the other trucks, and diesel for the cranes and the crushers and the heavier equipment, and a liquid chemical called trichloroethylene, which was an essential metal degreaser, and oxygen and acetylene for the cutting torches, and kerosene, which fueled the furnaces.

Reacher was bored rigid after sixty seconds.

He tuned Thurman out and looked at things for himself. Didn't see much. Just metal, and people working with it. He got the general idea. Old stuff was broken up and melted down, and ingots were sold to factories, where new stuff was made, and eventually the new stuff became old stuff and showed up again to get broken up and melted down once more.

Not rocket science.

Close to a mile later they arrived at the internal part.i.tion and Reacher saw that a truck had been parked across the gate, as if to hide it. Beyond the wall no more sparks were flying and no more smoke was rising. Activity seemed to have been abandoned for the day. He asked, "What happens back there?"

Thurman said, "That's our junkyard. Stuff that's too far gone to work with goes in there."

"How do you get it in, with that truck in the way?"

"We can move the truck if we need to. But we don't need to often. Our processes have gotten very developed. Not much defeats us anymore."

"Are you a chemist or a metallurgist or what?"

Thurman said, "I'm a born-again-Christian American and a businessman. That's how I would describe myself, in that order of importance. But I hire the best talent I can find, at the executive level. Our research and development is excellent."

Reacher nodded and said nothing. Thurman turned the wheel and steered a slow curve and headed back north, close to the east wall. The jaws of a giant crusher were closing on about ten wrecked cars at once. Beyond it a furnace door swung open and men ducked away from the blast of heat. A crucible moved slowly on an overhead track, full of liquid metal, all bubbling and crusting.

Thurman asked, "Are you born again?"

Reacher said, "Once was enough for me."

"I'm serious."

"So am I."

"You should think about it."

"My father used to say, why be born again, when you can just grow up?"

"Is he no longer with us?"

"He died a long time ago."

"He's in the other place, then, with an att.i.tude like that."

"He's in a hole in the ground in Arlington Cemetery."

"Another veteran?"

"A Marine."

"Thank you for his service."