Page 75 of Bulletproof Jack: Hunting Lee Child's Jack Reacher

“We must bet on the future, Nigel, not the past. The fate of the world depends upon forward momentum. Falling behind,” Brax said, “is not an option.”

Just that quickly, Brax chose the younger man instead of the experienced one.

Morin held his objections. Brax didn’t want to hear them.

For a while, it seemed Brax had made the right choice. Stuart had worked long hours demonstrating insight and ingenuity.

Quickly, gambling on the younger man had paid off. Stuart developed his prototype first. His Stiletto 100 was ready for FQT.

“Krause isn’t far behind, though. His competing prototype, the Premium, is only a few weeks from completion,” Morin continued to press tonight in the way he should have done a few weeks earlier.

His gut said Stuart wasn’t ready. Unreliable. Emotional. Uncontrollable. The way he’d disappeared was just one solid example.

“Exactly,” Brax snapped. “We can’t have two new weapons. We’ve selected the Stiletto. The Premium is canceled. Effective immediately.”

Morin didn’t bother to ask why. The answer would be lack of funding for two weapons. But the real truth was that if two new drones became available instead of only one, Brax would lose the advantage.

One of the projects, and its inventor, had to go. Permanently.

In the end, circumstances prevailed. The Stiletto was ready. The Premium was not and, as a practical matter, might never be ready.

Bird in the hand and all that, Morin understood.

“Time to move on, Morin. We can’t allow ourselves to drag our feet here.” Brax had relaxed a bit. He was applying diplomacy now. “The Stiletto’s design is completed. Logistics are set. The final field quality test is scheduled and the target selected.”

Yes. The target was selected.

Which was where Brax had made what could prove to be a disastrous mistake.

The target made sense in the way Brax evaluated risks and benefits. But Liam Stuart obviously hadn’t seen it that way.

Once the parameters of the test were settled and the target disclosed, Liam Stuart had disappeared.

Morin thought he’d developed cold feet. Planning to kill was one thing. Executing the plan was something else again. Liam Stuart had never been a killer.

Brax worried now that Stuart had taken the Stiletto to the highest bidder.

Everyone was tense.

Morin couldn’t give up on Krause. Partly because he knew in his gut that he’d lost Fox over the non-payment issue. He had no confidence in Audrey’s talents as a tracker. Which meant Liam Stuart might be gone forever.

But Morin couldn’t say any of that to Brax, either. Not until he got Krause back on board. Not if he wanted to keep his job. Which he definitely did. Up or out. That was the rule. Always had been. Always would be.

“Look, I agreed that Stuart’s Stiletto was the clear frontrunner. But that was before Stuart went missing and stole the drone,” Morin said. He spied a Tim Horton’s and flipped his turn indicator on. “We know now that Stuart is unreliable.”

Brax snorted. “And crazy Krause is such a stalwart?”

“Compared to Stuart, Krause is as stable as a river barge. He’s been a solid performer for decades. The Stiletto is done. All we need is the right guy to operate it. Krause,” Morin said, repeating the arguments he’d made before. He slid into the exit lane, his nose leading to donuts and coffee. “We’ve got one last chance to make the right choice here. Always better to go with the devil you know.”

Not that Brax would admit he’d been wrong about Stuart. Morin had never seen it happen. Not once in all the years he’d reported to Brax had the man ever owned up to a mistake.

Oh, Brax had made plenty of errors over the years. His oft repeated motto, modified from Benjamin Disraeli’s famous words, was “Never complain, never explain, and never, ever ever apologize.”

The stakes were some of the highest they’d ever faced. Brax wanted to give Liam Stuart one last chance to prove his loyalty by coming in, bringing the Stiletto 100, performing the FQT.

Morin understood the motivation. Loyalty was a quality Morin appreciated, too.

Loyalty up, loyalty down. Words to live by.

---