Page 39 of The Secret

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Reacher and Smithtook both cars to the task force building in case Neilsen got any bright ideas about trying to drive someplace. They showed their IDs to the guard and parted ways in the corridor. Reacher let himself into his office. Three new faxes had arrived. He gathered the pages, selected one, and dropped the others onto the desk. He scanned the list of names. Then he squeezed into the chair, picked up the phone, and dialed the number for the Chemical Corps at Fort McClellan. His call was answered quickly but he spent the next twenty minutes bouncing from one desk to another, listening to one feeble attempt at stonewalling after another. When he finally hung up he figured he had accomplished two things. He had beaten plenty of bushes. He hoped enough to rattle anyone who knew about Typhon.The offensive counterpart to Project 192. Maybe cause a little panic. Maybe bring them out into the open. And he had identified a couple of people who had been on the fringes of the work in the sixties and who were big enough assholes that he wouldn’t lose sleep if Baglin tried to stick them with some blame if everything went sideways.

Reacher tried his brother’s number again and this time his call was answered.

“Reacher,” Joe said.

“Joe.”

“You OK?”

“Fine. You?”

“Fine. Listen, I’ve got an update for you. This guy Gary Walsh. Turns out he’s using a cover name. He just got through with a spell undercover. A long one. It was rough. He came back with his head bent out of shape a little, plus there’s a suspicion the group he infiltrated had picked up his trail. I guess he got sent to your task force partly as therapy, partly as a safe haven. Aside from that, I’m hearing he’s a solid guy.”

They shot the breeze for another couple of minutes, mainly about music, then Reacher hung up. He leaned back in his chair, closed his eyes, and filled his head with Howlin’ Wolf. A pleasant hour passed and then the music was interrupted by a beeping sound from his pocket. It was his pager. He was being summoned again.

Christopher Baglin was already in his place when Reacher walked into the boardroom. Smith got there right after him, before the door had swung all the way shut. Walsh was sitting at the far end of the table, staring out the window, looking like he hadn’t moved since the morning.

Reacher lowered himself into his seat and said, “No need to wait for Neilsen. He’s out sick. He had to go back to the hotel.”

Baglin frowned. He said, “Names from the sixties?”

Reacher handed him a page with two names. Smith had nothing. Neither did Walsh.

Baglin folded Reacher’s piece of paper, slid it into his pocket, and said, “OK. Listen up. We’ve had a major development. The perp showed up this morning at the house of the final scientist, Neville Pritchard. Got past the watchers, all the way inside.”

Reacher said, “So Pritchard’s dead?”

“No. Pritchard wasn’t there. Four agents were waiting inside, in his place.”

“So was the guy captured? Killed?”

“Neither. The agents inside the house attempted to make an arrest but were unsuccessful.”

“The guy got away?”

“Correct.”

“Did the agents get a good look? Do we have a description?”

“A partial. But the big news is that our guy is actually a girl. A woman. Not a man. So your new top priority is to recalibrate your search parameters.”

No one moved.

Baglin said, “What are you waiting for? Go!”

Smith stood up. Walsh struggled to his feet a moment later. Reacher stayed where he was. The news made no difference to him. It had never occurred to him to exclude women from the equation. Instead of moving he said, “Question. Pritchard. Is he in protective custody?”

Baglin hesitated. “Not at present.”

“So an attempt was made to bring him in?”

“It was.”

“Where is Pritchard now?”

“That’s not known. He’s proving hard to find. Which is our only silver lining right now. The killer didn’t know Pritchard was missing or she wouldn’t have come to his house. Therefore she doesn’t know where he is, either. Which gives us a reprieve. Maybe only a short one. We need to find her before she finds him. And kills him.”

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