Read Without Fail for Free Online Page A

“I’m not radioactive.”
    “I know,” she said. “Because I checked. But I’m kind of curious, now that I’ve met you. You were just a name before.”
    He glanced down at the table, trying to look at himself as a third party, described secondhand in occasional bits and pieces by a brother. It was an interesting perspective.
    “Will you help me out?” she asked again.
    She unbuttoned her coat, because of the warmth of the room. She was wearing a pure white blouse under the coat. She moved a little closer, and half-turned to face him. They were as close as lovers on a lazy afternoon.
    “I don’t know,” he said.
    “It’ll be dangerous,” she said. “I have to warn you that nobody will know you’re out there except me. That’s a big problem if you’re spotted anywhere. Maybe it’s a bad idea. Maybe I shouldn’t be asking.”
    “I wouldn’t be spotted anywhere,” Reacher said.
    She smiled. “That’s exactly what Joe told me you’d say, eight years ago.”
    He said nothing.
    “It’s very important,” she said. “And urgent.”
    “You want to tell me why it’s important?”
    “I’ve already told you why.”
    “Want to tell me why it’s urgent?”
    She said nothing.
    “I don’t think this is theoretical at all,” he said.
    She said nothing.
    “I think you’ve got a situation,” he said.
    She said nothing.
    “I think you know somebody is out there,” he said. “An active threat.”
    She looked away. “I can’t comment on that.”
    “I was in the Army,” he said. “I’ve heard answers like that before.”
    “It’s just a security audit,” she said. “Will you do it for me?”
    He was quiet for a long time.
    “There would be two conditions,” he said.
    She turned back and looked at him. “Which are?”
    “One, I get to work somewhere cold.”
    “Why?”
    “Because I just spent a hundred and eighty-nine dollars on warm clothes.”
    She smiled, briefly. “Everywhere he’s going should be cold enough for you in the middle of November.”
    “OK,” he said. He dug in his pocket and slid her a matchbook and pointed to the name and address printed on it. “And there’s an old couple working a week in this particular club and they’re worried about getting ripped off for their wages. Musicians. They should be OK, but I need to be sure. I want you to talk to the cops here.”
    “Friends of yours?”
    “Recent.”
    “When’s payday supposed to be?”
    “Friday night, after the last set. Midnight, maybe. They need to pick up their money and get their stuff to their car. They’ll be heading to New York.”
    “I’ll ask one of our agents to check in with them every day. Better than the cops, I think. We’ve got a field office here. Big-time money laundering in Atlantic City. It’s the casinos. So you’ll do it?”
    Reacher went quiet again and thought about his brother. He’s back to haunt me , he thought. I knew he would be, one day . His coffee cup was empty but still warm. He lifted it off the saucer and tilted it and watched the sludge in the bottom flow toward him, slow and brown, like river silt.
    “When does it need to be done?” he asked.

    At that exact moment less than a hundred and thirty miles away in a warehouse behind Baltimore’s Inner Harbor cash was finally exchanged for two weapons and matching ammunition. A lot of cash. Good weapons. Special ammunition. The planning for the second attempt had started with an objective analysis of the first attempt’s failure. As realistic professionals they were reluctant to blame the whole debacle on inadequate hardware, but they agreed that better firepower couldn’t hurt. So they had researched their needs and located a supplier. He had what they wanted. The price was right. They negotiated a guarantee. It was their usual type of arrangement. They told the guy that if there was a problem with the merchandise they would come back and shoot him through the spinal cord, low down, put him in a