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him for sure, and we think they’ll come after you too.’
    ‘They?’
    ‘The Duncans. There are four of them.’
    ‘Punish him how?’
    ‘Oh, I don’t know. Last time they wouldn’t let him come here for a month.’
    ‘Here? To the lounge?’
    ‘It’s his favourite place.’
    ‘How could they stop him coming here?’
    ‘They told Mr Vincent not to serve him. The owner.’
    ‘Why would the owner of this place do what the Duncans tell him?’
    ‘The Duncans run a trucking business. All of Mr Vincent’s supplies come through them. He signed a contract. He kind of had to. That’s how the Duncans work. So if Mr Vincent doesn’t play ball, a couple of deliveries will be late, a couple lost, a couple damaged. He knows that. He’ll go out of business.’
    Reacher asked, ‘What will they figure to do to me?’
    The woman said, ‘They hire football players right out of college. Cornhuskers. The ones who were good enough to get scholarships, but not good enough to go to the NFL. Guards and tackles. Big guys.’
    Brett , Reacher thought.
    The woman said, ‘They’ll connect the dots and figure out where you are. I mean, where else could you be? They’ll pay you a visit. Maybe they’re already on their way.’
    ‘From where?’
    ‘The Duncan depot is twenty miles from here. Most of their people live close to it.’
    ‘How many football players have they got?’
    ‘Ten.’
    Reacher said nothing.
    The woman said, ‘My husband heard you say you’re headed for Virginia.’
    ‘That’s the plan.’
    ‘Is that where you live?’
    ‘As much as anywhere else.’
    ‘We should get going. You’re in big trouble.’
    ‘Not unless they send all nine at once,’ Reacher said.
    ‘All nine what?’
    ‘Football players.’
    ‘I said there were ten.’
    ‘I already met one of them. He’s currently indisposed. They’re one short, as of tonight.’
    ‘What?’
    ‘He got between me and Seth Duncan.’
    ‘What did you do to Seth Duncan?’
    ‘I broke his nose.’
    ‘Oh, sweet Jesus. Why?’
    ‘Why not?’
    ‘Oh sweet, sweet Jesus. Where are the car keys?’
    ‘What will happen to Mrs Duncan?’
    ‘We need to get going. Right this minute.’
    ‘First answer the question.’
    ‘Mrs Duncan will be punished too. For calling my husband. She’s been told not to do that. Just like he’s been told not to go treat her.’
    ‘He’s a doctor. He doesn’t get a choice. They take an oath, don’t they?’
    ‘What’s your name?’
    ‘Jack Reacher.’
    ‘We have to go, Mr Reacher. Right now.’
    ‘What will they do to Mrs Duncan?’
    ‘This isn’t your business,’ the woman said. Which, strictly speaking, was fairly close to Reacher’s own opinion at that point. His business was to get himself to Virginia, and he was being offered a ride through the hardest part of the journey, fast and free. I-80 awaited, two hours away. An on-ramp, the last of the night drivers, the first stirrings of morning traffic. Maybe breakfast. Maybe there was a rest area or a truck stop with a greasy spoon café. Bacon, eggs, coffee.
    ‘What will they do to her?’ he asked again.
    The woman said, ‘Probably nothing much.’
    ‘What kind of nothing much?’
    ‘Well, they might put her on a coagulant. One of the uncles seems to have medical supplies. Or maybe they’ll just stop her taking so much aspirin. So she doesn’t bleed so bad next time. And they’ll probably ground her for a month. That’s all. Nothing too serious. Nothing for you to worry about. They’ve been married ten years, after all. She’s not a prisoner. She could leave if she wanted to.’
    ‘Except this time she inadvertently got her husband’s nose broken. He might take that out on her, if he can’t take it out on me.’
    The doctor’s wife said nothing. But it sounded like she was agreeing. The strange round room went quiet. Then Reacher heard tyres on gravel.

NINE
    R EACHER CHECKED THE WINDOW . T HERE WERE FOUR TYRES IN total, big knobbly off-road