Winter Territory_A Get Jack Reacher Novel

by Scott Blade

  Jacobs said, “I remember. Ditching a truck that I stole back in Tower Junction. And I got a ride to the reservation. I remember sneaking into my old house with...with...”

  He started to look around, slowly at first and then frantically. Then he looked panicked. He said, “Tomas? Tomas?”

  Reacher said, “He’s safe.”

  Amita asked, “What? Who?”

  Reacher said, “The boy. He’s safe.”

  Jacobs calmed down and said, “Okay. Good. Where is he?”

  Reacher said, “He made it out. We got him. Safe in the town. With Chief Red Cloud.”

  Jacobs looked relieved and nodded.

  Reacher said, “Why don’t you tell us what the hell is going on?”

  Jacobs said, “First, who are you? Are you with them?”

  Reacher said, “I’m no one. I’m just a guy passing through. A total stranger.”

  He figured that it was best not to mention Shepard yet. At this point, he felt that Shepard was not a guy that he should trust.

  Picking up on the same idea, Amita said, “It’s true he’s not with anyone. Mike, what’s going on?”

  Jacobs sat up and said, “I have to get Tomas and get out of here. They know that we’re here.”

  Reacher said, “Slow down. Just tell us what’s going on.”

  Jacobs said, “There’s this guy. Two years ago he came for me. At school. I had filled out online applications everywhere. And I was rejected everywhere, but it was the CIA that called me.”

  Reacher slipped the G36 across his back with the homemade strap and listened. Amita sat down on the bed next to Jacobs and held his hand.

  Jacobs said, “This guy. Shepard. He recruited me after I interviewed and sent me to the CIA farm to learn tradecraft. Then after a grueling experience I was assigned to work on his team. He insisted on me.”

  Jacobs turned in the bed and faced a large two-panel window that was behind Reacher.

  He said, “This guy. He’s unlike anyone that you’ll ever meet. He can convince you of anything.”

  Reacher said, “I know. I met the guy.”

  Jacobs started to turn white. It was unlike anything that Reacher had ever seen, but he was not surprised.

  He said, “Shepard picked me up in the next town. Asked me to look for you because his guys were getting nowhere. They were searching and harassing the locals, but no one knew anything. I’m guessing because you didn’t reveal yourself.

  “You’re bone thin. Like a man who’s been hiding out for weeks. I’ve seen it before. With fugitives. They hide out in the woods or some abandoned house and never eat.

  “Shepard fed me this story that you were undercover and looking for a terrorist group on the reservation. Searching for a missing canister of Ebola.”

  Jacobs looked confused. Then he said, “I’m so thin because of guilt. I stopped eating a while ago. Then I ran and now I’m like this.

  Reacher nodded and continued, “But I never really bought into it. Not really. I believed that he was CIA. I believed that you were missing for some reason. He didn’t want to tell me the truth. I accepted that, but a weaponized biochemical weapon missing on an Indian reservation seemed ridiculous. But he was very convincing. I figured that it was something.”

  Amita said, “When did you figure that he was lying?”

  Reacher said, “Always. But I didn’t know he was the bad guy in all of this until just now. Look at how white Jacobs turned when I mentioned his name.”

  Reacher turned to Jacobs and said, “Why don’t you tell us why you’re so scared of him.”

  Jacobs said, “He is evil. Pure evil.”

  Amita asked, “What has he done?”

  Jacobs said, “He really is a CIA agent. That part is true, but he’s twisted.”

  Reacher said, “As I imagine a lot of them are.”

  Jacobs said, “He is in the moneymaking business and not the spy business as much as you think.”

  Jacobs paused a beat and said, “The man is a hero to the CIA because he has a great track record of acquiring information. But his methods are...”

  He paused again and swallowed and said, “Horrible.”

  Reacher stayed quiet.

  Jacobs said, “He’s in the ransom business to name one thing that he does. My first time out with him was two weeks ago. I was nervous and scared and excited.

  “He picked me up at a Texas airport and we went to Fort Hood. They had this stealth chopper, a Comanche RAH-70. It was awesome! We rode the chopper across the Mexican border. Our mission was to gain intel from a Mexican diplomat. He knew of information of a pending military coup. At least that was what Shepard told me.”

  Reacher said, “The Comanche RAH-70. It’s real?”

  Jacobs said, “It’s very real.”

  Reacher said, “Go on.”

  Jacobs said, “The CIA uses a carrot-and-stick approach. I thought that we were going to start with the carrot. Only we went right to the stick.”

  Jacobs paused again. He looked at Amita. Then he looked down like he was ashamed of the next part of the story.

  He said, “We planned a kidnapping operation. Shepard’s guys. They had all worked with him for years. I was the only one who was new. He dressed up the mission briefing like he was explaining it to a new group. But really it was just me. I was the only rookie.

  “The other guys are just as evil as he is. He explained it all like a routine CIA mission. Like it was the way things were done. He explained to me that it was like being a cop. They teach you the classroom stuff and then you learn the street stuff.”

  Jacobs stopped, looked at Amita again. Her eyes stared into his. Reacher could see that there was still a lot of love between them.

  Reacher said, “What happened?”

  Jacobs said, “They didn’t tell me what we were doing. Not completely. I swear. We kidnapped this Mexican guy’s wife and son.

  “Oh, God! I really didn’t know!”

  Reacher said, “Calm down. What happened next?”

  “At first nothing happened. Shepard made it all seem routine and fake. You know like we had to be mean to them to make them think that it was real. The guys beat the wife. Right in front of the kid. It felt very real.

  “Shepard could see the uneasiness on my face. He kept reminding me that it was all an act. They weren’t really going to do any permanent damage. He was ransoming their lives so that the Mexican guy would share information with us. This is how he always got such great information. He used the stick. But it got worse. Much worse.

  “The Mexican guy was scared for his family. Of course. So he gave up all the information that Shepard wanted. He gave him names and dates of all kinds of secret Mexican government goings-on. But Shepard wasn’t satisfied. We didn’t turn the family back over.

  “Instead, they raped and killed the wife. It was slow at first. Like they all took turns. They wanted me to participate. But I didn’t. I refused. I stayed with the kid. I protected him from them, but when those monsters killed his mother, I knew it was over for him as well.

  “Then I found out that Shepard wanted more than information. He ransomed the kid for diamonds. A shitload of diamonds. He made me pick them up. He promised that they would trade the kid for them.

  “So I did it. I’m the only face that the Mexican guy has seen. When I returned to our meeting place, they still had the kid. So I did the only thing that I could. I reacted without thinking. I shot one of them and took off with the kid and the diamonds.

  “We stole a car and snuck across the border. I was careful all the way. I used my training to get us away from Shepard and away from Mexico. I really didn’t know what I would do with the kid, but I couldn’t just leave him someplace. Shepard would kill him.

  “So we drove on. Occasionally, I traded up our vehicles trying to remain untraceable. And we got to the reservation about two weeks ago. Or I don’t know. I lost time really. The winter came. I kept Tomas fed, but I couldn’t eat. We found food. But my nerves
kept me from eating and sleeping. Finally, I passed out and that’s when they came for us.

  “I killed one of them, but they killed Mr. Gareth. And I thought that they took Tomas too. But you have him?”

  Amita said, “He’s safe. He’s with my dad.”

  Reacher said, “Jacobs, I owe you an apology because I led Shepard right to you.”

  Jacobs nodded, said nothing.

  Reacher said, “We’ll deal with it now.”

  Jacobs said, “How?”

  Reacher said, “We’ll give Shepard the stick.”

  Chapter 41

  Darkness took its last breath and relinquished its life. Daylight slivered over the horizon and stabbed through the snow-covered trees and through the shantytown portion of Red Rain Indian Reservation.

  Thirty minutes earlier, three armed men and one pilot boarded a Comanche RAH-70 and took off into the air, flying low, just above the trees.

  The rotors hummed and the engine vibrated about as silently as a helicopter could sound. As the sun began ascending from its sleep, the pilot could see the rotors’ circular shadow washing across the tops of the trees as they flew west.

  Alex Shepard removed the silencer from his Heckler and Koch G36. There was no point in keeping it. Not now. They were going to the beginning of the reservation to where they had received a steady transmission from the tracking device from the guy that they had lost in the attack on Gareth’s house.

  Shepard had spoken to the drifter, Cameron Reacher, and confirmed that there had been no sign of Jacobs, but that the small Mexican boy was alive and on the reservation. That was all he really cared about. Jacobs was dead. He was probably in the house when they blew it up. And soon the boy would be in their hands again. He would hopefully lead them back to the diamonds and then they could kill him. Probably toss him out of the helicopter as they flew back to Fort Hood.

  No real loss, Shepard thought.

  Of course they would have to kill the entire population on the reservation. At least all of the ones who were witnesses. Before they had lifted off, the pilot had made sure that the Vulcan machine gun was completely loaded and they had standby cartridges with plenty of firepower for their purposes.

  The chopper flew and yawed and they turned and were over the community center in minutes.

  The pilot hovered the craft over the grounds and saw a clear spot in what looked like a snow-covered parking lot.

  He twisted in his seat and yelled back at Shepard.

  “I’m setting her down right there.”

  Shepard nodded and looked at the two agents that Reacher had beaten up earlier.

  He said, “Lock and load, boys.”

  The agents were dressed in all white, thick winter gear with Kevlar vests on. Each was armed with a G36 and a Beretta holstered as a sidearm.

  They jumped out of the Comanche and prepared a stance, all facing the doors to the community center.

  Shepard signaled to one guy to cover a hole where an orange door used to be to the police station in case someone came charging out of the darkness. The remains of the door was still on the ground from where the tornado had blown it off.

  The guys stood, ready to breach the doors.

  Chapter 42

  Amita Red Cloud grabbed her radio and called her father, but no one answered the line.

  She looked at Reacher and said, “What if Shepard has already moved in? We’ve got to get back there!”

  Reacher nodded and said, “I’ll call him.”

  Reacher pulled out the sat phone again and called Shepard.

  The phone rang and rang, a long minute. Then finally the interruption of quiet breathing came over the receiver and a voice answered in a whisper.

  “Reacher?” Shepard said.

  “Yes. I have him.”

  Shepard asked, “Who? Jacobs?”

  Reacher said, “Yes. And I found the case that you’re looking for.”

  Shepard paused a beat. He waved at his men to halt their assault on the community center.

  “You have the case?”

  “I have the case and I have Jacobs.”

  “Is he alive?”

  Reacher said, “He is. And your diamonds are here waiting for you.”

  Amita whispered, “What are you doing?”

  Silence fell over the line and then Shepard said, “So then you know the truth?”

  Reacher said, “I do. I know that you are a murderous piece of shit.”

  Shepard said, “Be careful, son. I’ve got bigger guns than you.”

  Reacher asked, “Where are you?”

  Shepard said, “I’m in the middle of an interesting operation.”

  Reacher said, “The community center?”

  Shepard paused a beat and then he said, “How’d you know that?”

  He looked around the parking lot to the community center like he suspected that maybe Reacher was watching him this very second.

  Reacher said, “Because of the tracking device that I found. We figured that you would come.”

  Shepard said, “You found that? What about the boy?”

  Reacher said, “He’s here with me. We’re all here. Everyone who matters. Come get us. We’ll give you what you want. No one needs to die.”

  Shepard said, “If I don’t get my diamonds, you will all die!”

  Silence came over the line.

  Reacher paused a beat and then he said, “Tell me something. How did you get that scar across your face?”

  Shepard said, “A lucky African hit me with a machete. He isn’t so lucky anymore. He’s dead with his family. Don’t mess with me. Or you’ll get the same.”

  Reacher stayed quiet.

  Shepard said, “I come there and you’ll give me the diamonds and the boy?”

  Reacher said, “I’ll give you the diamonds. You don’t need the boy or Jacobs. They’re free from you. Come get the diamonds and leave.”

  Shepard paused a beat. After a long minute he said, “You have a deal, Reacher. But if you try to screw me, I’ll level this reservation to nothing but rubble and snow. You got it?”

  Reacher said, “Just come and get your diamonds.”

  Shepard didn’t say another word. He just hung up and the line went dead. Reacher switched the phone off and stared at it. He wondered if it had a tracking device on it. Then he figured that it probably was traceable. So he took the phone and slammed it into the wall, crushing it into a bunch of little pieces.

  Amita asked, “Why?”

  “In case he has a tracer on it too.”

  Amita asked, “What if we need to talk to him again?”

  “We won’t. Either he’ll be dead or we will.”

  Jacobs said, “He’s not going to let us go free.”

  Reacher said, “We aren’t going to let him go free either.”

  Amita said, “We need the state cops. I can’t arrest them by myself.”

  Reacher said, “No one is getting arrested.

  Chapter 43

  The trees around the house were calm and top-heavy with snow. The wind blew and calmly whistled between the tall trees. The air was filled with nature’s icy breath. Off in the distance, Reacher saw a deer stick its head up over a snow bank. The animal’s antlers were enormous and ridged. Reacher could see the deer’s thick mane like a winter beard and then the eyes peered back at him. The deer cocked its head suddenly and looked off to the horizon. Then it stood tall and turned, darting away quickly into the gloom.

  Reacher watched it vanish and then turned his head to see what sound had frightened the deer away. He heard a low rumble in the sky. And after about a minute, he saw that it was a chopper coming in low over the trees. Reacher saw that the helicopter was a military stealth chopper, but he had no idea what kind. It looked like the secret chopper that was outed to the world when Bin Laden was killed. What was the name of that model chopper again? He could recall its look from videos and articles that he had read, but couldn’t remember the model number.

  Whatever
it was didn’t really matter at the moment because his biggest concern was the Vulcan machine gun that was attached to the chopper. He watched as the chopped yawed and stopped in the air and then turned and circled.

  The chopper circled the rear of the house, near where he was hiding. It was a big black thing like a huge bird circling over its prey. Even in the gloom and snowy air, he could see the black polish glimmer.

  Reacher waited. He had his G36 strapped over his shoulder. He stared up around the corner of the house at the stealth chopper and waited for the perfect moment. As soon as he was sure that the pilot could see him he would make his move.

  Chapter 44

  Shepard peered out the window of the cockpit from the Comanche RAH-70. He studied the two-story house in the dark. The pilot looked all around the house. He began to circle it. There was no clear place to land. The trees were too high and thick. There was a nice sized front yard without any trees on it, but the clearing above it was blocked by long branches from the nearest trees. The pilot turned to Shepard and said, “Nowhere to land, sir.”

  Shepard stayed quiet.

  The guys in the back of the chopper stared forward. Their night vision goggles were turned up, but their gear stayed on and they were ready to deploy.

  Shepard said, “Prepare to fire the gun. We’ll kill them in the house and take the whole thing down.”

  One of his guys said, “What about the diamonds? And Jacobs?”

  “Shepard said, “That little bastard will be dead with the rest of them. We’ll hike back up and sift through the rubble for the diamonds.”

  Then the other guy leaned forward in his seat. The harness on his seatbelt moved forward with him in a smooth arc.

  He asked, “What about the boy and the Indians?”

  Shepard looked over to the pilot and asked, “How many rounds we got left for the Vulcan gun?”

  The pilot smirked and said, “Plenty.”

  Shepard said, “After we kill Jacobs, then we’ll go back to the town and use the remaining bullets to kill the rest in their sleep.”

  A moment of silence went by and then Shepard smirked at the thought of massacring Native Americans.

  Wouldn’t be the first time, he said to himself.