"It's not bait, just giving them a reason to act. The Kleiner family might be able to bribe the police here, or even the Georgia State Police, but the fact that they would target Joe, a federal agent, shows they don't have absolute power."
[A/n: As long the system gives him a mission, he will even have his girl friend as a bait. Like, "Well, i will follow along and protect her, afterall she is not that weak." sothing like that.]
"So there won't be too many people chasing us. As long as we act quickly enough and arrange reinforcents, we can do this."
Jack didn't dare to be too confident, mainly because he'd been badly humiliated initially, leaving the Wolff brothers still in the hospital.
Reacher readily stood up. "I agree, that's how it should be. We have to do sothing so that they'll feel the pressure and reveal a weakness."
The other two had no objections, so the four split up. Roscoe went alone to Paul Hubble's house to persuade his wife, Charlie.
Finlay went to the town council to observe Mayor and new Police Chief Tiller's performance in front of the townspeople, and to mislead them.
Jack and Reacher went to bother the old prison guard, Officer Spivey, asking him to pass on so information to his mastermind.
"So, how do you plan to find that prison guard?" Jack asked Reacher in the passenger seat as he drove.
"How about calling him? I just had Finlay find his number, let's arrange a eting." He pulled out his phone.
"Tanner Spivey, this is Detective Finlay from the Margrave Police Departnt. I'm calling because of Jack Reacher. Yes, he's furious. He says he was badly beaten up in your prison and now he's going to sue."
"He's your prisoner. I don't want to lose my job over this. Can we find a place to et? We need to go over our statents before our lawyers find us. Okay, see you in half an hour."
Seeing Reacher hang up, Jack was puzzled. "Is that guy an idiot? He got fooled?"
Reacher smirked. "Who said he got fooled? I set him up, and he set up."
"Hmm, why do you always have to put on such a tough guy act? You should smile more, maybe next ti Roscoe won't make you sleep on the floor."
Jack was annoyed by his pretentious act and mocked him.
Half an hour later, in a back alley of a bar called 'Blue Hole,' Spivey, his hair mostly white, dressed casually and looking like a disheveled old rogue, waited alone.
"Hey, Spivey," Reacher approached from a short distance.
"Haha, look who it is." Sure enough, Spivey wasn't surprised to see Reacher; instead, he revealed a nacing expression.
"I've never t Detective Finlay, but I've heard of him. You definitely don't sound like a black man from Boston on the phone."
He spat disgustingly on the ground. "Since you set up, I'll give you a reward."
With a whistle, a black rcedes parked in the backyard started and pulled up in front of the two n. Two short, wiry-looking Latino n got out and pointed their guns at Reacher.
One of them opened the trunk, gesturing for him to get in.
"Enjoy yourself, haha, you idiot. You should have let those guys kill you while you were in jail; it would have been much less painful."
Spivey was turning around smugly to go back to the bar when he suddenly tensed up, raising his hands and taking a few steps back.
The two Latinos sensed sothing was wrong. They turned around and saw Jack holding a gun to Spivey's head. Imdiately, they felt a sharp pain in their hands as Reacher swiftly disard them.
"You don't want to make a scene, do you?"
Reacher disassembled the two Glock 17s into parts with a few snaps, scattering them on the floor. Then, grinning like a villain, he twisted his neck, making a series of crisp cracking sounds.
"Hurry up, Reacher, we have a lot of things to do." Jack brandished his FK 7.5mm, signaling Spivey to behave, and then the muffled sounds of fists pounding against flesh ca from the other side.
He'd thought Reacher would handle it easily, but after taking down one, the other took three minutes to finish off.
"What's wrong? Hungry and weak?" Jack asked in surprise. Reacher's fighting ability was so inconsistent; it took him so long to take down two small guys.
"They're not ordinary people, they're soldiers from South Arica. The fighting techniques they use are only found in certain South Arican special forces," Reacher said, rubbing his bleeding lip. He'd accidentally taken a punch to the cheek.
"Alright, now tell honestly, who ordered you to fight us, Kleiner or his son, young Kleiner?"
Seeing the still-murderous giant standing before him, and the two thugs groaning behind him, Spivey's legs began to tremble uncontrollably.
"No, don't do it! It's Kleiner. He just wanted to warn that Paul Hubble. We didn't an to kill you, I swear!"
Having received an answer, the two turned and left, leaving Spivey, his pants soaked, and the two South Aricans groaning in pain on the ground.
"Take with you, please! Young Kleiner won't let go, he's a madman!"
....
"Fried chicken legs, grilled ribs, kale, mixed at sauce rice, country cheese with peaches, creamy chicken sandwiches with coleslaw, enjoy yourselves, darlings."
The plump black woman brought out two overflowing plates and placed them in front of Jack and Reacher, smiling broadly.
"Thank you," Jack and Reacher said in unison, wolfing down their food.
The black woman then turned serious, turned around, and took a small separate dish, placing it in front of Finlay.
"This is your spinach salad, help yourself with the dressing."
Finlay, sowhat embarrassed by the older woman's glare, tried to salvage the situation. "I can understand that big guy, but how do you manage to eat so much without gaining weight?"
Jack pulled his T-shirt up a bit, revealing his eight-pack abs, and patted them. "Believe it or not, I can hold my own against him."
This was a barbecue restaurant in a suburban park, recomnded by Finlay. Jack hadn't had a proper al in two days, and his eyes practically lit up at the sight of grilled at.
Finlay, with no appetite, stirred his salad and said, "That good-for-nothing Tiller classified Morrison's murder as a revenge killing, intending to use his authority to boss around, making do nothing."
"I told you, he's a traitor too," Reacher replied between bites.
"The town council is very unhappy with his self-appointnt as police chief. Soone even requested FBI intervention, but that was suppressed. Kleiner imdiately stood up for him," Finlay sighed helplessly. "I feel like even if I stood up and told the truth, I'd be seen as one of those crazy people spreading conspiracy theories."
"Kleiner is their bread and butter. Nobody will believe an outsider like you, especially since you've always felt out of place here."
Jack took a big, satisfying bite of rib at, his mouth dripping with oil.
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