Contents
Chapter 30
Overview
On the way to LAX, Reacher and Chang review Westwood’s recent articles, finding no clear link to McCann’s trigger. Meanwhile, unseen adversaries decide the pair must not reach their flight. Their cab driver, seemingly complicit, refuses faster lanes and abruptly exits the freeway, delivering them into a dark, abandoned warehouse.
Summary
Reacher and Chang leave their motel and catch a cab to LAX. They appear relaxed but focused on reaching Chicago to find McCann. In a parallel thread, a jeans-and-hair coordinator calls a contact, who insists an overt motel hit was too risky and promises Reacher and Chang will not make their flight, citing Hackett’s need to avoid exposure.
On the 405, Chang searches the LA Times site for Ashley Westwood’s work from four to six months prior, hoping to learn what first caught McCann’s attention. She scans pieces on organic farming, medieval gerbils as plague carriers, climate change, the Deep Web, collapsing bee populations, and a proposed trans-Pacific swim through the shark corridor and the Pacific Gyre—none obviously tied to “200 deaths.”
Traffic dynamics shift; a black Town Car briefly paces them before a red coupe lightly bumps it, and both vehicles continue unharmed. The cab driver refuses to switch to faster lanes, claiming a hare-and-tortoise strategy.
Near LAX, the driver abruptly exits via an unmarked ramp into an abandoned maintenance area and drives into a derelict warehouse, plunging the cab into darkness—confirming the promised interception before they can board.
Who Appears
- Cab driverLarge, controlled, possibly ex-boxer; refuses faster lanes and diverts into an abandoned warehouse, delivering a trap.
- Jack ReacherProtagonist; urges research on Westwood; notices traffic oddities; questions the driver before being led into a trap.
- Michelle ChangPartner; searches Westwood’s past articles for McCann’s trigger; calms Reacher; rides toward LAX unaware of ambush.
- Jeans-and-hair coordinatorAntagonist organizer; preemptively calls contact and insists Reacher and Chang must not board their flight.
- ContactAssures the coordinator the job will be done discreetly; references Hackett and risk of public exposure.
- HackettHitman mentioned as too exposed to kill them at the motel; part of the broader threat.
- Unidentified Town Car passengerBriefly looks toward Reacher and Chang before a minor rear-end incident; possible surveillance.