Chapter 42

Reacher and Chang assess the wounded gunman from the Lair house attack and debate calling an ambulance. Fearing police involvement and believing the man’s catastrophic neck wound is unsurvivable, Reacher compresses his carotids until he dies. Westwood calls to say he has landed, and they plan to reconnect later.

They leave the neighborhood and find the gatehouse unmanned; inside, the elderly guard lies dead with shots to chest and head. The discovery reinforces their resolve as they drive off without attracting attention.

At a coffee shop, Reacher instructs Chang to have Westwood choose a hotel for a rendezvous in two hours. They seek local intelligence from Chang’s Phoenix contact about the “fat man” who runs the gunmen: a Ukrainian crime boss named Merchenko with a private club south of the airport.

They recon the club, a massive pink building called Pink. In the rear service yard, they observe a colossal man in a gray caftan, smoking and delivering a cold, relentless dressing-down to a rigidly attentive Hispanic worker. The lack of visible security gives them pause, but the behavior reads like a boss asserting rules.

Needing certainty, Chang photographs the man and sends images to her contact for visual confirmation. As the man prepares to rise, he resumes talking, buying precious seconds. The contact replies: the identification is certain—this is Merchenko.