The Enemy (Jack Reacher, #8)

by Lee Child

The army is a big institution, a little bigger than Detroit, a little smaller than Dallas, and just as unsentimental as either place.

That’s the easiest way to spot a hooker. Look for someone dressed like she’s going to a ball, carrying a bag like she’s going on vacation.

It was an incredible face. It had started out ugly and it had gotten much worse.

fancy dress ball.

British! An American would say “costume”

The Reacher brothers’ need for caffeine makes heroin addiction look like an amusing little take-it-or-leave-it sideline.

But French people understand that first you live, and then you die. It’s not an outrage. It’s something that’s been happening since the dawn of time. It has to happen, don’t you see?

If people didn’t die, the world would be an awfully crowded place by now.”

“Won’t you miss us, Mom?” he asked. “Wrong question,” she said. “I’ll be dead. I won’t be missing anything. It’s you that will be missing me. Like you miss your father. Like I miss him. Like I miss my father, and my mother, and my grandparents. It’s a part of life, missing the dead.”

It’s like walking out of a movie. Being made to walk out of a movie that you’re really enjoying.

It will always be an arbitrary date. It will always leave me wanting more.”

must have taken a lot of will, but I guessed that was how she wanted to be remembered.

My phone rang. I picked it up. It was Colonel Willard, the asshole in Garber’s office, up in Rock Creek. “Where are you?” he asked. “In my office,” I said. “How else would I be answering my phone?”

You’re institutionalized, you’ve got no social skills, you’ve never been in the civilian world, and you’re good for nothing.

“Life,” Joe said. “What a completely weird thing it is. A person lives sixty years, does all kinds of things, knows all kinds of things, feels all kinds of things, and then it’s over. Like it never happened at all.” “We’ll always remember her.” “No, we’ll remember parts of her. The parts she chose to share. The tip of the iceberg. The rest, only she knew about. Therefore the rest already doesn’t exist. As of now.”

She had lived through desperate times and she had stepped up and done what was necessary.

At that moment I knew I would miss her forever. I felt empty. I had lost something I never knew I had.

Sooner or later you ended up an orphan. There was no escaping it. It had happened that way for a thousand generations. No point in getting all upset about it.

sergeants made the U.S. Army worth serving in.

You can’t do this alone, Reacher. You can’t live your whole life alone.”

Bet?

While coolness in disaster is the supreme proof of a commander’s courage, energy in pursuit is the surest test of his strength of will. Wavell.