The Enemy (Jack Reacher, #8)

by Lee Child

Soldiers die at the same speed as everyone else.

“I volunteered,” I said. “I’m trying to make people like me.” “That’s a hopeless task,” he

said.

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.

“You were in Panama,” he said. “Operation Just Cause, right?” “Operation Just Because,” I said. “That’s what we called it.” “Just because what?” “Just because we could.

Just because we all had to

have something to do. Just because we’ve got a new Commander-in-Chief who...

“No, it’s realistic, Joe. It’s

about picking your battles. Sure, of course you cure the little things. If you’re in an accident, you get yourself patched up. But some battles can’t be won.

“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.

It’s a part of life, missing the dead.”

“You don’t need me anymore,” she told us. “You’re all grown up. My job is done. That’s natural, and that’s good. That’s life. So let me go.”

“What don’t you need to do?” she asked him. He didn’t answer. He never did. Our silence was part of the ritual. “You don’t need to solve

all the world’s problems, Joe. Only some of them. There are enough to go around.”

Then came my own personal question. “What are you going to do with this strength?” she asked me. I didn’t answer. I never did. “You’re going to do the right thing,” she said.

“Orders are orders,” I said. “The alternative is anarchy and chaos.”

I had always been a loner, but at that point I started to feel lonely.

Both of my families were disappearing out from under me, one because of simple relentless chronology, and the other because its

reliable old values seemed suddenly to b...

I knew what he meant. It was a nice piece of steel, and it was everything it needed to be and nothing it didn’t. Like a Colt Detective Special, or a K-bar, or a cockroach.

It was midmorning, a dull day, and I felt aimless. So far, the new decade wasn’t doing much for me. I wasn’t a huge fan of the 1990s yet, at that point, six days in.

“OK, cui bono?” I said. “Who benefits? What, from

the complaint?”

“It’s always a good guide to moti...

“Anyone say anything about his mood?” “Delta guys don’t have moods. Too much danger of appearing human.”

“Tell him someone dropped a gum wrapper in the flower bed outside the post commander’s office. Tell him I won’t have army real estate abused in that way. Tell him I’ve been on the trail since well before dawn.”

I shook my head. “I’m not going to hide. Not because of an asshole like Willard. If he checks the log I’ll tell him the hunt for the gum-wrapper guy

suddenly went interstate. Or global, even. We could go to Tahiti.”

three hours was the point where the stains would first start to fix. They said he had signs of early fixed lividity on his back and major fixed lividity on his front.

“Did she give up because she was left alone?” I shook my head. “She wanted to be left alone so she could give up.”

I smiled. “It just moved us up from speculative to circumstantial.” “A giant leap for mankind,” he said.

I started thinking about Carbone, and Brubaker, and Mrs. Kramer. And Mrs. Reacher.

All over the world people were dying, in the early par...

The Art of War by Sun-tzu: To fail to take the battle to the enemy when your back is

to the wall is to perish.

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.

“What does T.E.P. mean?” “It’s old CIA jargon,” I said. “It means terminate with extreme prejudice.” She said nothing. “In other words, assassinate,” I said.