Echo Burning Read Online Free PDF Page A

small dark man took his rightful place behind the wheel and U-turned through the dust and headed back to the highway, cruising easily. A Crown Vic, plain steel wheels, a forest of antennas, Virginia plates. Maybe an FBI pool car, three agents inside, maybe on urgent business.
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    â€œWhat did you do in the army?” the woman asked, very casually.
    â€œI was a cop,” Reacher said.
    â€œThey have cops in the army?”
    â€œSure they do,” he said. “Military police. Like cops, inside the service.”
    â€œI didn’t know that,” she said.
    She went quiet again. She was thinking hard. She seemed excited.
    â€œWould you mind if I asked you some questions?” she said.
    He shrugged. “You’re giving me a ride.”
    She nodded. “I wouldn’t want to offend you.”
    â€œThat would be hard to do, in the circumstances. Hundred and ten degrees out there, sixty in here.”
    â€œThere’ll be a storm soon. There has to be, with a temperature like this.”
    He glanced ahead at the sky. It was tinted bottle-green by the windshield glass, and it was blindingly clear.
    â€œI don’t see any sign of it,” he said.
    She smiled again, briefly. “May I ask where you live?”
    â€œI don’t live anywhere,” he said. “I move around.”
    â€œYou don’t have a home somewhere?”
    He shook his head. “What you see is what I’ve got.”
    â€œYou travel light,” she said.
    â€œLight as I can.”
    She paused for a fast mile.
    â€œAre you out of work?” she asked.
    He nodded. “Usually.”
    â€œWere you a good cop? In the army?”
    â€œGood enough, I guess. They made me a major, gave me some medals.”
    She paused. “So why did you leave?”
    It felt like an interview. For a loan, or for a job.
    â€œThey downsized me out of there,” he said. “End of the Cold War, they wanted a smaller army, not so many people in it, so they didn’t need so many cops to look after them.”
    She nodded. “Like a town. If the population gets smaller, the police department gets smaller, too. Something to do with appropriations. Taxes, or something.”
    He said nothing.
    â€œI live in a very small town,” she said. “Echo, south of Pecos, like I told you. It’s a lonely place. That’s why theynamed it Echo. Not because it’s echoey, like an empty room. It’s from ancient Greek mythology. Echo was a young girl in love with Narcissus. But he loved himself, not her, so she pined away until just her voice was left. So that’s why it’s called Echo. Not many inhabitants. But it’s a county, too. A county and a township. Not as empty as Loving County, but there’s no police department at all. Just the county sheriff, on his own.”
    Something in her voice.
    â€œIs that a problem?” he asked.
    â€œIt’s a very white county,” she said. “Not like Pecos at all.”
    â€œSo?”
    â€œSo one feels there might be a problem, if push came to shove.”
    â€œAnd has push come to shove?”
    She smiled, awkwardly.
    â€œI can tell you were a cop,” she said. “You ask so many questions. And it’s me who wanted to ask all the questions.”
    She fell silent for a spell and just drove, slim dark hands light on the wheel, going fast but not hurrying. He used the cushion-shaped buttons again and laid his seat back another fraction. Watched her in the corner of his eye. She was pretty, but she was troubled. Ten years from now, she was going to have some excellent frown lines.
    â€œWhat was life like in the army?” she asked.
    â€œDifferent,” he said. “Different from life outside the army.”
    â€œDifferent how?”
    â€œDifferent rules, different situations. It was a world of its own. It was very regulated, but it was kind of lawless. Kind of rough and uncivilized.”
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