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delay.”
    “Is that an order?”
    “It’s a request from a senior officer. Is there a difference?”
    “Are you in my chain of command?”
    “Consider that I am.”
    “OK,” I said.
    “Anything at all,” he said again. “To me, immediately and personally. My ears only. Night or day.”
    “OK,” I said again.
    “There’s a lot riding on this. Do you understand? The stakes are very high.”
    “OK,” I said, for the third time.
    Then Frazer said, “But I don’t want you to do anything that makes you feel uncomfortable.”
    I went to bed early , my hair matted, my unshaven face scratchy on the pillow, and the clock in my head woke me at five, two hours before dawn, on Friday, March 7th, 1997. The first day of the rest of my life.

Chapter
    6
    I showered and dressed in the dark, socks, boxers, pants , my old T, my new shirt. I laced my shoes and put my toothbrush in my pocket with a pack of gum and a roll of bills. I left everything else behind. No ID, no wallet, no watch, no nothing. Method acting. I figured that was how I would do it, if I was doing it for real.
    Then I headed out. I walked up the post’s main drag and got to the guardhouse and Garber came out to meet me in the open. He had been waiting for me. Six o’clock in the morning. Not yet light. Garber was in BDUs, presumably fresh on less than an hour ago, but he looked like he had spent that hour rolling around in the dirt on a farm. We stood under the glow of a yellow vapor light. The air was very cold.
    Garber said, “You don’t have a bag?”
    I said, “Why would I have a bag?”
    “People carry bags.”
    “What for?”
    “For their spare clothing.”
    “I don’t own spare clothing. I had to buy these things especially.”
    “You chose that shirt?”
    “What’s wrong with it?”
    “It’s pink.”
    “Only in places.”
    “You’re going to Mississippi. They’ll think you’re queer. They’ll beat you to death.”
    “I doubt it,” I said.
    “What are you going to do when those clothes get dirty?”
    “I don’t know. Buy some more, I suppose.”
    “How are you planning to get to Kelham?”
    “I figured I’d walk into town and get a Greyhound bus to Memphis. Then hitchhike the rest of the way. I imagine that’s how people do these things.”
    “Have you eaten breakfast?”
    “I’m sure I’ll find a diner.”
    Garber paused a beat and asked, “Did John James Frazer get you on the phone yesterday? From Senate Liaison?”
    I said, “Yes, he did.”
    “How did he sound?”
    “Like we’re in big trouble unless Janice May Chapman was killed by another civilian.”
    “Then let’s hope she was.”
    “Is Frazer in my chain of command?”
    “Probably safest to assume he is.”
    “What kind of a guy is he?”
    “He’s a guy under a whole lot of stress right now. Five years’ work could go down the pan, just when it gets important.”
    “He told me not to do anything that makes me feel uncomfortable.”
    “Bullshit,” Garber said. “You’re not in the army to feel comfortable.”
    I said, “What some guy on leave does after he gets drunk in a bar is not a company commander’s fault.”
    “Only in the real world,” Garber said. “But this is politics we’re talking about.” Then he went quiet again, just for a moment, as if he had many more points to make and was trying to decide which one of them to start with. But in the end all he said was, “Well, have a safe trip, Reacher. Stay in touch, OK?”
*   *   *
    The walk to the Greyhound depot was long but not difficult. Just a case of putting one foot in front of the other. I was passed by a few vehicles. None of them stopped to offer me a ride. They might have if I had been in uniform. Off-post citizens are usually well disposed toward their military neighbors, in the heartland of America. I took their neglect as proof that my civilian disguise was convincing. I was glad to pass the test. I had never posed as a civilian before. It was unknown