Chapitre 177: Chapter 177: Arranged by God
"Don't move, police!" came an old, angry shout. Two figures, one tall and one short, got out of an old Crown Victoria, both holding guns pointed at the armed thugs dazed in the crashed Mercedes.
"My God! Why are you here?" Jack quickly got out of his car and ran forward. He dragged the two men out of the Mercedes like dead dogs, tied them up with plastic zip ties, and remembering a certain incident at the police station, added two more ties for good measure.
He then holstered his gun and looked at the two elderly people beside the old Crown Victoria. "Rick, DeeDee, what are you doing here?"
"God arranged it," Detective Hunter grinned. The familiar line almost brought tears to Jack's eyes.
"This is your backup?" Reacher, who had followed closely, was incredulous at the sight of the two white-haired elders.
"You're the big guy they talked about? You're not that tall," Rick said, straightening his slightly stooped back. In his prime, he was nearly two meters tall, and now he still looked a bit taller than Reacher.
Perhaps it was the spectacular car crash that brought back his old detective spirit, as Detective Hunter now appeared radiant and energetic, gradually resembling the familiar image Jack had in his memory.
"All these years and your driving skills haven't declined one bit," Jack said.
Next to him, DeeDee holstered her silver-gray stainless steel Walther PPK/S, resuming her kindly old lady demeanor, and gave Jack a hug. "Little Jack, it's good to see you. We came with the Anderson family's kids."
Jack's body stiffened. Could Zoe be here too?
Just then, Zoe appeared by the roadside, carrying an AR-15, dressed in a form-fitting black outfit, and wearing a black ski mask.
Behind her, Braxton was running with a reflective warning sign to alert oncoming cars to the accident.
Jack resisted the urge to hug her, awkwardly but politely nodding, "Inspector... uh, Zoe, long time no see."
As a woman, Zoe's acting was much better than his. She naturally smiled, "My parents were worried about you and Hannah, so I came to help."
A former inspector, now busy running for city council, dropped everything and rushed from the West Coast to the East Coast to help. Aside from deep sisterly affection, Jack couldn't think of any other explanation.
The Hunters didn't notice the awkward atmosphere between the two. In their minds, Jack and Hannah were the perfect couple. The old detective directed everyone to quickly clear the road.
Jack and Reacher struggled to remove the corpse from the roadside tree— the unfortunate soul who had been thrown higher than a Leopard 2 turret.
"Is that your ex-girlfriend? You seemed off just now," Reacher casually probed.
"No way. She's my former boss and my girlfriend's cousin," Jack responded calmly.
"It's so dark. How could you see any expression? You'll meet my girlfriend soon."
As he spoke, two headlights appeared. The Bentley that had taken the detour earlier returned and stopped by the roadside.
The door opened, and Hannah, dressed in the same black outfit and carrying Braxton's Barrett M82A1M, jumped out. Ignoring the gruesome corpses, she leapt into Jack's arms, wrapping her long legs tightly around his waist and kissing him passionately.
"Thanks to Joey Reacher, who you saved. He said he investigated my parents' deaths and found the killer of that EPA investigator. His nickname is 'The Viking.'"
Jack, sensing a burning gaze behind him, lightly patted Hannah's back, signaling her to get down.
"You should thank the Wolf brothers. They risked their lives to save Joey Reacher."
Jack suddenly had a sense of déjà vu. The Wolf brothers and the Reacher brothers seemed to share a similar backstory—both sets joined the military young, shared deep bonds, and often lost contact. Maybe the scriptwriters were being lazy.
"You must be Jack Reacher. I've heard about you."
Zoe withdrew her gaze and extended her hand to Reacher beside her.
"I'm Zoe Anderson. I used to work at DCIS. Your '110th MP Special Investigations Unit' is famous. Solved over 150 cases in less than five years, with all prosecutions successful and over 20 fugitives captured."
"You're the Anderson? I always thought you were a man," Reacher said, unable to hide his surprise.
Zoe smiled and was about to speak when old Hunter, who had used the Crown Victoria to push the twisted wreck of the Mercedes to the roadside, patted the car door and called out to everyone.
"Boys and girls, time to go. If we head back now, we can catch tonight's 'Jimmy Tonight Show.' DeeDee never misses an episode."
Hannah and Zoe naturally got into Jack's Aston Martin, which followed at the rear. Reacher's Jaguar led the way, with two bound captives in the backseat.
"Uh, won't it be a problem leaving the bodies and wreckage by the roadside?"
Seeing the two sisters in matching black outfits in his backseat made Jack itch. With cat-ear headbands and eye masks, they could rival Anne Hathaway's Catwoman, but with double the impact.
And with each carrying a big gun, it was a quadruple impact, almost lethal.
Hannah, pouting in mock displeasure, snorted, "The Atlanta FBI office and Georgia State Patrol will arrive in ten minutes to handle it."
Jack, initially making small talk, started to worry. He remembered that the local FBI office had a mole, one of Fenley's old friends, the 'Viking's' partner Hannah mentioned.
But then he thought, since the plan was to flush out the snake, having the mole alert the enemy might be good. They could use it to trap him.
Out of things to say, Jack awkwardly laughed, sharing a few funny stories from the past few days, mostly involving Fenley and Reacher's mishaps.
But there was no reaction from the backseat. Jack felt colder inside, fearing tonight's ordeal wouldn't end well.
The rest of the trip was quiet. After passing a convoy of police cars, they hardly saw any other vehicles.
An hour later, the convoy of three luxury cars and an old Crown Victoria arrived at Grady Memorial Hospital.
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