Reacher said, ‘What, this is going to be like speed dating?’

‘You’re new in town, so why wouldn’t you?’

‘I would,’ Reacher said. ‘Believe me. It would be like a dream come true. But it takes two to tango. And I’m a realistic guy. On a good day I could get a woman to look at me. Maybe. But four women all at once is not very likely.’

Christopher nodded.

‘That’s the complication,’ he said. ‘That’s the difficulty we were worrying about. Plus, these women are scary. West Pointers, off-the-charts IQs. Fast track. Going places. You can imagine.’

‘I don’t have to imagine. I was at West Point.’

‘We know. We checked. You didn’t overlap with any of them.’

‘Are any of them married?’

‘No, fortunately. Fast track women don’t get married. Not until the time is right.’

‘Any serious relationships?’

‘Same answer.’

‘Are they older or younger than me?’

‘Older. Twenty-nine and thirty.’

‘Then that’s another negative. Most women date older men. And what rank am I going to be?’

‘You’re going in as a sergeant. Most snipers are.’

‘Women like that don’t want enlisted men.’

Christopher nodded again. ‘I said at the beginning this wasn’t going to be easy. But think logically. You might not need to go through all four. You might hit lucky the very first time. Or the second. And you might just know anyway. We have to assume the guilty one will resist any kind of contact. It could be that three say yes and one says no. In which case she’s the one.’

‘They’ll all resist contact. They’ll all say no.’

‘Maybe one slightly more emphatically than the others.’