It is late 1989, and Reacher, then a 29-year-old special unit MP major, is suddenly transferred from Panama to a North Carolina base; he soon finds he's one of a score of such transfers. When a general en route to a conference dies in embarrassing circumstances at a nearby seedy motel, his wife is killed hours later, and two other murders follow, Reacher is on the move, seeking suspects and the missing conference agenda, which seems to be the key....