Bad Luck and Trouble recap

After Calvin Franz is murdered, Frances Neagley summons Jack Reacher and reunites him with former special-investigations colleagues Karla Dixon and David O'Donnell. Their search links the deaths of Franz, Tony Swan, Jorge Sanchez, and Manuel Orozco to New Age Defense Systems. Security chief Allen Lamaison has coerced employees into falsely rejecting 650 working electronics packs for Little Wing missiles and arranged their sale to Azhari Mahmoud. Sheriff Curtis Mauney is exposed as Lamaison's partner, while Dixon and O'Donnell are captured. Reacher boards the conspirators' helicopter, rescues them, and kills Lamaison. Reacher and Neagley then capture Mahmoud before the missile shipment can be armed for attacks in the United States. Federal authorities receive the prisoner, shipment, and evidence. The recovered assets support the victims' families, Tony Swan's dog charity, expenses, and the surviving investigators. The four survivors separate, and Dixon later sends Reacher his share with a coded invitation to Greenwich Village.

Previously, Jack Reacher served as an Army military policeman and led a special investigations unit. After leaving the Army, he lived as a drifter, carrying little and travelling without a fixed address, a phone, or a planned destination.

Calvin Franz is carried by helicopter into remote desert country with both legs broken and his body strapped to a stretcher. Three men cut him free and force him from the aircraft while it hovers thousands of feet above the ground. Seventeen days later, Jack Reacher is nearly out of money in Portland, Oregon, when he discovers an unexplained $1,030 deposit in his bank account. He interprets the amount as 1030, an urgent-assistance code used by Army military police. The bank traces the personal check to Frances Neagley. Reacher remembers recruiting Neagley into his special investigations unit, where she became central to its success. Because she is highly capable and intensely private, he concludes that she would use such an indirect method only for a serious emergency. Reacher calls her Chicago security company. An assistant says Neagley is flying to Los Angeles, wants him there immediately, and expects him to locate her on arrival. The assistant also confirms that Neagley is trying to reach several people and that Reacher is the first to answer. Reacher commits to the trip without yet knowing what has alarmed her.

The inquiry connects Calvin Franz, Tony Swan, Jorge Sanchez, and Manuel Orozco through a meeting shortly before their disappearances. Karla Dixon finds that Franz's seven months of performance records contain 650 excess failures. Sanchez left a matching calculation: 650 units at $100,000 each, totaling $65 million. New Age Defense Systems says it recently dismissed Swan and destroyed his computer drive, while the purpose of the figures remains unknown. Manuel Orozco is then identified as another victim apparently dropped from a helicopter. A Pentagon contact names New Age's classified product as Little Wing and directs the group to congressional staffer Diana Bond. Records from Sanchez and Orozco's office link Azhari Mahmoud to four travelling identities. Two are Adrian Mount and Andrew MacBride; the others are Alan Mason and Anthony Matthews. After two gunmen attack Reacher and David O'Donnell in Hollywood, the investigators follow a possible Las Vegas lead. Casino security manager Wright directs them to Milena, Sanchez's longtime partner. Milena and Tammy Orozco explain that the men's failing business suddenly received work after Franz called from California asking for help. A further Las Vegas attacker carries the name Seropian, and his phone connects him to an unidentified Los Angeles superior. The group returns to Los Angeles to pursue that link and learn what Little Wing is.

Diana Bond identifies Little Wing as a shoulder-launched surface-to-air missile. Its Los Angeles electronics production ran normally for three months before rising numbers of units supposedly failed quality control and were destroyed. Combining this information with Franz's records, the team concludes that 650 working packs were falsely rejected for sale to Azhari Mahmoud. A matching group of missile bodies is scheduled for false destruction, creating a route for complete weapons to leave Colorado. Tony Swan is confirmed dead, making clear that Franz, Swan, Sanchez, and Orozco were killed after investigating the diversion. Documents taken from New Age identify its real plant in Highland Park and name security chief Allen Lamaison as the Los Angeles superior behind the attackers. Margaret Berenson explains that Lamaison threatened Edward Dean's daughter to make the quality-control director falsify records, then threatened her son to enforce her silence. She identifies Lennox, Parker, and Saropian as other participants. Reacher and Frances Neagley move Berenson and her son to safety. Soon afterward, the missile shipment leaves Colorado, while Lamaison's group captures Dixon and O'Donnell. Their encoded proof-of-life answers signal that eight enemies are present, including Curtis Mauney. Reacher and Neagley penetrate the Highland Park plant, kill four guards, and confront Mauney, who admits he is Lamaison's partner. The captives remain in immediate danger as Reacher and Neagley leave the grounds temporarily to regain mobility.

At the airfield, Jack Reacher kills the man guarding him, draws the pursuing cars away, and secretly boards the conspirators' Bell helicopter. Allen Lamaison's group brings the bound Karla Dixon and David O'Donnell aboard. When two armed associates prepare to throw the captives from the hovering aircraft, Reacher shoots one man out, forces the other to fall, frees his colleagues, and kills Lamaison in the same manner. The team concludes that Azhari Mahmoud plans to use the 650 Little Wing systems inside the United States and must rely on Edward Dean, the only engineer able to assemble and test them. Reacher forces the helicopter to Dean's remote home and kills the pilot, who admits participating in the earlier murders. Dean acknowledges falsifying 650 electronics records under coercion. Mahmoud arrives expecting an assembly demonstration and confirms that the missiles are in transit for domestic attacks. Reacher and Frances Neagley capture him, and Neagley calls a Pentagon contact. Federal authorities take custody of Mahmoud, the shipment, and the evidence before any missiles are armed. Dixon converts the recovered financial instruments and diamonds into support for the victims' families, Tony Swan's dog charity, expenses, and shares for the survivors. Reacher, Neagley, Dixon, and O'Donnell separate at LAX. Weeks later, Dixon deposits Reacher's share with a numerical message that marks the mission complete and invites him to Greenwich Village.

Jack Reacher hides aboard Allen Lamaison's helicopter and intervenes as Lamaison's associates prepare to throw Karla Dixon and David O'Donnell from the aircraft. He frees both captives, sends the two associates out of the helicopter, kills Lamaison, and later kills the pilot after forcing a landing at Edward Dean's remote home. Azhari Mahmoud arrives expecting Dean to demonstrate how to arm the stolen Little Wing systems. Reacher and Frances Neagley capture Mahmoud, restrain the arriving truck driver, and alert a Pentagon contact. Federal authorities take control of Mahmoud, the missile shipment, and the evidence before any of the 650 systems are armed. Dixon administers the recovered financial instruments and diamonds, establishing support for the victims' families, Tony Swan's dog charity, expenses, and the surviving investigators. Reacher, Neagley, Dixon, and O'Donnell separate at LAX. Weeks later, Dixon deposits Reacher's $111,822.18 share in his account. The amount encodes both mission accomplished and her Greenwich Village ZIP code, leaving him an invitation while he continues travelling. The final dispositions of Curtis Mauney, Lennox, and Parker are unstated.