Gone Tomorrow recap

Jack Reacher notices a distressed woman on a nearly empty New York subway train and becomes caught in the struggle over a missing memory stick. Susan Mark, a Pentagon employee, copied and erased an archive file containing a photograph of John Sansom and Springfield at a politically damaging 1983 meeting in Afghanistan. Lila Hoth and Svetlana Hoth target Susan through her son, Peter Molina, while federal personnel pursue Reacher and suppress the secret. Reacher works with NYPD detectives Theresa Lee and Jacob Mark, divides the Hoth cell with a staged exchange, and attacks its remaining members. He kills Lila, Svetlana, and the last operatives, but suffers a serious wound. Lee and Springfield get him to Bellevue Hospital. Reacher then identifies where Susan discarded the stick. It is recovered crushed and unreadable, leaving the photograph unusable. Peter was apparently murdered, Susan's ultimate fate is not established, and Reacher leaves New York.

Previously: Jack Reacher is a former military policeman who travels independently and relies on his investigative and combat experience.

Reacher boards a nearly empty uptown subway train in New York at about two in the morning. He notices a woman dressed in black and tests her behavior against warning signs he learned during counterterrorism work. The hour and sparse passenger count make an attack seem strategically unlikely, but her oversized jacket is out of place in the September heat, and her visible strain, fixed gaze, repeated lip movements, and guarded messenger bag deepen his concern. He cannot determine whether the bag contains a weapon, yet its weight and the position of her hands suggest she may be controlling something concealed inside. Reacher considers warning the other passengers or clearing the car as the train continues through Manhattan. He decides that confusion, limited shared language, and the danger of provoking her make either choice unsafe. When he and the woman finally make eye contact, her response convinces him that she understands he is watching her. By the end of the chapter, he still has no confirmation that she is a bomber, but he believes the threat may be immediate.

Reacher's search leads him to the missing Susan Mark and to several groups seeking a memory stick she carried. Her brother, NYPD detective Jacob Mark, also reports that her son Peter Molina has disappeared. Detective Theresa Lee keeps Susan's case closed but follows the new concerns. Lila Hoth first claims that Susan was helping her mother, Svetlana Hoth, identify an American soldier from Berlin. She later replaces that story with an account of a 1983 operation in the Korengal Valley, where Americans took Soviet sniper Grigori Hoth's rifle. Lila believes John Sansom led that mission and wants the information Susan found. Sansom confirms privately that his team took the rifle, but says it released Grigori and his spotter. Reacher does not trust Lila's motives and refuses to surrender Susan's material. Four of Lila's men are then found dead, and Lila and Svetlana disappear from hotel records as if they were never guests. Reacher also recognizes Sansom's chief of staff as a passenger who had been near Susan on the subway. Federal agents seize Reacher, demand the real memory stick and Lila's location, and hold him in an unofficial cell when he refuses to cooperate.

Reacher wakes in a covert holding site with Theresa Lee and Jacob Mark confined nearby. He overpowers the interrogators and escapes, and all three later become fugitives under a false public account that they shot federal agents. Lila claims to be holding Peter Molina, while Reacher searches for her base near the Four Seasons and fights off Leonid and another operative. Lee eventually learns that her partner, Docherty, is apparently under arrest. She and Mark surrender so that Lee can support Docherty and Mark can seek an official search for Peter. Springfield then explains why Susan was targeted: as a Pentagon systems administrator, she copied a Delta archive file to a memory stick and deleted the original. The Hoths used Peter as leverage. A recording sent by Lila appears to show Lila and Svetlana torturing a Kabul taxi driver and then Peter, leaving Peter apparently dead. Reacher narrows the likely Hoth location to a neglected building near 58th Street. He tells Springfield that he can lead Sansom's side close to the real stick, but demands protection and help for Lee, Mark, Docherty, and Molina. Sansom meets him, although Reacher continues to withhold both the stick's location and the secret contained in the file.

Sansom and Springfield reveal that the missing file contains a photograph of them meeting the future al-Qaeda leader in Afghanistan in 1983. Its release would damage Sansom politically and embarrass the United States. Reacher decides to dismantle the Hoth cell. With equipment supplied through Springfield and information passed through Theresa Lee, he arranges a false sale of the memory-stick location. Seven operatives arrive at Union Square and are arrested by Lee's counterterrorism unit. Reacher evades Department of Defense agents, identifies the Hoths' hotel rooms, and attacks the remaining group at its 58th Street base. He kills the male operatives he encounters and reaches Lila and Svetlana. Lee warns him that the immigration count missed a concealed twentieth man, whom Reacher shoots with his last submachine-gun round. Lila and Svetlana disarm him and prepare to kill him, but he uses a knife taped to his back. He kills both women and is badly wounded. Lee and Springfield take him to Bellevue, and the Department of Defense suppresses the aftermath. Reacher deduces that Susan discarded her phone and the stick during an I-95 traffic jam after receiving proof of Peter's death. The recovered stick is crushed and unreadable. Susan's ultimate fate remains unstated, and Reacher leaves New York.

Reacher draws seven Hoth operatives into an NYPD counterterrorism arrest at Union Square, escapes the federal agents waiting there, and enters the cell's 58th Street base alone. He kills the remaining male operatives, including a concealed twentieth man identified too late in the immigration count. After Lila Hoth and Svetlana Hoth disarm him, he uses a knife hidden against his back and kills them both, sustaining a serious abdominal wound. Theresa Lee and Springfield find him unconscious and take him to Bellevue Hospital. The Department of Defense assumes control of the nine bodies and prevents further consequences for Reacher. He concludes that Susan Mark threw her phone and the real memory stick from her car during an I-95 traffic jam after receiving evidence of Peter Molina's death. Searchers recover both items, but the stick is crushed beyond use, so the photograph of Sansom and Springfield cannot be exposed from it. Peter is treated as murdered, Susan's final fate remains unstated, and Reacher leaves New York. Lee survives and returns to police work, while Sansom's immediate political danger is contained.