Jack Reacher's Rules

The best place for a nomad to sleep is a motel. It has beds and doors that lock. Pay cash and don’t give your real name.

“Part of being a drifter means you look forward, not backward. You concentrate on what’s ahead.”

Arrange the smallest details in your life so that you can move on at a split second’s notice.

Own nothing, carry nothing.

Two days in one place is about the limit.

“Mostly he had rocked and swayed and dozed on buses, watching the passing scenes, observing the chaos of America, and surfing along on memories. His life was like that.”

“I’m a nomad.”

“Nomads have animals. They move around to find pasture. That’s the definition.”

“Okay, I’m a nomad without the animal part.”

Transience is a habit you can’t break.

A wad of dollars means … a few more weeks when you don’t have to find a job.

Don’t do permanent, be a Reacher, not a Settler.

Take the first bus out.

“They say you need to ride the rails for a while to understand the traveling blues. They’re wrong. To understand the traveling blues, you need to be locked down somewhere. In a cell. Or in the Army. Someplace where you’re caged. Someplace where smokestack lightning looks like a faraway beacon of impossible freedom.”

CODES USED BY THE MILITARY POLICE

10–2 Ambulance urgently needed

10-3 Motor vehicle accident

10-4 Wrecker requested

10-7 Pick up prisoner

10-8 Subject in custody

10-9 Send police van

10-10 Escort/transport

10-13 Repeat last message

10-14 Your location?

10-15 Go to …

10-16 Contact by secure landline

10-17 Return to base

10-18 Assignment completed/mission accomplished

10-19 Contact by phone or radio

10-22 Fire

10-23 Disturbance

10-24 Suspicious person

10-25 Stolen/abandoned vehicle

10-26 Serious accident

10-28 Loud and clear

10-29 Weak signal

10-30 Need assistance

10-31 Request investigator

10-32 Request MP duty officer

10-33 Stand by

10-34 Cancel last message

10-35 Meal

10-36 Please forward my messages

10-62 Fellow officer in trouble, requests urgent assistance

Or use the secret Alphabet Code, as in:

“We’d rate him SAS, sir.” (Stupid Asshole Sometimes)

Hurry up and wait.

“Hurry up and wait was the real MP motto. Not Assist, Protect, Defend.”

Never volunteer for anything. Soldier’s basic rule.

Confusion and unpredictability are what you should expect.

If in doubt, be flippant.

When the Navy says three hours, it means three hours. One hundred and eighty minutes, not a second more, not a second less.

The soldierly way to kill people is to shoot or stab or hit or strangle. They don’t do subtle.

Confront your enemies.

“Back in the day.”

“Delta is full of guys who can stay awake for a week and walk a hundred miles and shoot the balls off a tsetse fly, but it’s relatively empty of guys who can do all that and then tell you the difference between a Shiite and a trip to the latrine.”

Almost any place is serviceable; there is always somewhere worse to compare it with.

First you check, then you double-check.

Eat every time you can, sleep every time you can.

>>TWO WAYS TO GET PROMOTED

Let them think you’re just a little dumber than they are.

Raise a glass to “bloody wars and dread diseases.”

If in doubt, go formal.

Preconceptions get in the way.

“With manpower like the Army has, you can find a needle in a haystack. You can find both halves of the broken needle. You can find the tiny chip of chrome that flaked off the break.”

In the Army you learn how to sleep anywhere, anytime.

Initiative in the ranks usually ends in tears. Especially when live ammunition is involved.

The military and civilians will always remain a mystery to each other.