Reacher quickly realizes that there is no school: the entire thing is a secret joint-agency operation overseen by Alfred Ratcliffe, the National Security Advisor, and his deputy, Dr. Marian Sinclair.

Ratcliffe informs the three men that, through a CIA double agent, the government has learned that a sleeper cell in Hamburg controlled by a Middle Eastern terrorist group has cut a deal with an unidentified American for $100 million.

The witness, Helmut Klopp, describes the American he purported to have seen to Reacher and Griezman, but also shares the information with Dremmler, a shoe importer and an influential Neo-nazi leader.

A stash of ten bombs had accidentally been left behind by the US Army in a German supply depot, and Wiley had dedicated his entire service career to finding and selling them to purchase a ranch in Argentina.

After setting an explosion to distract the authorities and narrowly evading Reacher's team when they search his apartment, Wiley is stabbed to death by two of Dremmler's men, who steal the van and the codes required to detonate the bombs.

With Griezman's help, he figures out that the van is being kept at Dremmler's shoe warehouse and takes Neagley and two military cops, Hooper and Orozco, to retrieve it.