Page 104 of Tom Clancy Line of Sight

She turned to Jack. Her eyes were wet. She put her hands to her face. “I was so scared.”

Jack’s cage got rattled, too. He was deathly allergic to lead, especially the kind thrown at him at high velocity. He laid a hand on her head and stroked her thick hair.

“It’s okay now. You’re safe.”

She glanced up through her tears. “Am I?”

“Sure. Why not?”

“You frightened me, Jack.” She pulled her knees up to her chin and wrapped her arms around her legs.

“Why?”

“I saw what you did to those men. What kind of financial analyst knows how to fight like that?”

“I’ve been training in martial arts for a long time—”

“Bullshit, Jack. The way you handled yourself? No. What you did back there you don’t learn in judo classes. You’ve done this before, haven’t you?”

“I just wanted to protect you.”

“Who are you, Jack?”

“I’m just a guy who can throw a punch.”

She sighed, turned her face toward her window, and closed her eyes.

They rode along in silence the rest of the way, Jack following the prompts of the GPS tracker. He kept running the day’s events over in his mind. He wished he spoke the language. There were a few English cognates, for sure, but they spoke sofast he could hardly pick out the words. Drugs? Guns? Money? He just didn’t know.

The only word he thought he heard clearly wasrakete. He supposed it must have meant “racket,” like Mafia rackets.

Whatever it was, that Serb Mafia “cop” was sure pissed about it.

—

Emir pulled over twenty minutes later, after tying up the fake cops and shutting their mouths with duct tape. He picked up the phone and dialed a number, but not for an ambulance.

“Why are you calling me?” Brkic asked.

“We have a problem.” Emir explained the situation.

“I’ll take care of it. You make sure you keep an eye on Aida.”

“There’s something else you need to know.”

“What?”

Emir told the Chechen about that fuckingkafirAmerican and his shameful use of Aida. But he added, “The American is leaving soon.”

“The sooner, the better. For Aida’s sake. And yours.”

SARAJEVO, BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

Aida had fallen asleep for the last hour of the trip but woke up when they hit massive traffic on the outskirts of town. She yawned and stretched, and glanced at Jack with a smile, brushing her tousled hair out of her eyes like a girl who had been dreaming pleasant dreams.

But her smile dimmed as she suddenly remembered whathad happened earlier. Jack could see the gears grinding behind her eyes.

Jack pointed at the GPS. Traffic lines were red everywhere. “What’s going on?”