Page 116 of Tom Clancy Line of Sight

“Yes, of course. But one last thing. I like you, Jack. I really do. And that’s why I’m going to say to you that you are in the middle of things you can’t possibly understand, including the three dead Russians.”

“And yet, despite the risk to my personal safety, you were willing to use me to get close to Aida.”

“A mistake on my part. I hope I have made it up to you by not telling the Russians that you and Aida were there.”

“Why not?”

“If I had, you and Aida would already be dead.”

“Thanks, I guess.”

“Take my advice. Be sure to be on that plane tomorrow. Better yet, change your ticket and leave tonight if you can. You saw all of the crowds and the traffic on the way over here? Those are thousands of Serbs swarming into the city for the Orthodox Renewal service tomorrow. Sarajevo is a powder keg, and there are fifty thousand matches already lit and ready to be thrown.”

“And if I decide not to leave tomorrow?”

“Have you heard the saying ‘God must love fools because he made so many of them’?”

Jack stood. “Good-bye, Agent Kolak.”

Kolak stood as well, and shook Jack’s hand. “Good-bye, Jack. Please stay safe. And, if I may, stay away from Aida Curic.”

55

OUTSIDE SARAJEVO, BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

After processing the new batch of refugees, Aida swung by Jack’s place and picked him up as promised. She drove him to her house out in the country, about fifteen miles west of the city, not far off the R442, another narrow, two-lane asphalt road.

“How was your day?” Aida asked as she pulled away from the curb.

“Went to the Srebrenica exhibit. Depressing as hell.” He wasn’t sure if he should tell her about the Kolak meeting yet. He was still processing it. “Yours?”

“It went very well. Syrians are such nice people. One of them is a dentist. I think he might stay and help us in the clinic.”

They rode along in silence for a while.

“What’s bothering you, Jack?”

“Nothing.”

“I’m not sure I believe you.” She rubbed his knee. “Tell me.”

“I had a meeting today with a guy named Kolak.”

“Dragan Kolak?”

“Yeah. You know him?”

“He’s with Bosnian security. A Croat. A very bad man.”

“He certainly knows you.”

“What did he want?”

“Those Serbians that stopped us? He said they were actually Russians, and that they had been killed.”

“What?”

“I told him that we left them alive, and that Emir called the police after we left. He was suggesting that Emir either killed those men or contacted someone who did.”