inside the bridge.
He also saw the faint red tip of a burning cigarette on the fantail. He pulled out his night-vision monocular and took a look. In the dim mast light, a smallish man in a dark woolen coat and watch cap leaned on the rail, staring out at nothing. If he was the night watch, then Jack wouldn’t have much of a problem getting on board later, his promise to Liliana notwithstanding. First, though, he needed to get inside the warehouse.
Jack scanned the rest of the ship’s deck but didn’t see anybody else. He took a long look down the length of the pier that fronted this side of the river. He saw one other ship with a few lights on but no human movement anywhere. He turned his attention back to the man on the stern just in time to see him toss his cigarette over the side, turn around, and disappear back into the ship.
Seeing his chance, Jack dashed around the corner. He couldn’t believe his luck. One of the two warehouse doors on this side of the building had been left open about four feet—just wide enough to walk in and out. Someone had been either too lazy or too careless to shut it entirely.
Jack slipped silently up to the entrance and crouched down low again. He listened. Nothing. His nose didn’t detect any sweat or smoke.
“Better to be lucky than good,” he reminded himself with a smile as he ducked in through the opening.
The warehouse floor, which he felt more than saw, contained a few rows of stacked pallets, but otherwise was mostly empty. The faint light from the mast outside barely reached into the dark, cavernous space. Still hearing nothing, Jack pulled out his smartphone and activated the flashlight feature, then advanced toward the far wall to place his first camera.
Passing the first row of pallets of bagged cement, he felt the faint rush of swiftly moving air. He ducked the swinging fist just enough that it only grazed the top of his head, but the heft and speed of the arm throwing it carried enough energy to spin him slightly clockwise.
Jack used that momentum to accelerate a driving left hook that landed with a punishing thud into the muscled chest of the monster he’d seen standing in the doorway earlier that day.
The big man had his own left jab, and Jack suffered mightily for it as the rock-hard fist crashed into his right ear, driving the earbud deeper into the ear canal, its hard plastic stabbing the soft, sensitive tissues.
Jack yelped at the sharp pain but used its energy and the adrenaline dump to drive an openhanded punch at the man’s meaty throat. He aimed for the larynx but missed, hitting the much taller man at the base of his neck, where it met the collarbone instead. The hulking giant gasped for breath but didn’t slow his attack until—
Crack! A pistol fired from the doorway, the sharp report ringing daggers in Jack’s ears as a nine-millimeter round slammed into the cement bag just above the taller man’s head.
“Stop! Policja!” Liliana shouted from the doorway. She was a black shadow behind the blinding glare of her pistol’s tac light.
Both men turned. Liliana approached slowly.
“Jack? Are you—”
But before she could finish her sentence, another shadow lunged from behind her, his hand held high, holding a truncheon. The force of the blow against her skull knocked the pistol out of her hand and sent it tumbling to the concrete floor, spinning the light like a strobe.
Her unconscious body slammed into the pavement as Jack shouted, “Lil!” and ran toward her, but two steps in, his own skull exploded in searing pain, blinding his mind an instant before he crashed into the oil-stained concrete.
60
BALTIC SEA
Each beat of Jack’s heart stabbed his brain.
His eyes fluttered open with the stench of solvents. He saw nothing in the darkness save random, jagged patches of dim light. His aching hands were bound with zip ties. He reached forward and felt the curve of the cold, oily steel wall.
He was inside a drum. His eyes widened with panic and his senses flared. He was suddenly aware of a slight undulation tossing his inner ear. He was moving.
A ship at sea.
The chemical smell became overpowering. His eyes watered and his nose ran as his breathing accelerated with panic. Voices outside laughed and shouted.
A sudden clang against the punctured lid startled him out of his stupor. Steel grinding on steel led to a metallic