watch a Vietnamese family get slaughtered one by one before he finally decided to act against his orders. He stopped the killing but got shot for the effort and nearly died.
“All you can do is give it your best effort. You can’t control the outcome.”
“She got caught trying to protect me.”
“That was her job, and I’d say she did it well, judging by the fact you’re sitting here breathing and feeling sorry for yourself.”
“I should’ve kept her out of the op. Should’ve gone in all by myself without her knowing.”
“So why didn’t you?”
“She was a professional. I didn’t really think there would be a problem. I liked working with her. And it was her case, too.”
“Did you force her to go? Lie to her or bribe her or threaten her in any way to get her to go?”
“No, of course not.”
“Then I don’t see the problem. She was doing her job and you were doing yours. You know by now, kid, what we do ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. And the worst damn enemy we ever face isn’t out there, it’s the guy staring back at you in the mirror every morning. You need to get a handle on this, Jack.”
“She had a kid. A little boy. Tomasz.”
The image of her screaming out his name as she sank into the gloom flashed across his mind again. He drowned it with a long pull of beer, draining the bottle.
“His dad was killed a few years back in Afghanistan, and now this. It’s so damn unfair.”
“I know it is. And I don’t know how to sort it all out on this side of Heaven. That’s why I let the priests handle all of that metaphysical stuff. I can’t control what I can’t control. And by the way, thanks to your call from that clinic, the boy and his grandmother are sequestered in a Polish safe house right now, so quit kicking yourself in the ass.”
“Yeah. A phone call. Big hero.”
“For what it’s worth, your dad pulled a few strings. The Brits are sending over a deep-water submersible to the location that Polish fisherman gave us. He wasn’t too specific, but with any luck, they might be able to find your friend and maybe even get her back to her family for a decent burial.”
Jack darkened. “Yeah, that would be something, at least.”
They sat in silence for a while. Clark watched Jack falling deeper into his hole.
“That guy you sent on a wild-goose chase? What was his name?”
“Goralski.”
“Yeah. That’s right. He wound up in Dusseldorf. They picked him up, but he didn’t tell the cops anything. A high-dollar attorney bailed him out a few hours ago. They couldn’t hold him for anything because he had all of his legal permits to do whatever it was he was doing, and apparently it’s not against the law over there to tail somebody.” He chuckled. “That was a pretty slick move you pulled on him, kid.”
“What about Christopher Gage?”
“He was questioned, gently, because of his stepmom the senator. But he has an alibi for that night and he said he had no idea what was going on at the warehouse—he just leased it out. According to the embassy guys, he seemed genuinely surprised and upset to hear what happened to you and the girl. And unless he threatened you or you saw him at the warehouse or on that boat, there’s nothing else to be done—innocent until proven guilty, right?”
“I know who’s guilty.”
“You mean the foreign legion paratrooper?”
“I’m gonna cut his fucking heart out.”
“Gotta find him first.”
“Can’t be too hard. I was thinking about it on the flight over, even did a little research between naps. That tattoo I saw was Second Parachute Regiment of the French Foreign Legion. They have thirteen hundred enlisted officers and men at any given time. Can’t be that many blond guys aged eighteen to thirty-five over the last seventeen years in an elite unit like that.”
“That’s a good start. I’ll back your play, any way I can.”
“I need Gavin to do his hack magic. Is he available yet?”
“Gerry told me that Gavin is back in the saddle starting tomorrow morning. I’ll be sure he gets right on it.”
Jack rose to fetch another beer. “You want another one?”
“Still working on this one.”
Jack yanked open the refrigerator door. “They find the Baltic Princess yet?”
“Yeah. She’s somewhere in the middle of the Gobi desert.”
Jack frowned as he unscrewed the cap. “What are you talking about?”
“That ship spoofed itself. Our people did a search