Page 148 of Tom Clancy Line of Sight
Topal leaned back in the couch cushions, utterly distraught.
Jack snatched up Aida’s phone from the table as he headed for the door. He turned, grinning.
“Better watch your six.”
72
Jack and Kolak stood in a small city park not far from OSA-OBA headquarters.
They were both silent, staring down at a small, weathered headstone markedAIDA CURIC 1989–1993. It was one of hundreds in the park, though not nearly as noticeable as most and, perhaps, the most pitiful.
“Here is your mother’s Aida,” Kolak said.
“I don’t understand.”
“The woman you knew as Aida Curic was actually named Sabina Kvržic. She was the only child of Samir Kvržic, the local head of the Bosniak Mafia. Aida’s family ran a profitable and well-respected tour company before the war. Kvržic was high on the Interpol wanted list at the time. He saw his opportunity to steal the business and change identities when the war broke out.
“Aida was killed during the war after her eye surgery, and the rest of her family was murdered by Kvržic. The Kvržic family assumed the Curic family’s identities, including Sabina,who took Aida’s. When Samir Kvržic died of cancer, his only child, Sabina Kvržic, took over.”
“The Aida I know didn’t strike me as a jihadi radical.”
“She wasn’t. She was a criminal, pure and simple. She used the tour company to run drugs, guns, and illegals all over the region for years. Topal and Brkic were just her most recent customers. She was making millions serving both of them. It was brilliant.”
“But she knew about the plan to start the war between NATO and Russia. Why would she do that?”
Kolak shrugged. “Scarcity is profitable. Mafias thrive in wartime.”
“And still no sign of Brkic?”
“None. He’s probably out of the country by now, but we’ve issued an Interpol Red Notice. That should turn up something eventually.”
Jack pulled out his smartphone and took a picture of the grave for his mother.
“I never did thank you for taking out the garbage for me.”
Kolak shrugged. “It was a small thing.” The dead assassin had been incinerated along with the rest of the trash in the dumpster. “Anything else I can do for you, Jack?”
“You can thank Lidija again for saving my bacon. I was sure we were going to crash.”
“She is my best helicopter pilot. I will pass your commendation along to her.”
“And I’ve been meaning to ask you. How’d you know that Aida and I had been stopped by the Russians? Were you following us?”
Kolak lifted Jack’s wrist and tapped his iWatch. “The same way I found you at the launch site. When I first interviewedyou, I had my people put a software bug in here, forcing it to broadcast your GPS position to me at all times even though your watch indicated it wasn’t doing so.”
Jack fingered his iWatch. “Guess I’m going back to analog.”
“Do you have any plans before heading back home?”
Jack nodded at Midas, Dom, and Adara, recently arrived from Croatia, where their Gulfstream had been diverted after the airport attack.
“I’m taking them to experience their first plate ofcevapi. Care to join?”
Kolak flashed his crooked smile. “Most definitely.”
73
The Turkish embassy was a modern but modest four-story building on the leafy Vilsonovo Šetalište, a wide boulevard only recently converted to a pedestrian promenade. No cars or motorcycles allowed.
