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Emir smiled and nodded. “I need to fuel the van.” He turned to Jack, the smile still plastered on his face, but his dark eyes betrayed him.

“Enjoy your tour, Mr. Ryan.”

Jack returned the menacing stare with a grin.

“Oh, I will. Trust me.”

Emir pushed through the glass door with its tinkling bell without responding.

“Ready to take a little walk?” Aida asked.

Jack smiled. “Sounds good.”


The GRU officer with the hazel eyes heard the codeddingon her laptop, signaling an encrypted e-mail from her superiors at Khodynka. The subject line read:

RE: Identification Subject #102459-BiH

She opened the file, along with the attached video clip of Kolak and the mystery man her facial-recognition software couldn’t ID two days prior.

Her eyes skipped the preliminaries and found what she needed most:

Subject Identity: JACK RYAN, JR.

GRU Status: PERSON OF INTEREST

She was reading the details when her partner appeared over her shoulder, his cheap cologne more pungent than usual.

“Anything interesting?”

She turned to him with a smile. Her instincts had paid off.

“Very.”

He noticed her eyes had turned pale green.

“Tell me more.”

36

Jack and Aida crossed the busy street and entered back into the Old Town.

“Where is your bodyguard?”

“Ibrahim is not really a bodyguard. He’s just tough-looking. He’s actually quite gentle, unless you provoke him.”

“I’ll do my best not to.”

“I only brought him with me last night because I didn’t know who you were. My work is controversial, so I took a precaution.”

“How is the tour business controversial?”

“I run a refugee aid organization. It’s not exactly popular.”

“I assumed you owned the tour company.” At least, that’s what Gavin’s notes indicated.

“I do own it. Emir runs the daily operations, but it’s mine. He’s also my number-one tour guide, but I have many others.”