But he had left. He wasn’t a simple soldier anymore. He was a spy. A politician even. He was one of the elite class of people who ruled the world. Someone who couldn’t be trusted any more than he could trust. Nothing was simple for him and it never would be again.

Nash didn’t realize that he’d fallen asleep until he felt the bus lurch to a stop. The driver stood and started back, undoubtedly to help someone with their bags as they got out. Where they’d be going, though, was a mystery. The bus was surrounded by dense forest and submerged in the same darkness that it had been before he’d closed his eyes.

He wasn’t particularly surprised when the man halted in front of him and pointed through the window at a narrow dirt track leading north. Nash grabbed his pack and walked past the curious passengers before stepping out into the cool night air. The path he was apparently supposed to take was visible in the glow of the headlights, but not for long. The bus pulled away and he found himself left with nothing but a little starlight shimmering through a cloud of diesel exhaust.

This just kept getting better and better.

After a couple of hours of walking, the jeep track narrowed to something more like a trail. He hadn’t seen or heard anything, but it was possible that he was being watched. Maybe even scanned for transmissions from a phone or other communications device. He doubted it—this was likely more about making sure he wasn’t being followed than testing him. Still, he’d removed the battery from his satphone before leaving South Africa. Mitch Rapp and Claudia Gould were a suspicious pair.

Another fifteen minutes took him to a clearing with a much better road coming in from the east. It was undoubtedly the route Rapp had taken to get his SUV up there.

“Asshole,” Nash said, striding across the clearing and enveloping Rapp’s hand in his own.

“I thought you were lost. Too much time behind a desk.”

“I refuse to be lectured by a talking corpse.”

“You drive,” Rapp said, walking around the front of the vehicle.

They climbed in and Nash bounced the SUV down the road toward what he assumed would be the rural highway he’d come from.

“Congratulations, Mitch. You’re the first person in history to add explosions to what should have been another boring mole hunt.”

“Where does Irene stand?” Rapp said. He wouldn’t give anything away until he knew what Nash had been told.