Rendezvous was set for nine in the morning, and Jack planned to walk right into a potential trap without any defense. He made her crazy at times, crazy enough to want to choke him out, crazy enough to want to hurt him—fuck, she’d hurt him now if she had half a chance—but hell if she was going to stand by while someone tried to kill him.

She might be an asshole, but she was his asshole.

She picked up the first magazine and started loading.

He wanted her as an observer? Fine, these were her terms.

If this were any other scenario, she’d trust he knew what he was doing. She’d argue with him just to be an irritating dick, but she’d still trust him.

But this wasn’t like other times.

For the first time since they were kids he truly wanted and needed something for his own reasons, reasons beyond survival or a need to win, almost as if down in his murky center, where the deep, dark thoughts were buried, a lying voice kept telling him that tracking down the past could change what had happened. He wanted it so badly, he was blind to the way it was changing him, making him dumber.

The Russians, the Americans, they were peripheral problems.

Jack losing his grip on reality was the real nightmare.

CHAPTER 11

CHAPTER 11

Alexanderplatz
Mitte, Berlin, Germany

KARA

THE ROOM FADED INTO A DARK, COOL, QUIET BACKGROUND, AND THE information on the screen became everything. The little ratter tugged her along, leading her down into the underbrush trails, while the rest of her sat cross-legged on the bed in front of the laptop.

Another hotel, another round of hurry up and wait.

The guys were out, all three of them, securing equipment headquarters had shipped in. Not that they all needed to be out. But this time the war room had booked them four to a single room, beds arranged along the walls almost hostel-like, and clearing the guys out had been Nick’s way of giving her space to work.

She had a few hours, maybe, before they returned.

She was racing the clock.

They were all racing the clock.

The war room had located target and lost him again.

Angel had called, confirming he was en route to Berlin—no small consolation considering Nick, Juan, and Aaron had wasted an hour hunting for him in the hotel—and headquarters had drawn on the Berlin station to mobilize a surveillance unit to the terminal. They’d managed to get an officer on board before the passengers deplaned, but hadn’t been able to confirm target arrival.

So either the war room was wrong about target boarding that flight or the Berlin operatives had missed him. She was willing to let time bear that one out.

Her questions went a different direction.