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Chapters (83)
  1. Cover
  2. ALSO BY TOM CLANCY
  3. PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS
  4. 1
  5. 2
  6. 3
  7. 4
  8. 5
  9. 6
  10. 7
  11. 8
  12. 9
  13. 10
  14. 11
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  83. What’s next onyour reading list?

Paul nodded his understanding of Jack’s coded alibi. “Yeah, crazy.”

“A stolen van?” Bai said. “I don’t believe it. Cars don’t get stolen in Singapore.”

“Even Oz has its flying monkeys,” Jack said.

Bai frowned. “Excuse me?”

“Never mind.” He turned to Paul. “She’s waiting for me on the third floor. I’ll talk to her, then come back here so we can pick up where we left off. Okay?”

“Take your time. I’ve got plenty to do.”

Jack nodded and headed for the elevators.

Now Paul had to deal with Bai.

But how?

54

Jack entered the third-floor office where Lian was located. She’d commandeered the space to meet with him privately, out of earshot.

“You wanted to see me?” Jack asked.

“Have a seat.”

Jack took a seat. “You were saying something about a stolen van?”

“The Singapore police called earlier this morning. They found one of our vans smashed to pieces over in the warehouse district across town around two-thirty this morning.”

“I’m sorry to hear that. Anybody hurt?”

“Not that I’m aware of.” Lian’s eyes narrowed, studying Jack’s face. “You don’t look so good yourself. How are you feeling this morning?”

Jack shrugged. “Didn’t sleep well last night. The storm kept waking me up. Besides that, pretty good.” Jack had taken the time to cover up his black eye again—thankfully, he hadn’t taken the time to toss out the base makeup from his kit. He was fully shaved and showered, and his limp had mostly gone away. He was lucky she didn’t ask him to take off his shirt. A wicked purple bruise painted his arm from the bottom of the shoulder down to his elbow, where the bat had hit and grazed him. It was sore to the touch, but nothing had been broken. Raising it over his head to wash his hair, though, had been a real treat.

“I hate to ask, but as head of security, I must: Did you steal our van last night?”

“No. Why would I? I have a company car at my disposal.”

“Because you didn’t want to be followed? To hide what you were doing?”

“I didn’t do anything last night except watch the local news with Paul, then I went to bed. I was feeling a little under the weather.”

“And he’ll vouch for you?”

“Of course. Why wouldn’t he?”

“Of course.” Lian smiled. “Why wouldn’t he?”

“What was in the van worth stealing?”

“It was one of our delivery vans. Electronic parts, wires, catalogs. The contents were worth maybe four or five thousand dollars, American.”

“I’d think there would be more valuable things to steal around here.”

“There are. That’s what’s so puzzling.”

“And they took it all?”

Lian shrugged. “No. Actually, nothing valuable is missing, as far as we can tell.”

“That doesn’t make any sense.”