“Jakovich has them. That’s all I know. You want me to leave it at that?”

“No.”

She sounded defeated, as if needing Pike’s help left her depressed.

“Does Jakovich have any children?”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“Michael Darko caused a one-year-old male child to be kidnapped, and I have conflicting information about the child’s identity.”

“Jakovich is an old man.”

“Doesn’t mean he can’t have a baby.”

“Jesus, Pike, I don’t know. So what if he does?”

“One of my sources tells me the child is Darko’s child. The other says Jakovich is the father. If Darko kidnapped this kid to force the old man’s hand, it’s blown up in his face. This source tells me the old man has ramped up the war, which means he could unload the guns faster just to get rid of them.”

“Okay, wait—how has he ramped up the war?”

“He’s vowed to kill the kid himself. This takes the child off the table as a bargaining chip, and sends a message to the other Serb sets. The source told me they’re big on messages.”

Pike heard Walsh take a deep breath.

“Is this source reliable?”

“I had a gun to his head, Walsh. How reliable could he be? That’s why I’m calling you—to see if any of this is possible.”

She breathed again, and then her voice was thoughtful.

“Vorovskoy Zakon. You know what that is?”

Pike glanced at Cole, but Cole shook his head.

“No.”

“Started with the Russian gangs back in the old Soviet Union, but it’s all through the East European gangs now.”

“What is it?”

“It translates as ‘thieves in law.’ Vory v Zakone. What they call the thieves code. These people live by eighteen rules, Pike—actual written rules, kind of like a guidebook for assholes. The first rule—rule number one—is that their families don’t matter. Mom, dad, the brother, sis—those people do not matter. They are not supposed to have wives or children. It’s actually written like that, Pike. I’ve read it with my own eyes.”

Pike thought about Rina.

“What about girlfriends?”

“Girlfriends are fine. Have all the girlfriends you want, but marriage is out. These guys swear a blood oath on this crap, and I have interrogated enough of them to tell you they mean it. So if you’re asking me whether Jakovich would sacrifice his own child, I have to say yes. They have these rules, and the rules are enforced. If the rules are broken, the punishment is death. I’m not shitting you. The old pakhans take this stuff seriously.”

Pike nodded, thinking about a man who could do such a thing, and then he continued.