Page 76 of Mile High Ruin

“In my experience, that depends on the contract.”

I almost tell him not to be ridiculous. Then I remember Captain Hale lying dead on the runway, and the humor leaves me.

Vadim notices. His voice changes slightly. “The important question is not who they were.”

“What is?”

“How they knew where we were.”

Anton looks back from the front passenger seat.

Vadim continues, his gaze turning toward the dark city outside. “They were not supposed to know where we were landing.”

Marek’s expression hardens. “Nobody was.”

Something about the sentence catches in my mind. I lower the cloth slightly. Vadim takes it from me and presses it back against his side.

“I knew we were landing in Bucharest,” I say.

“Yes,” he says. “But did they give any more details?”

I think about the assignment, then realize that I had ignored all the obvious signs. I could have been very well trafficked. Well, the probability of that happening still hasn’t passed, I think belatedly, watching the dangerous men around me. They’re all on it, I think.

Vadim is waiting for an answer. “No,” I say finally.

He finally exhales. “Well, that’s one worry off my mind. My men didn’t fuck up the details. So someone must have.”

“So you’re saying that nobody on or off the plane was supposed to know where we were landing?” I ask.

“No,” he says.

“Why?” I ask.

“Because some very bad people are after me.” That’s all he gives me.

Despite my best intentions, I replay everything that happened on the tarmac. The speed with which Anton and Marek moved when the attack began.

The fact that Vadim knew exactly how to handle a weapon.

The way he beat Hale.

The way everyone obeys him.

I look at the blood on his shirt. Then at his face. “You’re not just a businessman, are you?”

The car becomes very quiet.

Marek glances toward Vadim.

Anton stares straight ahead.

Vadim holds my gaze. There is no attempt to charm me, no carefully constructed lie, and no explanation designed to make whatever he is sound more respectable.

“No,” he says. “I’m not.”

12

VADIM