Point of Contact

Before stripping down, he decided to do a quick check of the room. He was being paranoid, he knew. But there was something about the way Lian studied him. At first he thought it was because he was the son of the American President. As hard as he tried to hide that fact, it invariably got out. It wasn’t surprising that the head of corporate security would’ve discovered that, but even more likely, Rhodes had told her. He probably thought it was a real coup that Jack Ryan’s son was doing his audit.

The other possibility was that she thought he was a good-looking guy. But she wasn’t throwing off any kind of vibe that led him to believe she was sexually interested in him. Too bad. She was a real looker.

Over the course of the meal he finally figured out that she watched his every move and carefully analyzed his words. She was intensely interested in him, for sure, but in the end, she was just doing her job.

And if he were her and the job were to collect intel on a visitor, he’d bug the joint he put them up in.

Maybe he was being overly cautious, but better safe than sorry. He thought about sharing his concerns with Paul but decided against it. No point in thinking or acting like a spook in front of him, especially if there wasn’t any proof yet. But he didn’t know what kinds of things they’d be discussing regarding their findings at Dalfan, and he didn’t want that information to be shared without his consent.

Jack went to the shower and turned the water on full blast, along with the faucets in the sink. If his rooms were under audio surveillance, the sound of rushing water could defeat all but the very highest grade of noise-reduction software.

He started in the bathroom and moved to the bedroom, running his fingertips along edges of frames and sills, checking curtain hems, zippers, drawers. He didn’t spend more than five minutes searching. It was only a spot check, hoping for a random find, but really all he wanted to do was silence the nagging voice in the back of his head. When he started he doubted he’d find anything anyway, and he was right. If Lian and her team were deploying sophisticated equipment like long-distance laser microphones or electronic bugs wired into appliances, he wouldn’t find them and he didn’t have the electronic countermeasures he needed to defeat them. This was strictly a white-side job, Hendley had said. But Hendley forgot that there was a lot more corporate spying in the world than government spying.

Not exactly satisfied but not willing to exert any more effort, Jack stripped down to his birthday suit and hit the hot, steaming water.

It felt good to be getting clean again.

* * *

Paul stuck his head out of his bedroom door to make sure Jack wasn’t out in the hall or moving around downstairs.

He shut his door again and locked it, then headed for his luggage. He unzipped his laptop bag and opened a pocket that contained the USB drive Rhodes had given him with the CIA software he was tasked to install.

He held the USB drive in his hand again. Lian had said that they would be discussing security measures tomorrow morning. What did that mean? Obviously, security measures deployed by Dalfan at Dalfan headquarters. They’d be looking for exactly the kind of thing now sitting in the palm of his hand. If drug dealers got the death penalty here, what was the penalty for spying?

He put the USB drive back in the laptop pouch and zipped the case back up. He’d have to find a way to sneak the drive onto the floor before he could even think about installing it — that would be a whole other headache. He’d think about that later. Right now it was time to floss and brush his teeth.

“Security measures,” he repeated to himself. What would those be? He ran through a list of the protocols he would deploy in a similar situation. It wouldn’t be at all impossible to find a way to get the USB drive past their security, and even if it was found, what would they do? Probably just tell him to leave it at home. But if they seized it and examined the contents? Like Rhodes said, the mission was designed such that if someone had to fall, it was Paul and only Paul. He accepted that. But it would be better to not get caught in the first place. He needed to find a way to get that drive past security and then a way to install it. Might as well start tomorrow.

A thought struck him. He turned off the bedroom light and crossed over to the window. If he were running a security operation, he’d put security people on-site and keep the target under surveillance at all times. Certain that he wasn’t backlit, he carefully pushed the curtain, just half an inch, and glanced out to the dimly lit street.