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didn’t mind silence. He kept his attention on the road in front of him, and Anna kept hers fixed to the BlackBerry in her hand.
    She had started reading e-mails and texting her teammates as soon as they’d gotten into the car. He’d allowed her to ignore him because he wasn’t really in the mood for talking.
    Being attracted to her was a distraction, and he truly knew he couldn’t afford that. He tried to let the cold February weather seep into his bones and cool off his libido, but it didn’t work. Instead he pictured Anna lying in his arms in front of the fireplace in his small Florida home.
    What the hell?
    He’d never brought any woman there and doubted Anna would ever see it either.
    “The turn is just up there on the right,” she said.
    “Thanks. Did you get the information from Tommy?”
    “Yes. Thank you for having him send it. I added it to the database I have, and we can start triangulating where Andreev is. The tracker in his smartphone is still working.”
    “Good. I think he’ll probably ditch the phone in either France or Morocco, but if he keeps it, that will give us an advantage,” Jack said. He wasn’t used to talking with women, and he knew this put him at a disadvantage with her.
    “I think we’re going to land in the airport outside of Algiers,” Anna said.
    “Yes, we are. When were you there last?” he asked.
    “As a teenager. My father was the British ambassador to Algeria.”
    “Did you move around a lot as a kid?” he asked. He tried to guess her age and figured her for early thirties. She would have been in Algeria in the early nineties, when there was a lot of political unrest.
    “We moved a fair amount. My brother and I liked it a lot when we were little.”
    “What did you like about it?” he asked.
    “The new cultures and people. But after a while I started to realize that for all the differences of the cultures we visited, there was a sameness to life everywhere.”
    Jack glanced over at her. “I’ve found that, too. Wherever I’ve traveled for my job, I’m struck by the universal truth of all societies. There’s rich and poor, there’s arrogant and hungry, and there is always someone who wants more power.”
    “I would think the sameness you see comes from going to places on the cusp of anarchy.”
    “It’s not always anarchy. Sometimes it’s genocide or things like one government’s need to control something they have no rights to.”
    “Like oil?”
    Jack nodded. “I was in Special Forces before getting out and starting my own group.”
    “Why did you do that?”
    “I needed the freedom to make my own choices and not worry so much about the government’s agenda. I’ve seen my country leave men behind to die because to rescue them would mean admitting we were someplace we weren’t supposed to be.”
    Anna just looked at him.
    “I know that makes me sound bitter, and I guess a part of me is, but another part just knows that’s the way of government negotiations and the way of the world.”
    She nodded. “I’ve seen that, too. I was kidnapped when we were in Algeria because one terror group didn’t like the British foreign policy in the Middle East. My father was torn between being my dad and wanting my safety and being the British government’s representative. He couldn’t give in to terrorist demands, but…it was hard for him. And as a child I didn’t get it, really, but now as an adult I do.”
    Jack pulled into a parking spot outside of the hangar where the Liberty Investigations jet was waiting. He left the car running and turned toward Anna. Some of the mystery he’d sensed in her was starting to make sense—the barriers she kept between herself and the world. “I had no idea.”
    “Why would you? Most of the world never knew what happened. And my name was never released. I didn’t tell you to gain sympathy, just to show you I really do understand that the needs of one can’t be outweighed by the needs of many.”
    Jack was humbled