Read Command Authority for Free Online

eye contact. He smiled a little, doing his best to be polite without appearing overly friendly. “How are you tonight?”
    Emily’s eyes widened. “An American? I knew I hadn’t seen you before. My friend and I were trying to guess your story.”
    Jack looked back to his beer. He knew he should feel flattered, but he did not. “Not much of a story, really. I’m here working in The City for a few months.”
    She extended a hand. “Emily. Pleased to meet you.”
    Jack looked into her eyes for a quick moment, and determined her to be not quite inebriated, but not terribly far from it.
    He shook her hand. “I’m John.”
    Emily brushed her hair back over her shoulder. “I love America. Went over last year with my ex. Not ex-husband, no, nothing like that, just a bloke I dated for a while, before I realized what a narcissistic sod he was. A right bastard. Anyway, got a holiday out of him, at least, so he was good for something.”
    “That’s nice.”
    “Which one of the states do you call home?”
    “Maryland,” he said.
    She looked deeply into his eyes while she talked. Jack saw immediately that she registered a faint sense of recognition, and she was confused by this. She recovered and said, “That’s East Coast, right? Near Washington, D.C. Haven’t been to the East Coast. Me and my ex did the West Coast, quite loved San Francisco, but the traffic down in L.A. was bloody awful. Never did quite get used to driving on the right side of the—”
    Emily’s eyes widened suddenly, and she stopped talking.
    Shit,
Jack said to himself.
Here we go.
    “Oh . . . my . . .
God
.”
    “Please,” said Jack, softly.
    “You’re Junior Jack Ryan.”
    As far as Jack knew, he had never been called this by anyone in his life. He thought the girl might have been a little tongue-tied. He said, “That’s me. Junior Jack.”
    “I don’t believe it!” Emily spoke louder this time, just below a shout. She started to turn back to her friend across the room, but Jack reached out and gently took hold of her forearm.
    “Emily.
Please.
I’d appreciate you not making a big deal out of it.”
    The redhead looked around the room quickly, then at Yalda, who was looking their way. Emily turned back to Jack and, with a conspiratorial nod, she said, “Right. I understand. No problem. Your secret’s safe with me.”
    “Thanks.”
Not in the mood,
Jack said to himself again, but he smiled.
    Emily slipped into the booth, across from him.
    Damn.
    They talked for a few minutes; she asked him a dozen rapid-fire questions about his life and what he was doing here and how it was that he was all by himself without any protection. He responded with short answers; again, he wasn’t rude, he was simply trying to politely exude lack of interest from every pore of his body.
    Emily had conspicuously not invited her friend to join them, but Jack saw a pair of men had ambled over to the olive-complexioned beauty sitting alone, and she was now in conversation herself.
    He turned his attention back to Emily just as she said, “Jack . . . would it be forward of me to ask you if you’d like to go somewhere else where we can talk?”
    Jack stifled yet another sigh. “Do you want an honest answer?”
    “Well . . . sure.”
    “Then . . . yeah. That
would
be pretty forward.”
    The young woman was taken aback, not sure what to make of the American’s response. Before she could speak, Jack said, “I’m sorry. I’ve got a really early morning tomorrow.”
    Emily said she understood, then told Jack to stay right where he was. She rushed back over to her table, grabbed her purse, and came back. She pulled out a business card and a pen, and began writing a number down.
    Ryan took a sip of his lager and watched her.
    “I hope you’ll give me a call when you aren’t busy. I’d love to show you around town. I was born and raised here, so you could do worse for a tour guide.”
    “I’m sure.”
    She handed Jack her card in an overt