Page 91 of Bulletproof Jack: Hunting Lee Child's Jack Reacher

She pressed the call button and Gaspar picked up promptly.

“Where the hell have you been, Suzy Wong?” he said, as if he’d been genuinely worried. He probably had. Gaspar was like a mother hen in some ways and Kim loved him for it. She imagined his four kids might chafe a bit under his heavy hand, though.

She smiled in the darkness of the SUV’s cabin. “Oh, you know, Cheech. Late night parties, dancing in the streets, skinny dipping in the Great Lakes with Aquaman. The usual.”

She imagined she could see Gaspar’s scowling face when he deadpanned, “Very funny.”

Kim laughed. Gaspar could always make her feel like they’d be okay. Eventually.

He was infuriating sometimes. But she felt better simply knowing he was on the other end of the call. If she died tonight, at least someone would know where to find her body.

At the moment, Gaspar was deeply concerned, and he had reason to be.

He had accepted that she would never give up the hunt for Reacher until she’d accomplished her mission. He didn’t bother to argue the point anymore.

She’d set out to find Reacher and that’s what she planned to do.

No matter what.

But she didn’t ignore the danger, either. She was tenacious, not stupid.

“Have you heard from Reacher?” Kim asked, playing a hunch.

Gaspar chuckled. “How did you guess?”

Reacher had called Gaspar several times recently. He could have called her directly. But he didn’t. She had no clue why. She only knew that Reacher had his reasons, whether she agreed with them or not.

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Chapter 35

Saturday, June 4

Hamilton, Ontario, CA

Liam’s entire focus was pointed like a laser at the woman. He had never seen her before. Not even a glimpse on a city street. He would have remembered. She was stunning. The exact opposite of forgettable.

She pointed the gun straight at him as if she’d had plenty of experience to back it up. What she didn’t know was that Liam was a reasonably good shot as well. When he had a weapon. Which, at the moment, he did not.

“Who are you and what do you want?” Liam demanded. He expected she’d respond effectively. Which she did.

“You imagine that I don’t know your name or what you’ve been working on. So let’s clear that up right now, shall we?” she held the gun steady as if it were an extension of her arm.

Her words sent a shiver of fear up his spine. Liam had been conducting his work in solitary confinement for months. Since Kraus left, actually. Liam only had one friend and after Krause was gone, there had been no one else to talk to.

Thus, Liam had confided in no one except his immediate superiors. There were no women among them. Certainly not this woman or anyone remotely like her.

So again, who was she and why was she here? His mind kept coming back to that, like a hole he needed to fill before he could move forward.

“You are Liam Stewart. Your occupation is weapons engineer.” Her words took Liam’s breath away. The woman continued talking. “You’ve been working on the top-secret Stiletto 100 project.”

Liam felt lightheaded. How could she possibly know these things? He backed up to the chair and put a hand on the solid wood to ground himself in the real world.

She continued, “You have perfected a prototype of the Stiletto 100 and you are scheduled to test it in a live environment tomorrow in Ottawa.”

She arched her eyebrows, observing him for any sort of response. She must have recognized her words had induced something like a state of shock. Because she smiled. One of those canary-eating smiles bullies always used when they knew they’d made him knuckle under.

“Shall I continue?” she asked, with a broad smirk that twisted her beautiful face into an ugly sneer.

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