Право на полёт из своей страны в другую

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So much for my plan to hijack the plane. Well, they had to guess that I'd try that. They were well prepared. They are no beginners. They are just two men, giants, but they know how to handle me, keeping me on a short leash.

I guess they gave me some tranquilizer, when I got out of the car, to keep me down during the whole flight.

When I come to myself again I find myself lying inside the plane, one of the guards is waving a capsule with smelling salts under my nose.
The engines are off. We're clearly on ground.

How long will my guards stay with me?

One of them pulls me up from the floor, pushing me over to the already open door. A wave of hot air comes in through the door. We're clearly in a hot country. Who is it this time, wanting revenge on me?

The sunlight's blinding me. I see five men and a black van waiting at the side of the plane. The plane didn't land on an airport. It landed on an airstrip, somewhere. All around here there's some scant vegetation, half desert, half steppe.

The five men are waiting for me. They are dressed in blue jeans, t-shirts and wear dark sunglasses. Not really looking like intelligence agents. More like terrorists, mafia or henchmen of some warlords. For god's sake, I don't even know on what continent I am. They are too far away to hear their voices or see their faces clearly.

The two Russians leave me no space. I try to struggle, but they're stronger.

I have to try to get away. Now. As long as the plane is still behind me I could try to run back into the plane and...
I kick one of the Russians into the shin, making him stumble.

Right away, the other one already lies on top of me, strangling me. My hands are still cuffed. I can hardly defend.

Now even the five men who I am getting delivered to run over, their guns drawn.

¡arriba las manos! I hear them shout to give up and raise my hands. My Spanish is good enough to understand almost everything they say. Spanish. This is Mexico, for sure.
Of course I have enough old enemies here who still want to dig their claws into my flesh.

The Russian gets off me and then I'm suddenly keeling there, surrounded by five men who point their guns at me. I try to see if can recognize any of their tattoos, but they're unfamiliar. At least none of them has the Salazar tattoo.

One of them comes over and puts a black hood over my head again. That leaves me helpless. I can't fight anyone or anything who I don't even see.

They push me over to their van and the travel starts. The Russians are gone. I guess they'll have to find their own way back to their home country. Our van keeps rattling over unpaved streets somewhere in the outback.

I try not to think of what will await me when we reach our destination. I've had enough, I can't take that much more. I guess I'll just give in to it and hope that if I don't fight back, they won't hurt me that much. After all, I still have only one plan: find a way to get out of here. This is a totally new place for me. It means new chances to escape.

We don't travel very long. After only twenty minutes the car stops, and the men help me get out. They seem to be less hostile now, but I guess there are still at least three guns aimed at me. This is not the time to make my getaway. Not now, when I don't even know where I am, with that black hood still over my face.

They lead me into a house. The blazing sun and the hot air gets replaced by a cold, air-conditioned room.

¡arrodíllate! The men command. They tell me to get down to my knees.
I do. There's no need to fight them now.
My hands are still cuffed behind my back. Now they fix the chains to some kind of an anchor in the floor. I can't get up, even if I'd try.

They take the black hood off my head.

I'm in the middle of the main hall inside a beautiful hacienda. All of them are standing behind me, I can't really tell what's going on here.

Buen trabajo, hombres. That's a voice I know! Very well! Though I never heard her speak Spanish before. It's strange to hear a familiar voice speak a new language. She's standing right behind me. Por favor, déjanos en paz ahora. She sends the others away. They say something unimportant and leave. I hear their boots on the marble floor.

Hearing that voice makes my heart jump.

She slowly walks around me, her view glued to me.

As soon as I can see her, having turned my head, my view is glued to her as well. She looks different. She really changed a lot.
But right now she looks like she's shocked. Well, probably I am not really looking like anything she had expected me to look like. I haven't seen myself in any mirror in months, but I guess I look horrible.

Jack..., she finally says. Her voice is shaking. Not like before, when she gave commands to these guys.
She kneels down in front of me. We're at eye level now.

Ever since I heard her voice, I know that not the Mexicans are behind this all. It's her. No-one else.
Did you pay to get me out?, I ask her, because she's obviously at such a loss of words that she doesn't know what to say.

She nods. Officially, that group of Mexicans paid for you... to sell you to the Ukrainian mafia. The Serbians supplied us with some names.

They'll want me back in a few weeks, you know that... they'll come to the Mexicans and then they'll... They will all be after us if she doesn't hand me back over, to whoever paid a lot of money as a deposit. The Russians. The Mexicans. Maybe even the Ukrainians whose names they used, even though they weren't involved at all.

She nods again, adding, we'll have to run.

She knows what she's up against, when we really pull through with that. We'll run away from half the world. We sit there for a while, in silence. Even though all that I almost feel safe for the moment. For the first time in... I can't even remember. Relief. Pure relief. I see how shocked she is, because of the state that I'm in. I must look like death warmed up. She's not the most communicate person on earth. I guess I'll have to say something to break the ice.
Thanks, Chloe, I silently tell her.

She smiles back, saying I owed you that one, Jack.

Right. Kind of. That day in London, when I surrendered myself to the Russians to get her out seems to be light years away now. At least for me.

You look like hell, she says, slowly shaking her head, as if she couldn't believe it to find me again in such a bad shape.

Nevermind. I don't want to talk about it. There are more important things: What about Audrey?, I ask her.

She's taken aback by my question. She's dead, Jack... you know that..., she hesitatingly says, suddenly not sure anymore if I really know it, if I forgot it, or if she's the one breaking the news to me. She looks like she's expecting me to explode.
When I don't, she continues, they buried her at Arlington.

Belcheck comes in, too. He has the keys to my handcuffs. I'm glad to see him.

Лепо је видети те, пријатељу. It's nice to see you, my friend.

I'll have to talk to Chloe about Audrey later. When we're out of here.

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