Jack Arbor > Quotes

“Finally, he got up from the couch and walked into the kitchen. He rummaged through an overflowing junk drawer and came up with a plain, white business card showing only a number. With a shaky hand, he dialed the number on his mobile phone. When the other party answered, he said simply, “I know where Mikhail Asimov will be.”
― Jack Arbor, The Russian Assassin

“What good is the warmth of summer without the cold of winter to give it sweetness.”
― Jack Arbor, The Abyss

“against all”
― Jack Arbor, The Russian Assassin

“If you’re going through hell, son, you might as well keep going,”
― Jack Arbor, The Pursuit

“slightly. Glass bottles chattered above the stove. Max watched through the scope as Koskov looked up, startled by the diversion Max had planted hours before. Max ensured the scope’s crosshairs were a shade above the colonel’s temple, breathed out, and let his heartbeat slow. Using the pad of his index finger, he pulled straight back on the trigger, simultaneously pressing down on the camera pedal with his foot. The muted thump from the bullet passing through the silencer and the whir of the camera’s servo motor were drowned out by the pounding music on the yacht.”
― Jack Arbor, The Pursuit

“military”
― Jack Arbor, The Russian Assassin

“Many are stubborn in pursuit of the path they have chosen, few in pursuit of the goal.” ~Friedrich Nietzsche”
― Jack Arbor, The Russian Assassin

“as”
― Jack Arbor, The Russian Assassin

“The devil is always ready to rock the cradle of the saint who sleeps,”
― Jack Arbor, The Russian Assassin

“information that Volkov runs the primary supply routes for small arms and other supplies between Russia and the rebels in Donetsk.” “Can’t we just call in an air strike?” Max muttered. He was squatting next to Kate, peering through the darkness with a pair of night-vision binoculars and listening on a separate earpiece. Silver moonlight illuminated Max’s face and Kate found herself admiring his profile. He was even more handsome than when they first met several months ago outside Minsk. Back then, he was recovering from a two-foot piece of rebar that had impaled his side. Despite the constant strain of trying to keep his family alive, she noticed he was thriving under the pressure. A simmering fire burned behind the deep blackness of his eyes. He was bred for this sort of thing. Kate almost felt sorry for the consortium members, knowing Max wouldn’t rest until they were all dead and buried. Max’s eyes flashed when he looked over at her, reminding her of the strength he possessed. When he held her gaze, she saw a powerful conviction, the confidence he had gained after surviving in the face of overwhelming danger, a resolve emanating from the depths of his soul, an aura she couldn’t help but be attracted to. The moment lingered even as his eyes moved back to the binoculars and he went back into the dark recesses of his mind. She fought back the attraction, willing it to a place somewhere out of reach. She was bad at love. She had a habit of falling fast and hard before paying the price as things fell apart. As she got older, she found she didn’t want to bother with it anymore. It was too much work, too much of a distraction from what drove her. Besides, she couldn’t imagine there was room in his heart while he fought for his family’s survival. She touched his bicep. “If you’re from Belarus, and your given name was Mikhail, how did you end up with the nickname Max?” He kept his eyes glued to the field glasses. “It’s short for Maxim, a common name in Belarus. My mother started calling me Max when I was young. She said—” “Your surrogate mother?” “Right. The mother who raised me. She told me that she lost an argument with my father. She wanted to name me after Maxim Gorky, a Soviet Marxist writer and comrade of Lenin’s. My father wouldn’t hear of it. I think it was her”
― Jack Arbor, The Attack

“Russia is not a democracy. It is not a free economy.”
― Jack Arbor, The Russian Assassin

“You should think of Russia as a criminal state, a criminal economy. They have essentially traded a corrupt communist economy for a corrupt elitist commerce economy.”
― Jack Arbor, The Russian Assassin

“Belarus is not free and democratic. Belarus is called the last European dictatorship for a reason. Its president is very authoritarian and is directly aligned with Moscow.”
― Jack Arbor, The Russian Assassin

“You can only make the best decision you can make at the time, knowing what you know.”
― Jack Arbor, The Russian Assassin

“weight”
― Jack Arbor, The Pursuit

“Only point the gun at something you’re willing to destroy.”
― Jack Arbor, The Pursuit

“Hero of Our Time,”
― Jack Arbor, The Abyss

“rooms. Four flights of”
― Jack Arbor, The Pursuit

“The criminal enterprise you call Russia milks every last dime from its citizens, suppresses free speech, and willfully distributes propaganda to create its own false truths.”
― Jack Arbor, The Russian Assassin

“Activism, in most cases, is a narcissistic act. It’s usually designed to call attention to something the activist disagrees with, or to make the activist feel better. Action, on the other hand, is simply doing.”
― Jack Arbor, The Russian Assassin

“Arina was devastated by their mother’s diagnosis and had difficulty coping with the brevity of human existence and the imminent loss.”
― Jack Arbor, The Russian Assassin

“Max felt no remorse or conflict about killing a former colleague. He knew the FSB had played a role in his parents’ death and he’d recently sold his soul to the CIA in exchange for the protection of his family. He owed the FSB nothing.”
― Jack Arbor, The Pursuit

“screen,”
― Jack Arbor, The Russian Assassin