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Back 36 Righteous Men Save as PDF
Chapters (43)
  1. Cover
  2. BOOK ONE
  3. 1
  4. 2
  5. 3
  6. 4
  7. 5
  8. 6
  9. 7
  10. 8
  11. BOOK TWO
  12. 9
  13. 10
  14. 11
  15. BOOK THREE
  16. 12
  17. 13
  18. 14
  19. BOOK FOUR
  20. 15
  21. 16
  22. BOOK FIVE
  23. 17
  24. 18
  25. 19
  26. 20
  27. 21
  28. 22
  29. BOOK SIX
  30. 23
  31. 24
  32. 25
  33. 26
  34. 27
  35. 28
  36. 29
  37. BOOK SEVEN
  38. 30
  39. 31
  40. BOOK EIGHT
  41. 32
  42. SPECIAL THANKS
  43. ALSO BY STEVEN PRESSFIELD

See this stack? That’s the dog’s breath. Exhalation from lungs, ventriculus, gastric mill. Here’s the victim’s—Dr. Justman’s. This third column here? That’s pollen from the geranium on the windowsill.

Uribe’s gesture takes in the full screen.

URIBE

We got nothing from any other human or animal source. Zip. Zero.

Manning’s glance to me says, Make sure you’re recording every word of this.

MANNING

(to Uribe)

What, the killer wore a face mask? Some kind of respiration device?

URIBE

Even that would show. It has to vent. Particle respirometry will pick it up.

MANNING

So the killer didn’t breathe? What, he held his breath?

URIBE

Jimmy, all I know is what the instruments tell me. And they say the same thing for both victims—Davis and Justman.

Manning glances to me, to make sure I’m writing all this down, then turns back to Uribe.

MANNING

Lemme get this straight, Jesse. For both homicides, the killer flew in the window. He didn’t breathe. His feet never touched the floor. He murdered the hedge fund CEO in New York and the State Department guy in D.C. by picking them up with one hand, crushing their windpipes, and hurling them bodily across the room. He then made his escape, again without taking a step or exhaling a breath. That’s what the instruments say, and the instruments don’t lie.

URIBE

Exactly.

5

THE BROTHERHOOD

GLEASON

Bullshit. I don’t believe a word of it.

We’re back in Manhattan, 0830 the next morning, April 19, 2034, in the sweltering (City of NY climate policy: no A/C before 1100) conference facility at DivSix called “the Bunker.”

Four DivSix teams totaling nine detectives have been assembled in this meeting space. We’re watching video from Russia—a secure-link convo between our boss, Lieutenant Gleason, assisted by his second-in-command Lieutenant Silver [Lionel T.], and the supervising officer of the first of two Russian teams investigating what are coming to be called within the division “the LV murders,” a pair in Russia and now the same number in the States.

The translation software is seamless. Our guys speak in English, the Russians get it instantly in Russian, and vice versa. It’s like there’s no language barrier at all.

The first Russian murder, eleven days ago, took place in a prosperous suburb of Saint Petersburg called Tsarskoye Selo. The victim, Alexei Marinovich Tcheckousky, fifty-seven, was a prominent official in the Ministry of Agriculture, not unlike our own Victim #2, Michael Justman. The investigating officer is identified on the video monitor as Inspector Anatoly Y. B. Koverchenko. He’s on-camera, in his office, with two associates whose identities are not revealed.