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Back Angels of Vengeance
Chapters (68)
  1. Blurb
  2. CONTENTS
  3. Dedication
  4. CHARACTER LIST
  5. 1
  6. 2
  7. 3
  8. 4
  9. 5
  10. 6
  11. 7
  12. 8
  13. 9
  14. 10
  15. 11
  16. 12
  17. 13
  18. 14
  19. 15
  20. 16
  21. 17
  22. 18
  23. 19
  24. 20
  25. 21
  26. 22
  27. 23
  28. 24
  29. 25
  30. 26
  31. 27
  32. 28
  33. 29
  34. 30
  35. 31
  36. 32
  37. 33
  38. 34
  39. 35
  40. 36
  41. 37
  42. 38
  43. 39
  44. 40
  45. 41
  46. 42
  47. 43
  48. 44
  49. 45
  50. 46
  51. 47
  52. 48
  53. 49
  54. 50
  55. 51
  56. 52
  57. 53
  58. 54
  59. TWO MONTHS LATER
  60. ONE YEAR LATER
  61. TWO YEARS LATER
  62. FOUR YEARS LATER
  63. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
  64. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  65. Also by John Birmingham
  66. ALSO BY JOHN BIRMINGHAM
  67. Copyright
  68. Cover

He had seen this file before. Or rather, he had been briefed on its contents a few weeks earlier. The briefing did not cover the sort of information most people would’ve thought relevant to the files in front of him, amid his city scape of stacked folders and binders crammed with information about the government of Texas. But Jed Culver, alone in all the land, now knew there was a link. The safe-hand courier had travelled down from Echelon HQ in Vancouver because, a short while after Cesky had complained of being locked out of salvage operations in Texas, the vast archive of information stored inside Jed’s grey matter had begun to reformat itself around a potential link between two apparently disconnected data points.

He held in his hand an after-action report, written up, he was gratified to see, by a Special Agent Caitlin Monroe. He well remembered talking to this woman shortly before she had parachuted into New York in a last desperate attempt to lay hands on the Emir. Baumer was his real name, of course. But back in the old world, with its old wars and blood hatreds, he had also been known as al Banna, and he had been a medium-level functionary of al-Qaeda’s globally franchised jihad. The task of infiltrating and disrupting his particular cell of that hydra-headed monster had been the responsibility of one Special Agent Caitlin Monroe. Not surprising then, that she’d been the one to tag him as the provocateur behind New York.

Jed flipped slowly through the Echelon file.

‘Oh, Agent Monroe,’ he said softly to himself. ‘You are going to be my new best friend.’

He read and re-read the relevant paragraph.

The Subject Lupérico stated that extraction of Subject Baumer was effected by Subject Ozal using the assets of the Hejaz Shipping Line, a wholly owned subsidiary of Subject Ozal’s Hazm Unternehmen (Corporation).

‘My new best friend forever,’ he added with a smile.

Culver now turned his attention to the file balanced on his lap. A report from the Secretary of the Treasury’s office concerning contracts signed by the government of Texas, ultra vires – or in layman’s terms, ‘beyond the powers’ of that government. On page 25 of Annex B, he had what he wanted. A listing for a salvage contract, worth twenty-five million New American Dollars, signed between the Blackstone administration and Hazm Unternehmen. The contracts were notarised and exchanged one week before the Hejaz Shipping Line was confirmed by Echelon London to have sent three large vessels carrying somewhere between four and five hundred combatants from the Libyan port of Tobruk into American waters, where they eventually made landfall on the East Coast. At New York.

‘Gotcha . . .’

18

KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI

‘Cindy French is my name. I haul that big-ass classic Kenworth out there, the one with the sky-blue cab? Rocky Mountain double? Got me a load of Maersk containers heading down to Corpus Christi.’