Back Blast
Chapters (88)
Titles by Mark Greaney
TITLES BY MARK GREANEY
THE GRAY MAN
ON TARGET
BALLISTIC
DEAD EYE
BACK BLAST
Title Page
Copyright
An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014
This book is an original publication of Penguin Random House LLC.
Copyright © 2016 by Mark Strode Greaney.
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Berkley export edition ISBN: 978-1-101-98917-3
eBook ISBN: 978-0-698-40653-7
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Greaney, Mark.
Back blast / Mark Greaney.—First edition.
pages ; cm
ISBN 978-0-425-28279-3
I. Title.
PS3607.R4285B33 2016
813’.6—dc23
2015022109
FIRST EDITION: February 2016
Cover photograph of Washington, D.C. © Tim Martin / Getty Images.
Cover design by Richard Hasselberger.
Title page art © ZWD / Shutterstock.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Version_1
Dedication
For Devon
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I’d like to thank Mike Cowan, Chris Clarke, Natalie Hopkinson, Scott Swanson, Maria Burnham, James Yeager and Tactical Response, Lt Col Rip Rawlings (USMC), Keith Thomson, Jeff Belanger, Dorothy Greaney, Devin Greaney, Nick Ciubotariu, EJ Owens, Ben Coes, Brad Taylor, Dalton Fury, Nichole Geen Roberto, and Patrick O’Daniel.
Special thanks to my agents, Scott Miller at Trident Media and Jon Cassir at CAA, my editor, Tom Colgan, and his assistant, Amanda Ng, at Berkley, and Mystery Mike Bursaw.
CONTENTS
Titles by Mark Greaney
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Epigraph
Characters
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Chapter 64
Chapter 65
Chapter 66
Chapter 67
Chapter 68
Chapter 69
Chapter 70
Chapter 71
Chapter 72
Chapter 73
Chapter 74
Chapter 75
Chapter 76
Chapter 77
Chapter 78
Epilogue
Epigraph
Why seeketh thou vengeance, O man! With what purpose is it that thou pursuest it? Thinkest thou to pain thine adversary by it? Know that thou thyself feelest its greatest torments.
—AKHENATON, EGYPTIAN PHARAOH
Three can keep a secret, if two of them are dead.
—BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
CHARACTERS
COURTLAND “COURT” GENTRY: The Gray Man, call sign Sierra Six, code name Violator—ex–Special Activities Division (Ground Branch) paramilitary operations officer, CIA; ex–CIA Autonomous Asset Program operative