Chapters (96)
- Cover
- Berkley titles by David Ricciardi
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- CHARACTER LIST
- PROLOGUE
- ONE
- TWO
- THREE
- FOUR
- FIVE
- SIX
- SEVEN
- EIGHT
- NINE
- TEN
- ELEVEN
- TWELVE
- THIRTEEN
- FOURTEEN
- FIFTEEN
- SIXTEEN
- SEVENTEEN
- EIGHTEEN
- NINETEEN
- TWENTY
- TWENTY-ONE
- TWENTY-TWO
- TWENTY-THREE
- TWENTY-FOUR
- TWENTY-FIVE
- TWENTY-SIX
- TWENTY-SEVEN
- TWENTY-EIGHT
- TWENTY-NINE
- THIRTY
- THIRTY-ONE
- THIRTY-TWO
- THIRTY-THREE
- THIRTY-FOUR
- THIRTY-FIVE
- THIRTY-SIX
- THIRTY-SEVEN
- THIRTY-EIGHT
- THIRTY-NINE
- FORTY
- FORTY-ONE
- FORTY-TWO
- FORTY-THREE
- FORTY-FOUR
- FORTY-FIVE
- FORTY-SIX
- FORTY-SEVEN
- FORTY-EIGHT
- FORTY-NINE
- FIFTY
- FIFTY-ONE
- FIFTY-TWO
- FIFTY-THREE
- FIFTY-FOUR
- FIFTY-FIVE
- FIFTY-SIX
- FIFTY-SEVEN
- FIFTY-EIGHT
- FIFTY-NINE
- SIXTY
- SIXTY-ONE
- SIXTY-TWO
- SIXTY-THREE
- SIXTY-FOUR
- SIXTY-FIVE
- SIXTY-SIX
- SIXTY-SEVEN
- SIXTY-EIGHT
- SIXTY-NINE
- SEVENTY
- SEVENTY-ONE
- SEVENTY-TWO
- SEVENTY-THREE
- SEVENTY-FOUR
- SEVENTY-FIVE
- SEVENTY-SIX
- SEVENTY-SEVEN
- SEVENTY-EIGHT
- SEVENTY-NINE
- EIGHTY
- EIGHTY-ONE
- EIGHTY-TWO
- EIGHTY-THREE
- EIGHTY-FOUR
- EIGHTY-FIVE
- EIGHTY-SIX
- EIGHTY-SEVEN
- Children of Fallen Patriots Foundation
- ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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The Pole returned to the main deck and radioed Nacay that the target was secure. The jamming stopped and the helicopter returned to the mothership just as the deck crane finished hauling aboard the second semisubmersible. Two and a half minutes later the helo landed amidships on the unmarked helipad and shut down its engine. The ground crew began folding its rotors the instant they stopped turning.
Thirty-one minutes after the first semisubmersible returned to the mothership, all of the equipment and weapons were secured in their containers. The ship could withstand a physical inspection from a naval boarding team.
Aboard the Saviz, the Pole took two men below. The hold was dark and cold and smelled of rotten fish. The men had quickly searched it earlier, but now they were opening the massive freezer cases.
They hit pay dirt with the second case. Inside were dozens of olive-drab wooden crates. The pirates hauled the nearest one out by its rope handles and popped the metal latches.
Packed inside were a dozen Iranian-made AK-47s. Other crates held machine guns, RPGs, and nearly a hundred 107mm rockets for a Chinese multiple launch rocket system. The Pole radioed Nacay about what he’d found.
“Photograph everything, then set the charges,” replied Nacay. “We’ll be alongside in ten minutes.”
FORTY-SEVEN
A RED BAJAJ SLAMMED on its brakes and pulled to the side of the road. The three-wheeled taxi had a cracked windshield, a greasy fringe dangling from the ceiling, and a driver who was missing several teeth.
Pickens got in.
“Olympic Hotel,” he said in Somali.
“The Nasa-Hablod is better,” said the driver.
“What about the Sahafi?”
The recognition sequence complete, the driver nodded and pulled away from the curb. It had been four days since the attack on the Saviz, and the pirate mothership had returned to Somalia the prior morning.
The Bajaj wound its way down the main road and passed through the K5 intersection, where al-Shabaab militants had detonated an enormous truck bomb a few months earlier. More than two hundred people had died and hundreds more were wounded. The area still bore deep scars from the attack, and Pickens was staring at the wreckage when the driver passed him a manila envelope. The CIA officer stepped out of the cab at the next intersection and waited with the envelope in his hand.
He scratched his right ear.
Clap pulled to the side of the road. He and Jake had been following the taxi at a distance, running protective surveillance for the meeting. Pickens climbed into the back seat and Jake glanced at the envelope.
“You look at it yet?”