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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But he’d be doing the world a favor.
He looked up at Clap. “You want to lend me that rifle?”
Clap grinned again and the two men bumped fists.
“You really think a bioweapon could kill a million people?” said Pickens.
Jake nodded. “I don’t know why Ted is being such a hardass. He’s dead wrong about this one.”
“We could go over his head,” said Pickens.
Clap scowled.
“Look, I’m going to Germany tomorrow to check on my guy, but you better have your case air-fucking-tight before you go over Ted’s head. He may be a sonofabitch, but he’s a smart sonofabitch, and he plays for keeps. If those orders are coming from the Seventh Floor, or they haul Ted before the Inspector General and it doesn’t stick, we three are finished.”
“I have someone back at headquarters I can talk to,” Jake said.
“Be careful, brother,” said Clap. “Ted’s got a lot of loyal soldiers in the Directorate of Operations.”
“My guy isn’t in operations.”
Jake did indeed have a very senior contact inside CIA. The relationship was especially useful because no more than a handful of people knew of it. Peter Clements had been chief of station in London and Jake’s boss when he’d made his first foray into the field. Jake was still known as Zac Miller then, and he’d volunteered for a milk run that had turned into a nightmare. When it was over, he’d needed a new face and a new identity, and the cover story had cost Peter Clements his job.
But just as Zac Miller had been resurrected as Jake Keller, Peter Clements had quietly returned as the number two executive in charge of the Directorate of Analysis, an enormously influential job with wide-ranging access and authority.
Peter would be able to give Jake a read on the atmospherics back at Langley.
—
JAKE RETIRED TO his bedroom and videoconferenced his old boss, candidly explaining his concerns about the bioweapon and his concerns about using Yaxaas as a tool of U.S. policy. Jake didn’t need to explain his concerns about Graves—Ted had been the one who’d forced Clements out of the chief of station job, then taken it for himself.
Clements knew Ted was a sonofabitch.
He called back two hours later.
“The order to establish a covert interdiction capability in the region came from the Seventh Floor,” said Clements.
Peter was an associate deputy director. The Seventh Floor generally meant his level or above—someone very senior.
“Director Feinman?” asked Jake. He’d met the CIA director once the year before, after a pair of rogue government officials had nearly started a war between the U.S. and China.