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
- What’s next onyour reading list?
Jake had witnessed it on his last day in-country as he’d driven past the Liido Seafood restaurant where he’d first encountered Yaxaas. The wide sand beach had been empty then, but on his way to the airport, Jake had seen maybe a dozen families laughing, smiling, and playing in the surf. It was a little thing, to be sure, but it foretold a brighter future for the people of Somalia.
—
JAKE’S FUTURE, ON the other hand, was still very much undecided.
He had contemplated it often since the night of Athena’s death. She’d given him a glimpse of a normal life—and he’d gotten her killed. It was another ache he’d have to live with on a list that just kept getting longer, but somehow each personal setback made him a little better at his job: a little harder, a little sharper, a little quicker on the draw. More than once he’d considered that maybe he just wasn’t cut out for a normal life.
Athena had asked him point-blank how he dealt with all of the treachery and the duplicity. Jake said it was because he felt a burning need to protect others, and it was true, but he now realized that the treachery and duplicity that was eating at him was coming from inside CIA.
It was coming from Graves.
—
JAKE TOOK A sip of his Malagousia wine and looked across the crowded Varoulko Seaside restaurant as the shipping agent answered his mobile phone. It was the same phone Athena had compromised on another Friday night exactly two months earlier. The restaurant was noisy, as it had been that first night, and the agent walked outside to take the call—leaving his fashion model dining companion alone at the table.
With tousled hair, a low-cut dress, and sky blue eyes, she attracted the attention of half the restaurant’s patrons, including Jake, who scrutinized her as she absentmindedly lifted her date’s champagne flute, took a sip, and set it down.
And even though he’d been watching for it, Jake still missed the exact moment she slipped the poison into the agent’s glass.
It would take effect in about six hours, when he would be home in bed, alone—disappointed that his flirtatious and enticing date had chosen not to spend the night. There would be no one at his side to call emergency services, no one to inject him with an antidote. The coroner’s toxicology report would list the cause of death as an overdose of the drug Ecstasy laced with black-market Chinese fentanyl, and the police would close their investigation upon discovering more of the tainted drug in the agent’s medicine chest.