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Chapters (96)
  1. Cover
  2. Berkley titles by David Ricciardi
  3. Dedication
  4. Epigraph
  5. CHARACTER LIST
  6. PROLOGUE
  7. ONE
  8. TWO
  9. THREE
  10. FOUR
  11. FIVE
  12. SIX
  13. SEVEN
  14. EIGHT
  15. NINE
  16. TEN
  17. ELEVEN
  18. TWELVE
  19. THIRTEEN
  20. FOURTEEN
  21. FIFTEEN
  22. SIXTEEN
  23. SEVENTEEN
  24. EIGHTEEN
  25. NINETEEN
  26. TWENTY
  27. TWENTY-ONE
  28. TWENTY-TWO
  29. TWENTY-THREE
  30. TWENTY-FOUR
  31. TWENTY-FIVE
  32. TWENTY-SIX
  33. TWENTY-SEVEN
  34. TWENTY-EIGHT
  35. TWENTY-NINE
  36. THIRTY
  37. THIRTY-ONE
  38. THIRTY-TWO
  39. THIRTY-THREE
  40. THIRTY-FOUR
  41. THIRTY-FIVE
  42. THIRTY-SIX
  43. THIRTY-SEVEN
  44. THIRTY-EIGHT
  45. THIRTY-NINE
  46. FORTY
  47. FORTY-ONE
  48. FORTY-TWO
  49. FORTY-THREE
  50. FORTY-FOUR
  51. FORTY-FIVE
  52. FORTY-SIX
  53. FORTY-SEVEN
  54. FORTY-EIGHT
  55. FORTY-NINE
  56. FIFTY
  57. FIFTY-ONE
  58. FIFTY-TWO
  59. FIFTY-THREE
  60. FIFTY-FOUR
  61. FIFTY-FIVE
  62. FIFTY-SIX
  63. FIFTY-SEVEN
  64. FIFTY-EIGHT
  65. FIFTY-NINE
  66. SIXTY
  67. SIXTY-ONE
  68. SIXTY-TWO
  69. SIXTY-THREE
  70. SIXTY-FOUR
  71. SIXTY-FIVE
  72. SIXTY-SIX
  73. SIXTY-SEVEN
  74. SIXTY-EIGHT
  75. SIXTY-NINE
  76. SEVENTY
  77. SEVENTY-ONE
  78. SEVENTY-TWO
  79. SEVENTY-THREE
  80. SEVENTY-FOUR
  81. SEVENTY-FIVE
  82. SEVENTY-SIX
  83. SEVENTY-SEVEN
  84. SEVENTY-EIGHT
  85. SEVENTY-NINE
  86. EIGHTY
  87. EIGHTY-ONE
  88. EIGHTY-TWO
  89. EIGHTY-THREE
  90. EIGHTY-FOUR
  91. EIGHTY-FIVE
  92. EIGHTY-SIX
  93. EIGHTY-SEVEN
  94. Children of Fallen Patriots Foundation
  95. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  96. What’s next onyour reading list?

He was worried about his partner. Pickens was strong and fast and knew how to handle himself in a street fight, but he didn’t have the paramilitary experience Jake did. Though the two men joked about the difference in their ages, it was their training that set them apart. Most case officers went their whole careers without carrying a weapon, much less getting into a gunfight.

Jake moved quickly but deliberately, his eyes scanning every potential hiding place and his ears listening for any indication that Sunglasses had doubled back to ambush him. Jake reached an intersection of two alleys and followed a set of footprints that looked fresher than the rest.

Up ahead, twenty feet away, Sunglasses was stalking Pickens’s position.

Jake raised the AK-47 just as his partner stepped into the alley. Pickens and the Somali were facing each other when Sunglasses started shouting and waving his pistol in the air.

Pickens spotted Jake in his peripheral vision and glanced over.

Sunglasses’s eyes followed.

Pickens fired five rounds into his chest from four feet away.

The Somali fell to the ground and Pickens met Jake’s eyes.

“Thanks, brother.”

FOURTEEN

JAKE AND PICKENS skipped the meet that had brought them to Kitadra and returned to the safe house. That night they split a bottle of twelve-year-old Macallan scotch that Pickens had smuggled into the country and speculated whether the attack in Kitadra had been spontaneous or targeted—but there was no way to know.

Jake awoke early again the next day. He sat at the kitchen table and checked his email, the room lit only by the bluish glow from his laptop screen. There were dozens of overnight cables on developments in Africa and across the globe—several of which Jake read, and an urgent request for a status update from Ted Graves—which Jake deleted.

He was pleased to also find a message from the technical staff at CIA.

They’d come through with his data request.

It was a large amount of information in two distinct files, and Jake heated a teakettle while they downloaded. Drinking copious amounts of tea was a habit he’d acquired while working in the Middle East. With alcohol forbidden by sharia law, Muslims often served tea at social events, but Jake had taken to it because dysentery, gastroenteritis, and diarrhea commonly afflicted foreigners in the region, and drinking hot tea was an inoffensive way to guarantee the local water had been boiled before consuming it.

The tea was made and drunk before the files were decrypted, but the team at headquarters had come through with everything he’d asked for. His initial attempt to tie Pickens’s sources to the pirate attacks through phone records had failed—the men had all been onshore and using their phones at some point during the attacks—but it had also given Jake an idea.