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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Jake exchanged pre-arranged recognition phrases with the two Agency pilots and boarded the aircraft. Fifteen minutes later, they were airborne and on their way to Athens.
—
JAKE STUDIED THE shipowner’s biography as the plane flew northwest over the Red Sea: In his eighties now, the shipping magnate had started his career as a ship broker, mainly arranging shipments of crude and occasionally the sale of the ships themselves. He bought his first tanker from a bank that had foreclosed on it and was so eager to get it off their books that they provided him with the financing to buy it.
The deal happened at the lows of a shipping cycle and the value of the ship quickly appreciated. In eight months, Romanos had built enough equity to buy two more ships. He sold all three at the peak of the next cycle and cashed out for eighteen months until the market corrected again. He repeated the trade several times, perfectly timing his acquisitions and dispositions, until people were afraid to buy ships when Romanos was selling. He started moving them through intermediaries and shell corporations, always spotting the clouds gathering on the horizon before everyone else.
Buying ships at the bottom of the cycle was easier—he was the only one who had any money.
And he had a lot of it.
CIA estimated his net worth to be between five and ten billion U.S. dollars. The exact number was impossible to know because Greece was a notoriously difficult place to track wealth. Shipowners were exempt from most taxation, and men as skilled in international commerce as Giánnis Romanos tended to spread their assets around to preserve them in case of little things like civil unrest or the election of a leftist government. He didn’t want to give away his fortune on someone else’s terms.
But he had given a lot away.
At least a couple billion.
His late wife had handled most of the philanthropy. Together they’d endowed hospitals and schools, supported the Greek Orthodox Church, and provided lifelines to hundreds of charities around the country. In the absence of a capable federal government, Romanos had stepped in to take care of his fellow man.
—
THE G550 DESCENDED through light turbulence as it turned onto final approach at Athens International Airport, but the Agency pilots hardly noticed the rough air. After flying spiral approaches into Baghdad at night and under fire for almost a decade, and using unprepared runways across Africa for the last three years, it took more than a bumpy ride on a cool November day to get them excited.