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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?

Back on the bridge, the boarding team leader shut off the ship’s position-reporting system and turned the tanker southeast, toward Indonesia, where the cargo would be unloaded at an unscrupulous tank farm and blended with other crudes to obscure its origin. In a few weeks the oil would be sold to legitimate buyers in Asia with falsified bills of lading.

One of the pirates lowered the ship’s Greek flag and tossed it overboard.

The Symi had been off the grid for less than fifteen minutes.

THIRTY-TWO

JAKE SPENT THE night at the Westin and took off from Athens International Airport just after ten in the morning. He was nearly to Mogadishu when the flight crew told him he had an incoming call on the Gulfstream’s encrypted communications set.

It was Ted Graves.

“Another tanker is missing.”

“What was its last known position?” Jake said.

“Gulf of Oman—around two hundred fifty miles past the Strait of Hormuz.”

Jake did some quick math in his head.

“It was the Symi, wasn’t it?”

He knew the ship’s route and timing.

Graves was silent.

“You sacrificed the one ship that hurts us the most.”

“Don’t be melodramatic,” said Graves. “We needed to validate the intelligence.”

“Melodramatic? You had me fly here to persuade Athena Romanos for more time, and then you used that time to send twenty-three of her men to their graves. You betrayed her trust and mine.”

“We’re not here to make friends, Keller. We’re here to protect the interests of the United States of America. And don’t worry about Romanos—today is the day she was going to turn the ship around. It would have been too late anyway.”

“She would have turned it around four days ago if I hadn’t begged her not to.”

“You were doing your job. She’ll understand that. People don’t become billionaires by playing nice all the time.”

“Ted, I want to make sure you understand that there is a very real chance that she’s going to go to INTERPOL, either because she thinks we’re incompetent or she realizes that we’ve been lying to her. If she does that, they’ll alert the Somalis, and Yaxaas will vanish. The mission will be over.”

Graves leaned back in his chair and cracked his knuckles.

“Where are you now?”

“We just passed Djibouti,” Jake said. “We’ll be wheels-down in Mogadishu in an hour.”

“Make a U-turn.”

“What?”

Graves spoke slowly, as if speaking to a child.