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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“There’s that, but this also sows distrust between the Saudis and the North Koreans. Both parties will think twice before trying something like this again.”
“I still don’t agree with it,” Jake said, “but I get it. What do you need me to do?”
THIRTY-NINE
A FEW WISPY CLOUDS hung in the sky over Mogadishu, glowing pink in the late-day light.
The dusty lot was surrounded by a mangled fence, its rusty chain links and broken gate providing more than enough security for the litter and empty shipping containers that had been dumped there over the years. Lying on the ground were a few homeless boys, half-stoned and half-dead from sniffing glue they’d poured into discarded plastic water bottles.
It was a run-down area, in a run-down city, in a run-down country.
Jake and Pickens pulled inside and parked facing the road, with the engine idling.
A pickup truck filled with half a dozen gunmen in back pulled around the corner ten minutes later, followed by Yaxaas’s black Range Rover. The warlord’s SUV drove through the open gate and stopped next to Jake and Pickens, passenger side to passenger side. The warlord lowered his window. Jake’s was already down.
“We have a mission for you,” Jake said.
“When?” said Yaxaas.
“Two weeks.”
“Impossible. We depart tomorrow for another job.”
“I’m not asking.”
“It will cost me millions.”
“Not necessarily,” Jake said. “It’s a tanker.”
The warlord raised an eyebrow.
“It’s right out of your playbook,” Jake continued. “The ship is called the Amjad. It’s owned by Bahri, the Saudi national carrier. You’ll pick it up in the Indian Ocean and send it to the bottom.”
Yaxaas nodded.
The warlord took notes as Jake gave him the details he’d need to identify and intercept the sanction-evading vessel.
“And the crew?”
Jake shook his head.
FORTY
INTERCEPTING THE AMJAD and sending it to the bottom would take Yaxaas’s team only a few hours, but the warlord would need a full week to prep the crew and get them into position. It presented Jake with his first downtime since arriving in Africa, and he decided to use it to visit Greece. He told Graves that he was worried Athena Romanos might change her mind and go to INTERPOL, but the truth was, Jake wasn’t completely sure why he was going.
The Agency Gulfstream landed uneventfully in Athens and Jake retrieved a rental car. While he’d once considered Greece out of the pirates’ reach, he was more vigilant since Athena had been run off the road and nearly killed. Jake knew that men like the warlord could never be trusted. The international criminal network that he was a part of was more accustomed to violence than to rolling over and playing nicely.