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Chapters (83)
  1. Cover
  2. ALSO BY TOM CLANCY
  3. PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS
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  83. What’s next onyour reading list?

“I think you’re right about the four Chinese disappearing. They’re probably fish food by now. So really it’s only two you have to worry about.”

“Gee, that makes me feel better.”

“At least now I know you’re the one who deleted all of my security files.”

“No, I swear, it wasn’t me.”

“Then who?”

“Still working on that one.”

“I still can’t believe Rhodes wants to crash the world’s stock markets.”

“I don’t think he does.”

“But he gave Paul the software.”

“Sure, but he didn’t write it. That means someone else wrote it for him. So it’s that coder I want to talk to—and the guy behind the coder. That’s the asswipe who’s behind all of this.”

Lian powered on the radio. An emergency signal blared on every station and an automated voice repeated: “SEEK HIGH GROUND NOW! STAY IN SHELTER! DO NOT DRIVE! AVOID LOW-LYING AREAS! HIGH-VOLTAGE LINES ARE DOWN! STAY INDOORS!”

Dead traffic lights swayed in the wind; streetlamps and building lights were all dead now.

Lian punched the radio off. “Only thirteen minutes to midnight. Drive faster!”

63

PYONGYANG, NORTH KOREA

GENERAL ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES DIRECTORATE

Deputy Ri stood in his cramped basement office, talking into the speakerphone on his desk. “Why hasn’t it happened yet?” His expressionless face was beaded in sweat.

“The man I recruited failed,” Zvezdev said over the phone. “I’ve taken matters into my own hands.”

“There’s no point in threatening you. You know what’s at stake for both of us.”

“There’s still time.”

Ri checked his watch. “Ten minutes.”

“An eternity. We only need thirty seconds.”

“Call me when it’s done.” Ri pushed a button with a trembling finger. Zvezdev was his last hope. The missions in Lisbon and Toronto had already failed.

Ri lit a Gitanes to calm his nerves. The chairman had sent him a carton yesterday. Choi Ha-guk was a reasonable man, unlike his crazed cousin, who murdered failed subordinates and their entire families with ravenous dogs, flamethrowers, or antiaircraft weapons. The chairman was a professional man. He understood that operations sometimes failed, no matter how well prepared and executed they were.

Ri rolled the burning Gitanes between his fingers, watching the twisting tendrils of smoke in the lamplight. He smiled.

Yes, Choi Ha-guk was reasonable.

If he failed, Ri would only face a simple firing squad.

He crushed the cigarette out in his ashtray and picked up the phone. The operator connected him with the RGB station chief at the DPRK embassy in Sofia, Bulgaria. The man heading up the unit was a cousin, loyal and efficient. He gave orders to stand ready and be prepared to move against Zvezdev within the next thirty minutes if needed.

Unlike Choi, Ri was not a reasonable man at all.

64

SINGAPORE