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Back Point of Contact Save as PDF
Chapters (83)
  1. Cover
  2. ALSO BY TOM CLANCY
  3. PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS
  4. 1
  5. 2
  6. 3
  7. 4
  8. 5
  9. 6
  10. 7
  11. 8
  12. 9
  13. 10
  14. 11
  15. 12
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  18. 15
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  20. 17
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  27. 24
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  30. 27
  31. 28
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  33. 30
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  36. 33
  37. 34
  38. 35
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  40. 37
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  43. 40
  44. 41
  45. 42
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  48. 45
  49. 46
  50. 47
  51. 48
  52. 49
  53. 50
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  55. 52
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  78. 75
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  82. 79
  83. What’s next onyour reading list?

He held the USB drive in his hand again. Lian had said that they would be discussing security measures tomorrow morning. What did that mean? Obviously, security measures deployed by Dalfan at Dalfan headquarters. They’d be looking for exactly the kind of thing now sitting in the palm of his hand. If drug dealers got the death penalty here, what was the penalty for spying?

He put the USB drive back in the laptop pouch and zipped the case back up. He’d have to find a way to sneak the drive onto the floor before he could even think about installing it—that would be a whole other headache. He’d think about that later. Right now it was time to floss and brush his teeth.

“Security measures,” he repeated to himself. What would those be? He ran through a list of the protocols he would deploy in a similar situation. It wouldn’t be at all impossible to find a way to get the USB drive past their security, and even if it was found, what would they do? Probably just tell him to leave it at home. But if they seized it and examined the contents? Like Rhodes said, the mission was designed such that if someone had to fall, it was Paul and only Paul. He accepted that. But it would be better to not get caught in the first place. He needed to find a way to get that drive past security and then a way to install it. Might as well start tomorrow.

A thought struck him. He turned off the bedroom light and crossed over to the window. If he were running a security operation, he’d put security people on-site and keep the target under surveillance at all times. Certain that he wasn’t backlit, he carefully pushed the curtain, just half an inch, and glanced out to the dimly lit street.

A sedan was parked in the distance in front of a different house. He couldn’t quite make anything out. He pulled his smartphone out of his pocket and pointed it at the vehicle, then used the 6x optical telephoto magnification. The camera’s lowlight feature and zoom helped him see the shadow of a man in the passenger seat who seemed to be looking up in his direction, but he really couldn’t tell. If he had to guess, he’d say he looked Caucasian. The moonlight striking the windshield created a glare that blocked the view of the driver’s side.

Paul felt like a voyeur. This was stupid. If that was one of Lian’s security teams, so what? Keeping them under observation was for their own protection, wasn’t it? Besides, there were a lot of houses in the area. It was relatively early in the evening. He put the camera down.