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Chapters (49)
  1. Title Page
  2. Acknowledgements
  3. ONE - THE KREMLIN, MOSCOW SEPTEMBER 24, 1999
  4. TWO - SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA OCTOBER 6, 1999
  5. THREE - CAUCASUS REGION NEAR THE CASPIAN SEA, RUSSIA, OCTOBER 10, 1999
  6. FOUR - THE WHITE HOUSE WASHINGTON, D.C. OCTOBER 26, 1999
  7. FIVE - KALININGRAD, RUSSIA OCTOBER 26, 1999
  8. SIX - KHABAROVSK TERRITORY NEAR THE RUSSIA-CHINA BORDER OCTOBER 27, 1999
  9. SEVEN - KALININGRAD, RUSSIA NOVEMBER 2, 1999
  10. EIGHT - WASHINGTON, D.C. NOVEMBER 5, 1999
  11. NINE - KALININGRAD REGION NOVEMBER 16, 1999
  12. TEN - BROOKLYN, NEW YORK NOVEMBER 28, 1999
  13. ELEVEN - NEW YORK CITY DECEMBER 23, 1999
  14. TWELVE - NEW YORK CITY DECEMBER 28, 1999
  15. THIRTEEN - VARIOUS LOCALES DECEMBER 31, 1999
  16. FOURTEEN - SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA DECEMBER 31, 1999
  17. FIFTEEN - NEW YORK CITY DECEMBER 31, 1999
  18. SIXTEEN - SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA DECEMBER 31, 1999
  19. SEVENTEEN - NEW YORK CITY JANUARY 1, 2000
  20. EIGHTEEN - BROOKLYN, NEW YORK JANUARY 1, 2000
  21. NINETEEN - NEW YORK CITY AND SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA JANUARY 1, 2000
  22. TWENTY - WASHINGTON, D.C. JANUARY 2, 2000 FROM THE
  23. TWENTY-ONE - NEW YORK CITY JANUARY 3, 2000 CALVARY CEMETERY, QUEENS
  24. TWENTY-TWO - MOSCOW JANUARY 6, 2000
  25. TWENTY-THREE - WASHINGTON, D.C. JANUARY 6, 2000
  26. TWENTY-FOUR - SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA JANUARY 7, 2000
  27. TWENTY-FIVE - SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA AND NEW YORK CITY JANUARY 8, 2000
  28. TWENTY-SIX - NEW YORK CITY JANUARY 16, 2000
  29. TWENTY-SEVEN - BROOKLYN, NEW YORK JANUARY 16, 2000
  30. TWENTY-EIGHT - BROOKLYN, NEW YORK JANUARY 16, 2000
  31. TWENTY-NINE - BROOKLYN, NEW YORK JANUARY 16, 2000
  32. THIRTY - NEW YORK CITY JANUARY 20, 2000
  33. THIRTY-ONE - BROOKLYN, NEW YORK JANUARY 26, 2000
  34. THIRTY-TWO - WASHINGTON, D.C. JANUARY 26, 2000
  35. THIRTY-THREE - WASHINGTON, D.C. JANUARY 28, 2000
  36. THIRTY-FOUR - NEW YORK CITY JANUARY 29, 2000
  37. THIRTY-FIVE - KALININGRAD, RUSSIA JANUARY 30, 2000
  38. THIRTY-SIX - THE KREMLIN, MOSCOW FEBRUARY 1, 2000
  39. THIRTY-SEVEN - ANKARA, TURKEY FEBRUARY 7, 2000
  40. THIRTY-EIGHT - CAPPADOCIA, SOUTHEASTERN TURKEY FEBRUARY 9, 2000
  41. THIRTY-NINE - KALININGRAD REGION FEBRUARY 9, 2000
  42. FORTY - KALININGRAD REGION FEBRUARY 10, 2000
  43. FORTY-ONE - NEW YORK CITY FEBRUARY 9, 2000
  44. FORTY-TWO - KALININGRAD REGION FEBRUARY 10
  45. FORTY-THREE - SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA FEBRUARY 10, 2000
  46. FORTY-FOUR - MOSCOW FEBRUARY 11, 2000
  47. FORTY-FIVE - MOSCOW FEBRUARY 12, 2000
  48. FORTY-SIX - DAGOMYS BLACK SEA COAST, RUSSIA FEBRUARY 12, 2000
  49. FORTY-SEVEN - NEW YORK CITY KENNEDY INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT FEBRUARY 17, 2000

Seeing the last two enemies in front of them, Max raised his hand, signaling for extra caution, and then moved forward. Megan was on his left, and the two of them were flanked by two other members of his team.

Under other circumstances, Blackburn might have played it more cautiously and let one of the others take the point. Then again, he might not have. He and Gordian had argued about this countless times, but the simple fact was that Max refused to consider that any member of his team, no matter how new or how young or how inexperienced, was less indispensable than he was himself. And he absolutely refused to send men in where he himself would not go.

Slipping forward on silent feet, he waited for the man’s hand to come off the radio at his belt, and then he acted, reaching forward and seizing the man’s arm with his right hand and laying a knife along his throat with his left hand. He didn’t say anything. He was more than half hoping the man would react, would start to fight, would do anything to give him a reason to use that knife.

Beside him, Megan wasn’t so nice. Stepping forward in tandem with him, her own short-bladed knife in her hand, she closed on the woman who was her target. Reversing her blade, she brought the hilt down hard on the base of the woman’s neck. The woman tumbled to the ground, unconscious, long, dark hair spilling out from beneath her helmet as she fell.

Too easy, Blackburn thought. He wanted blood. He wanted to pull the knife hard across the neck of the man he’d captured. But he couldn’t. He was a soldier, first and foremost, and though he worked for a company rather than a country, still he had a code to uphold.

Besides, someday this pain and rage would fade, and on that day he wanted to be able to live with himself.

He maintained control of the man he had captured until his men had secured him. Then he sheathed his blade and said, “Get them the hell out of here.”

Spinning away from them, he started the process of searching for survivors. It had been a long night already, and he knew that it was only going to get longer.

FORTY-THREE - SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA FEBRUARY 10, 2000

FORTY-THREE

SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA FEBRUARY 10, 2000

“YURI VOSTOV,” GORDIAN SAID TO HIS DESKTOP videophone. His voice was dull, inflectionless, almost mechanical. It somehow reminded Nimec of the way robotic voices had sounded in science fiction movies that were made in the 1950s. He’d never heard Gordian speak in that sort of tone before, and it disquieted him perhaps more than anything that had happened over the past twenty-four hours. What was going on inside the man?