Contents ( 84)
- 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
- Acknowledgements
With the eastbound train going nowhere and their attention on each other, neither had considered the westbound tracks right next to them. And so neither was aware of the risk the man in black had taken by leaning backwards.
Into the path of the oncoming train.
The screeching arrival of the train drowned out the sound of the front carriage’s metal edge impacting the man’s skull. Not that Michael would have heard it anyway. The shock of what he had seen combined with his injuries to overcome him.
He staggered backwards and fell hard to the ground, just as the agent’s lifeless body slammed into the stones next to him.
SIXTY-FIVE
‘What’s our first move when we land?’
It was 3 p.m. in Kabul. Which made it 6.30 a.m. in New York.
Dempsey and Grace had been in the air for almost eleven hours. Seven of those they had been sleep. And apart from thirty minutes of Vicodin-induced small talk, the rest had been spent in silence.
Now Grace wanted to know what was coming.
Dempsey was seated with his feet up on the first-class chair-bed across from her own. He seemed to take a moment to think through his response.
Grace thought she knew why.
He’s deciding what I need to know. And what I don’t.
‘We’re meeting with Thomas Quilty’s Afghan contact,’ Dempsey finally offered. ‘Jangi Shah Karzai. The man who first told him about Knowles and Tootkai.’
‘How will we find him?’
‘He’ll find us,’ Dempsey replied. ‘Quilty never lost touch with the man. He gave me every different means of contacting him. I’ve asked Kirk to track him down. To have him meet us at the airbase in Kabul, then to travel with us to Tootkai.’
‘What if he doesn’t want to cooperate?’
‘The people we’re going up against, they’re responsible for Quilty’s death. Shah’s not going to like that. He and Quilty go back decades. To when Afghanistan was a Russian war zone instead of a Western one. He’ll cooperate.’
‘And that’s the whole plan, is it? We speak to this one guy. And then we fly to Tootkai. What then?’
‘Then we track down Jangi’s source and anyone else we can find who was there that night. We get the truth. And then we find the evidence.’
‘And what if the truth isn’t what you want to hear?’ Grace was hesitant, still not quite ready to show her hand. ‘What if Knowles did nothing wrong in Tootkai?’
Dempsey took a deep breath and stretched his injured arm outwards before he answered. He grimaced at the effort.
‘Eden, if Knowles did nothing, then in just three days someone has killed a lot of people for no reason. Does that make any sense to you?’
Grace thought for a moment. It was a difficult question to answer.
‘No,’ she finally said. ‘No, it doesn’t. But a lot of other stuff doesn’t make sense to me, either. So I’m asking you again, what if the stuff about Knowles and his unit is bullshit?’