BooksBarbecue
Back The Neighborhood Save as PDF
Chapters (59)
  1. Part I Reconnaissance
  2. Chapter One
  3. Chapter Two
  4. Chapter Three
  5. Part II Incursion
  6. Chapter Four
  7. Chapter Five
  8. Chapter Six
  9. Chapter Seven
  10. Chapter Eight
  11. Chapter Nine
  12. Chapter Ten
  13. Part III Under Siege
  14. Chapter Eleven
  15. Chapter Twelve
  16. Chapter Thirteen
  17. Part IV Course Correction
  18. Chapter Fourteen
  19. Part V Balance of Power
  20. Chapter Fifteen
  21. Chapter Sixteen
  22. Chapter Seventeen
  23. Chapter Eighteen
  24. Chapter Nineteen
  25. Chapter Twenty
  26. Chapter Twenty-One
  27. Chapter Twenty-Two
  28. Chapter Twenty-Three
  29. Chapter Twenty-Four
  30. Chapter Twenty-Five
  31. Chapter Twenty-Six
  32. Chapter Twenty-Seven
  33. Chapter Twenty-Eight
  34. Chapter Twenty-Nine
  35. Part VI Spy versus Spy
  36. Chapter Thirty
  37. Chapter Thirty-One
  38. Chapter Thirty-Two
  39. Chapter Thirty-Three
  40. Part VII Winds of War and Flame
  41. Chapter Thirty-Four
  42. Chapter Thirty-Five
  43. Chapter Thirty-Six
  44. Chapter Thirty-Seven
  45. Chapter Thirty-Eight
  46. Chapter Thirty-Nine
  47. Chapter Forty
  48. Chapter Forty-One
  49. Part VIII Strong to the Finish
  50. Chapter Forty-Two
  51. Chapter Forty-Three
  52. Part IX Spy Games
  53. Chapter Forty-Four
  54. Chapter Forty-Five
  55. Chapter Forty-Six
  56. Part X What Goes Around
  57. Chapter Forty-Seven
  58. Chapter Forty-Eight
  59. About the Author

I’ll give you that one. There’d be too much paperwork, Griffin thought, and lashed out before Charles could react. Leaving the detonator on the ground, he brought his two hands up and together, simultaneously striking the Glock hard with his left hand and Charles’s wrist with his right one. The gun was knocked out of Charles’s hand and sent spiraling to the dirt and rocks several feet away.

Before Charles could respond, Griffin struck him in the left side of his jaw, delivering two powerful punches with all the momentum he could muster on his knees. With his size and strength, the blows landed squarely, violently pushing Charles’s head to the right. The movement caused his brain to shift inside his skull and shut down all motor activity to the rest of his body as it defended itself. Even as Charles slumped to the dirt, Griffin turned back to the SUV chase on the road, which had nearly reached their position. He knew Charles would be unconscious and then disoriented for at least the next fifteen to thirty seconds, which was all he needed to flip the switch and press the button on the detonator.

Time to pay for your sins, Zack.

* * *

Zack concentrated on the Mercedes, acutely aware of the two buried IED locations in the middle of the left half of the road less than a hundred yards away. The problem was that he needed to force the SUV to the right side of the road away from the blasts of the EFPs. The only thing he was grateful for was that they’d calculated the amount of explosives and copper slugs needed to disable the vehicles, unlike the ones in Iraq and Afghanistan, which were designed to kill and maim as many Americans as possible.

He glanced into the rearview mirror and saw both Noah and Belyakov securing the seatbelts across their shoulders. “This is going to be dangerous, and while I said I wasn’t going to kill you today, if we get into a bad crash and all die, that’s not on me. So hold on.”

Belyakov’s fear and anger sent a feeling of satisfaction coursing through Zack. A bit of your own medicine. Good. Savor it before this gets worse.