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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

Everything is okay, Sam. You know him. He’s as reliable as you are. He’ll have a good explanation. He loves you, and the sudden thought both terrified and filled her with a warmth and comfort she hadn’t experienced with other boys.

She placed the Cobra radio on her bedside table, rolled over, and pulled the Pottery Barn Harry Potter–themed duvet over her shoulders, smiling as she did. While it was true that she liked Percy Jackson more, she still loved the Boy Who Lived.

Chapter Five

Chapter
FIVE

2:37 a.m.

Zack sat up on the side of his bed, acutely aware of his wife’s absence. He grabbed his iPhone, pressed the screen, since the new phone had no home button, and saw the time. He wasn’t going to be sleeping any time soon. The weight of what he was about to do was keeping him from his dreams. He knew it was the right thing, morally, but he also knew that the US government didn’t care about his interpretation of morality. He’d learned that lesson before. The only thing that mattered to the power brokers in the bureaucracy of DC was the US Code and how it could maintain the status quo—specifically, their status quo.

A sudden wind buffeted the second floor, coming in from the west over the Appalachians and rattling the downspout on the corner of the house. Need to stop putting it off and get that thing secured. Just one of many things they never tell you when you build a house, he thought, recalling the insulation problem they’d had in the attic when they’d moved in. The installers had failed to thoroughly fill several spots with the blown-in insulation, resulting in the kids’ bedrooms being noticeably warmer in the summer and cooler in the winter. Like Indiana Jones, he’d traversed the attic with a headlamp, the beam arcing across the empty space, wondering how soon it would be before he crashed through the ceiling below, hoping he wouldn’t land on one of his children before he found the low spots. A few pictures on his iPhone and one call the next day to the builder had the situation resolved within a week. He was proud of himself for discovering the issue, just one of many that the builder hadn’t mentioned.

He opened an encrypted chat application and typed, “Can’t sleep. How close are you? Want to do this earlier? No one will be there at 0400.” The sooner it was over, the sooner he’d be able to relax. Then again, it was his software. But he knew the Department of Defense wouldn’t see it that way, as they’d already purchased the program for a significant amount of money. Not that budgets really mattered when it came to DOD programs, or the government in general.