BooksBarbecue
Back The Neighborhood
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

Zack considered for a moment. He had to give the director the credit he deserved. It had been the one detail he’d decided to withhold from the official reports. If what Belyakov had told him was true, then the only agency that needed to know was the CIA, which was why he’d waited for this conversation, knowing that the director or someone who worked for him would come. “You’re a smart man, yourself. And yes, I do know what was on the laptop, at least if Belyakov told me the truth of what was on it. The list of US assets you’re recruiting at Russian colleges and institutes. But I guess you’re going to confirm or deny it for me right now, correct?”

“I thought so,” Matt said, seemingly pleased with himself. “But before I do, can you please tell me who else you told that information to?”

“My brother, Nick; that girl next door, who deserved to know, since she had to kill a man in her own house; Esli Flores’s family; Claire Simmons, whose husband was executed by Barrett; Director Harper’s wife and son; and my wife. Sam may have told her boyfriend, but other than that, no one.”

Matt nodded in a way that didn’t reveal whether he was content or upset with the answer. “Okay. Here it is, but you’re not going to like the answer, not at all. What Belyakov told you was true, at least based on what he thought he knew.”

Alarm bells in Zack’s mind started ringing, and even before the director said it aloud, he realized for the first time the true nature of the laptop. His heart sank as he thought about Brandon Harper and Esli Flores, and he said, “Oh, please don’t tell me, not after all that’s happened.”

Matt shifted uncomfortably but maintained his bearing, refusing to shy away from the responsibility that was his alone. “There was nothing on the laptop, nothing but a fake list of names. The list was part of a counterintelligence operation to draw out a leaker, one who’s been compromising extremely sensitive operational classified intelligence.”

Zack closed his eyes and leaned back in his couch. He inhaled deeply to control the fury and frustration that coursed through him much more strongly than the caffeine. All of the dead bodies had been the price of a mole hunt inside the CIA, one that had gone terribly wrong. It was a false flag from the very beginning. “How . . . could . . . you?” Zack said, and opened his eyes, his anger subdued to a whisper but directed at the head of the CIA.