Brad Thor - Full Black

The real bombshell in the Post story came from the interrogation of the second subject, a British man, who claimed that James Standing had financed and planned the devastating wave of terrorist attacks that had killed so many innocent Americans.

Within hours of the New York Post story, the Department of Justice launched a formal investigation.

Based on information provided by Robert Ashford and corroborated by Mansoor Aleem in Iceland, a detailed list of U.S. cells within the unrestricted warfare terror network was developed and delivered to the FBI, which, in conjunction with the U.S. Marshals Service and local law enforcement agencies, orchestrated an amazing nationwide roundup of all of the terrorist suspects.

Sean Chase and Pat Murphy flew from Iceland back to Sweden and found Mustafa Karami and Sabah right where Ashford told them they would, in a small apartment in Stockholm’s red-light district. Chase was forced to use his left hand but dispatched Karami with exceptional precision. Pat Murphy, on behalf of his teammates, made Sabah suffer. He shot him in the knees and worked his way slowly upward until he decided to end it and put his last round in the giant’s forehead and the man’s lifeless corpse slumped to the ground.

Back in Los Angeles, Martin Sevan accompanied Larry Salomon and Luke Ralston to a quiet meeting with LAPD detectives and the Los Angeles County district attorney. They were no longer active suspects in the murders that had taken place at Larry Salomon’s home.

Martin Sevan wanted the entire thing put to bed. Both of his clients wanted to get on with their lives. With all of the buzz Well Endowed had received in the press, Larry Salomon was eager to complete the film’s postproduction.

At first, he’d had no idea how James Standing had gotten hold of a rough cut of the film. But when he heard it included interrogation footage and that one of the men being interrogated was a Russian, he realized Scot Harvath must have been behind it.

Though he wasn’t officially asked to keep quiet about Harvath’s involvement, he knew it was the right thing to do. Thanks to him, everyone was clamoring to see Well Endowed. Several prestigious film festivals even offered to host, sight unseen, the premiere.

Salomon, though, had a different idea. If the communities would have him, he wanted to screen the film in the cities and towns whose movie theaters had been attacked. His plan was to show the film in outdoor venues. It seemed only right that those who had been attacked get the first look at the documentary.

All the cities and towns had to say was yes. Salomon didn’t want anything else from them. He would cover all the screening costs. He wanted to be part of helping people to heal.

And in a way, maybe it would help him heal. After the screening tour, Salomon planned to travel to Israel. He needed to make peace. He needed to make peace with himself and with what had happened to Rachael. He no longer wanted to be the man he was. He wanted to go back to being the man he had been before Rachael’s death. To do that, he needed to let go of a lot of things. He hoped the screenings and time away would allow him to do that.

Under Martin Sevan’s counsel, they went through the formality of answering a final round of questions for the authorities and were then allowed to leave.

When Luke Ralston stepped outside, he saw Ali Sevan waiting for him. He exchanged a few words with Larry and Martin, who walked off to their cars as he walked over to talk with Ali.

“Case closed?” she asked.

“Case closed,” he replied. He was surprised to see her and also surprised that her father hadn’t even batted an eye when he saw her outside waiting for all of them. “What are you doing here?”

“I thought maybe we could have lunch.”

“Lunch?”

“There are some things we should talk about.”

Ralston was unsure what to make of her offer. “Does Brent know you’re here?” he asked, referring to her husband.

“That’s one of the things I want to talk about,” she replied, holding up her left hand.

He must have missed it on the beach, but she wasn’t wearing a wedding ring.

Reading the look on his face, she said, “We’ve been divorced for about six months.”

“When I asked you about him, you said he was fine.”

Ali smiled. “I was telling you the truth. As a lawyer, I’m professionally forbidden to lie.”

Ralston smiled back. “We’ll have to take your car,” he said. “Mine’s going to be in the shop for a long time.”

While the rest of the loose ends were being tied up, the Old Man had sent Harvath to Paris for a meeting. Reed Carlton had always had a good relationship with Israeli intelligence. Harvath’s assignment was to see that it continued.

He carried with him a file that detailed how James Standing had intended to turn his sights on bringing down Israel, one of the world’s few other true democracies, once the United States had been collapsed.

The billionaire had planned to draw Israel into a war with its neighbors. But on top of that, he had developed a means to ensure that America would not come to her aid.

When Israel most needed America, Standing planned to release documents that would make it appear that Israel had created the Aleem terror network, a ruse to make Americans believe that the Israelis had ordered the terrorist attacks on the United States in order to manipulate public opinion and national policy. The documents would allege that Israel had dreamed up the elaborate plot in order to con America into rushing to Israel’s aid because the same common enemy was attacking both nations.

The Israeli intelligence officer Harvath met with was grateful for the information.

As their meeting ended at the La Closerie des Lilas bar in Montparnasse, the Israeli slid an envelope across the small table.

Harvath was confused. “What’s this?” he asked as the man stood up to leave.

“I was told to give it to you when we were finished.”

As the man walked out of the bar, Harvath opened the small envelope. Inside was a piece of paper with an address in the Sixth Arrondissement. It was written in the Old Man’s hand.

Carlton had told him there was something else he wanted him to do in Paris, but he hadn’t elaborated. Most likely, the address was for the Carlton Group’s new Parisian safe house and there’d be further instructions waiting for him there.

Carlton could often be cryptic like that. He compartmentalized everything, revealing only as much as he felt you needed to know. Robert Ashford could have had no clue about the nature of the new life and identity the Old Man had promised him in exchange for his cooperation. The Brit had made the mistake of referring to James Standing as the “world’s deadliest catch,” and that cemented his fate.

Ashford was quite distraught once he learned that he was being relocated to Alaska. Harvath could only imagine the look on the MI5 man’s face once he discovered that his new career was nowhere near as pedestrian as recycling boxes at the Fairbanks Wal-Mart.

Rawhide was a ninety-two-foot crab-fishing boat out of the Aleutian Islands port of Dutch Harbor in Unalaska. Robert Ashford was her newest deckhand.

The Old Man had kept his word, but he had simultaneously sentenced Ashford to a life of hard labor. Carlton had made it very clear that, if Ashford tried to run, there was an open kill order for him and Harvath would fill it personally.

The Old Man then turned Yaroslav Yatsko over to the CIA. Though they might very well kick him out of the country and turn him loose, the Carlton Group needed to purchase a modicum of goodwill with the Agency. Harvath wanted to see the man tried for setting up the murders of the filmmakers and the attempted murder of Larry Salomon, but the Old Man had his mind made up. He did, though, make sure the CIA intervened with the L.A. County authorities on behalf of Ralston and Salomon, and for that, Harvath was grateful.