Steve Martini - The Rule of Nine

Здесь есть возможность читать онлайн «Steve Martini - The Rule of Nine» весь текст электронной книги совершенно бесплатно (целиком полную версию без сокращений). В некоторых случаях можно слушать аудио, скачать через торрент в формате fb2 и присутствует краткое содержание. Жанр: Триллер, на английском языке. Описание произведения, (предисловие) а так же отзывы посетителей доступны на портале библиотеки ЛибКат.

The Rule of Nine: краткое содержание, описание и аннотация

Предлагаем к чтению аннотацию, описание, краткое содержание или предисловие (зависит от того, что написал сам автор книги «The Rule of Nine»). Если вы не нашли необходимую информацию о книге — напишите в комментариях, мы постараемся отыскать её.

The Old Weatherman dreams of a plan that could be his swan song, an attack to drive a stake through the heart of the right-wing establishment and bury it for good. Now he's found the money, the ideal weapon, and the professional who knows how to use it. And he has set his sights on the perfect target at the very seat of the United States government, in the heart of downtown Washington. It will be a strike heard round the world.
San Diego defense attorney Paul Madriani is still reeling from the trauma of a near nuclear explosion he helped avert at the naval base in Coronado. Threatened by federal authorities to keep quiet about the close call in California, Madriani is now faced with a new problem in the steely-eyed and alluring Joselyn Cole, a weapons control expert, who believes he has to go public with what he knows if they have any hope of stopping a similar event in the future.
But Madriani has been linked to the murder of a Washington, D.C., political staffer, and authorities believe a shadowy figure called Liquida – a hired assassin known as "the Mexicutioner" – may be responsible. And this man, as the last survivor of the attack in San Diego, might be driven by a bizarre and horrifying star-crossed vendetta, and might now be looking for Madriani himself. What Madriani and Cole begin to fear is that the Old Weatherman and this madman have joined forces and intend to pull the city – and the country – into a vortex of terror before Madriani and Cole can find answers to the enigma that is "the rule of nine."

The Rule of Nine — читать онлайн бесплатно полную книгу (весь текст) целиком

Ниже представлен текст книги, разбитый по страницам. Система сохранения места последней прочитанной страницы, позволяет с удобством читать онлайн бесплатно книгу «The Rule of Nine», без необходимости каждый раз заново искать на чём Вы остановились. Поставьте закладку, и сможете в любой момент перейти на страницу, на которой закончили чтение.

Тёмная тема
Сбросить

Интервал:

Закладка:

Сделать

“There was no bomb,” says one of the cops. “According to the tower, the pilot admitted there were drugs on board.”

“If you say so,” says Joselyn.

A half hour of driving, and an hour of paperwork, filling out and signing reports at the police station in Ponce, and we finally make it back to the Hotel Melia. The steady flow of adrenaline has left us exhausted, strung out, and depressed.

We put everything we saw in the police report, though the cops virtually dismissed any thought of a bomb. They told us that the Coast Guard would search the waters until dark and go back out in the morning, but that hope of finding anything was slim. The plane had gone down over the Puerto Rico Trench, one of the deepest areas of ocean in the world.

Joselyn, Herman, and I sit around in the bar downstairs having drinks, trying to figure out what to do next. It was a stone wall. With no leads, there was nothing left.

“I’m gonna have to call Sarah and tell her,” I say.

“Tell her what?” says Herman.

“I don’t know.”

“You think it’s safe to bring her home?” he says.

“No.”

“Then what are you going to do?” says Joselyn.

“I don’t know.”

“Well, I know what I have to do,” says Herman. “I’m not sleeping over at the Belgica after what’s happened today. Is that extra room still open upstairs?”

“Yeah,” I tell him.

“I gotta go over and pick up my stuff,” he says.

“I’m going to head up and take a shower,” says Joselyn.

I give her the room key. “Guess I’ll go with Herman to pick up his bags.”

“Where are you sleeping tonight?” she says.

“I don’t know, any ideas?” I ask.

“See you upstairs,” she says.

“Bless you,” says Herman.

She laughs and heads the other way.

Herman finishes his drink and we head for the car.

From years of experience Thorn had learned that in his line of work, you never did anything without a backup plan. And if you were smart, you had more than one.

After the near midair collision Thorn took the plane up to twenty thousand feet and flew due west until he was about thirty miles out over the ocean. He turned on the radio and called in a mayday. He reported damage from the near collision and acknowledged that there were drugs on board. He told the air-traffic controllers he was having engine trouble and reported a hydraulic leak.

A couple of minutes later Thorn nosed the plane into a steep dive, but not before lowering his flaps and dropping his wheels to slow his speed. At a thousand feet he turned off the transponder and leveled off. With his speed still reduced and watching his fuel, Thorn lowered the ramp at the back.

The bomb was bolted in place. The rollers that released it from its cradle wouldn’t move unless the safety bolts were pulled and the two metal straps holding the bomb in place were removed.

The drag on the plane from the shifting weight and the air resistance from the lowered ramp were considerable. Thorn put the plane into a mild turn, dipping the port wing and adjusting the throttles to give the plane enough power to keep it in the air. Thorn checked the altimeter.

He turned the flight controls over to Ahmed and told him to maintain altitude at five hundred feet and to hold the turn.

Over the horizon and under the radar, the controllers in the tower at Mercedita would assume that the plane went into the water.

“Okay?” He looked at Ahmed, who glanced at him nervously and nodded as he gripped the controls.

Thorn watched him for a few seconds until he was satisfied, then he and the other pilot went to the back of the plane. They gathered all of the brown paper masking panels from the paint job and tossed them out through the open airstairs in the back. The empty paint drums followed. Thorn was careful not to allow any of them to strike the area near the tail of the bomb where the snap-out fins deployed.

Finally he grabbed the two fuel cans and poured enough diesel fuel out the back end of the plane to leave a sheen on the surface of the water below. Then he tossed the two empty fuel drums out. He took one last look to make sure everything was floating nicely on the surface of the sea down below. “Good!”

Then he went back up to the flight deck and closed the airstairs, bringing up the ramp. Thorn lifted the wheels, brought up the flaps, and took over the controls again. Checking his fuel, he goosed the throttles and brought the plane onto a heading due south.

He hopped the waves, hugging the water for more than eighty miles, and didn’t turn on the transponder. He did turn on the radio and listened while the tower at Mercedita called in the Coast Guard and launched a search and rescue for the downed plane.

Thorn stayed under the radar and didn’t pop up again, not even when he reached his destination. It was the small island of Vieques, off the southern tip of Puerto Rico. There was a fair-size general aviation airport on the eastern side of the island. From there Thorn could take one of the twin-engine commuter flights to San Juan and catch a direct flight to D.C. in the morning. But at the moment that wasn’t where he was headed.

On the western side, near a beautiful cove, the azure waters and white sand beaches concealed a deadly secret. The island was badly polluted. For fifty years the western side of Vieques had been a bombing range for the U.S. Navy. Tons of high-explosive ordnance had been dropped all over the island, and heavy metals, including mercury and lead, now contaminated large parts of it.

The people who lived there were territorial subjects. They lacked the wealth and political influence to launch the kind of “not in my backyard” movements that had shut down most of the military bombing ranges on the U.S. mainland. It wasn’t until the base closure commissions began shutting down military facilities across the country that a coalition of environmentalists and islanders finally waged a successful battle to oust the navy. The old bombing range was turned over to the Department of the Interior, while bureaucrats argued over who was going to clean up the mess.

Meanwhile, the buildings at what had been the navy’s old Camp Garcia lay abandoned. All that remained was a five-thousand-foot runway and a small unmanned weather station. It was the perfect location for stashing the plane.

All Thorn needed to buy two nights, two days, and a load of Jet A fuel from the airport on the other side of the island was a plausible story. The empty jet was under a lease arrangement, a replacement craft deadheading from Houston to San Juan to carry freight. The partially completed paint job would enhance the story, and they painted the logos on the side of the plane as they waited. The story would be that they had developed a serious engine problem and that Thorn had to set it down on the abandoned runway when he found it available on his charts. No one would be looking for him there. It would be at least a day or two, maybe longer, before they realized there was no real wreckage in the waters west of Mercedita. By then the plane would be gone, the mission completed.

Ten minutes before landing, just off the southern tip of Puerto Rico, Thorn checked his cell phone for a signal. When he got one he made one phone call, to the front desk at the Hotel Belgica.

FORTY-ONE

The Belgica is one of those cozy boutique hotels you often find tucked away in the old world cities of Europe, only this one has a Latin flavor to it.

When I walk through the front door behind Herman, I see that the lobby is small, and at the moment there is no one at the front desk.

Herman and I go up to his room. It takes him five minutes to throw his dirty underwear in his bag and gather his shaving kit and other toiletries from the bathroom. He does one last check of the closet and looks around to make sure he hasn’t left anything, and we head out.

Читать дальше
Тёмная тема
Сбросить

Интервал:

Закладка:

Сделать

Похожие книги на «The Rule of Nine»

Представляем Вашему вниманию похожие книги на «The Rule of Nine» списком для выбора. Мы отобрали схожую по названию и смыслу литературу в надежде предоставить читателям больше вариантов отыскать новые, интересные, ещё непрочитанные произведения.


Steve Martini - Double Tap
Steve Martini
Steve Martini - The Jury
Steve Martini
Steve Martini - The Judge
Steve Martini
Steve Martini - Undue Influence
Steve Martini
Steve Martini - Prime Witness
Steve Martini
Steve Martini - The Enemy Inside
Steve Martini
Steve Martini - The Arraignment
Steve Martini
Steve Martini - El abogado
Steve Martini
Steve Martini - Shadow of Power
Steve Martini
Sandra Marton - The Real Rio D'Aquila
Sandra Marton
Отзывы о книге «The Rule of Nine»

Обсуждение, отзывы о книге «The Rule of Nine» и просто собственные мнения читателей. Оставьте ваши комментарии, напишите, что Вы думаете о произведении, его смысле или главных героях. Укажите что конкретно понравилось, а что нет, и почему Вы так считаете.

x