Марк Грини - One Minute Out

TITLES BY MARK GREANEY

THE GRAY MAN

ON TARGET

BALLISTIC

DEAD EYE

BACK BLAST

GUNMETAL GRAY

AGENT IN PLACE

MISSION CRITICAL

ONE MINUTE OUT

RED METAL

(with LtCol H. Ripley Rawlings IV, USMC)

BERKLEY

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Copyright © 2020 by Mark Greaney Books LLC.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Greaney, Mark, author.

Title: One minute out / Mark Greaney.

Description: First edition. | New York : Berkley, 2020. | Series: The Gray Man

Identifiers: LCCN 2019045859 (print) | LCCN 2019045860 (ebook) | ISBN 9780593098912 (hardcover) | ISBN 9780593098929 (ebook)

Subjects: GSAFD: Suspense fiction. | Spy stories

Classification: LCC PS3607.R4285 O54 2020 (print) | LCC PS3607.R4285 (ebook) | DDC 813/.6—dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019045859

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019045860

First Edition: February 2020

Cover design by Steve Meditz

Cover images: California © IM_photo / Shutterstock; bottom right: Running Man © Magdalena Russocka / Trevillion Images; upper right: Croatia © Vulture Labs / GettyImages; Helicopter © guvendemir /GettyImages; Croatia © Pixelchrome Inc / GettyImages

Interior art: Black-and-white Paris map © Nicola Renna / Shutterstock.com

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

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Dedicated to the men and women who fight human trafficking around the globe.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to thank Joshua Hood ( JoshuaHoodBooks.com), Rip Rawlings ( RipRawlings.com), J.T. Patten ( JTPattenBooks.com), Allison Wilson, Kristin Greaney, Larry Rice, Mystery Mike Bursaw, Simon Gervais ( SimonGervaisBooks.com), Jon Harvey, James Yeager, Jay Gibson, the staff at Tactical Response, and the men and women on the Aqua Cat.

Also special thanks to my agent, Scott Miller, and everyone at Trident Media Group, and my editor, Tom Colgan, along with everyone at Berkley, especially Sareer Khader, Jeanne-Marie Hudson, Jin Yu, Loren Jaggers, Bridget O’Toole, Christine Ball, and Ivan Held.

CONTENTS

Titles by Mark Greaney

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Acknowledgments

Epigraph

Characters

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-one

Chapter Twenty-two

Chapter Twenty-three

Chapter Twenty-four

Chapter Twenty-five

Chapter Twenty-six

Chapter Twenty-seven

Chapter Twenty-eight

Chapter Twenty-nine

Chapter Thirty

Chapter Thirty-one

Chapter Thirty-two

Chapter Thirty-three

Chapter Thirty-four

Chapter Thirty-five

Chapter Thirty-six

Chapter Thirty-seven

Chapter Thirty-eight

Chapter Thirty-nine

Chapter Forty

Chapter Forty-one

Chapter Forty-two

Chapter Forty-three

Chapter Forty-four

Chapter Forty-five

Chapter Forty-six

Chapter Forty-seven

Chapter Forty-eight

Chapter Forty-nine

Chapter Fifty

Chapter Fifty-one

Chapter Fifty-two

Chapter Fifty-three

About the Author

Hell is empty, and all the devils are here.

—WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, THE TEMPEST

CHARACTERS

COURTLAND GENTRY:Freelance assassin. Former CIA Special Activities Division (Ground Branch) paramilitary operations officer

LILIANA BRINZA:Moldovan citizen

RATKO BABIC:Former general, Bosnian Serb army

CAPTAIN NIKO VUKOVIC:Chief of police, Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina

TALYSSA CORBU:Europol criminal analyst

GIANCARLO RICCI:Security director of Alfonsi crime family, Italy

ROXANA VADUVA:Romanian university student

DR. CLAUDIA RIESLING:American psychologist

KOSTAS KOSTOPOULOS:Greek sex trafficker

KENNETH CAGE:Hollywood-based investment fund manager

SEAN HALL:Bodyguard to Ken Cage

JACO VERDOORN:Director of White Lion Security and Risk

ZACK HIGHTOWER:CIA contract employee. Former CIA Special Activities Division (Ground Branch) paramilitary operations officer

MATTHEW HANLEY:Deputy director for operations, CIA

SUZANNE BREWER:CIA officer

CHRIS TRAVERS:CIA Special Activities Center (Ground Branch) paramilitary operations officer

SHEP “PAPA” DUVALL:Former CIA, former JSOC (Delta Force) operative

RODNEY:U.S. Army veteran

KAREEM:U.S. Marine Corps veteran

A.J.:U.S. Army veteran

CARL:U.S. Army veteran

ONE

GORNJI CRNAČ, BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

The grandfather of six stood on his front porch, a cup of tea in hand as he looked out across the valley at the green hills, thinking of the old days.

They didn’t seem so long ago, but still he often wondered where they had gone.

The warm afternoon tired him, and he considered a nap before dinner. It was something an old man would think to do, and this bothered him a little, because he didn’t really consider himself old.

At seventy-five he was in robust health for his age, but back when he was young he had been truly strong and able physically, as well as a man of great power in his community.

But those days were long past. These days he lived here on this farm, never ever ventured off it, and he questioned if his labors in life had amounted to much of anything at all.

Money was no problem—he had more than he could ever spend—but he often pondered his purpose here on Earth. He’d most definitely had a purpose once, a cause he believed in, but now life amounted to little more than his easy work, his occasional pleasures, and the strict rules he’d adopted to live out his days in quiet and in peace.

Another day here, he told himself, reflecting on both the years and the decisions he’d made in life. Good decisions all, of this he was certain. He was not a man to harbor doubts about his actions.

But he was painfully aware that the decisions he’d made had come with a high cost.

The wet heat hanging in the still air tired him even more. He drank down the dregs of his tea, looking out over the lush green hills, contemplating his existence, and he made the final and resolute decision to go back inside the farmhouse to bed.