Stuart Woods' Golden Hour by Brett Battles

Author:Brett Battles [Battles, Brett]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2024-12-03T00:00:00+00:00

27

At the same time the evening was winding down at the rooftop bar in Venice, Rick La Rose was heading home to his Paris apartment thinking of calling it an early night, too, when his phone rang.

“Hello,” he answered.

“Scramble,” a female voice said.

“Scramble,” Rick said as he initiated the extra layer of security that would make their call impossible to decipher. “Who is this?”

“Danielle Verde.”

Rick became instantly alert. Not only was Danielle a well-respected senior agent, she’d been part of the Golden Hour mission.

“I’m listening,” he said.

“Someone tried to kidnap me…or kill me. I’m not sure which.”

“When?”

“Forty-five minutes ago.”

“You’re somewhere safe now?”

“For the moment.”

“Tell me what happened.”

“Car bomb.”

“Your car?”

“Yes.”

“That sounds more like they were trying to kill you than kidnap?”

“Not the exploding type of bomb. This one released some kind of gas. Lucky for me, I use an app to remotely start my vehicle, so I wasn’t inside as it fogged up.”

“That was a smart move.”

“I always do it now. I’ve seen too many people die in the driver’s seat.”

“Does whoever did this know they didn’t get you?”

“They do. Maybe thirty seconds after the gas went off, four men approached the vehicle and broke in. When they realized I wasn’t inside, they started looking around to see if I was nearby.”

“They didn’t spot you?”

“I was watching from a window across the street and ducked out of sight. When I looked back, they were gone.”

“You didn’t happen to get photos of them, did you?”

“I’m a trained CIA agent. What do you think?”

“Any idea who they were?” Rick thought he knew the answer, but wanted to make sure she wasn’t involved in something else that could explain what happened.

“Specifically, no idea. But I’m not stupid. I know someone is coming after all of us who were part of Golden Hour. Unless I’m wrong about that.”

“You’re not.”

“Shit. Please tell me Director Cabot is doing something about this.”

“He is.”

“Not fast enough, if you ask me.”

“He’s sent a specialist to root out who’s behind this.”

“Is this specialist any good?”

“Lance wouldn’t send someone he didn’t trust to handle the job.”

“If Lance says he’s okay, then I guess he is,” she said and then fell quiet for a moment. “I may have some information that can help him.”

“Tell me. I’ll pass it on.”

“No way. I’m not saying anything over the telephone.”

“The line is secure.”

“That may be, but it’s clear that the people doing this have inside information. That means the Agency has a mole.”

“You’re not wrong. Lance is looking into that, too.”

“Until he’s plugged the leak, the only way I’ll pass on what I know is in person.”

“Okay. I’ll contact the specialist and see if I can set up a meeting between the two of you.”

“Make it quick, or I’ll disappear.”

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.