Strait of Hormuz (A Marc Royce Thriller Book #3) , livre ebook

Baker Publishing Group - Davis Bunn

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141 pages

English

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Praise for the Marc Royce Adventures"A precise and intricate tale of cross-cultural friendship and loyalty."--Publishers Weekly on Lion of Babylon"Thorough characterizations, a fast pace, and attention to detail make this a sure bet."--Library Journal on Rare Earth"They're out there. The danger is real... and inbound."--Marc RoyceAn under-the-radar phone call from the U.S. State Department puts Marc Royce once again on assignment--ferreting out rumors of a clandestine operation stretching from Asia to the Mideast. At stake is Iran's threat to blockade the narrow Strait of Hormuz, cutting off vital shipping routes and escalating global tensions beyond the breaking point.Under the guise of investigating money laundering via high-end art purchases in Europe, Royce finds himself in Switzerland with only sketchy information, no backup, and without a single weapon other than his wits.His appointment with a gallery owner in Geneva is a dead end--the man is on the floor with a bullet through his chest. But it turns out Royce does have backup. The Mossad has sent someone to keep an eye on this undercover op, which is of more than casual interest to the Israelis. And it's someone Royce knows...A small team gathers around Royce--a single objective against multiple enemies.

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Publié par	Baker Publishing Group
Date de parution	05 novembre 2013
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781441262790
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	2 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0259€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

© 2013 by Davis Bunn
Published by Bethany House Publishers
11400 Hampshire Avenue South
Bloomington, Minnesota 55438
www.bethanyhouse.com
Bethany House Publishers is a division of
Baker Publishing Group, Grand Rapids, Michigan
www . bakerpublishinggroup . com
Ebook edition created 2013
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means for example, electronic, photocopy, recording without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
ISBN 978-1-4412-6279-0
Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, incidents, and dialogues are products of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Cover design by Kirk DouPonce, DogEared Design
Author photograph by Angel Grey
Praise for Lion of Babylon and Rare Earth
“Description is so vivid you can smell the food and choke on the desert sand. . . . Bunn’s fans will leap for this precise and intricate tale of cross-cultural friendship and loyalty in the heart of the Green Zone.”
Publishers Weekly on Lion of Babylon
“Readers who were introduced to Royce in Lion of Babylon will be glad for this new adventure in which they will get to know him even better. Thorough characterizations, a fast pace, and attention to detail make this a sure bet for fans of Christian suspense stories. . . .”
Library Journal on Rare Earth
“This exciting, action-packed thriller features a strong sense of place in its depictions of the people and politics of the Middle East. It is sure to please [Bunn] fans and win him new ones.”
Library Journal on Lion of Babylon Selected by Library Journal for the 2011 Best Book Award
“A fast-paced, gripping thriller, Lion of Babylon is rich not only with adventure but also with visual details and dramatic, snapshot insights into the Middle East, its traditions, history, and people.”
Phyllis Tickle Former Sr. Consulting Editor at Publishers Weekly
“A phenomenal read. Lion of Babylon is far more than simply a great thriller. This book delves into a series of crucial issues, and does so with a sensitivity that left me literally stunned. Bunn tells a story that grips the reader and refuses to let go. . . . The descriptions are beautifully crafted, the characters vibrantly drawn.”
Keith Hazard Deputy Director (ret.), CIA
“ Lion of Babylon is a terrific book, deeply moving with new insights into important connections between the world’s faiths. . . . I have long admired and appreciated Davis’s work and I will say I think this is his finest.”
Jane Kirkpatrick Novelist and Speaker
This book is dedicated to the next generation of readers. With appreciation for the enthusiasm of those who are especially close to me:
Guthrie and Jill Riley and Diane Macon
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
Praise for Lion of Babylon and Rare Earth
Dedication
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
About the Author
Books by Davis Bunn
Back Ad
Back Cover

Chapter One
M arc Royce had never been to Switzerland before. He was there without backup. He was not prepped. He had come because the one person in the world he could not refuse had asked for his help. Urgently. Marc checked his watch, then pressed his phone’s automatic dial. The ambassador answered instantly. Marc said, “I’m in place.”
“Hold one.” Ambassador Walton did not bother to muffle the phone as he asked an unseen associate for an update. He told Marc, “The target is inbound from his residence in Montreux.”
“You have monitors in place?”
“We are tracking his cellphone. His GPS now belongs to us.”
Which was interesting, given how Walton had refused to involve Swiss intelligence. There was a leak inside U.S. intelligence, of that Walton was absolutely certain. How or where their service had been breached, Walton had no idea. But Marc’s target held such vital national importance that Walton had asked him to go in alone and unaided. He had come to Geneva without even alerting his embassy, which was a serious breach of protocol. But Marc was also no longer officially part of any intelligence agency. He had been fired and dumped on the side of a Washington highway. By the same old man who now coughed into Marc’s ear. Which meant his superiors could not be reprimanded, since he didn’t have any.
Marc heard a new strain to the ambassador’s voice, a hint that age was assaulting even this old warrior. “Are you feeling all right?”
“Focus on staying alive,” Ambassador Walton replied. “You are good to go.”
Marc left a ten-franc note anchored beneath his coffee saucer and headed across the street to the lakeside promenade. He said into his phone, “Don’t you think now is a good time to tell me whose lead I’m following up here?”
Walton suppressed another cough. “An old friend reached out.”
Which was all Marc had gotten the last time he had asked. “Must be a good friend for you to give it this much credence.”
“He was and he is.” The old man hesitated, long enough for Marc to assume he would not get anything more. But Ambassador Walton tended to relax his iron-clad grip on intel when his agents were walking into danger. “He’s a British industrialist. A source I’ve known and trusted for twenty years. We’ve long suspected he also supplies intel to Mossad.”
“Why isn’t Mossad checking this out themselves?”
“A question I’ve been asking ever since he contacted me. Two possibilities come to mind. First, Mossad knows something we don’t and want to rope us in. And second, they don’t trust the source.”
“Meaning he could be the leak?”
“Doubtful. But right now I am not ruling out anyone except us. And I only include you because you don’t know enough to be a threat.”
Marc did not take the bait. There was no need to look further than WikiLeaks to know how dangerous secrets could easily go public. He approached the gallery. “I’m in position.”
“Target is twenty-four minutes out and closing.”
Marc was hardly the only person walking along the lakefront with a phone attached to his ear. He was dressed in standard business garb, a dark gray suit and striped shirt and silk tie. He carried a slim leather briefcase slung over his left shoulder. He wished it contained a gun, but Swiss security made that impossible. The city served as a conduit for business from all over the globe. No one gave him a second glance as he walked along the line of tall, bulletproof windows. The interior looked dark, silent. “I see no guard.”
“We’ve been over that. He relies on an electronic alarm system.”
“I’m circling the perimeter.”
“Roger that.”
The side windows overlooked one of Geneva’s many piazzas. Marc turned another corner and entered a rear alley. The tight lane was shadowed from the morning sun. A restaurant’s trio of rubbish bins smelled of old food and disinfectant. Traffic echoed softly into his enclave.
Then he saw it. “We have trouble.”
“What is it?”
“The perimeter has been breached.”
“Show me.”
Marc tabbed the app that turned his phone into a video camera with a live feed. He slowly panned the camera lens across the rear loading platform and the gallery’s rear doors. The steel portals were no longer sealed. He stepped closer and listened carefully.
Marc said into the phone, “There is no alarm.”
“Maybe it’s a simple fault.”
“Negative. This place is otherwise as tight as a vault. And it’s wired. There are cameras in both corners.”
“So security will have a record of your presence.”
“The cameras have been on me since I crossed the street. That isn’t the point. You send me over, and the morning I arrive there is a break-in. They knew I was coming. Your own intel is breached.”
“Withdraw.”
“No. I’m here, I’m seen. I’m going in.”
“Marc, wait ”
He cut the connection, turned off his phone, and slipped it into his pocket. Any experienced operative knew the brass in their safe little bunkers responded to uncertainty by applying the brakes. Sometimes the guy in the field had to go with his gut. A successful operative was one whose hunches proved correct. They were the ones who made it home.
Kitra Korban had never felt so totally uncertain or out of place. Not even when she had been kidnapped and held in the poisoned plains of western Kenya while just up the road a volcano cleared its throat. She had secretly yearned for the chance, just once, to walk along a pristine lane in a beautiful European city, elegantly dressed and drawing stares from people who did not carry the weight of a thousand lives on their hearts and shoulders.
The air of Geneva was so different from the plains of Galilee. May was the first full month of the Israeli dry season. This year the rains had ended early. There was talk of a severe drought. Two of the kibbutz’s wells had already gone dry. Kitra’s kibbutz was an island of green i