Bruce heard the motorcycle before he saw it, a smaller bike with two people on it, both wearing full-face helmets. He thought nothing of it, even when it pulled abreast of them and stopped. The person on the back tossed him something and he caught it in confusion. It was a plastic medal. A replica of Olympic gold. He knew instantly what it represented.
He heard his security shout, the man drawing a weapon and running toward them, but not nearly as fast as the assassin. He returned to the passenger and was staring down the bulbous maw of a suppressed pistol. It spit twice and he scarcely felt the pain. His wife screamed and he sat down heavily, his legs losing their ability to hold him up.
He barely registered the motorcycle leaving, even with his security man firing blindly in the growing darkness. His vision tunneled until he was looking at his lap as if through a straw. A string of viscous red drool fell from his mouth, dripping down from his lip. His breathing became labored as his punctured lung strove for oxygen. He coughed, spraying his lap with blood. In the center was the plastic medal, the fake gold now tarnished with red. Sitting there proudly still, as if he’d earned it.
As his brain shut down, he supposed he had.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Yes, yes, I know, the Israeli national football team did not qualify for the World Cup in 2014, extending their absence to forty-four years. But at one point they were looking strong! When they failed, I had a choice of either redirecting the target or just using literary license. Since the Munich Olympics factored in heavily on the motivations of the Mossad team, I decided to use literary license to juxtapose the repercussions of the threat.
While Israel didn’t make the World Cup, they did attend the Munich Olympics in ’72, and their athletes were murdered in a horrific terrorist act, much like I depicted. The mastermind of that event, Ali Hassan Salameh — aka the Red Prince — was a real person, and we really used him as a source for information about Lebanon and the greater Middle East, so much so that his Force 17 commandos once protected Henry Kissinger on a state visit to Beirut. We did not, however, start that relationship until after Munich. Robert Ames, the CIA case officer mentioned in the book, was Salameh’s actual case officer in life, and Robert really was killed in the Beirut embassy bombings, but Bruce Tupper and his machinations are false. It is fiction that we knew about Munich before it happened but fact that while Israel hunted Salameh, we courted him. Eventually, Israel’s Wrath of God teams won. Well, conventional wisdom is that he was killed by Israel. They’ve never admitted to it, but the second chapter in the book is pretty much what happened.
As for the WMD, the W54 SADM is a real man-portable nuclear weapon designed for use during the Cold War by Special Forces teams — known as Greenlight teams — on planned missions that were seriously suicidal in nature. In the words of one member of a Greenlight team, “There were real issues with the operational wisdom of the program, and those who were to conduct the mission were sure that whomever thought this up was using bad hemp.” Little is known about the existence of USSR “suitcase nukes” (at least on the US side of things). Congress did conduct several hearings on the subject in the 1990s, and the verdict is still out on whether the USSR had them and, if so, whether they still maintain control of them. Historically, whatever weapons system we invented, the Soviets stole and duplicated, so I don’t see why this would be any different. For research, I used the W54 platform and not the wild mock-ups shown in the Congressional hearings, which were pretty much panned as unfeasible by nuclear scientists. Since the SADM was real, and had been successfully tested, it provided concrete data on size, weight, implementation methods, destructive radius, fallout risk, et cetera.
While my Director of National Intelligence, Bruce Tupper, had nothing to do with the Red Prince in the real world, he actually is a real person. I donated the chance to name my DNI (who up until that point was called Angus Smackmaster) at an auction to raise funds for the Georgia chapter of the Make-a-Wish Foundation, which grants the wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions. Bruce himself was at the auction but didn’t bid. Someone else did, and then, after some thought and consultation, provided the name. I will always wonder if Bruce is flattered to be in a novel or a little chagrined he ended up being a murdering traitor.
As always happens when researching my novels, I owe a debt of gratitude to an unnamed, unregistered “tour guide,” this time in Istanbul. For fifty bucks he showed me everything I needed, including where the illegal African immigrants hang out, the Russian sector of shopping, and the Russian consulate, in addition to all of the usual tour stops. All it cost me was a detour into his uncle’s carpet store, where I was subjected to a hard sell for an hour and a half. I had no such luck in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, but I did just fine on my own.
There’s a lot more to writing books than just, well, writing books. I have to thank my agent, John Talbot, who manages all the behind-the-scenes business for me. I truly appreciate our friendship and all of your work on my behalf.
It’s an understatement to say that I’ve been truly blessed by my association with Dutton. To have lucked into this team as a new author was nothing short of a miracle. The tireless efforts of the Dutton team are apparent in the success of my books. To my editors, Ben Sevier and Jessica Reinheim, thanks so much for giving me the leeway to follow my gut, along with astute guidance to prevent me from running off the rails. To my amazing publicists, Liza Cassity and Emily Brock, you rock! To the marketing team, especially Carrie Swetonic, thanks for putting the best foot forward for Pike and his team and always turning our requests around quickly. Finally, these acknowledgments are always about the hardcover books, leaving out Danielle Perez and the hard-working team at Signet who ensure the paperback release is perfect. Thank you!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Brad Taylor, Lieutenant Colonel (ret.), is a twenty-one-year veteran of the U.S. Army Infantry and Special Forces, including eight years with the 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment — Delta, popularly known as the Delta Force. Taylor retired in 2010 after serving more than two decades and participating in Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom, as well as classified operations around the globe. His final military post was as Assistant Professor of Military Science at the Citadel. His first five Pike Logan thrillers were New York Times bestsellers. He lives in Charleston, South Carolina.