Foreign Influence_ A Thriller - Brad Thor [0]
ALSO BY BRAD THOR
The Lions of Lucerne
Path of the Assassin
State of the Union
Blowback
Takedown
The First Commandment
The Last Patriot
The Apostle
FOREIGN
INFLUENCE
A THRILLER
Brad Thor
A Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents
either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons living or dead
is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2010 by Brad Thor
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or
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First Atria Paperback export edition June 2010
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Manufactured in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
ISBN 978-1-4391-9778-3
ISBN 978-1-4165-8675-3 (ebook)
For Mark and Ellen LaRue,
two of the most dedicated patriots I know—
Thank you for everything you do for our great nation.
He who does not punish evil commands it to be done.
—Leonardo DaVinci
PROLOGUE
INNER MONGOLIA
The strategic military outpost was such a closely guarded secret it didn’t even have a name, only a number—site 243.
It sat in a rugged, windswept valley far away from cities and centers of industry. Its architecture was minimalist; a cross between a high-end refugee camp and a low-rent university. Tents, trailers, and a handful of cheap concrete buildings made up its “campus.” The only outward signs of modernity were the Pizza Hut, Burger King, and Subway mobile restaurant trailers which made up the outpost’s “food court.”
It was just after three a.m. when the attack began. Lightweight Predator SRAW missile systems took out the fortified entry control point along with the watchtowers. Mortar rounds blanketed the campus, obliterating key infrastructure and force protection targets. When the heavily armed assault teams breached the perimeter, the outpost was in complete chaos.
The well-trained soldiers tasked with 243’s security were no match for the men who now overran their positions.
Dressed in black, with specialized night vision goggles and suppressed weapons, the professional combatants appeared only long enough to engage each soldier with an economy of surgically placed rounds before slipping back into the darkness, often before their victims’ lifeless bodies had even hit the ground.
At the main concrete structure, a detachment from the assault team used a shaped charge to blow open the fortified door. As they rushed in, they heard the high-pitched whine followed by the thump of a limited EMP device being detonated. It was part of 243’s emergency protocol meant to destroy the facility’s data. The men in black, though, didn’t care. Their superiors already had a copy.
With night vision goggles impervious to electromagnetic pulse, the men swept through the rest of the building, making sure they killed every occupant. From there, they moved on and cleared two more buildings while their teammates took care of the remaining tents, trailers, and concrete structures.
Fifteen minutes later, three helicopters landed and the team was extracted. As they lifted off and disappeared back into the ink-black sky, not a single member of military outpost 243 had been left alive.
LONDON
A man in a blue linen blazer pushed away the hand of his subordinate. “I know how it works,” he said, placing the tiny