Pestilence (Jack Randall #2) Read Online Free PDF

sir.”
    “Very well. You know what to look for. I think we can get you some help from some of our people in the area?” He directed the question to a man seated across from Jack.
    “Whatever he needs,” was the man’s reply.
    It suddenly dawned on Jack who the man was. Anthony Beason, the newly appointed Deputy Director of Operations for the Central Intelligence Agency. The man responsible for every field spook the agency had deployed. He saw every piece of intelligence that came in from every asset they had. A powerful man in his own right, yet he seemed to defer to the senator.
    “Good. Mr. Randall, you will assemble your team and depart as soon as possible. The Bureau will be the lead agency on this investigation and I expect all others represented here today to back him up. Are there any questions?” The senator didn’t look around the room when he asked it, and a tap of Deacon’s foot against Jack’s ankle erased any from his mind. After a pause, everyone rose with the senator and filed out of the room. Soon Jack was left with just himself and his boss.
    “That was quite a show,” Jack ventured.
    “Yes, it was. Look, Jack, the senator is a hard man, but he gets the job done. He’s managed to cut a lot of pork from the defense budget while still giving up a lot of money for what he thinks they all need, and if the bastard wasn’t right every time he wouldn’t be where he is today. Hell, he hasn’t had a real challenge to his seat since he got elected. Today he sees a mission that needs to be done, and he’s stepping on some heads to see that it doesn’t get used as a stepping stone by some bureaucrat, or bungled due to interservice rivalry. He pressured the others to get you the job.”
    Jack thought about it and the full definition of his new position came into stark clarity. His name had no doubt been discussed at length before it was mentioned to the suits that had just left the room. With his current public-hero status combined with his internal problems, he was good for all contingencies. They could point out that their hero had done it again if he succeeded, or they could ease him right out of the Bureau if he failed. He was disposable, if necessary. The right man for the job, huh? From their point of view, he was perfect.
    “I get to assemble my own team?” he asked.
    “I have a letter from the Director and the Attorney General to that effect. Your budget is out of Homeland Security and is basically a blank check. You have temporary rank as an O-7 with access to whatever military support you need. You have some mandatory attached personnel, but you can assemble your own team.”
    “Mandatory attached personnel?” Jack frowned at that. “You mean babysitters?”
    “The CIA has people who are familiar with the area. They’ll assign someone to be on the team. It’s not negotiable,” his boss replied.
    Jack sank back in the leather chair and flipped a pen through his fingers. It was either accept the mission or return to the beach house—possibly forever.
    “All right, here’s who I want.”
    •      •      •
    Crack!
    Sydney Lewis rode the recoil into her shoulder and brought the sights back in line with her target, her finger already taking up the slack in the trigger. She steadied her sight picture and did her best to not jerk the trigger.
    Crack!
    “Good,” she heard the instructor say behind her. “Improve your memory.”
    She knew he was referring to her muscle memory and not her brain. Although those memories were the reason she had devoted so much of her free time to the range over the past month. She had almost shot her boss in the middle of an important investigation! The fact that they had been a couple once didn’t help things either.
    She had never been a good shot, favoring the science aspect of her job more than the law enforcement portion. Jack had taught her himself in the beginning, and thanks to him she had somehow made it through her qualifying