Rise of the Beast: A Novel (The Patmos Conspiracy Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page B

problems?”
    “You’ll know that, too. But only when I do.”
    “I like to be kept informed.”
    “You have been and you will be. But we both agreed to limit unnecessary contact.”
    “With what I’m paying you, I get to define unnecessary.”
    If the man was in the same room with him right now, Burke wasn’t sure he would be able to restrain himself from inflicting serious bodily damage—even if his own nakedness made him feel very vulnerable. The problem was he didn’t know who the man was. He often didn’tknow his clients’ identity and they really didn’t know who he was either. Better for both parties. But this project was different. A gnawing in the pit of his stomach told him he should have spent more time figuring out who hired him. In the early days of his business, he always did. But even a seared conscience struggles with the nature of work requested of him by some of his best customers, so over time Burke took a “don’t ask, don’t tell” approach to knowing who paid his light bills.
    The parameters for his current assignment were insanely impossible. Stealing from a man like Jonathan Alexander, without him being the wiser, was chiseling away at Burke’s usual calm and indifferent manner.
    When Burke informed his client that the final stage of the operation was green lighted, the barrage of calls started out as a nuisance. Now he wondered if there was another reason. The man and whoever he worked for was up to something. Burke knew betrayal—a devastating betrayal—that still haunted his every waking moment. That kept his paranoia finely tuned. Was his client trying to pinpoint his exact location? He pulled the phone from his ear and looked at the screen of his prepaid out-of-date Nokia with deep suspicion. No doubt. He could smell betrayal in the air.
    “I’ll be in touch soon,” Burke said.
    “The sooner the better.”
    He pulled up his undershorts, followed by a pair of jeans. He wrestled his arms and head into a soft wool sweater. He tugged up his Swiftwick compression socks and tightened the laces on a pair of lightweight Asics running shoes. He didn’t sense imminent action, but always better to be prepared for fight or flight than surprised by what might be waiting for you outside your door or on the street.
    Burke rarely spent time in New York City anymore. Too crowded. Too busy. Too self-important. But he needed to stick around for the return of his contractor who was in way over her head with such a dangerous prey. Despite the directive to not let Alexander know anyone had been snooping in his business, this was where Burke planned toextract his operative. He would snatch Pauline tonight. That thought solidified in his mind. Something his client wouldn’t like but wouldn’t know was coming until it happened. He could argue later that the risk of keeping her in Alexander’s presence was a greater risk.
    Burke looked at the phone again. He slid the back panel off and tossed the battery in the waist basket. Something was in the air. He packed his few belongings quickly, forcing his breathing to remain even. He then worked through the room quickly to wipe away prints and any traces he had been there. Anything in the trash went with him to be deposited in random dumpsters outside a radius of at least one mile. Time to change to a new untraceable phone and location.
    The problem was, as he well knew, nothing and nobody was untraceable.

7
    Turin, Italy
    WHEN AC MILAN VISITED TURIN to square off against Juventus in a Lega Serie A football showdown, all 41,475 seats were sure to be filled, sometimes with more than one person to a seat. The two teams were in a tight battle to be crowned Campione d’Italia and for a spot in the UEFA Euro Cup Championship.
    With a 1-1 tie at the 85 th minute mark, and the black and white striped “jailhouse” uniforms of Juventus setting up to take a corner kick, the stadium vibrated from the sound of thousands of raucous voices screaming