Chasing the White Lion by James Hannibal (best free e book reader .TXT) 📗

idea that didn’t sit well with Talia. She knew Tyler financed his lifestyle by buying up confiscated weapons and ammunition from national governments, usually to recycle them and sell the materials. What was he playing at? “We’re selling a massive load of your secondhand guns to some black-market buyer?”

“Not my guns.” Tyler flashed a grin. “Someone else’s guns. We’re going to hijack an arms deal, and it’s going to be so much fun.”

CHAPTER

THIRTY-

NINE

WESTERN TOWER PENTHOUSE

TWIN TIGERS COMPLEX

BANGKOK, THAILAND

“HOWLONGHAVEYOUBEENHERE?”

Standing in Boyd’s penthouse office, Gorev shifted from one foot to the other, praying the glass floor didn’t crack under his weight. He did not relish a fifty-foot free fall into the jungle atrium below, or a visit from the beast lying hidden in the foliage. “One week.”

“One week.” Boyd stormed out from behind a crescent-shaped desk, unafraid to cross the glass. The young Englishman had more confidence than Gorev in their Thai contractors. “You had one full week to finalize negotiations with Panther Five One and oversee the final construction of the maze floors for the Frenzy.” Gorev had lowered his eyes, but Boyd, the shorter man, stepped into his vision, hand on his hips. “Is either job complete?”

Gorev could have crushed him where he stood—pounded him through the floor as food for the big cats. “I did order the place cards. They will be here on Friday. The font is Goudy Old Style. Very nice.”

“You disgust me.”

The former Spetsnaz reined in his instincts until Boyd left the kill zone and returned to his desk. Gorev let out a long breath through his nose. “I complete Panther Five One job tomorrow.”

“Wrong.” Boyd’s eyes followed the stock tickers running across the giant picture window behind his desk. “We will complete the job. I’ll go with you and finalize the deal in person. Panther Five One can wait an extra day or two until my schedule allows. Meanwhile, you babysit the contractors. If they keep dragging their feet, throw one from the helipad.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Better yet, feed one to Lionel. We can’t have bodies landing in the plaza.”

“Yes, sir.”

Boyd chuckled at his own joke and turned from his window, with the sprawling Bangkok metropolis behind him, smothered in haze. “Do you know why I live in penthouses, Anton?”

“The view, I assume.”

“Wrong again. Down on the street, where those contractors live and where I found you, the air is oppressive, filthy and toxic—quite literally here in Bangkok. Like the gods of Olympus, I was meant to rise above and breathe freely.” He went quiet.

Gorev shifted his weight again as a monkeypod tree wavered in the atrium directly beneath him. He cleared his throat. “There is second reason I come to see you.”

“Spit it out. I’m busy.”

“We have two new hawks. Sisters. They bought positions at hawk level, under sponsorship of Panther Four Nine.”

This captured Boyd’s attention. “Aggressive. Do they know the price of earning their wings?”

“Nyet. I was suspicious. I ask your approval first.”

The Englishman drummed his fingers on his desk, then nodded. “Go ahead. Send the usual invitation. Let’s see if they have the stomach for Jungle life.”

“And if they do not?”

“Kill them. Send one of the cobras. We don’t have time.”

CHAPTER

FORTY

AERION AS2

ADRIATIC SEA

FORTY-EIGHT THOUSAND FEET

EN ROUTE TO MILOS, GREEK ISLES

TYLERCOULDPLAYSEMANTICSALLHEWANTED, but forty-five million in blood money paid for guns heading off to who-knows-where raised all kinds of red flags for Talia. “What are we compromising here?”

Her question brought more ire from Val than Tyler. The grifter set her coffee down for the first time since takeoff. “You’re the one who demanded to be part of this job. You’re the one on a crusade. Why should you care where the money comes from?”

“I care because I am on a crusade. I won’t trade lives on one continent for lives on another. That’s not how this works.”

“Talia.” Tyler put enough sharpness in the interruption to command her attention. “Remember what I told you at The Mission.”

The conversation near the windows of the church, watching Mac outside, came to her mind unbidden. “Faith. You told me to have faith.”

“And now I’m asking you to place some in me.” He rolled another finger at Eddie. “Nano-quantum Supercomputer Guy, you’re up. Keep it moving.”

“Neuromorphic.”

“Whatever.”

Eddie wiped his nose, giving the hanky an annoyed flick, and tapped his tablet. A video ad for a defense tech company called TACRON Systems played. The logo faded to black, replaced by a micro-drone in flight over a desert road. Eight fans on struts supported a bulbous glass payload, like the abdomen of a flying tarantula. Talia mentally dubbed it a spider drone. The creature drifted left and right, then zeroed in on an approaching SUV and tilted forward.

“That’s not disturbing at all,” Finn said.

“Shhh.” Darcy hushed him as if they were watching a blockbuster movie. “Quiet. I want to hear, no?”

The camera view switched to the spider drone’s sensor package, a three-hundred-sixty-degree camera blending optical and infrared. The perspective narrowed and penetrated the front windscreen. Green boxes appeared all over the driver’s face. Text faded in and out.

FLAWLESSFACIALRECOGNITION

Again, the camera switched to a follow view on the spider, but not for long. A midsize quadcopter drone with a brawny fuselage blew past. The camera gave chase. Fire spat from the front of the quad. Bullets sparked off the SUV, unable to penetrate the hood or the windshield. The driver swerved into the desert. The drone peeled off. More text faded in and out.

GRADUATEDRESPONSEOPTIONS

The camera ditched the gun drone and rose higher until it passed a spherical drone with a large central fan. Rockets hung vertically from the outer shell. Three of them launched, trailing smoke, and nailed the armored vehicle. Every window blew out in bursts of flame. The camera returned to the spider drone as it flew past, recording the burning bodies inside.

MISSIONACCOMPLISHED

The screen went black, and the TACRON logo faded into view. A deep voice read the tagline. “Networked. Autonomous. Lethal. TACRON Swarm. Tomorrow’s battlefield solution, today.”

Darcy applauded.

Talia rotated her chair to