Conspiracy
Page 1
PRAISE FOR THE NOVELS OF
STEPHEN COONTS
LIARS & THIEVES
“Vintage Coonts…plenty of action and intrigue, with the added benefit of a new lead character.”
—Dallas Morning News
“Excellent.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
LIBERTY
“Frighteningly realistic.”
—Maxim
“Gripping…Coonts’s naval background and his legal education bring considerable authority to the story, and the narrative is loaded with detailed information about terrorist networks, modern weaponry, and international intrigue…the action is slam-bang.”
—Publishers Weekly
AMERICA
“The master of the techno-thriller spins a bone-chilling worst-case scenario involving international spies, military heroics, conniving politicians, devious agencies, a hijacked nuclear sub, lethal computer hackers, currency speculators, maniac moguls, and greedy mercenaries that rival Clancy for fictionas-realism and Cussler for spirited action … [Coonts] never lets up with heart-racing jet/missile combat, suspenseful submarine maneuvers, and doomsday scenarios that feel only too real, providing real food for thought in his dramatization of the missile-shield debate.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Fans of Coonts and his hero Grafton will love it. Great fun.”
—Library Journal
“Coonts’s action and the techno-talk are as gripping as ever.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“Thrilling roller-coaster action. Give a hearty ‘welcome back’ to Admiral Jake Grafton.”
—Philadelphia Inquirer
HONG KONG
“Move over, Clancy, readers know they can count on Coonts.”
—Midwest Book Review
“The author gives us superior suspense with a great cast of made-up characters…But the best thing about this book is Coonts’s scenario for turning China into a democracy.”
—Liz Smith, New York Post
“A high-octane blend of techno-wizardry [and] ultra-violence… [Coonts] skillfully captures the postmodern flavor of Hong Kong, where a cell phone is as apt as an AK-47 to be a revolutionary weapon.”
—USA Today
“Entertaining…intriguing.”
—Booklist
“Will be enjoyed by Coonts’s many fans…Coonts has perfected the art of the high-tech adventure story.”
—Library Journal
“Coonts does a remarkable job of capturing the mood of clashing cultures in Hong Kong.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Filled with action, intrigue, and humanity.”
—San Jose Mercury News
CUBA
“Enough Tomahawk missiles, stealth bombers, and staccato action to satisfy [Coonts’s] most demanding fans.”
—USA Today
“[A] gripping and intelligent thriller.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Perhaps the best of Stephen Coonts’s six novels about modern warfare.”
—Austin American-Statesman
“Coonts delivers some of his best gung-ho suspense writing yet.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“Dramatic, diverting action…Coonts delivers.”
—Booklist
FORTUNES OF WAR
“Fortunes of War is crammed with action, suspense, and characters with more than the usual one dimension found in these books.”
—USA Today
“A stirring examination of courage, compassion, and profound nobility of military professionals under fire. Coonts’s best yet.”
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Full of action and suspense…a strong addition to the genre.”
—Publishers Weekly
FLIGHT OF THE INTRUDER
“Extraordinary! Once you start reading, you won’t want to stop!”
—Tom Clancy
“[Coonts’s] gripping, first-person narration of aerial combat is the best I’ve ever read. Once begun, this book cannot be laid aside.”
—The Wall Street Journal
“Kept me strapped in the cockpit of the author’s imagination for a down-and-dirty novel.”
—St. Louis Post-Dispatch
SAUCER
“A comic, feel-good SF adventure…[delivers] optimistic messages about humanity’s ability to meet future challenges.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“Tough to put down.”
—Publishers Weekly
Also in this series
Stephen Coonts’ Deep Black
(Stephen Coonts & Jim DeFelice)
Stephen Coonts’ Deep Black: Biowar
(Stephen Coonts & Jim DeFelice)
Stephen Coonts’ Deep Black: Dark Zone
(Stephen Coonts & Jim DeFelice)
Stephen Coonts’ Deep Black: Payback
(Stephen Coonts & Jim DeFelice)
Stephen Coonts’ Deep Black: Jihad
(Stephen Coonts & Jim DeFelice)
Novels by STEPHEN COONTS
The Traitor
Liars & Thieves
Liberty
Saucer
America
Hong Kong
Cuba
Fortunes of War
Flight of the Intruder
Final Flight
The Minotaur
Under Siege
The Red Horseman
The Intruders
Nonfiction books by STEPHEN COONTS
The Cannibal Queen
War in the Air
Books by JIM DEFELICE
Coyote Bird
War Breaker
Havana Strike
Brother’s Keeper
Cyclops One
With Dale Brown:
Dale Brown’s Dreamland (Dale Brown & Jim DeFelice)
Nerve Center (Dale Brown & Jim DeFelice)
Razor’s Edge (Dale Brown & Jim DeFelice)
STEPHEN
COONTS’
DEEP
BLACK:
CONSPIRACY
Written by Stephen Coonts
and Jim DeFelice
St. Martin’s Paperbacks
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
STEPHEN COONTS’ DEEP BLACK: CONSPIRACY
Copyright © 2008 by Stephen Coonts.
Excerpt from The Assassin copyright © 2008 by Stephen Coonts.
All rights reserved.
For information address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York,
NY 10010.
ISBN: 0-312-93700-8
EAN: 978-0-312-93700-3
Printed in the United States of America
St. Martin’s Paperbacks edition / June 2008
St. Martin’s Paperbacks are published by St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
AUTHORS’ NOTE
The National Security Agency, Central Intelligence Agency, Space Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation, National Security Council, and Marines are, of course, real. While based on an actual organization affiliated with the NSA and CIA, Desk Three and all of the people associated with it in this book are fiction. The technology depicted here either exists or is being developed.
Some liberties have been taken in describing actual places and procedures to facilitate the telling of the tale. Some details regarding the President’s security have been omitted and other fictionalized in the interests of actual security.
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chap
ter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Chapter 64
Chapter 65
Chapter 66
Chapter 67
Chapter 68
Chapter 69
Chapter 70
Chapter 71
Chapter 72
Chapter 73
Chapter 74
Chapter 75
Chapter 76
Chapter 77
Chapter 78
Chapter 79
Chapter 80
Chapter 81
Chapter 82
Chapter 83
Chapter 84
Chapter 85
Chapter 86
Chapter 87
Chapter 88
Chapter 89
Chapter 90
Chapter 91
Chapter 92
Chapter 93
Chapter 94
Chapter 95
Chapter 96
Chapter 97
Chapter 98
Chapter 99
Chapter 100
Chapter 101
Chapter 102
Chapter 103
Chapter 104
Chapter 105
Chapter 106
Chapter 107
Chapter 108
Chapter 109
Chapter 110
Chapter 111
Chapter 112
Chapter 113
Chapter 114
Chapter 115
Chapter 116
Chapter 117
Chapter 118
Chapter 119
Chapter 120
Chapter 121
Chapter 122
Chapter 123
Chapter 124
Chapter 125
Chapter 126
Chapter 127
Chapter 128
Chapter 129
Chapter 130
Chapter 131
Chapter 132
Chapter 133
Chapter 134
Chapter 135
Chapter 136
Chapter 137
Chapter 138
Chapter 139
Chapter 140
Chapter 141
Chapter 142
Chapter 143
Chapter 144
Chapter 145
Chapter 146
Chapter 147
Chapter 148
Chapter 149
Chapter 150
Chapter 151
Chapter 152
Chapter 153
Chapter 154
Chapter 155
Prologue
1
EVEN THROUGH THE SCOPE, the black circle at the center of the target looked tiny. The shooter tried to remember everything the rifle instructor had told him, held his body steady, checked his breath, eased his finger against the trigger.
He didn’t have to be perfect. He just had to be decent.
The Remington barked. The bullet missed the center of the target, hitting the white space just beyond.
Again, the shooter told himself. Better this time. Better.
The shot sailed high, to the outer ring.
I can do better, thought the shooter. He took a long breath, then slipped his left hand ever so slightly forward. He imagined that the center of the target was not a black circle a hundred yards away but a man’s head.
This time, the bullet hit the mark.
The shooter tried again, once more imagining that he was firing at a person. His shot sailed a bit to the left but still managed to find the black disk. So did the next.
“You’re getting much better,” said his instructor as he paused to reload.
“I think I’ve found the key,” said the shooter. He grinned.
The instructor waited a moment to hear what he might think that was, but the student had no intention of explaining. He had registered for the rifle class not merely under false pretenses—unlike the other students, he had no intention of ever going deer hunting—but also using a false name and ID.
“Well, very good,” said the instructor finally. “Keep at it.”
“I will,” said the shooter, beginning to reload.
2
PINE PLAINS LOOKED like a picture-perfect town, a throwback nineteenth-century village, complete with striped awnings over the main street storefronts and white picket fences on the side streets. The center of town was dominated by a freshly painted three-story bank building—Stissing National, which had so far resisted overtures to join the megabanks that dominated the region. The drugstore to its right could make the same claim, with an old-fashioned soda fountain clearly visible through the sparkling plate glass at the front of the store. And the hardware store demonstrated that it was still just a hardware store, not a fancy home decorating center, by displaying a full run of lawnmowers and assorted shovels and rakes on its half of the sidewalk. Neither the machines nor the tools were chained or otherwise secured, the store owner confident that no one would walk away with them.
Secret Service Special Agent Jerry Forester turned his big Ford off Main Street, heading down Meadow Avenue. He gazed past the row of wood-sided houses toward the field beyond them. It was late spring, and though the field had been cleared, it had not yet been planted, the owner timing his crop to meet the needs of a processor, who would already have contracted for the result.
Meadow Avenue ended at a set of train tracks. Forester took a right, passing the ruins of an old whistle-stop as he headed back in the direction of the state highway. The houses that lined the road were bigger than those packed into the tight streets at the town center; they had larger lawns and longer driveways. But the newest was probably more than forty years old, built before whirlpool tubs and two-story entryways became fashionable. The sugar maples in their yards had stout trunks and were generous with their shade.
Forester lingered at an intersection, considering getting out of the car and going for a walk. But then he realized if he did, Pine Plains’ idyllic character would quickly fade. He’d see the beer cans tossed onto the long lawns by bored teenagers over the weekend and notice graffiti on the sides of the Main Street buildings, including the five-fingered star that proved even rural America wasn’t immune to the awesome coolness of outlaw gangs. The torn shingles on the church and the rust stains from the broken gutter would be difficult to miss. The man sitting in the window seat at Kay’s Breakfast Nook would have a wild expression and the vague smell of hospital antiseptic in his clothes.
; Step inside some of the houses and the last bits of the illusion would quickly melt away. Forester had no illusions about human evils and how widespread they were. Even if he hadn’t grown up in a town exactly like Pine Plains, he’d spent the last twenty-three years working for the Secret Service, a job that permitted no naïveté. He knew the foibles of the powerful as well as the delusions of the powerless.