Eden's Gate

by David Hagberg

  He shook his head. It was time for a vacation, he thought. A very long vacation.

  The Semtex exploded with a flat bang thirty minutes after Speyer had pushed the button, but Lane didn’t bother leaving his seat on the front porch. In the distance to the east he’d spotted the pair of Iroquois helicopters coming in just above tree level. Their part of the mission had to have been a success, too; otherwise they wouldn’t be coming here now.

  He’d gone back upstairs to have a last look at Gloria, to convince himself that she was really dead, and then had found a bottle of Dom Perignon in the kitchen. In a blue funk, he took the bottle and a couple of glasses out to the front porch to wait. Because of the baby, Frannie wouldn’t have any wine, but Tommy would probably share a glass or two.

  It was pleasant out here, he thought. Maybe something like this would be a relief from the grind of the city. At least for a while, until he got bored again.

  The helicopters landed in the field across the driveway. Frannie jumped out of the lead one and headed up to the porch in her long-legged easy run, and Lane’s heart swelled. He didn’t think he could ever be bored so long as he had moments like this, with her coming across a field toward him.

  Although it’s true that there are nefarious characters living in Montana, that is also true of every other state. My apologies to the good people of Montana, and especially to Kalispell. I’ve not only set bad deeds afoot there, I even changed places to suit the needs of the story. Nothing I have written in any way should be taken as the truth, or as a representation of real people. It’s just fiction.

  NOVELS BY DAVID HAGBERG

  Twister

  The Capsule

  Last Come the Children

  Heartland

  Without Honor*

  Countdown*

  Crossfire*

  Critical Mass*

  Desert Fire

  High Flight*

  Assassin *

  White House*

  Joshua’s Hammer*

  Eden’s Gate†

  WRITING AS SEAN FLANNERY

  The Kremlin Conspiracy

  Eagles Fly

  The Trinity Factor

  The Hollow Men

  Broken Idols

  False Prophets

  Gulag

  Moscow Crossing

  The Zebra Network

  Crossed Swords

  Counterstrike

  Moving Targets

  Winner Take All†

  Kilo Option†

  Achilles’ Heel†

  (*Kirk McGarvey adventures)

  (†Bill Lane adventures)

  This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this novel are either fictitious or are used fictitiously.

  EDEN’S GATE

  Copyright © 2001 by David Hagberg

  All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form.

  A Forge Book

  Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC

  175 Fifth Avenue

  New York, NY 10010

  www.tor-forge.com

  Forge® is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.

  eISBN 9781466813625

  First eBook Edition : February 2012

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Hagberg, David.

  Eden’s gate / David Hagberg.—1st ed. p. cm.

  “A Tom Doherty Associates book.”

  ISBN 0-312-86129-X (acid-free paper)

  1. Weapons of mass destruction—Fiction. 2. Government investigators—Fiction. 3. Fugitives from justice—Fiction. 4. Germans—Montana—Fiction. 5. Montana—Fiction.

  PS3558.A3227 E34 2001

  813’.54—dc21

  2001023177

  First Edition: June 2001