by Gordon Kent
“Wouldn’t even try! No point—is there, Alan?”
He gave them a slow, lopsided grin. “Harry knows me pretty well.”
He looked across at Rose. She was flushed with pleasure and excitement. He had been home for two weeks, and they were rediscovering each other. She had been kicked upstairs at IVI and was on a completely different project; Peacemaker had pretty much disappeared; Suter had been sucked into the black hole of the Agency. Rose had been accepted into the astronaut program, with General Touhey pushing her application hard. He had written great things about her. Great things. Almost too-great things—as if he wanted to reward her by getting her out of his life.
Alan looked at Abe. “Let’s talk sometime. I’m not entirely clear about—your doubts about Peacemaker.” He and Abe looked at each other, letting silence communicate for them. “Rose told me yesterday you thought that Shreed was involved.”
“Yeah, we need to talk. Sometime. Bea—”
He didn’t finish, because Bea herself appeared from the kitchen, carrying a tray with glasses and a bottle of champagne. She put it down on a low table in their midst and hurried over to Abe and put an arm through his. Alan was surprised by this quieter woman who was so much more visibly dependent on her husband than he remembered.
“Who’s doing a toast?” Rose said. They turned around. She was pouring champagne into six tall glasses.
“This is becoming a ritual,” Harry said. “Once more, and we’ll need special music.”
They were all gathering around the table, half-consciously taking the same positions they had a year before. Rose and Bea passed around the glasses, and there was a little silence. Rose gripped Alan’s hand and said, “I’m not going to make a toast, because I don’t do that very well. But I want to say how great it is to have everybody back. Harry—Abe—Mike—Thank God we’re all alive.” She grinned, blinked at tears. “Harry, make a toast!”
And Harry was ready. He tapped the rim of his glass, looking down, then looked up and smiled. “We’re a funny lot. One nigger—two kikes—a dago wop—a guinea Greek—and a WASP. Folks, if we can do it, anybody can.” He raised his glass. “Here’s to—” And he stopped himself before he said us, because he had looked beyond them and seen the face of the child between the stair banisters. Sleepy-eyed, dazzled, the little boy smiled down at them.
Harry raised his glass again. “Here’s to the future.”
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About the Author
Gordon Kent is the pseudonym of a father-and-son writing team, both of whom have extensive personal experience in the US Navy. Both are former Intelligence officers and both served as aircrew. The son earned his Observer wings in S-3 Vikings during the Gulf conflict. After service in the Mediterranean, Persian Gulf, Pacific and Africa, he left active duty in 1999. Both live in the United States.
Praise
PEACEMAKER
“Tom Clancy used to have the high-tech military thriller stakes all to himself but now Gordon Kent has entered the field, and how. There’s action on all fronts with US Navy intelligence officer Alan Craik at the heart of it, whether it’s a carrier group in the Med confronting a rogue Russian sub commander, mounting a rescue mission for a captured CIA agent in central Africa, or helping combat a high-level conspiracy in Washington. Non-stop … a smoking gun of a story.”
Northern Echo
“A stirring sequel to Night Trap, with Navy intelligence officer Alan Craik back for some more of his special brand of derring-do… Heroes of both sexes to root for, deliciously corrupt villains to create anxiety: this rollicking, rousing naval thriller bears comparison to the genre’s best.”
Kirkus Reviews
“Told with all the authority of inside knowledge … an absorbing tale of international skulduggery.”
Irish News
NIGHT TRAP
“Flying, spying and dying—Night Trap is the real straight Navy stuff. Better strap yourself to the chair for this one. I loved it.”
STEPHEN COONTS, author of Flight of the Intruder
“Here’s a thriller that really flies. Kent knows his subject at first hand and the expertise shows on the page: high stakes, pounding tension and the best dogfights put on paper. A lot of thrillers these days, you come away feeling like you’ve been in a simulator. Gordon Kent straps you into the real thing. Enjoy the ride!”
IAN RANKIN, author of the Rebus novels
“This is a can’t-put-down book.”
USA Today
Also by Gordon Kent
THE ALAN CRAIK NOVELS
Night Trap
Peacemaker
Top Hook
Copyright
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
HarperCollinsPublishers
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Special overseas edition 2001
This edition 2001
First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 2000
Copyright © Gordon Kent 2000
The Author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
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Source ISBN: 9780007379316
Ebook Edition © DECEMBER 2012 ISBN 9780007512201
Version: 2014-04-14
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