The Doomsday Key and The Last Oracle with Bonus Excerpts
Page 91
Gray needed that expertise.
“There’s a mission,” he said. “You would be well paid.”
“Sorry. There’s not enough gold in Fort Knox.”
Gray had prepared for this attitude, readied for this eventuality. “Perhaps not, but when you left the service, you stole government property.”
Tucker faced him, his eyes going diamond hard. In that gaze, Gray read the necessity to speak warily, to play the one card he had with great care.
“It costs hundreds of thousands of dollars and man hours to train a war-service dog,” Gray said. He dared not even glance toward Kane; he kept his gaze fixed on Tucker.
“Those were my man hours,” Tucker answered darkly. “I trained both Kane and Abel. And look what happened to Abel. This time around, it wasn’t Kane who killed Abel.”
Gray had read the brutal details in the files and avoided that minefield. “Still, Kane is government property, military hardware. Complete this mission and he is yours to keep, free and clear.”
Disgust curled a corner of his lip. “No one owns Kane, Commander. Not the U.S. government. Not special forces. Not even me.”
“Understood, but that’s our offer.”
Tucker glared at him for a long breath—then abruptly leaned back, crossing his arm, his posture plain. He was not agreeing, only willing to listen. “Again. What do you need me for?”
“An extraction. A rescue.”
“Where?”
“A coastal compound. In Somalian territory.”
“Who?”
Gray sized up his opponent. The detail he was about to reveal was known only to a handful of people high in the government. If word should somehow reach her captors—
“Who?” Tucker pressed.
Kane must have sensed his partner’s growing agitation and let out a low rumble, voicing his own complaint.
Gray answered them both. “We need you to rescue the president’s daughter.”
About the Author
New York Times bestselling author JAMES ROLLINS holds a doctorate in veterinary medicine and runs his own practice in Sacramento, California. An amateur spelunker and a certified scuba enthusiast, he’ll often be found either underground or underwater.
www.jamesrollins.com
Also by James Rollins
Subterranean
Excavation
Deep Fathom
Amazonia
Ice Hunt
Sandstorm
Map of Bones
Black Order
The Judas Strain
The Last Oracle
The Doomsday Key
Altar of Eden
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Schematics provided and drawn by Steve Prey.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Epub with Bonus Material Edition December 2011 978-0-06-219162-5
THE DOOMSDAY KEY. Copyright © 2009 by James Czajkowski.
FIRST EDITION
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Rollins, James, 1961–
The doomsday key: a Σ sigma force novel / James Rollins.— 1st ed.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-0-06-123140-7 (hardcover)
1. Code and cipher stories. I. Title.
PS3568.O5398D66 2009
813’ .54—dc22 2009003164
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09 10 11 12 13 OV/RRD 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
ISBN 9780061791413 (international edition)
The Last Oracle Copyright © 2008 by James Czajkowski
Excerpt from The Devil Colony Copyright © 2011 by James Czajkowski
Excerpt from BloodLine Copyright © 2012 by James Czajkowski
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