The Ascendant: A Thriller
Page 41
“And?” she asked.
Garrett smiled at her. It made him feel open and vulnerable, that smile, accepting of his true nature, as if the very act of it had expanded his heart and allowed him to say what he’d meant to say for a while now.
“And?” he said, grinning stupidly at her. “And I still love you.”
Silence enveloped the table. Garrett thought he saw Alexis’s cheeks color slightly. She opened her mouth to respond, but no words came. After a few more moments, Garrett pushed back from the table and stood up. “It’s okay,” he said. “You don’t have to say anything.”
He pulled a zip-up sweatshirt around his shoulders. “It was nice seeing you, Alexis. Really nice.” He started toward the door.
He was halfway to the exit when Alexis called after him. “They will ask for you. In the night, when the next crisis hits. And that crisis is right around the corner. Think about your answer, Garrett. I hope you make the right choice.”
Garrett cocked his head slightly to one side, nodded wearily, and walked out into the warm New York night.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I could not have written this book without the expert advice of the following people. My thanks to: Danny Goodwin, for his knowledge of stocks, flash crashes, and black pools of money; Nathan Wright, for helping with military jargon and attitudes; Carrie Pederson, for her brilliance on all things China; Stanley Florek, for explaining message encryption; E. J. Gong, for laying out LLCs and real estate speculation; Peter Loop, for demystifying data centers; John Krause, for updates on Internet security and the power grid; Ting Wang and Matthew Van Osdol, for making sure the Mandarin was up to snuff; Marsi Doran, for unraveling the intricacies of bond trading; and Jack Timmons, for his computer programming genius and rabid enthusiasm.
Also invaluable in the process were Markus Hoffmann at Regal Literary in New York, and my team in LA—Matt Leipzig and Jordan Bayer at Original Artists, Dan Brecher at Rothman Brecher, and my manager, Ragna Nervik.
On the publishing side, a special thanks to Emily Graff and to the insightful Rowland White at Penguin UK. And finally, my heartfelt gratitude to my editor at Simon & Schuster, the incomparable Marysue Rucci.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Drew Chapman has written on numerous studio movies. He also directed the indie film Standoff. Currently, he creates and writes TV shows for network television, most recently having written and executive-produced an ABC miniseries about the hunt for CIA mole Aldrich Ames. Married with two children, Chapman divides his time between Los Angeles and Seattle. The Ascendant is his first book.
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2013 by Andrew Chapman
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Simon & Schuster Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.
First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition January 2014
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Jacket design by Jae Song
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Chapman, Drew.
The ascendant : a novel / Drew Chapman. — First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition.
pages cm
Summary: “From a riveting new voice in suspense fiction, THE ASCENDANT is an action-packed thriller following a unlikely hero—a number savant named Garrett Reilly—as he races around the globe to avert total war”—Provided by publisher.
1. Savants (Savant syndrome)—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3603.H3635A84 2014
813'.6—dc23 2013032632
ISBN 978-1-4767-2588-8
ISBN 978-1-4767-2590-1 (ebook)
CONTENTS
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 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
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
About the Author
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