Black Ops 03 - Deadly Games by Cate Noble Read Free Book Online

had taken things one step further by throwing Rocco into lockdown hadn’t been a total surprise either. Rocco was one ingenious motherfucker. Which was exactly the reason Harry needed his ass here in the states. Rocco was a fast pass to reclaiming Dr. Rufin.
    Minh Tran had had the right idea for getting to Rufin. Kidnap someone Rocco Taylor cared about and let Rocco do the dirty work in order to rescue his lady fair.
    In fact, Tran had actually inspired Harry’s currentplan, though the similarities ended there. Harry was much smarter than Minh Tran. And Harry knew more about Rocco’s taste in women.
    The scenario’s poetic justice hadn’t escaped Harry either. It was Rocco’s fault that Dr. Rufin was here to begin with. Rocco had gone in, guns blazing, and snatched Rufin from Harry’s associate in Bangkok, nearly killing the scientist in the process.
    Sure, Rocco’s action had thwarted Minh Tran’s son’s attempt at seizing Rufin. If Tran had managed to get Rufin, Harry would be washed up.
    So, while irksome, it was preferable that Rufin was in the CIA’s custody. At least now Harry had a chance.
    Actually, Minh Tran had helped to keep the Agency distracted by kidnapping Madison Kohl-meyer. Harry had further contributed a little sleight of hand by leaking key information on himself to a CIA snitch. The news that a third American spy was being held captive in Burma had sent the Agency scrambling to marshal its thinly spread resources.
    Without doubt, the Agency had its hands full. The so-called war on terror meant nonterrorists were ramping up operations on all other fronts. The stats on money laundering, arms trading, and sex slave rackets had doubled. Which kept other law enforcement agencies busy, too, making it a little easier for Harry to move about.
    What a contrast to nine days ago when Harry had first arrived in the states! He’d barely gotten off the plane when news broke that his partner in crime, pharmaceutical financier Abe Caldwell, had been taken into custody for his role in kidnapping Dr. Erin Houston.
    On the heels of that fiasco came word that Dr. Rufin had disappeared from the hiding spot where Harry had left him in Thailand. Initially, Harry had panicked, retreating to the one place he’d sworn he’d never return: his father’s farm in southern Illinois.
    Shortly before his death, Ephraim Gambrel had agreed to sell the place for its mineral rights. The sale would have made Ephraim a multimillionaire. But glitches in the paperwork meant the place temporarily sat in limbo while the buyer waited for new zoning variances and estate settlements. That his old man had left everything to Harry’s ex, Gena, still rankled.
    With the estate unsettled, the farm sat vacant and untouched, which meant his old man’s fifties-era bomb shelter hadn’t been discovered. Ephraim’s paranoia, carried over from the Cold War, had provided a shelter that was kept well provisioned, too. Harry could have survived there six months, easy.
    But a little quiet time quickly gave rise to a new plan. Sitting alone in that dank, concrete hole in a cornfield had helped Harry distill one simple truth: His Golden Goose was the designer drug recipes. If Harry could get to Dr. Rufin just long enough to make him cough up the drug formula for SugarCane, his future was set. The deal Harry had proposed to the Rialto cartel didn’t include future royalties. Just a onetime cash buyout that Harry wouldn’t have to split with anyone.
    It was a win-win. Once Harry got what he wanted, the CIA could keep Rufin and all his dirty little secrets encoded in data chips embedded in the renegade test subject know as Taz. Provided Taz was still alive and the chips were retrievable. And even if thedata was viable, all that crap on mind control would require years of testing.
    When the news broke that Abe Caldwell had been freed on bond pending a deal with the Justice Department, Harry left his father’s farm and paid Abe an unexpected visit.
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