Memorial Day by Vince Flynn Read Free Book Online

earlier?"
    "No...that is, nodirect link, sir, but we do think these accounts are controlled by either al-Qaeda sympathizers or supporters."
    "Saudis?"
    "Most of them."
    The president's expression turned sour. The Saudis were the furthest thing in the world from a good ally, but nothing could be said publicly, and very little could be done privately, to get them to crack down on members of the royal family who funded terrorism.
    "So you want to go in and grab these guys?" asked Hayes.
    "That's correct, sir."
    "What's your time frame?"
    "Mitch is already on his way over, and he's in contact with the task force commander on the ground. The plan is to hit the village in thirty-six hours."
    The president's mood remained pensive as he thought about it. "I don't know, Irene. This thing is a big gamble. A lot of people in this town will be upset that they were left out of the decision-making process."
    Kennedy had intentionally held back one card. "There is something else you need to know, sir. Mitch has an asset that says these men are meeting to discuss what to do after the bomb is detonated."
    Hayes didn't speak at first. The wordbomb could mean many things. "What type of bomb?"
    She shook her head. "We don't know. That's why Mitch wants to go in with the task force and see what he can find out."
    Hayes took a deep breath and then exhaled slowly. "I suppose you want my approval immediately."
    "That would help," answered Kennedy.
    "This isn't the first time I've been told an attack may be imminent."
    "I know," Kennedy agreed, "but I have a feeling that something very serious is about to happen, sir, and I think that whatever it is, it will be crippling enough to send our economy into a major recession." She had intentionally chosen to emphasize the economic aspect of the situation. "I think we need to do something decisive. We need to make our own luck, and we need to do it quickly."
    With Hayes's reelection campaign starting in a few months, none of this was anything he wanted to hear. A little flap with the Pakistanis over a border raid, he could survive. A major terrorist attack and an economy in the toilet, he couldn't. In the three years since President Hayes had known Kennedy, though, he'd never heard her talk like this.
    He took in a deep breath and then said, "You have my approval, but tell Mitch to get in and out as quickly as possible. I'd like to be able to play this off as a border skirmish rather than a full-blown operation."

Five
    LOS ANGELES
    The Qantas 747-400 floated downward, flaps extended, its four powerful General Electric engines throttled almost all the way back. The tarmac at LAX shimmered in the May heat as planes maneuvered to and from the gates picking up and disgorging passengers. From the air it looked like absolute chaos to Imtaz Zubair. In the upper business-class cabin he closed his eyes and silently muttered the wordAlhumdulillah over and over to himself. The phrase meant,Praise be to God, and was part of atasbihs, or Muslim rosary. They had taken his beads away from him, so he rubbed his thumb and forefinger together as if he was holding the well-worn, dark wooden instrument of prayer in his hand. They had told him to show no signs of his faith in public until he had completed his mission, but he could not help himself.
    Zubair was a wreck, a ball of frayed nerves with a stomach full of bubbling acid that had resulted in a scorching pyrosis. Even though he was a man of science, he hated flying. His education was rooted in the comforting, ordered logic of mathematics and physics, but it failed him here. Wing mass created lift, engines provided thrust, and planes flew. It was all proven theory, and it was applied thousands of times all over the world every day, but the scientist still fretted. He couldn't accept it, and so he tucked it away deep down with all of his other phobias.
    When one of his bosses had told him once that he needed to seek therapy, Zubair had been deeply offended. He was a