The Gamma Option by Jon Land Read Free Book Online Page A

think so. After all, you do want to see your son again, don’t you?”
    The knock on the door came less than three minutes later.
    “Come in,” Blaine called out. He was seated in a chair against the wall farthest from the door. “It’s open.”
    The door opened, brushing over the carpet. A dark-skinned, bearded figure entered. McCracken made sure he could see the Uzi.
    The man closed the door behind him and stopped. “You don’t need that.”
    “I know. I just wanted you to know how it feels, having your back up against the wall. And it relaxes me to know I can splatter the organ of my choice if the spirit moves me.”
    The figured swallowed hard, still in the shadows cast by the single lamp. “Don’t forget your son, which is what this is all about.”
    “Oh, I wasn’t talking about killing you. A simple maiming would suffice once you’ve told me what you’ve come to say. Whatever it is you won’t hurt the boy no matter what I do to you because you need me to deliver. You’re a worm, nothing more.”
    The figure stepped further into the light, and Blaine blinked several times to make sure he had the face right. It was Mohammed Fett, an Arab power broker who fluctuated back and forth between the moderate forces of the PLO and the various radical cells populating the Mideast.
    “Robes are more fitting for you than Giorgio Armani, Fett.”
    “Ah, but when in Rome …”
    “Your geography’s off. This is Reading, England, where one Matthew Ericson resided until a few hours ago.”
    Fett came slightly more forward, slowly, making sure his hands were in plain view. “It was necessary because we need you. Desperately.”
    “You couldn’t think of a better way to ask for my help?”
    “We tried. You rebuked all our advances. Surely you remember. The channels, the contacts—we tried. We even sent a representative directly to you. You treated him rather rudely.”
    Blaine did remember all too well. An Arab force had sought him out just over a month before and he had refused even to speak to them. He had mentioned to Henri Dejourner how the last agent they sent to his island condominium had ended up in the bay.
    “You do remember! I can tell! You are going to work for us, Mr. McCracken. You won’t like it but you have no choice, just as we have no choice.”
    “Someone holding something over your head too, Fett?”
    “Millions of Arab lives … if it matters to you.”
    “Not nearly as much as Matthew Ericson’s does.”
    “Listen to me,” Fett responded, voice tense. “Israel is going to strike at us. There is going to be a war, and this time they are going to be the ones to start it.”
    “You expect me to believe that?”
    “I expect you to stop it for your son’s sake, and for the sake of the world.”
    “Spare me. Please.”
    “Listen to me, McCracken. You and I have fought before on different sides. But there are forces at work this time that bode ill for me and for you as well.”
    “And were these the forces responsible for the deaths of John Neville and Henri Dejourner?”
    “The people retained exceeded their mandate.”
    “They did a hell of a lot more than that. You should have seen the housemaster’s residence, Fett. Whoever killed him enjoyed it and they wanted me to know that. What did they want him to see after he was dead?”
    “I—”
    “You might be bringing me one message, but those women were delivering a different one.”
    “My point exactly. Their role in this has ended. You have only me to deal with now.”
    “My lucky day …”
    “There will be far more deaths on your head if you do not act, if we do not act.”
    “Against Israel?”
    “Against a militant force within Israel. This force is in possession of a weapon of incredible scope. If utilized, it will destroy the Arab world as it is known today.”
    “And I’m supposed to stop it from being utilized, is that it?”
    “Exactly.”
    Blaine felt himself starting to fume again,”Know something, Fett? I