Whiplash by Dale Brown Read Free Book Online

an assassin.
    “Can you get somebody to watch for her in Athens?” Nuri asked.
    “I don’t think that will be necessary,” said Reid.
    “Why not?”
    “She’s a freelancer, Nuri. She works for the highest bidder.”
    “So you do know her.”
    “Not personally. But you’ll be wasting your time in Athens.”
    “Not if I can figure out who hired her.”
    “Do you think you can do that by following her?”
    Nuri leaned back against the thin airport lounge seat and thought about it. Someone like Leary was unlikely to lead him to an employer; she might not even know who had hired her in the first place.
    “We didn’t hire her?” he asked Reid.
    “Of course not.”
    “You’re sure?”
    “Reasonably sure.”
    “Who? A competitor? The Sudanese? The Egyptians?”
    “Unfortunately, your guess is as good as mine. When will you be able to return home?”
    “Home?”
    “Here. We have some new arrangements to acquaint you with. It will make starting over with Jasmine considerably easier.”
    Months of work, down the drain.
    “Get me a flight, and tell me when it leaves,” Nuri told Reid. “I’m already at the airport.”

4
    Pentagon
    D ANNY F REAH’S INITIAL REACTION TO G ENERAL M AGNUS’S offer was thanks, but no thanks.
    Magnus’s limited description made the assignment sound a lot like his job at Dreamland, without the security component. Eventually, the unit would be bigger than Whiplash, which at Dreamland had never numbered more than a dozen people, at least not while he was assigned to it. “Wing size, potentially,” Magnus said, though he added that it would start out much smaller.
    Commanding a unit that large would be a definite plus in his plan to advance to general. But Magnus had made it clear that the job was outside the normal Air Force structure, and that wasn’t going to help him at all.
    The detour on the road to general wasn’t the only thing bothering him. Magnus was undoubtedly right about how limited the opportunities in the near future were, so taking this job might not hurt at all. But Danny couldn’t articulate, not even to himself, the other reasons that made him hesitate.
    Everything had bored him after Whiplash and Dreamland. There was no way it couldn’t. He’d traveled across the world, saving people, at times even saving entire countries, or at least good portions of them. No assignment that followed could ever come close in terms of excitement or gratification.
    Yet, he didn’t want to go back.
    He was…afraid.
    The word came at him like a train in a tunnel exploding in a sudden rush.
    Afraid.
    Was he?
    Yes.
    Afraid of what? he wondered.
    Not death. Danny had learned that when you were in danger—when it was actually a possibility—death was not something you tended to think about. There was too much else to do. It was only later that it hit you, if it hit you at all.
    His fear was of something else: Not being able to measure up to what he had done before. Of proving unworthy of the Medal of Honor he’d been awarded. Of disgracing himself and everyone who believed in him or looked up to him, like the sergeant at the gate that morning and the others who had applauded.
    Danny realized this on the way back to his hotel, as the Metro came to his stop. He got out of the car and walked slowly toward the exit. Outside, he took out his cell phone and called a cab to take him to the hotel. He was annoyed with himself, unnerved at the waves of introspection that consumed him.
    This wasn’t what a leader did, Danny thought. And he was a leader. There was no question about that.
    The taxi was just arriving when his cell phone rang. The number didn’t look familiar, but he decided to answer it anyway as the cab pulled to the curb.
    “Freah.”
    “ Colonel Freah?”
    “Yeah?”
    “Please hold for the senator.”
    “Danny, what the hell are you doing in town without calling?” said Zen Stockard, his voice booming out of the clamshell speaker on Danny’s phone.
    “Hey,