Free Bullseye by David Baldacci Page A

us. Our strike will be quick and clean. And it will succeed.”
    “And you have your team in place?’
    “Being assembled. Then they’ll be vetted.”
    The president looked sharply at him. “Vetted? Who the hell are you planning to use?”
    “Will Robie and Jessica Reel.”
    Potter sputtered, “Robie and Reel?’
    “They are the absolute best we have,” said Tucker. “Look what they did with Ahmadi.”
    Potter eyed Tucker closely. He knew every detail of that mission. So he knew that neither Reel nor Robie were intended to survive it.
    The president said slowly, “But with Reel’s background. What you allege she did. The possibility of her going—”
    Tucker broke in. Normally, this would be unheard of. You let the president speak. But tonight Tucker seemed to be operating on a plane that did not recognize the obvious. He seemed to see and hear only what he wanted to.
    “They are the best, sir, and the best is what we need here. As I said, with your permission, they will be vetted to ensure that their performance will be the best ever. However, if they fail the vetting I have another team, up to the task of performing the mission, but the clear preference is not the B squad.”
    Potter said, “But, still, why not simply deploy them? Then this vetting process becomes unnecessary.”
    Tucker looked at the president. “We really need to do it this way, sir, for a number of reasons. Reasons which I’m sure you can readily see.”
    Tucker had prepared for this moment for weeks. He had studied the president’s history, his time as commander in chief, and even gotten his hands on an old psychological profile of the man done while he was running for Congress many years ago. The president was smart, accomplished, but not that smart, and not that accomplished. That meant he had a chip on his shoulder. Thus he was reluctant to acknowledge that he was not always the smartest, most informed person in the room. Some would see that attribute as a strength. Tucker knew it to be a serious vulnerability ripe for exploitation.
    And he was exploiting it right now.
    The president nodded. “Yes, yes, I can see that.”
    Tucker’s face remained impassive, but inwardly he breathed a sigh of relief.
    The president leaned forward. “I respect Robie and Reel. But again, there is no margin of error here, Evan. So you vet the hell out of them and make damn sure they are absolutely ready for this. Or you use the B Team. Are we clear?”
    “Crystal,” said Tucker.

The Target
    Coming in April 2014

Also by David Baldacci
    Absolute Power
    Total Control
    The Winner
    The Simple Truth
    Saving Faith
    Wish You Well
    Last Man Standing
    The Christmas Train
    Split Second
    Hour Game
    The Camel Club
    The Collectors
    Simple Genius
    Stone Cold
    The Whole Truth
    Divine Justice
    First Family
    True Blue
    Deliver Us from Evil
    Hell’s Corner
    The Sixth Man
    One Summer
    Zero Day
    The Innocent
    The Forgotten
    The Hit
    King and Maxwell

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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
    Copyright © 2014 by Columbus Rose, Ltd.
    Excerpt from The Target copyright ©2014 by Columbus Rose, Ltd.
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Cover photograph © Caspar Benson / Getty Images
Cover copyright © 2014 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.
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