Free Dark Revelations by Duane Swierczynski, Anthony E. Zuiker Page A

is Hans Roeding. He speaks some English, but not much. Even if he did, he wouldn’t say much at all.”
    Roeding nodded, then went back to what he was doing.
    “That’s just his way of saying, ‘Charmed, I’m sure.’”
    “Right,” Dark said.
    “Far more sociable, and able to speak in many tongues,” O’Brian continued, “is the lovely Natasha Garcon.”
    As Garcon spun around in her chair to face them, Dark realized that O’Brian hadn’t been joking. She was beautiful. Blue-gray eyes, lips that looked like they were forever on the verge of blowing you a kiss. Even with her hair pulled back in a no-nonsense ponytail and no trace of makeup, Garcon would step into any social situation and be the most stunning woman in the room.
    “Are we ready to go, then? I’ll inform the pilot and get us cleared.” And with that, Garcon spun back around, placed a bud inside her left ear, then began to speak in crisp yet hurried French. She’d barely glanced at Dark, which struck him as a little unusual. Was he being dismissed as a member of this team even before he formally joined it?
    O’Brian slapped his back, gestured to the workstation. “All yours, buddy. Make yourself at home. Next stop, the Middle East.”
    So this was Global Alliance.
    The “best of the best.”
    How had Blair put it?
    Manhunters of your caliber, and in some cases, even more seasoned.
    And whose prey is much more fearsome than your garden-variety serial killer....
    These people, however, were not former cops. Their specialties lay elsewhere. They were also virtual ciphers—and for the past decade, had existed off the grid.
    Before Dark had left for the airport, Blair had transmitted brief dossiers on each team member to Dark’s smartphone. Deckland O’Brian was former IRA and a tech freak. On the surface, he appeared to be nothing more than a software engineer from one of the larger computer companies that had roared during the days of the Celtic Tiger. Beneath that cover, he was renowned as an expert on extracting pieces of electronic information from essentially anything with a memory chip, online or otherwise.
    Hans Roeding was a former member of German Special Forces Command—Kommando Spezialkräfte, or KSK, for short. Top-of-the-line soldiers trained in insurgency, counterterrorism, black ops, and a host of other unofficial activities that never end up in the history books. Roeding was the best KSK had produced since the fall of the Berlin Wall, having led secret operations in Kosovo, Bosnia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, China, and Libya.
    So that meant the team had brains.
    And muscle.
    Natasha Garcon, meanwhile, was the face of Global Alliance. Not just in terms of beauty. According to her dossier, Garcon was a linguist beyond compare, a prodigy who was speaking a half-dozen languages by first grade and three dozen by high school. Beyond mere translation, she understood the culture and idioms of dozens of nations, as well as states within those nations. If there was a division of law enforcement, foreign government, or intelligence operation to be dealt with, Garcon was first on the scene, clearing the path for the others. Blair had also named her team leader for this mission.
    Many years ago, Dark had more or less begged for a chance to join Special Circs. He wanted to be part of Tom Riggins’s team more than he’d wanted anything else in the world . . . before he lost himself in it, and ended up losing everything he’d ever loved in the world.
    As he sat down, strapped himself in, and looked around at this new “team,” Dark couldn’t help but wonder if he was about to repeat that mistake.

chapter 20
     
    DARK
     

Dubai, United Arab Emirates
     
    C ommercial flight time from Paris to Dubai can be as swift as seven hours, depending on weather and airport conditions. The weather out of France was horrible, but still Blair’s private Gulfstream made it in just under four. A waiting van whisked the team directly from the plane to