Free Near Dark: A Thriller by Brad Thor Page A

a lot of friends. It’s such a huge bounty, we didn’t know whom we could trust.”
    “Even within our organization?”
    “Somehow, an assassin picked up your trail and tracked you to Key West. Only a handful of us knew you were in Florida.”
    “I had my cell phone. Used my credit cards now and then. I wasn’t exactly trying to disappear.”
    “Nope,” said Nicholas. “Butif there really is this kind of a contract out on you, we have to assume it’s only being shopped to the best.”
    “More than one assassin, though? That’s not normally how this is done.”
    “That’s part of the RUMINT as well. Supposedly, the contract was put out to a pool. Whoever closes it out first, gets the bounty. That’s why we came so hard and fast to get you.”
    “So, out of an abundance of caution,you said no to our portfolio of safe houses, no to the CIA’s, but yes to Camp David?”
    “That’s the practical side of this. I wanted one location with no additional movements. None of the ‘different bed every night’ scenarios like some sort of Mexican drug lord or Middle Eastern dictator. Place you and encase you. That’s the plan.
    “What’s more, I didn’t want to be cooped up in some house, especiallynot with the dogs. Here, we’ve got two hundred of the most secure acres in the world. A squirrel can’t even get within one hundred feet of the perimeter without the Marines knowing about it.”
    “Aren’t you afraid of one of them being bought off?”
    “A, no, and B, by whom? No one knows we’re here except for McGee,who made the request, and President Porter, who gave his approval. I guarantee you,neither of them is going to be bought off.”
    Nicholas was right about that. Bob McGee was the Director of the CIA and Lydia Ryan’s boss before she had moved over to The Carlton Group. Harvath trusted McGee. He also knew that the Marines who served at Camp David were not only exemplary, but also rigorously vetted.
    “Plus,” Nicholas continued, “only if we were camped out at the NSA or the SituationRoom back at the White House, could we access faster and more secure networks. This is the perfect bolt-hole.”
    Harvath agreed. It made sense on several levels. Nodding, he steered the conversation back to his earlier questioning. “Let’s say the contract does exist and I’m the target. Who’s behind it? Who have I pissed off badly enough to put up one hundred million dollars to take me out?”
    “Evenat their most flush, bin Laden and al Qaeda wouldn’t have been able to come up with one hundred million, much less give it away. ISIS, though, is a different story.”
    “How so?”
    “They’re the Goldman Sachs of the terrorism world. They may have lost the land that made up their caliphate, but they didn’t lose their bank accounts. According to an Iraqi Intelligence report, they still have access toover two and a half billion dollars. And , they hate your guts.”
    Harvath began to make a mental list. “Okay, they’re contestant number one. Keep going. Who else?”
    “As far as terrorism organizations?” Nicholas asked. “Ones that have those kinds of funds and enough reason to want to spend that kind of money on you? That’s all I’ve got at the moment.”
    “How about non-terrorism-related organizations?”

    “There are various crime organizations around the world that could launch a hundred-million-dollar contract. But to be honest, I can’t think of one you’ve pissed off badly enough to warrant it.”
    “So what does that leave us with?”
    “You’ve dispatched some exceedingly wealthy bad actors. These people left behind enormous sums of money. If their heirs were smart, they’d be out living it up, butsometimes heirs aren’t smart, they’re vengeful.”
    Harvath swirled the ice in his glass and said, “You could probably track that money, though, correct?”
    “I’ve already started looking into it.”
    “Good.”
    “Which brings us to state actors,” said Nicholas. “And