The Solomon Effect Read Free

isn’t until this morning that someone gets the bright idea to check on a U-boat I now learn we’ve been monitoring foryears? Christ Almighty. ” Beckham raised his chin, stretching his neck as he looped the tie into a bow. “And that’s not taking the Lord’s name in vain, by the way. I’m asking for His help.”
    Glancing in the mirror, Beckham saw a muscle jump along the DCI’s jaw, but he kept his mouth shut.
    Beckham straightened the folds of his bow tie and tried to calm down. “Now that we know the submarine is gone, we can trace it, right? Seems to me, we find that U-boat, it ought to lead us straight to these terrorists.”
    “Theoretically. Unfortunately, it’s not that easy, sir. We have a top team working on it. But you have to understand that by now, the terrorists will have removed the cargo from that sub and be long gone. We’ve determined that our resources are better allocated elsewhere.”
    “Such as?”
    “Right now, the CIA is focusing most of its efforts on suspected links between homegrown radicals and known terrorist groups in Egypt and Pakistan, while the FBI and Homeland Security are rounding up anyone and everyone in this country who might possibly be involved.”
    Beckham frowned. “How many people are we talking about here?”
    “Does it matter? If we put enough pressure on them, one of these guys is bound to crack.”
    Beckham studied the other man’s smooth, complacent face. Chandler was one of President Bob Randolph’s minions, and Beckham didn’t trust him any more than he’d trust a crazy coon dog back home in the hills of Kentucky. “How many have already confessed?”
    “A few. We’re checking out their stories now.”
    “Most men will confess to anything under torture—”
    “This country doesn’t torture people, sir.”
    “—and in the meantime, the men who really made thatphone call are in all likelihood still out there, getting ready to implement their plans.”
    “I think you underestimate Homeland Security, sir. We know who our enemies are.”
    “Do we?” Beckham shrugged into his dinner jacket. “I think the key to all this is that U-boat.”
    Chandler buried a sigh of impatience deep in his throat. “I can assure you, sir, we’ve allocated every resource we can spare to tracing it.”
    Beckham gave a slow smile. “Not quite every available resource.”
    “Excuse me, sir?”
    “I’ve asked Colonel McClintock to task October Guinness.”
    “You what?”
    Beckham smoothed his lapels. “I know your opinion of remote viewing, Gordon. But you forget: if it weren’t for that talented young lady, I’d be dead by now—and so would a lot of other innocent people.”
    “I’m sorry, sir, but every intelligence service in this country is already stretched to the breaking point investigating the legitimate leads we have. I can’t in all conscience divert our resources to go chasing after some vision that could very easily be nothing more than the product of someone’s overactive imagination.”
    “What about Division Thirteen?”
    Beckham watched as a slow, malicious smile spread across the DCI’s face. “I stand corrected. There is one man I could spare.”
    Alexandria, Virginia
    Jax Alexander stuck the corkscrew in his back pocket, tucked a bottle of Shiraz under one arm, and scooped uptwo of the Senator’s best crystal glasses. Through the open door to the townhouse’s terrace, he could see the setting sun spilling a path of gold across the river’s sparkling water and hear the screech of the gulls as they wheeled and dipped in the breeze.
    “God I love this view,” said Kelly Yardley, going to lean against the low brick wall that ran around the terrace.
    Jax set the wine glasses on the ledge beside her and smiled. He hadn’t had much luck with relationships lately, mainly because his job kept getting in the way. But he was hoping things might be different with Kelly. A long-legged Cornell graduate with a quick brain and a ready laugh,