“So my only real chance is right now,” Vetrov said. He rolled over all of a sudden, a silenced Glock pistol in his left hand.
“I guess I can’t blame you,” McGarvey said, and he pulled the trigger, emptying the entire forty-round magazine of 4.6×30mm rounds into the man’s chest, neck, and head.
“Too bad,” he said half to himself as Pete and Alicia both came running. “But it’s late, and I’m tired of people gunning for me and my people, and I just didn’t feel like seeing what you could do in hand-to-hand. So, fuck you, comrade.”
EPILOGUE
As Dr. Franklin explained it ten days later, McGarvey’s below-the-knee plastic leg was headed for the trash bin, which would effectively put him out of commission for six to eight weeks.
“After what you’ve been through, you need some time off, though it won’t be much of a vacation,” the doctor said at a meeting at All Saints. “In any event, you should retire, go back to Sarasota, and take up teaching again.”
McGarvey was seated across from Franklin in the third-floor waiting room, the only space in the hospital large enough to accommodate him, plus Pete, Otto, and Mary, who’d insisted they be present for the pre-op pep talk, as Pete called it.
“Good luck with that,” Mary said.
“Amen,” Otto agreed.
Pete was holding her husband’s hand. “We got the gist of what you want to do, but why the long recovery period?” she asked.
“He’s going to have to learn to walk all over again before he can get back to running around the world shooting at people.”
“Only people who shoot at me first,” McGarvey said.
“Don’t be a curmudgeon,” Pete said. “Go on, Doctor.”
“We’re making him a new leg—actually, with technology that Otto suggested. The bone structure, for want of a better term, will be made of titanium, over which we’ll attach bundles of carbon fiber interlaced with near microscopic strands of a gold-carbon fiber material that conduct electricity. The bundles will be shaped to mimic the natural muscles of a leg, ankle, and foot and will be grafted to the nerve endings in the stump of Mac’s real limb.”
“What’s the catch?” McGarvey asked.
“You’ll think, bend your knee, but it’ll take some practice—a lot of practice—before your new leg will understand what’s being transmitted to it. When the carbon fiber bundles get educated, and the command comes down the pike, the bundles will contract, and your leg will bend. But that’ll be the easy part. Learning to walk, to run, to crouch down and then jump, to climb a ladder, to swim, and do every other movement that we pretty much take for granted after the age of two will have to be relearned.”
“When do we start?” McGarvey asked. He wanted to get it over with so he could finish what had been started in Georgetown.
“MIT is sending down your leg sometime next week, and we’ll have to run a series of tests before the actual operation. Say ten days from now?”
“Good,” McGarvey said.
Franklin got up, shook their hands, and left.
Pete got up, too, but McGarvey didn’t move, and she sat back down. “What?” she asked.
“It’s not over.”
“They were Spetsnaz, and they lost,” Pete said. “Bender’s funeral was three days ago, and Alicia was reprimanded but given the Bureau’s Medal for Meritorious Service—their second highest.”
“General Kanayev retired, and his son-in-law committed suicide,” Otto said. “Case closed, and you’re getting a new leg.”
“Thanks to you,” McGarvey said.
Mary had been watching him. “But it’s not closed, is it?” she said.
“Hammond.”
“No chain of evidence actually connecting him with anything,” Otto said.
“I’ll find it.”
Pete was exasperated. “For Christ’s sake, darling, give it up,” she said. “We won, they lost. Period, end of statement.”
“We lost Serifos. ETII”—the Greek national intelligence service—“convinced the government to seize the lighthouse and ban us from ever returning.”
“We’ll get another island,” Pete said. “Anyway, they paid us the fair market value.”
“Small potatoes,” Otto said quietly. “All that shit is superfluous. The main thing is the leak here in the States. The White House, the Pentagon, somewhere.”
“They won’t stop until I find them,” McGarvey said.
“We find them,” Pete said. “All of us.”
ALSO BY DAVID HAGBERG
Twister
The Capsule
Last Come the Children
Heartland
Heroes
Without Honor*
Countdown*
Crossfire*
Critical Mass*
Desert Fire
High Flight*
Assassin*
White House*
Joshua’s Hammer*
Eden’s Gate
The Kill Zone*
By Dawn’s Early Light
Soldier of God*
Allah’s Scorpion*
Dance with the Dragon*
The Expediter*
The Cabal*
Abyss*
Castro’s Daughter*
Burned
Blood Pact*
Retribution*
The Shadowmen*+
The Fourth Horseman
24 Hours*+
End Game*
Tower Down*
Flash Points*
Face Off*
First Kill*
McGarvey*
Gambit*
WRITING AS SEAN FLANNERY
The Kremlin Conspiracy‡§
Eagles Fly
The Trinity Factor
The Hollow Men
False Prophets‡
Broken Idols‡
Gulag
Moscow Crossing
The Zebra Network
Crossed Swords
Moving Targets
Winner Take All
Kilo Option
Achilles’ Heel
WITH U.S. SENATOR BYRON DORGAN
Blowout
Gridlock
WITH LAWRENCE LIGHT
Crash
NONFICTION WITH BORIS GINDEN
Mutiny!
*Kirk McGarvey adventure
+Kirk McGarvey ebook original novellas
‡Edgar Allan Poe Award nominee
§American Book Award nominee
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
DAVID HAGBERG (1947–2019) was a New York Times bestselling author who published numerous novels of suspense, including his bestselling thrillers featuring former CIA director Kirk McGarvey, such as Flash Points, Face Off, and First Kill. He earned a nomination for the American Book Award, three nominations for the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Allan Poe Award, and won three Mystery Scene Best American Mystery Awards. He spent more than thirty years researching and studying U.S.-Soviet relations during the Cold War. Hagberg joined the U.S. Air Force out of high school, and during the height of the Cold War, he served as a U.S. Air Force cryptographer. You can sign up for email updates here.
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CONTENTS
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Epigraph
Part One: Opening Moves
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Twelve
Thirteen
Fourteen
Fifteen
Sixteen
Seventeen
Eighteen
Nineteen
Twenty
Twenty-One
Twenty-Two
Twenty-Three
Twenty-Four
Part Two: Middle Game
Twenty-Five
Twenty-Six
Twenty-Seven
Twenty-Eight
Twenty-Nine
Thirty
Thirty-One
Thirty-Two
Thirty-Three
Thirty-Four
Thirty-Five
Thirty-Six
Thirty-Seven
Thirty-Eight
Thirty-Nine
Forty
Forty-One
Forty-Two
Forty-Three
Forty-Four
Forty-Five
Forty-Six
Forty-Seven
Forty-Eight
Forty-Nine
Part Three: Endgame
Fifty
Fifty-One
Fifty-Two
Fifty-Three
Fifty-Four
Fifty-Five
Fifty-Six
Fifty-Seven
Fifty-Eight
Fifty-Nine
Sixty
Sixty-One
Sixty-Two
Sixty-Three
Sixty-Four
Sixty-Five
Sixty-Six
Sixty-Seven
Sixty-Eight
Sixty-Nine
Seventy
Seventy-One
Seventy-Two
Seventy-Three
Epilogue
Also By David Hagberg
About the Author
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
GAMBIT
Copyright © 2021 by Kevin Hagberg
All rights reserved.
Cover art by Paul Youll
A Forge Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates
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