Brady Hawk 07 - State of Play Read online

  Young gestured for them to all sit while taking the seat at the head of the table. “Your team here did all the work,” he said. “I merely provided them with the coordinates of your location.”

  “How’d you know?” Alex asked.

  “That’s my little secret,” Young said. “I am entitled to have some of those, right?”

  Alex smiled. “Not if you’re the president.”

  “Well, I’m only the acting president, so I’ll try to hold on to that one.”

  Hawk shifted in his seat and took a deep breath. “Is there any new information on Michaels’s situation?”

  “Nothing that I can disclose to you in full,” Young answered. “However, I will say that since he started his political career, he seems to be made of Teflon. No scandal, no matter how big, takes much of a toll on him.”

  “So, what you’re saying is that you’re not getting too comfortable in the Oval Office chair?” Hawk asked.

  Young forced a smile. “That’s an understatement. I’m not sure how much time I’ll have here, so that’s why I felt it was urgent that we meet as soon as possible.”

  Hawk studied Young’s face as the acting president spoke. He seemed confident and resolute, almost as if he anticipated his opportunity would come. “And you’re still serious about what we discussed last week?”

  Young nodded. “I want to bring Firestorm back into the fold, so to speak. Now that Karif Fazil is gone, Al Hasib’s leadership is in chaos. You have all been instrumental in destabilizing many of the terrorist organizations operating in the Middle East. But while you’ve been busy eliminating security threats, another threat has been rising.”

  Opening a file folder he’d brought with him, Young pulled out a photo and slid it across the table.

  Hawk grabbed the image before anyone else could see it. “This is who you want us to go after?”

  Young nodded. “Is that going to be a problem?”

  Hawk handed the photo to Blunt, who shook his head. Then he passed it down to Alex.

  She glared at the picture for a few seconds before responding. “No. No, I—I don’t think that’ll be a problem.”

  It was a photo of Katarina Petrov.

  “Good,” Young said. “The Chamber has continued to expand its operations and is planning something big soon. Petrov and her ilk must be stopped.”

  “We’ve run up against them before,” Hawk said. “The results haven’t always been favorable.”

  “Nevertheless, we must try,” Young said. “I know it might seem counterintuitive to everything our media says regarding terrorism, but The Chamber—not Middle Eastern terrorist cells—is the greatest threat to our freedom as we know it. And I believe this team is uniquely positioned to stop them.”

  “I think Hawk and Alex are more than qualified to handle this job,” Blunt said.

  “And you too, Senator Blunt,” Young said. “The Firestorm team isn’t complete without you at the helm.”

  Blunt pulled out a cigar, clipped the end, and started to gnaw on it. “There’s a problem here.”

  “What’s that?”

  “We’ve gotten pretty comfortable working without some government entity babysitting us,” Blunt said before spitting a few stray pieces of tobacco over his left shoulder. “We’d prefer to remain private contractors.”

  “I understand,” Young shot back. “But I also understand your funds aren’t unlimited and nobody has been bankrolling your projects lately. How much longer were you going to go without telling them?”

  Hawk and Alex both shot glances at Blunt. He shrugged.

  “What? So I hadn’t gotten around to sharing the bad news with you. The opportunity hadn’t come up yet.”

  “I’m going to need your answer quickly,” Young said. “I was able to convince one of the senators on the defense’s budgetary committee to cull out some discretionary spending for the three of you. But the committee is about to pass the budget soon for next year, and I want this item to sail through without Michaels’s knowledge in case he returns.”

  “You want to hide this from him?” Blunt asked.

  “It’s the only way.”

  “I’m in,” Hawk said. “Especially if we don’t have much funding left.”

  “I’m with Hawk,” Alex said.

  Young gazed at Blunt. “What about you, Senator Blunt? Are you with them?”

  “What’s Firestorm without me?” Blunt asked.

  “Excellent,” Young said as he stood and clapped his hands, rubbing them together. “Just one more stipulation.”

  Hawk slowly rose to his feet. “What’s that?”

  “I’m adding another member to your team. You’re gonna love him.”

  * * * * *

  Get the next book in the Brady Hawk series, SEIGE.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  I am grateful to so many people who have helped with the creation of this project and the entire Brady Hawk series.

  Krystal Wade has been a fantastic help in handling the editing of this book, and Dwight Kuhlman has produced another great audio version for your listening pleasure.

  I would also like to thank my advance reader team for all their input in improving this book along with all the other readers who have enthusiastically embraced the story of Brady Hawk. Stay tuned ... there's more Brady Hawk coming soon.

  NEWSLETTER SIGNUP

  If you would like to stay up to date on R.J. Patterson's latest writing projects with his periodic newsletter, sign up here.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  R.J. PATTERSON is an award-winning writer living in southeastern Idaho. He first began his illustrious writing career as a sports journalist, recording his exploits on the soccer fields in England as a young boy. Then when his father told him that people would pay him to watch sports if he would write about what he saw, he went all in. He landed his first writing job at age 15 as a sports writer for a daily newspaper in Orangeburg, S.C. He later attended earned a degree in newspaper journalism from the University of Georgia, where he took a job covering high school sports for the award-winning Athens Banner-Herald and Daily News.

  He later became the sports editor of The Valdosta Daily Times before working in the magazine world as an editor and freelance journalist. He has won numerous writing awards, including a national award for his investigative reporting on a sordid tale surrounding an NCAA investigation over the University of Georgia football program.

  R.J. enjoys the great outdoors of the Northwest while living there with his wife and three children. He still follows sports closely.

  He also loves connecting with readers and would love to hear from you. To stay updated about future projects, connect with him over Facebook or on the interwebs at www.RJPbooks.com and sign up here for his newsletter to get deals and updates.

  State of Play

  © Copyright 2017 R.J. Patterson

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the Publisher, except where permitted by law.

  This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  First eBook Edition 2017

  Cover Design by Books Covered

  Published in the United States of America

  Green E-Books

  PO Box 140654

  Boise, ID 83714

  Table of Contents

  What Others are Saying about R.J. Patterson

  Other titles by R.J. Patterson

  Dedication

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

 
Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Acknowledgments

  Newsletter Signup

  About the Author

  Copyright Information