Rules of Vengeance

by Reich, Christopher

• ISBN13: 9780307387837
• ISBN10: 0307387836
• Edition: Revised
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-05-25
• Publisher: Anchor

Summary

New York TimesBestseller Months after foiling an international terrorist attack, Doctors Without Borders physician Jonathan Ransom is working under an assumed name in a remote corner of Africa. His wife, Emma, desperate to escape the wrath of Division, the secret American intelligence agency she betrayed, has been in hiding. Both look forward to sharing a stolen weekend in London-until a terrorist attack ruins their romantic rendezvous. In the aftermath, Emma disappears and Jonathan is apprehended by the police and threatened, unless he helps secure his wifers"s capture. He embarks on a breathless chase across Europe, searching for Emma, and keeping Division at bay . . . until he realizes that all along hers"s been a pawn in a high-stakes game of international intrigue far beyond his imagining. Follow the Rules: Don't miss Christopher Reich's new thriller,Rules of Betrayal, coming in hardcover in July. The first novel in the series,Rules of Deception, is available now in paperback.

Author Biography

CHRISTOPHER REICH is the New York Times bestselling author of Rules of Deception, Numbered Account, and The Patriots Club, which won the International Thiller Writers award for best novel in 2006. He lives in California with his family.

Excerpts

1

The most expensive real estate in the world is located in the district of Mayfair in central London. Barely two square miles, Mayfair is bordered by Hyde Park to the west and Green Park to the south. Claridge's Hotel, the world headquarters of Royal Dutch Shell, and the summer residence of the sultan of Brunei are within walking distance of one another. In between can be found many of the world's best-known luxury boutiques, London's only three-star restaurant (as awarded by the Guide Michelin), and a handful of art galleries catering to those with unlimited bank accounts. Yet even within this enclave of wealth and privilege, one address stands above the rest.

1 Park Lane, or "One Park" as it's commonly known, is a luxury residential high-rise located at the southeast corner of Hyde Park. It began life one hundred years ago as a modest ten-story hotel and over time has served as a bank, a car dealership, and, it is rumored, a high-class brothel for visiting Middle Eastern dignitaries. As real estate values began to spiral upward, so did the building's aspirations.

Today, One Park stands some twenty stories tall and is home to nineteen private residences. Each occupies an entire floor, not counting the penthouse, which is a duplex. Prices start at five thousand pounds, or a breath under eight thousand dollars, per square foot. The cheapest residence goes for 15 million pounds; the penthouse, four times that, 60 million pounds, or nearly 90 million dollars. Owners include a former British prime minister, an American hedge-fund manager, and the purported leader of the Bulgarian underworld. The joke around the building is who among them is the biggest thief.

With so much wealth gathered beneath one roof, security is a twenty-four-hour concern. At all times, two liveried doormen cover the lobby, a team of three plainclothes officers roams the premises, and two more occupy the control room, where they keep a constant eye on the multiplex of video monitors broadcasting live feeds from the building's forty-four closed-circuit television cameras.

One Park's imposing front doors are made from double-paned bulletproof glass, protected by a steel grate and secured by magnetic lock. The doors' German manufacturer, Siegfried & Stein, guaranteed the lock against a direct hit from a rocket-propelled grenade. The front doors might be blown clear off their hinges and across the spacious marble lobby, but by God and Bismarck, they will remain locked. Visitors are granted entry only after their faces have been scrutinized via closed-circuit television and their identity confirmed by a resident.

For all intents and purposes, One Park is impregnable.

Getting in was the easy part.

The trespasser, operational designation "Alpha," stood inside the master bedroom closet of residence 5A of 1 Park Lane. Alpha was familiar with the apartment's security system. Prior reconnaissance had revealed the presence of pressure pads beneath the carpet alongside the windows in every room and at the front entry, but none in the closet. There were other, more sophisticated measures, but they, too, could be defeated.

The intruder crossed to the door and flipped the light switch. The closet was palatial. A shoe rack stood against the far wall, and next to it a rolled-up flag of St. George and two Holland & Holland shotguns. The owner's clothing hung along one wall. There was no women's clothing to be seen. The residence belonged to a bachelor.

To the left were stacks of yellowing periodicals, bound newspapers, and manila files, the meticulously accumulated bric-a-brac of a dedicated scholar. To the right stood a mahogany dresser with several photographs in sterling frames. One showed a fit, sandy-haired man in hunting attire, shotgun under one arm, in conversation with a similarly sporty Queen Elizabeth II. The trespasser recognized the owner of the apartment. He was Lord Robert Russell, onl

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Excerpted from Rules of Vengeance by Christopher Reich
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