Conspiracy Read online

  PRAISE FOR THE NOVELS OF

  STEPHEN COONTS

  LIARS & THIEVES

  “Vintage Coonts…plenty of action and intrigue, with the added benefit of a new lead character.”

  —Dallas Morning News

  “Excellent.”

  —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

  LIBERTY

  “Frighteningly realistic.”

  —Maxim

  “Gripping…Coonts’s naval background and his legal education bring considerable authority to the story, and the narrative is loaded with detailed information about terrorist networks, modern weaponry, and international intrigue…the action is slam-bang.”

  —Publishers Weekly

  AMERICA

  “The master of the techno-thriller spins a bone-chilling worst-case scenario involving international spies, military heroics, conniving politicians, devious agencies, a hijacked nuclear sub, lethal computer hackers, currency speculators, maniac moguls, and greedy mercenaries that rival Clancy for fictionas-realism and Cussler for spirited action … [Coonts] never lets up with heart-racing jet/missile combat, suspenseful submarine maneuvers, and doomsday scenarios that feel only too real, providing real food for thought in his dramatization of the missile-shield debate.”

  —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

  “Fans of Coonts and his hero Grafton will love it. Great fun.”

  —Library Journal

  “Coonts’s action and the techno-talk are as gripping as ever.”

  —Kirkus Reviews

  “Thrilling roller-coaster action. Give a hearty ‘welcome back’ to Admiral Jake Grafton.”

  —Philadelphia Inquirer

  HONG KONG

  “Move over, Clancy, readers know they can count on Coonts.”

  —Midwest Book Review

  “The author gives us superior suspense with a great cast of made-up characters…But the best thing about this book is Coonts’s scenario for turning China into a democracy.”

  —Liz Smith, New York Post

  “A high-octane blend of techno-wizardry [and] ultra-violence… [Coonts] skillfully captures the postmodern flavor of Hong Kong, where a cell phone is as apt as an AK-47 to be a revolutionary weapon.”

  —USA Today

  “Entertaining…intriguing.”

  —Booklist

  “Will be enjoyed by Coonts’s many fans…Coonts has perfected the art of the high-tech adventure story.”

  —Library Journal

  “Coonts does a remarkable job of capturing the mood of clashing cultures in Hong Kong.”

  —Publishers Weekly

  “Filled with action, intrigue, and humanity.”

  —San Jose Mercury News

  CUBA

  “Enough Tomahawk missiles, stealth bombers, and staccato action to satisfy [Coonts’s] most demanding fans.”

  —USA Today

  “[A] gripping and intelligent thriller.”

  —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

  “Perhaps the best of Stephen Coonts’s six novels about modern warfare.”

  —Austin American-Statesman

  “Coonts delivers some of his best gung-ho suspense writing yet.”

  —Kirkus Reviews

  “Dramatic, diverting action…Coonts delivers.”

  —Booklist

  FORTUNES OF WAR

  “Fortunes of War is crammed with action, suspense, and characters with more than the usual one dimension found in these books.”

  —USA Today

  “A stirring examination of courage, compassion, and profound nobility of military professionals under fire. Coonts’s best yet.”

  —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

  “Full of action and suspense…a strong addition to the genre.”

  —Publishers Weekly

  FLIGHT OF THE INTRUDER

  “Extraordinary! Once you start reading, you won’t want to stop!”

  —Tom Clancy

  “[Coonts’s] gripping, first-person narration of aerial combat is the best I’ve ever read. Once begun, this book cannot be laid aside.”

  —The Wall Street Journal

  “Kept me strapped in the cockpit of the author’s imagination for a down-and-dirty novel.”

  —St. Louis Post-Dispatch

  SAUCER

  “A comic, feel-good SF adventure…[delivers] optimistic messages about humanity’s ability to meet future challenges.”

  —Kirkus Reviews

  “Tough to put down.”

  —Publishers Weekly

  Also in this series

  Stephen Coonts’ Deep Black

  (Stephen Coonts & Jim DeFelice)

  Stephen Coonts’ Deep Black: Biowar

  (Stephen Coonts & Jim DeFelice)

  Stephen Coonts’ Deep Black: Dark Zone

  (Stephen Coonts & Jim DeFelice)

  Stephen Coonts’ Deep Black: Payback

  (Stephen Coonts & Jim DeFelice)

  Stephen Coonts’ Deep Black: Jihad

  (Stephen Coonts & Jim DeFelice)

  Novels by STEPHEN COONTS

  The Traitor

  Liars & Thieves

  Liberty

  Saucer

  America

  Hong Kong

  Cuba

  Fortunes of War

  Flight of the Intruder

  Final Flight

  The Minotaur

  Under Siege

  The Red Horseman

  The Intruders

  Nonfiction books by STEPHEN COONTS

  The Cannibal Queen

  War in the Air

  Books by JIM DEFELICE

  Coyote Bird

  War Breaker

  Havana Strike

  Brother’s Keeper

  Cyclops One

  With Dale Brown:

  Dale Brown’s Dreamland (Dale Brown & Jim DeFelice)

  Nerve Center (Dale Brown & Jim DeFelice)

  Razor’s Edge (Dale Brown & Jim DeFelice)

  STEPHEN

  COONTS’

  DEEP

  BLACK:

  CONSPIRACY

  Written by Stephen Coonts

  and Jim DeFelice

  St. Martin’s Paperbacks

  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.

  STEPHEN COONTS’ DEEP BLACK: CONSPIRACY

  Copyright © 2008 by Stephen Coonts.

  Excerpt from The Assassin copyright © 2008 by Stephen Coonts.

  All rights reserved.

  For information address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York,

  NY 10010.

  ISBN: 0-312-93700-8

  EAN: 978-0-312-93700-3

  Printed in the United States of America

  St. Martin’s Paperbacks edition / June 2008

  St. Martin’s Paperbacks are published by St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.

  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  AUTHORS’ NOTE

  The National Security Agency, Central Intelligence Agency, Space Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation, National Security Council, and Marines are, of course, real. While based on an actual organization affiliated with the NSA and CIA, Desk Three and all of the people associated with it in this book are fiction. The technology depicted here either exists or is being developed.

  Some liberties have been taken in describing actual places and procedures to facilitate the telling of the tale. Some details regarding the President’s security have been omitted and other fictionalized in the interests of actual security.

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chap
ter 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

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Chapter 53

  Chapter 54

  Chapter 55

  Chapter 56

  Chapter 57

  Chapter 58

  Chapter 59

  Chapter 60

  Chapter 61

  Chapter 62

  Chapter 63

  Chapter 64

  Chapter 65

  Chapter 66

  Chapter 67

  Chapter 68

  Chapter 69

  Chapter 70

  Chapter 71

  Chapter 72

  Chapter 73

  Chapter 74

  Chapter 75

  Chapter 76

  Chapter 77

  Chapter 78

  Chapter 79

  Chapter 80

  Chapter 81

  Chapter 82

  Chapter 83

  Chapter 84

  Chapter 85

  Chapter 86

  Chapter 87

  Chapter 88

  Chapter 89

  Chapter 90

  Chapter 91

  Chapter 92

  Chapter 93

  Chapter 94

  Chapter 95

  Chapter 96

  Chapter 97

  Chapter 98

  Chapter 99

  Chapter 100

  Chapter 101

  Chapter 102

  Chapter 103

  Chapter 104

  Chapter 105

  Chapter 106

  Chapter 107

  Chapter 108

  Chapter 109

  Chapter 110

  Chapter 111

  Chapter 112

  Chapter 113

  Chapter 114

  Chapter 115

  Chapter 116

  Chapter 117

  Chapter 118

  Chapter 119

  Chapter 120

  Chapter 121

  Chapter 122

  Chapter 123

  Chapter 124

  Chapter 125

  Chapter 126

  Chapter 127

  Chapter 128

  Chapter 129

  Chapter 130

  Chapter 131

  Chapter 132

  Chapter 133

  Chapter 134

  Chapter 135

  Chapter 136

  Chapter 137

  Chapter 138

  Chapter 139

  Chapter 140

  Chapter 141

  Chapter 142

  Chapter 143

  Chapter 144

  Chapter 145

  Chapter 146

  Chapter 147

  Chapter 148

  Chapter 149

  Chapter 150

  Chapter 151

  Chapter 152

  Chapter 153

  Chapter 154

  Chapter 155

  Prologue

  1

  EVEN THROUGH THE SCOPE, the black circle at the center of the target looked tiny. The shooter tried to remember everything the rifle instructor had told him, held his body steady, checked his breath, eased his finger against the trigger.

  He didn’t have to be perfect. He just had to be decent.

  The Remington barked. The bullet missed the center of the target, hitting the white space just beyond.

  Again, the shooter told himself. Better this time. Better.

  The shot sailed high, to the outer ring.

  I can do better, thought the shooter. He took a long breath, then slipped his left hand ever so slightly forward. He imagined that the center of the target was not a black circle a hundred yards away but a man’s head.

  This time, the bullet hit the mark.

  The shooter tried again, once more imagining that he was firing at a person. His shot sailed a bit to the left but still managed to find the black disk. So did the next.

  “You’re getting much better,” said his instructor as he paused to reload.

  “I think I’ve found the key,” said the shooter. He grinned.

  The instructor waited a moment to hear what he might think that was, but the student had no intention of explaining. He had registered for the rifle class not merely under false pretenses—unlike the other students, he had no intention of ever going deer hunting—but also using a false name and ID.

  “Well, very good,” said the instructor finally. “Keep at it.”

  “I will,” said the shooter, beginning to reload.

  2

  PINE PLAINS LOOKED like a picture-perfect town, a throwback nineteenth-century village, complete with striped awnings over the main street storefronts and white picket fences on the side streets. The center of town was dominated by a freshly painted three-story bank building—Stissing National, which had so far resisted overtures to join the megabanks that dominated the region. The drugstore to its right could make the same claim, with an old-fashioned soda fountain clearly visible through the sparkling plate glass at the front of the store. And the hardware store demonstrated that it was still just a hardware store, not a fancy home decorating center, by displaying a full run of lawnmowers and assorted shovels and rakes on its half of the sidewalk. Neither the machines nor the tools were chained or otherwise secured, the store owner confident that no one would walk away with them.

  Secret Service Special Agent Jerry Forester turned his big Ford off Main Street, heading down Meadow Avenue. He gazed past the row of wood-sided houses toward the field beyond them. It was late spring, and though the field had been cleared, it had not yet been planted, the owner timing his crop to meet the needs of a processor, who would already have contracted for the result.

  Meadow Avenue ended at a set of train tracks. Forester took a right, passing the ruins of an old whistle-stop as he headed back in the direction of the state highway. The houses that lined the road were bigger than those packed into the tight streets at the town center; they had larger lawns and longer driveways. But the newest was probably more than forty years old, built before whirlpool tubs and two-story entryways became fashionable. The sugar maples in their yards had stout trunks and were generous with their shade.

  Forester lingered at an intersection, considering getting out of the car and going for a walk. But then he realized if he did, Pine Plains’ idyllic character would quickly fade. He’d see the beer cans tossed onto the long lawns by bored teenagers over the weekend and notice graffiti on the sides of the Main Street buildings, including the five-fingered star that proved even rural America wasn’t immune to the awesome coolness of outlaw gangs. The torn shingles on the church and the rust stains from the broken gutter would be difficult to miss. The man sitting in the window seat at Kay’s Breakfast Nook would have a wild expression and the vague smell of hospital antiseptic in his clothes.

 
; Step inside some of the houses and the last bits of the illusion would quickly melt away. Forester had no illusions about human evils and how widespread they were. Even if he hadn’t grown up in a town exactly like Pine Plains, he’d spent the last twenty-three years working for the Secret Service, a job that permitted no naïveté. He knew the foibles of the powerful as well as the delusions of the powerless.