Read Online The Survivor by Vince Flynn, Kyle Mills - Free Book Online

back in his chair again, flashing another insane smile. “See you again soon.”
    The screen went black and Kennedy took a hesitant step backward. She’d offered to promote him, to pull him out of Afghanistan. But he’drepeatedly declined. Had the warning signs been there? Had she ignored them out of fear of losing his unique skill set?
    Rapp seemed to read her mind. “We’re all crazy, Irene. It’s a prerequisite for the job. No one saw this coming. Not me, not Stan, and not Mike. Even the people who worked with Rick every day were completely blindsided.”
    “It wasn’t their responsibility to see it coming. It was mine.”
    “Spilt milk,” Hurley said impatiently. “You make things too complicated. All we have to do is find the people who have Rick’s files and kill them. Problem solved.”
    “What did he know?” she said. “Sitting Bull was well outside his sphere of influence. How long had he been collecting intelligence on our network? How long had he been planning on using it to inflict maximum damage? And it’s not just what he knew. He could lie, too. He could establish his credibility by handing over some legitimate -assets, then start mixing in disinformation by naming people who aren’t on our payroll.”
    “If he was going to release it all at once, he’d have done it by now,” Rapp said. “No, he’s going to dribble it out. Use it to torture us. That gives us time. Stan’s right, we just have to find who has the files and stop them. Then it’s over.”
    “And how do you propose we do that?”
    “We follow the only lead we have.”
    “Obrecht,” she acknowledged.
    Leo Obrecht was a Swiss national who controlled Sparkasse Schaffhausen, a boutique bank based in Zurich. His name and that of his organization had been coming up since Rickman first disappeared. It was he who had accused Rapp and Rickman of depositing illicit personal funds in his bank.
    Most interestingly, though, he was Louis Gould’s handler. Vetting offers and accepting payments for an assassin wasn’t exactly a common side project for a reputable banker.
    “If I recall correctly,” Kennedy said, “getting to Obrecht didn’t work out well last time.”
    When Rapp had gone to Europe to get answers from the man, he’d run into a carload of ISI agents with the same mission. Three ended up dead and the other, Kassar, had been captured. Later, he’d proved critical to the operation against Rickman and Durrani.
    “Obrecht’s personal security is tight as hell,” Rapp agreed. “And it’s gotten even tighter since the incident with the Pakistanis. He doesn’t leave his property at all anymore. But based on the amount of encrypted Internet traffic running between his mansion and the bank, he’s keeping busy.”
    “Busy wiping all evidence of his involvement in this thing from his company’s records,” Kennedy said.
    “A good bet.”
    “Can you two get to him?”
    “Not easily,” Hurley said before Rapp could answer. “Our best option would have been to take him while he was on the move.”
    “But you’re saying he doesn’t move anymore.”
    “He has to eventually.”
    Kennedy nodded thoughtfully. “Rickman’s files are going to keep coming. When and how I can’t say for certain, but I guarantee that it will be in the most damaging way possible.”
    “Can we absorb the hit?” Hurley asked.
    “I honestly don’t know, Stan. I ask myself, why did he do this now? He was still relatively young, he doesn’t appear to have been ill, and I had no plans to pull him out. Rick never guessed, he planned. He analyzed. The only reason I can think of is that he believed he had enough to take us down. And when Rick believed something, it was usually because he was right.”
    “So if waiting isn’t an option, we go for Obrecht at his house,” Rapp said.
    “With what?” Hurley responded. “A few Abrams tanks and an Apache?”
    Rapp pushed himself up onto the edge of the pool table. “We’re running out of