The 14th Colony: A Novel Read Online Free

in, fighting to keep him airborne.
    He heard a sputter.
    Then a backfire.
    He knew what was happening. Too much stress was being applied to the prop, which the engine resisted.
    Power to the controls winked in and out.
    “I’ve been hit by a surface-to-air missile,” he told Stephanie. “I’m losing control and going down.”
    The engine died.
    All of the instruments stopped working.
    Windows wrapped the cockpit, front and side, the copilot’s seat empty. He searched below and saw only the blue ice of Lake Baikal. The An-2 rapidly changed from a plane to eight thousand pounds of deadweight.
    Dread swept through him, along with one thought.
    Was this how he would die?

CHAPTER TWO
    W ASHINGTON , DC
    2:20 A.M.
    Stephanie Nelle stared at the speaker on the desk. Her direct link to Cotton’s phone had gone quiet.
    “Are you there?” she asked again.
    Only silence continued to answer her.
    Cotton’s last words rang in her ears.
    “I’m losing control and going down.”
    She stared across the desk at Bruce Litchfield, the current acting attorney general and her boss for two more days. “He’s in trouble. Someone shot his plane down with a surface-to-air missile.”
    She was working out of an office in the Justice Department. Usually she would be ensconced inside her own secure space at Magellan Billet headquarters in Atlanta. But that was not possible anymore, and with the impending inauguration of a new president she’d been ordered north to DC.
    And she knew why.
    So that Litchfield could keep an eye on her.
    Back in December Harriett Engle, who’d served as President Danny Daniels’ third attorney general, had tendered her resignation. The Daniels administration’s two terms were over and not only would there be a new president but a new party had seized control of both the White House and half the Congress. Danny had tried hard to get his man elected, but failed. It seemed the Daniels magic only applied to the man himself. Litchfield was here at this ungodly hour since he was in temporary command of both the Justice Department and what remained of the Magellan Billet.
    Two months ago, on the day after Thanksgiving, she’d been informed that not only would she be reassigned from the head of the Magellan Billet, but the entire unit would be dismantled. The new attorney general, who would be confirmed by the Senate next week, had already stated that he considered the Billet duplicative of the countless other intelligence and counterintelligence units that populated the government. The Justice Department had no further need for those services, so the Billet would be abolished and all of its agents dispersed.
    “Let the Russians deal with it,” Litchfield said. “They asked for our help, you gave it to them, now it’s their problem.”
    “You can’t be serious. We have a man down. We don’t rely on others to take care of our own.”
    “We do here. And don’t forget, you sent Malone in there without my okay.”
    “The president of the United States asked me to do it.”
    Litchfield seemed unfazed. “You and I agreed that all operational decisions would be run through me. But that didn’t happen. And we both know why. Because I would not have authorized it.”
    “I didn’t need your authorization.”
    “Actually, you did. You know there’s a working agreement that the current administration will keep the new one informed and that all operational decisions, starting last week, would be joint. It’s my job to keep the new administration informed. For some reason, though, this operation became unilateral across the board.”
    Litchfield was career Justice with a respectable eighteen years. He was a Daniels appointee, confirmed by the Senate, and had served as deputy AG for the past five years. The new attorney general had yet to decide who, at the top level, would be kept on. Stephanie knew Litchfield was jockeying for a high-level post, so when the new president’s AG appointee indicated a desire to