Black Flagged Redux Read online

  Table of Contents

  Dedication

  Acknowledgments

  About the author

  About Black Flagged Redux

  IN THE BLACK

  BLACK TIDE

  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

  BLACK OPS

  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

  EPILOGUE

  Bonus excerpt from Black Flagged series

  Excerpt from The Jakarta Pandemic

  Prologue

  Arrival

  Chapter 1

  Excerpt from King of Swords

  Introduction

  Excerpt from The Voynich Cypher

  PROLOGUE

  CHAPTER 1

  Character List

  Black Flagged Redux Equipment Primer

  World Map

  Europe and Asia

  Map of Kazakhstan

  Acknowledgments

  Black Flagged Redux

  Black Flagged [2]

  Steven Konkoly

  Stribling Walk Media (2012)

  *

  Rating: ★★★★☆

  Book Two of the Black Flagged Series

  Two years after shocking Washington D.C. with a brutal betrayal, General Terrence Sanderson prepares for his triumphant return. With his illegal covert operations group resurrected, he waits in the shadows for the right moment to demonstrate the grim necessity of the Black Flag program. His opportunity may arrive sooner than expected.

  At Langley, Karl Berg is appointed to a new position with the CIA’s National Clandestine Service. As senior liaison to the Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) Intelligence Center, he makes a disturbing discovery. Russian Federation intelligence services are secretly scouring Europe to find Anatoly Reznikov, a rogue Russian scientist at the top of every nation’s WMD watch list. Criminally obsessed with reviving a project long banned by the Russian government, Reznikov has finally found partners willing to fund his project, for an unimaginable price.

  While the Russians pursue Reznikov, Berg goes “off the books” again and sends one of Sanderson’s Black Flag teams to investigate. Led by Daniel Petrovich, the team uncovers a twisted conspiracy aimed at striking a horrific blow against the West, with the frightening potential to bring the United States to its knees. With the help of Berg’s shadowy network, Petrovich races against the clock to find Reznikov, before the Russians eliminate the only link to the emerging worldwide threat.

  Nothing is what it seems in this gritty world of covert operatives and back room Washington agendas.

  Review

  “Nobody writes breakneck-paced thrill rides like Konkoly. There are few in the genre who can do it like he does!” Russell Blake, bestselling author of The Voynich Cypher, King of Swords and Zero Sum.

  Black Flagged Redux

  A novel by Steven Konkoly

  Book Two in the Black Flagged Series

  Copyright Information

  Copyright 2011 by Steven Konkoly. All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the author, except where permitted by law, or in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information, contact [email protected].

  Features Index

  Dedication

  Acknowledgments

  About the author

  About Black Flagged Redux

  IN THE BLACK

  BLACK TIDE

  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

  BLACK OPS

  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

  EPILOGUE

  Bonus excerpt from Black Flagged series

  Excerpt from The Jakarta Pandemic

  Prologue

  Arrival

  Chapter 1

  Excerpt from King of Swords

  Introduction

  Excerpt from The Voynich Cypher

  PROLOGUE

  CHAPTER 1

  Character List

  Black Flagged Redux Equipment Primer

  World Map

  Europe and Asia

  Map of Kazakhstan

  Acknowledgments

  Dedication

  For Kosia, Matthew and Sophia. My favorite people in the whole world.

  Acknowledgments

  As promised in Black Flagged, the acknowledgments continue to grow. Because of this, I have provided a link to the acknowledgments. They are hidden at the back of the book.

  Acknowledgments

  About the author

&nb
sp; Steven Konkoly graduated from the United States Naval Academy and served for eight years in various roles within the Navy and Marine Corps. He currently lives with his family in southern Maine, where he works for a major pharmaceutical company.

  He published his first novel, The Jakarta Pandemic, in 2010, followed by Black Flagged in 2011. An excerpt from his apocalyptic thriller, The Jakarta Pandemic, can be accessed from the link below, along with a with a bonus excerpt from the Black Flagged series.

  Excerpt from The Jakarta Pandemic

  Bonus excerpt from the Black Flagged series

  Please visit Steven’s blog for updates and information regarding all of his works.

  www.stevenkonkoly.com

  About Black Flagged Redux

  Black Flagged Redux takes place roughly two years after the events of Black Flagged. If you haven’t read the first novel, it’s not necessary that you go back and read it before starting Black Flagged Redux. Redux was designed to stand on its own, however, it will be a much richer read with the first book under your belt.

  Purchase Black Flagged

  Unlike the relatively limited geographic scope of the first novel, Black Flagged Redux spans four continents and several time zones. In order to make this a little easier on the reader, each scene is stamped with a location and local time. Keep in mind that the scenes occur in chronological order. Here is a short list of the time zone differences between the locations featured in the Black Flagged Redux and the U.S. East Coast: All locations in Argentina +2 hours, Kazakhstan +11 hours, Kiev + 7 hours, Moscow/Monchegorsk +9 hours, Stockholm +6 hours.

  Three maps have been included in the table of contents to help the reader navigate the geography, along with an equipment primer. If you’re interested in some of the weapons and vehicles referenced in the novel, the primer will give you a quick visualization.

  Map of World

  Map of Europe and Asia

  Map of Kazakhstan

  Equipment Primer

  Finally, don’t forget about the character list, which can be accessed from the link below and is accessible through the table of contents. You can also print one from my blog www.stevenkonkoly.com. I’m not saying you’ll need it, but Black Flagged Redux adds to the memorable character list from Black Flagged.

  Character List

  Most of all, enjoy the book!

  “Redux”- Latin, derived from reducere. Returning from war or exile.

  IN THE BLACK

  August 2006

  2:30 AM

  “Dock Sud” (South Dock)

  Buenos Aires, Argentina

  Daniel Petrovich shifted his elbows slightly and stared through a small handheld spotting scope at the building one hundred and sixty meters away. Situated strategically among several dozen stacks of partially rusted, multi-colored maritime shipping containers, the modest, unattractive two-story structure didn’t garner much attention on any given day. This particular Wednesday proved to be an exception, though to the casual observer, it looked like any other late night in the sleepy, working class barrio, on the southern outskirts of Dock Sud.

  The areas immediately beyond the container yard’s high walls were quiet, except for the cars that passed in the distance on Avenida Juan Diaz de Solis. Since he had arrived two hours earlier, only three cars had turned off Juan Diaz and penetrated the sizable slum squeezed between the container yard and a vast sea of fuel storage tanks that extended all the way to the Rio Plata waterfront.

  He reconfirmed the presence of two sentries stationed outside of the building: one on the roof of the two-story building and one pacing a small wooden deck located on the second floor. The sentry on the deck guarded a door at the top of an adjoining, external metal staircase. Lights blazed behind the curtains inside the windows on the second floor, leading him to assume that the ground floor was deserted and possibly not connected to the upper level. The outer staircase further supported this theory.

  The rest of Petrovich’s team waited in the shadows of three separate container stacks surrounding the structure. The building and all adjacent stretches of flat gravel were bathed in the orangish-yellow glow cast by several strategically placed sodium vapor lights, which prevented the rest of the team from approaching any closer. Only the two sentries stood in the team’s way at this point and removing them was his job.

  Lying prone for two hours on the hard metal container was starting to take its toll on his concentration, and he found himself shifting every couple of minutes. He employed active breathing techniques to take his mind off the fact that his hip and elbows were beyond the point of finding comfort on their new metal home. He gently placed the spotting scope next to his elbow and pulled the dark gray thermal shielding blanket over his head, nestling in behind his rifle. The rooftop sentry scanned the dark areas of the container yard with a portable hand scope that may have thermal detection capability. The blanket was designed to conceal Petrovich’s thermal signature and worked well against low-power handheld scopes, but would do him little good against the kind of sophisticated thermal imaging equipment found mounted on aircraft or vehicles.

  He sighted in on the rooftop sentry through the ATN MARS6x-3 night vision scope attached to a silenced Heckler and Koch MSG-90 rifle, placing the sight’s center red dot on the man’s upper chest. At this distance, with the ambient glow of the surrounding sodium vapor lights, the bright green image was crisp. He could have used a conventional scope for these shots, but as soon as the sentries went down, electricity to the yard would be cut to maximize confusion in the building.

  Based on intelligence provided by Ernesto Galenden’s contact in the Buenos Aires Police Department, a high level meeting of Chechen street bosses was scheduled for tonight, which always preceded the arrival of a large, “tri-border” area, Andean cocaine shipment destined for Europe. He might need the night vision scope to deal with any men left outside to guard the VIP vehicles, which still hadn’t arrived. They anticipated a possible total of twenty targets at the building. Their mission was simple. They were to kill everyone on-site. Señor Galenden wanted to both send the Chechen mafia an unforgettable message and put an end to their increasingly violent encroachment on his legitimate dock interests.

  Four minutes later, his patience was rewarded by the staggered arrival of three expensive, oversized SUVs. The drivers maneuvered the SUVs to face away from the building and parked them side by side, away from the four assorted cars and trucks already parked at the base of the building. All of the truck doors opened at once, and several men exited and walked toward the metal staircase. He didn’t count them. One of the breach teams would take care of that. Instead, he noted that two heavily armed men stayed with the vehicles. They positioned themselves on the exposed side of the nearest vehicle, a silver Mercedes SUV, and lit cigarettes.

  “All teams, this is control. Proceed.”

  “Over watch, out,” Petrovich whispered.

  Through his earpiece, he heard the rest of the teams confirm the order. At this point, everything hinged on Petrovich’s shooting. The three breach teams would move once the roof sentry dropped to the ground, which might require a little more patience. He wanted to hit the man while he stood on the edge of the far roof, so he would tumble to the ground. He couldn’t be sure of the roof’s thickness, and an unusual overhead thud during a tense meeting would not be a good start to their operation.

  Petrovich steadied the crosshairs, which had already been adjusted for the distance and a steady six knot breeze. The roof sentry touched his right hand to his ear for a few seconds, which was a tell that he had just received orders through an earpiece. It was a hard habit to break, even for a seasoned professional. The guard moved toward the far edge, and Petrovich was willing to bet he had just been ordered to keep a close eye on the areas behind the building. They already had three men watching the front.

  He kept the red dot centered on the man’s upper back and started his breathing drill. Slow, predictable breaths, allowing him to gauge the rifle sc
ope’s natural drift. He gently added pressure to the sensitive trigger, and the rifle bucked into his shoulder, the large suppressor barking a sharp hiss that was unlikely to attract any attention. The sentry lurched forward from the impact of the 175 grain hollow point projectile and disappeared over the edge.