"Brad Thor - Harvath 02 - Path of the Assassin" - читать интересную книгу автора (Thor Brad)

Star of David in its palm.
The operation had begun.


2
Sixty kilometers across the water west of Hong Kong, the rain beat like sheets of
nails against the floating Macau Palace Casino, affectionately known by locals as the
Boat of Thieves. The seedy casino was really just an old double-decker ferry,
straining now against its moorings in the ever-increasing turbulence of the waters off
the South China Sea.
The Macanese waitress smiled as she handed a bottle of beer to her handsome
customer. At a trim but muscular five foot ten, with brown hair and blue eyes, Scot
Harvath was used to attention. As the waitress moved on to the next customer, the
casinoтАЩs public address system crackled to life. First in Chinese, then Portuguese,
and finally in English a voice announced that the Macau Observatory had elevated
Tropical Depression Anita to Tropical Storm Anita. The nearby Guia Lighthouse
was flying the тАЬNumber 8тАЭ signal, indicating that gale-force winds were expected.
Patrons were advised that local authorities might close the islandsтАЩ bridges, as well
as the connecting arteries with mainland China, without further notice.
WeтАЩd better wrap this up soon, Harvath thought to himself. The last report he had
received from the U.S. Naval Pacific Meteorology and Oceanography Center had
forecasted the depression would advance to the tropical storm stage, with winds
blowing upward of seventy-two miles per hour. Anything stronger than that would
amount to a full-blown typhoon, and he knew that at that point the mission would be
scrapped. Scrapping, though, was unacceptable to Harvath. He had come too far to
let his target go now.
Harvath pulled fifty more Hong Kong dollars from his pocket and placed another bet
as he pretended to sip at his cold beer. He was sitting at a table with a mixed group
of Anglos and Asians, all hard-core gamblers, none of whom had the good sense to
make tracks before the storm got any worse. Next to him was Sammy Cheng of the
SDU, the Hong Kong Police ForceтАЩs secretive counterterrorism unit. Harvath and
Cheng had met several years prior, when HarvathтАЩs SEAL team had been sent to
Hong Kong to help the then-British counterterrorism unit improve upon their water
skills.
Though both men appeared to be engrossed in the game, their attention was glued to
a Chinese man three tables away.
The manтАЩs name was William Lee, and he was one of the SDUтАЩs top undercover
operatives. Tonight he was posing as an intermediary for an outlawed Chinese
extremist organization that was looking to acquire weapons and explosives. The
target of the operation was an arms dealer named Philip Jamek.
Extremist groups were JamekтАЩs best customers. He was credited with sales
throughout the Philippines, Indonesia, and Japan, and was now making his services,
which also included training in the arts of terrorism and assassination, available in
China. The Chinese government wanted Jamek taken out of circulation once and for
all, and so did Scot Harvath.
Harvath had spent months tracking down this last member of the Swiss mercenary
team known as the Lions of Lucerne, who had kidnapped the American president the
year before and left a trail of dead Americans in their wake. The American
government believed that all of the deadly Lions had been eliminated or taken into
custody, but Harvath had discovered one who had slipped through the cracks тАФ