Viking Bay: A Kay Hamilton Novel - Couverture souple

“This thrilling sequel will not disappoint.”—Library Journal
 
“[A] fine action thriller...Kay is a great character: smart, tough, and uncompromising... This makes for much more compelling reading than if she had been a ‘he.’”—Booklist
 
“[A] well-paced follow-up to 2013’s Rosarito Beach... Lawson’s knowledge from a career as a senior executive for the U.S. Navy gives muscle to a plot bound by the obscure intentions and covert operations of intelligence work... Kay’s tendency to act before she thinks keeps the plot whizzing along.”—Publishers Weekly

PRAISE FOR ROSARITO BEACH
“Grabs you by the throat... the writing’s lyrical, the plot is breathtaking, and the characters, the good ones and bad, are utterly compelling.”—New York Times bestselling author Jeffery Deaver

“I love tough guys, even when they're gals, and Glock-toting, fast-thinking, wise-cracking DEA agent Kay Hamilton is one of the toughest going.”—Stephen Hunter, bestselling author of The Third Bullet and I, Sniper

“Lawson has written a great start to a promising new series, with a gripping story line and a gutsy, likable heroine. Readers who enjoy fast-paced thrillers and detective novels with a female protagonist who’s fully developed, vulnerable, and intriguing will gobble this one up and ask for more.”—Library Journal, starred review

“With this new character and proposed series, Lawson shows his breadth of talent. I will read anything he writes—his prose is so smooth, his plotting so engaging and his pacing near perfect.”—George Easter, Deadly Pleasures Magazine 

“[A] novel that goes beyond edgy to explosive and introduces a character whose future exploits promise further excitement.”—Richmond Times-Dispatch
 
“Mike 'M.A.' Lawson hits his stride in a big way with Rosarito Beach, featuring the impressive debut of DEA agent Kay Hamilton. This is T. Jefferson Parker’s brilliant Charlie Hood series on steroids with just enough Elmore Leonard (Riding the Rap) thrown in for good measure. Flat-out great.”—Jon Land, Providence Journal
 
“A highly promising debut.”—Adam Woog, Seattle Times 
 
“It’s no surprise if this new series hooks you.... Kay impresses both by her recognition of the reality of her job and her courage in trying anyway.... [Lawson’s] trademark caustic humor and dialogue zing on almost every page.”—Michele Ross, Cleveland Plain Dealer

***This excerpt is from an advance uncorrected proof***

Copyright © 2014 M.A. Lawson

PROLOGUE

It began with a text message.

Alpha texted Bravo and the burner phone in Bravo’s pocket vibrated. Bravo looked at the message: Transfer complete.

Bravo punched numbers into the same phone, calling Charlie. He let the receiving phone ring twice, then disconnected the call. No words were necessary.

The man designated as Charlie removed his phone from a leg pocket in his cargo pants, punched in five digits, and hit call—and a transformer at a substation half a kilometer away disintegrated, sending bolts of white light a hundred feet into the sky. Witnesses later said that lightning—on a clear, cloudless night—had struck the transformer.

Delta didn’t need a text message or a call to tell him to perform his task: the power going out in the compound was his signal. He put on night vision goggles and slipped into the house. He caught the old man just as he was coming out of his bedroom to investigate the power outage, and Delta slit his throat as if the old man were a newborn lamb. He dragged the body into a closet and left the house.

Delta called Bravo’s phone and it vibrated twice. Again no words were needed to tell Bravo that Delta had completed his mission.

Bravo didn’t use the burner phone for his next call. He used his personal phone, because it didn’t matter if his next call could be traced. He dialed a number and spoke for less than ten seconds. Then he counted slowly to sixty—sixty seconds should be plenty of time. If he was wrong, a man Bravo needed to live was going to die. At the count of sixty, he reached into his pocket and, without looking, punched the # key five times.

The package erupted inside the house. Stainless-steel ball bearings and roofing nails spread outward faster than the speed of sound, and an odorless flammable gel inside the package ignited. The people in the room, some sitting no more than two feet from the bomb, were ripped asunder in an instant. Their flesh was burning seconds after that.

Bravo was confident that no one had survived; nothing made of flesh and bone could have survived.

Bravo was wrong.