Desert Fire (31 page)

Authors: David Hagberg

BOOK: Desert Fire

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ALL THE GERMAN engineers were gone and would not return. Saddam Hussein stood on a high balcony looking out across what was the greatest secret ever to be contained in this valley. Even greater, he thought, than the creation of mankind.

Muhammad had spoken of the Garden of Eden. It would happen again. Here in Iraq, in the Fertile Crescent.

Four hundred meters above, on the desert floor, work continued on the massive desalinization facility, but here, in the natural salt caverns formed millions of years ago, the real projectâIraq's real salvationâlanguished.

“But only for the moment, Mr. President,” the man standing beside Hussein said.

“Your technology is not so good as the Germans', is this not so?” Hussein asked.

“We have more nuclear fuel,” Nikolai Vasilevich Rogachev said. “President Nikolayev's new SALT proposal will mean that even more nuclear warheads will
have to be dismantled. Plutonium makes a wonderful electrical generating fuel.” The Russian grinned. “Did you know, Mr. President, that one half of a kilogram of fissioned plutonium is equal to ten
billion
watts of thermal energy?”

“That is interesting,” the Iraqi leader answered. “But tell me again about the financial arrangements and your security proposals.”

“Of course, Mr. President,” said Rogachev, who was a high-ranking officer with the new Foreign Intelligence Service.

It was too bad about Michael, Saddam Hussein thought as he and the Russian and the rest of their party took the elevator down to the main floor of the vast cavern.

But there were other Michaels. There were always other Michaels.

FICTION BY DAVID HAGBERG

WRITING AS DAVID HAGBERG

Twister
The Capsule
Last Come the Children
Heartland
Heroes
Without Honor
Countdown
Crossfire
Critical Mass
Desert Fire
High Flight
Assassin
White House
Joshua's Hammer
Eden's Gate
The Kill Zone
By Dawn's Early Light
Soldier of God
Allah's Scorpion
Dance with the Dragon
¹

WRITING AS SEAN FLANNERY

The Kremlin Conspiracy
Eagles Fly
The Trinity Factor
The Hollow Men
False Prophets
Broken Idols
Gulag
Moscow Crossing
The Zebra Network
Crossed Swords
Counterstrike
Moving Targets
Winner Take All
Achilles' Heel

PRAISE FOR DAVID HAGBERG

Desert Fire

“An effectively moody chiller â¦ An absorbing taleâespecially notable for its broody atmosphere and its driven, world-weary protagonist”

âKirkus Reviews

“A classy novel â¦ What sets
Desert Fire
apart from any other novels like it is the simplicity and sharpness of Hagberg's prose.”

Star Tribune
(Minneapolis, MN)

By Dawn's Early Light

“A fresh attack on international techno-thrills â¦ up-to-date and action driven.”

â
Kirkus Reviews

“[A] gripping Clancyesque cat-and-mouse sea chase â¦ superb pacing â¦ [a] spellbinding read.”

â
Publishers Weekly

The Kill Zone

“Spymeister Hagberg can percolate an action scene with the best of them.”

â
Kirkus Reviews

“In reliably meaty prose, Hagberg once again delivers compelling characters, animated political intrigue, and a plot that speeds along at a steady clip.”

â
Publishers Weekly

Joshua's Hammer

“David Hagberg is one of the most interesting writers of thrillers in the new millennium. His work rivals that of Clancy, Koontz, and Cornwall. With
Joshua's Hammer
, he probably has surpassed these notable writers. Mr. Hagberg turns the genre into his personal playing field with this realistic drama that never eases up on the throttle.”

â
Midwest Book Review

“Hagberg, a maven of Mach speed mayhem, intricately moves pieces around his global chessboard until many bodies, plane crashes, and running sea battles later, action hero McGarvey wipes out the bad guys. Hagberg's long yarns always muscle their way to the top of the techno-intrigue-warfare genre.”

â
Booklist

Notes

Forthcoming

This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to real people or events is purely coincidental.

DESERT FIRE

A Forge Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
175 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10010

www.tor-forge.com

Forge
^Â®is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.

Cover art by Dan Gonzalez

eISBN 9781466812796

First eBook Edition : March 2012

ISBN-13: 978-0-7653-5800-4
ISBN-10: 0-7653-5800-X

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 93-17048

First Edition: July 1993
First Mass Market Edition: August 1994
Second Mass Market Edition: June 2007