He shook his head. It was time for a vacation, he thought. A very long vacation.
The Semtex exploded with a flat bang thirty minutes after Speyer had pushed the button, but Lane didn’t bother leaving his seat on the front porch. In the distance to the east he’d spotted the pair of Iroquois helicopters coming in just above tree level. Their part of the mission had to have been a success, too; otherwise they wouldn’t be coming here now.
He’d gone back upstairs to have a last look at Gloria, to convince himself that she was really dead, and then had found a bottle of Dom Perignon in the kitchen. In a blue funk, he took the bottle and a couple of glasses out to the front porch to wait. Because of the baby, Frannie wouldn’t have any wine, but Tommy would probably share a glass or two.
It was pleasant out here, he thought. Maybe something like this would be a relief from the grind of the city. At least for a while, until he got bored again.
The helicopters landed in the field across the driveway. Frannie jumped out of the lead one and headed up to the porch in her long-legged easy run, and Lane’s heart swelled. He didn’t think he could ever be bored so long as he had moments like this, with her coming across a field toward him.
Although it’s true that there are nefarious characters living in Montana, that is also true of every other state. My apologies to the good people of Montana, and especially to Kalispell. I’ve not only set bad deeds afoot there, I even changed places to suit the needs of the story. Nothing I have written in any way should be taken as the truth, or as a representation of real people. It’s just fiction.
NOVELS BY DAVID HAGBERG
Twister
The Capsule
Last Come the Children
Heartland
Without Honor*
Countdown*
Crossfire*
Critical Mass*
Desert Fire
High Flight*
Assassin *
White House*
Joshua’s Hammer*
Eden’s Gate†
WRITING AS SEAN FLANNERY
The Kremlin Conspiracy
Eagles Fly
The Trinity Factor
The Hollow Men
Broken Idols
False Prophets
Gulag
Moscow Crossing
The Zebra Network
Crossed Swords
Counterstrike
Winner Take All†
Kilo Option†
Achilles’ Heel†
(*Kirk McGarvey adventures)
(†Bill Lane adventures)
This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this novel are either fictitious or are used fictitiously.
EDEN’S GATE
Copyright © 2001 by David Hagberg
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form.
A Forge Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
175 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10010
www.tor-forge.com
Forge® is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.
eISBN 9781466813625
First eBook Edition : February 2012
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hagberg, David.
Eden’s gate / David Hagberg.—1st ed. p. cm.
“A Tom Doherty Associates book.”
ISBN 0-312-86129-X (acid-free paper)
1. Weapons of mass destruction—Fiction. 2. Government investigators—Fiction. 3. Fugitives from justice—Fiction. 4. Germans—Montana—Fiction. 5. Montana—Fiction.
PS3558.A3227 E34 2001
813’.54—dc21
2001023177
First Edition: June 2001