“There are safeguards in place.”
“I know you said Chandler is formidable,” Ratzenberger said. “Is five against one enough?”
“One and a half, if you count her handler.”
“Can she be recruited as well?”
“Chandler? No. She’s… different. The best way to deal with her is to proceed as planned.”
“So we’re going to do it.”
“It’s best for the country, Mr. Vice President. We’ve discussed this.”
Ratzenberger bit his lip. This was incredibly risky. But the nuclear strike was an easier and less-lethal alternative to releasing the disease. And Hydra Deux was still prepping.
“Keep me posted,” he ordered.
“Of course.”
The Instructor hung up.
Ratzenberger leaned back in the Executive chair and closed his eyes.
Soon, the fate of the world would be left to a few specially trained operatives. And Razenberger’s legacy, his destiny, was intertwined with that fate.
So many ways for things to go wrong.
So many ways for things to go right.
The Vice President imagined a nuclear strike.
The mushroom cloud.
The burning.
The radiation.
Then he thought of millions of people, blood streaming from their eyes, coughing out bits of lung tissue.
“Dear God,” he prayed. “Let me know I’m doing the right thing.”
God didn’t reply.
The End
The CODENAME: CHANDLER saga continues in FLEE
While each story can be read as a standalone, here is the chronological order for the series:
HIT
EXPOSED
NAUGHTY
FLEE
SPREE
THREE
FREE (coming in 2014)
About J.A. Konrath
Joe Konrath is the author of more than twenty novels and dozens of shorter works in the mystery, thriller, horror, and science fiction genres. He’s sold over a two million books worldwide, and besides Tracy Sharp he’s collaborated with bestsellers Blake Crouch, Barry Eisler, Ann Voss Peterson, Henry Perez, Tom Schreck, Jeff Strand, and F. Paul Wilson. He likes beer, pinball machines, and playing pinball when drinking beer. Visit him at jakonrath.com.
About Ann Voss Peterson
Award-winning author Ann Voss Peterson wrote her first story at seven years old and hasn’t stopped since. To pursue her love of creative writing, she’s worked as a bartender, horse groomer, and window washer. Now known for her adrenaline-fueled thrillers and Harlequin Intrigue romances, Ann draws on her wide variety of life experiences to fill her fictional worlds with compelling energy and undeniable emotion. She lives near Madison, Wisconsin, with her family and their border collie.
Ebooks by J.A. Konrath
Jack Daniels Thrillers
Whiskey Sour
Bloody Mary
Dirty Martini
Fuzzy Navel
Cherry Bomb
Shaken
Stirred (with Blake Crouch)
Last Call (with Blake Crouch)
Shot of Tequila
Banana Hammock
Jack Daniels Stories (collected stories)
Serial Killers Uncut (with Blake Crouch)
Suckers (with Jeff Strand)
Planter’s Punch (with Tom Schreck)
Floaters (with Henry Perez)
Burners (with Henry Perez)
Truck Stop (short)
Flee (with Ann Voss Peterson)
Spree (with Ann Voss Peterson)
Three (with Ann Voss Peterson)
Hit (with Ann Voss Peterson)
Exposed (with Ann Voss Peterson)
Naughty (with Ann Voss Peterson)
Babe on Board (short with Ann Voss Peterson)
With a Twist (short)
Street Music (short)
Jacked Up! (with Tracy Sharp)
Racked (with Jude Hardin)
Straight Up (with Iain Rob Wright)
Other Works
Symbios
Timecaster
Timecaster Supersymmetry
Wild Night is Calling (short with Ann Voss Peterson)
Shapeshifters Anonymous (short)
The Screaming (short)
Afraid (writing as Jack Kilborn)
Endurance (writing as Jack Kilborn)
Trapped (writing as Jack Kilborn)
Haunted House (writing as Jack Kilborn)
Draculas (with Blake Crouch, Jeff Strand, and F. Paul Wilson)
The List
Disturb
65 Proof (short story omnibus)
Crime Stories (collected stories)
Horror Stories (collected stories)
Dumb Jokes & Vulgar Poems
A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing
Be the Monkey (with Barry Eisler)
Grandma? (with Talon Konrath)
Ebooks by Ann Voss Peterson
THRILLERS
Pushed Too Far
Burned Too Hot
Flee (Chandler series with J.A. Konrath)
Spree (Chandler series with J.A. Konrath)
Three (Chandler series with J.A. Konrath)
SHORT STORIES
Babe on Board (with J.A. Konrath)
Wild Night Is Calling (with J.A. Konrath)
SHORT NOVELS
Hit (Chandler series with J.A. Konrath)
Exposed (Chandler series with J.A. Konrath)
Naughty (Chandler series with J.A. Konrath)
ROMANTIC SUSPENSE NOVELS
His Witness, Her Child
Gypsy Magic (with Rebecca York and Patricia Rosemoor)
Claiming His Family
Incriminating Passion
Boys in Blue (with Rebecca York and Patricia Rosemoor)
Legally Binding
Desert Sons (with Rebecca York and Patricia Rosemoor)
Marital Privilege
Serial Bride (Wedding Mission series)
Evidence of Marriage (Wedding Mission series)
Vow to Protect (Wedding Mission series)
Critical Exposure
Special Assignment
Wyoming Manhunt
Christmas Awakening
Covert Cootchie-Cootchie-Coo
Rocky Mountain Fugitive
A Rancher’s Brand of Justice
A Cop in Her Stocking
Seized by the Sheik
Secret Protector
Visit the author at annvosspeterson.com.
HIT
by J.A. Konrath and Ann Voss Peterson
She’s an elite spy, working for an agency so secret only three people know it exists. Trained by the best of the best, she has honed her body, her instincts, and her intellect to become the perfect weapon.
CODENAME: CHANDLER
Before special operative Chandler was forced to FLEE, she executed the most difficult missions—and most dangerous people—for the government. So when she’s ordered to eliminate a crooked corporate CEO in a manner that looks like natural death, it’s a regular day at the office… until she discovers she’s not the only assassin hunting this particular prey, and her competition is aiming to make this hit into a political statement that will shake the nation.
THREE
by J.A. Konrath and Ann Voss Peterson
CODENAME: CHANDLER
Time is running out for Chandler, the elite assassin whose mission to rescue her sister from a notorious black ops prison landed her at the top of the nation’s Most Wanted list. Burned by her handlers and forced to work with her mortal enemy in a race to preserve the very government that wants her dead, the living weapon has become a ticking time bomb.
THREE
In saving her sister, Chandler unleashed a power-mad American president dead set on controlling the world—no matter how many millions of innocent people he must kill to do it. To st
op him, Chandler will go deeper than she’s ever gone before, pushing her body and mind to their absolute limits. All the while she is hunted by the one man who knows her every secret, her every hiding place—and her every weakness.
Infiltrating the White House, crashing a bullfight in Mexico City, hijacking a blimp in Toronto…these are just the beginning of the end, as the Codename: Chandler trilogy races towards its stunning conclusion.
WILD NIGHT IS CALLING
by J.A. Konrath and Ann Voss Peterson
Wisconsin. Summer. Late at night.
Two teenage girls are picked up by two boys, who invite them back to their place to party.
But an innocent mistake turns the party into a nightmare, where nothing is what it seems…
Wild Night Is Calling is a 6000 word short story by thriller writer J.A. Konrath (Shaken, Trapped) and romantic suspense writer Ann Voss Peterson (A Cop in Her Stocking, Seized By The Sheik).
Peterson wrote the first half. Konrath wrote the second half.
This ebook, specially formatted for Kindle with an active table of contents, also contains an excerpt from Konrath and Peterson’s collaborative spy thriller, FLEE.
Together they also wrote EXPOSED, BABE ON BOARD, and SPREE.
NAUGHTY
Copyright © 2013 by Joe Konrath & Ann Voss Peterson
Cover and art copyright © 2013 by Carl Graves
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this publication can be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without permission in writing from the authors.
December 2013