Knockout, Book Two (The Homeland Security Series)

By Solomon Black

The thrills resume in Book Two of Solomon Black’s KNOCKOUT.

The adventure continues as Caleb Starr seeks his revenge against a terrorist mastermind. Spurred on by a terrible loss, the bounty hunter and professional fighter sets out to track down his new enemy. However, his quest takes an unexpected detour when he is joined by someone from his past. Someone who has the knowledge and tools to help him bring Hassan Abdul-Aziz to justice.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Solomon Black
• Release date: Mar 6, 2016
• ISBN: 9781524290566

Solomon Black

Solomon Black is a former Air Force intelligence officer turned author. He is a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy. He served as an intelligence officer in Operation Southern Watch in Iraq and Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. Currently, he works for the homeland security enterprise as a research analyst.

Book preview

Copyright © 2016

Solomon Black

All Rights Reserved

The thrills resume in Book Two of Solomon Black’s KNOCKOUT.

The adventure continues as Caleb Starr seeks his revenge against a terrorist mastermind. Spurred on by a terrible loss, the bounty hunter and professional fighter sets out to track down his new enemy. However, his quest takes an unexpected detour when he is joined by someone from his past. Someone who has the knowledge and tools to help him bring Hassan Abdul-Aziz to justice.

KNOCKOUT

Book Two

The Homeland Security Series

By Solomon Black

http:// http://solomonblack14n3.wix.com/books

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Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

KNOCKOUT

Book Two

Chapter 1

Crimson and ochre light streaked the canvas of the evening sky as the sun set over Washington, D.C. Night was settling on the 37 acres situated northeast of the intersection of Massachusetts and Nebraska Avenues. A wrought iron fence snaked around the perimeter of the government compound on those acres, discouraging passersby from attempting to access the sprawling mess of office buildings and concrete. Most of the structures in the compound were decades old and looked to be in a sorry state of repair. Dark wood and brown brick appeared to have been the dominating theme of whoever designed the place. Greenery and other attempts at livening the area appeared sporadically in well-manicured patches of grass. They were, however, sad attempts to bring life to the dreary campus. The rambling facility, comprised of old government buildings that dated back to World War II, had once served as a center for Naval signals intelligence. That function had eventually transferred to the National Security Agency located an hour up the road at Fort Meade in Maryland.

Nebraska Avenue Northwest, a D.C. surface artery that snaked generally from southwest to northeast, separated the government facility from the university that sat directly across from it. Two young women wearing American University track and field t-shirts jogged by in the dying light. Unseen armed security guards stared out at them from inside a guardhouse constructed of concrete and bulletproof glass. The squat rust-colored structure sat behind an imposing metal gate that had been installed onto wheeled tracks. Behind the gate, all was quiet. More uniformed armed guards patrolled the grounds. Here and there, non-uniformed personnel could be seen scurrying hurriedly from one drab building to the next. Near the center of the complex, a multi-story concrete structure hummed quietly. Its grey façade was adorned with a multitude of antennae and satellite dishes.

Josh leaned back at his desk, tablet in one hand and steaming mug of tea in the other, as the sun’s last rays vanished over the horizon in an impressive sunset. Not that Josh would be able to appreciate it, since his office had no windows. It was deep in the bowels of the anonymous, humming building on the headquarters campus of the Department of Homeland Security. Given his schedule and his activities, he could spend entire days without seeing the sun. More often than he liked to admit, his job entailed spending hours poring over data, watching and following certain individuals as they wormed their way through the digital world.

He and his team analyzed social media sites, chat rooms, and other hidden cyber locations to identify, track, and eliminate some of the worst people on the planet. Those people said things online that would alarm any sane person, but it was their real-world actions that kept Josh on edge. The people he sought were truly evil. They didn’t just talk; they acted. And all of them had demonstrated the intent and capability to do harm to the United States. The solution to the threat then was actually simple: you couldn’t be a threat if you weren’t breathing.

His job was equal parts analysis and action. Finding and tracking a bad guy might take weeks or months, but when he and his team had them in their sights, it was the beginning of the end. Once they identified their quarry, locating them was perfunctory, and eliminating them almost an afterthought. His team, his guys, excelled at what they did. They had a 100 percent success rate. Except...

Except that their latest target, the one they had been tracking for months, had recently vanished. For days now, his team had not seen or heard him. It worried