Brandon Vale is a career thief---the best there is. Or at least he was before he was thrown in prison for a jewel heist gone bad. And even more embarrassing, he had nothing to do with it. His time inside is going fairly quietly until the night he's broken out against his will by Richard Scanlon, the now-retired FBI agent who framed him in the first place.
Scanlon, who still has ties to the United States intelligence community, has discovered that a Ukrainian crime organization is auctioning twelve nuclear warheads to the highest bidder, but he can't convince the government that the sale isn't a hoax. The only way he can get his hands on the $200 million necessary to take the warheads off the market is to do something that goes against everything he stands for: steal it.
The choice Brandon is given is simple: help Scanlon and hope to live through it, or turn himself in and face the repercussions of his "escape."
Suddenly, Brandon finds himself with only weeks to plan a Las Vegas heist that that he's been dreaming about for years, but has always thought was probably impossible. And to make matters worse, Scanlon insists on choosing his team personally. Led by the relentlessly intelligent and undeniably beautiful Catherine Juarez, not a single one of the former government operatives he picks has so much as shoplifted a pack of gum in their lives.
As the day of the heist approaches, Brandon's carefully constructed plans begin to break down and he suspects that the elaborate double-cross he's devised to save himself could cost millions of lives. He finally has to ask himself just how far he's willing to be dragged into a game that he can only lose.
With this heart-stopping, all-too-real novel, Kyle Mills proves once again that he is one of the freshest and most original thriller writers working today.
Description:
Brandon Vale is a career thief---the best there is. Or at least he was before he was thrown in prison for a jewel heist gone bad. And even more embarrassing, he had nothing to do with it. His time inside is going fairly quietly until the night he's broken out against his will by Richard Scanlon, the now-retired FBI agent who framed him in the first place.
Scanlon, who still has ties to the United States intelligence community, has discovered that a Ukrainian crime organization is auctioning twelve nuclear warheads to the highest bidder, but he can't convince the government that the sale isn't a hoax. The only way he can get his hands on the $200 million necessary to take the warheads off the market is to do something that goes against everything he stands for: steal it.
The choice Brandon is given is simple: help Scanlon and hope to live through it, or turn himself in and face the repercussions of his "escape."
Suddenly, Brandon finds himself with only weeks to plan a Las Vegas heist that that he's been dreaming about for years, but has always thought was probably impossible. And to make matters worse, Scanlon insists on choosing his team personally. Led by the relentlessly intelligent and undeniably beautiful Catherine Juarez, not a single one of the former government operatives he picks has so much as shoplifted a pack of gum in their lives.
As the day of the heist approaches, Brandon's carefully constructed plans begin to break down and he suspects that the elaborate double-cross he's devised to save himself could cost millions of lives. He finally has to ask himself just how far he's willing to be dragged into a game that he can only lose.
With this heart-stopping, all-too-real novel, Kyle Mills proves once again that he is one of the freshest and most original thriller writers working today.
From Publishers Weekly
At the start of this strong thriller from bestseller Mills (Fade), career criminal Brandon Vale is in prison for a failed diamond theft when Richard Scanlon, an ex-FBI agent and security consultant, gets him released and offers him a job. The Ukrainian mob claims it has 12 nuclear warheads for sale, and Scanlon decides he'll save them from becoming ammunition in a terrorist plot by, with Brandon's help, coming up with the $200 million asking price by robbing a Vegas casino. With the aid of one of Scanlon's employees, Catherine Juarez, Brandon executes a brilliant plan, but finds himself mired in the terrorist plot. The likable Brandon wants nothing more than to be allowed to continue his life of cons and crime without the distractions of morality and patriotism, but this is not to be ("It was hard to believe that the planet's future—or lack thereof—was going to rest on the narrow shoulders of a thirty-three-year-old thief"). Fortunately for readers and the world, Brandon proves to be interesting, intelligent and more than equal to the task. (Aug.)
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From Booklist
The Ukranian Mob reportedly has 12 nuclear bombs for sale. Richard Scanlan, a former FBI superagent and currently head of a Vegas-based intelligence contractor, wants the U.S. to purchase the weapons before a terrorist group gets its hands on them. The government's intelligence team discredits the reports so Scanlon decides to engineer the purchase on his own. To do so, he needs the help of superthief Brandon Vale, so he engineers Vale's escape from prison. Vale's not particularly interested in stealing nukes to save the world, but it beats prison. Mills layers his familiar doomsday theme with caper-novel particulars for a highly entertaining read in which the surprise is the twisted international political solution advocated by the president's key foreign policy advisor. Mills entertains, but he's also capable of keeping readers awake at night contemplating the terrifying vagaries of an increasingly dangerous world. Wes Lukowsky
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