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Book Information
Genre:
FICTION / Suspense
Publication:
Jan 13, 2009
Pages:
806
Books by Chad Huskins
No one's ever managed to spring a prisoner from Supermax-the nation's most secure penitentiary and home to society's most dangerous criminals. But that's not going to stop Khan from trying. He's a former U.S. Special Forces operative-turned-contractor for a mysterious covert agency called the Axis Group. His mission? Extract a mysterious prisoner known only as Prisoner 866. Along for the ride is Rasputin, another operative and a lifelong survivalist, tracker, and stealth expert. Together, these two men must put their separate approaches aside to find a way inside Supermax's walls-unbeknownst to its 2,000 security cameras, watchdogs, motion detectors, heat sensors, and gun towers.
But when the pair discover an assassin has been hired to silence them both, Axis's motives and origins are called into question, and Khan and Rasputin find themselves in a fight for survival. Who is Prisoner 866? Why does Axis want him so badly? And just who are the minds behind the Axis Group? Khan and Rasputin must answer these questions in time to save their mission-and themselves.
Khan in Rasputin's Shadow mixes Tom Clancy-style suspense with high-stakes intrigue for a keeps-you-guessing, fast-paced and savvy thriller, right up until the shocking finale.
“You’d need the timing to be right,” said Khan, moving right along and thinking out loud. “An assault chopper of some type, fast and primed to kill on sight. That’s what you’d need. Drop in a few mercs by ropes to secure the prisoner once he’s found, then get him the hell outta there. The only problem,” he added quickly, “would be getting all those mercs out before word spread of all this and the police came with guns and choppers of their own.”
“Do you have any idea where we could get an assault group that friggin’ big?” asked Rasputin.
Khan nodded. “I do. But Axis probably knows of better ones and exactly what sort of price tag would be included.” He shook his head almost mournfully. “But then there would always be the question of money and allegiance and seriousness. It’s always the same with mercenaries.”
Rasputin figured Khan spoke from years of experience. He looked to the east again, where Supermax lay beyond the horizon, and wondered at how such a thing invisible from here could be such a powerful obstacle. He also wondered, as he usually did during such times, if there could be any man behind those razor-wired walls that speculated that there might be other men out there in the desert plotting their downfall.
He looked about him, saw the gray, early-morning shadows brought on by the strange lighting coming from the sun. Everything was suffused in orange and blue and gray. It was a reminder that each day on this earth was a unique one.
Rasputin nodded and said, “It can be done with stealth.”
Khan shook his head, but not vehemently. Rasputin rather thought that Khan shook his head out of impulse. The younger man said to the soldier, “Just hear me out.” He took two steps away from the campsite and stood in front of Khan, between the soldier and the unseeable prison. From this vantage he could look Khan directly in the eye, and Rasputin felt just a twinge of fear in meeting that gaze. “A direct assault on the penitentiary will obviously draw attention, an’ as well-conceived as it could be there will still be reinforcements from the outside—police, SWAT, FBI, an’ it’s conceivable that somethin’ might go awry with the helicopter itself. Durin’ the extraction there’s the chance that it could be struck by random gunfire, an’ then if it fails to get us beyond the walls, an’ our teams crash, there’s the chance that the prisoner we’re extracting will be killed, not to mention us, an’ even if we all were to survive then we’d be trapped inside the compound, negotiatin’ the terms of our release with the Feds outside.”
“So far all of this is conjecture,” Khan said, sounding unimpressed as well as annoyed. But again, Rasputin did not feel that it was annoyance at his, Rasputin’s, plan, but rather annoyance that so far he, Khan, hadn’t heard the thing that would convince him otherwise. In other words, Khan wanted to be convinced that there was a way. This was encouraging for Rasputin.
About Chad Huskins
Chad Huskins is a researcher, writer, and martial artist. He is a certified instructor of Bruce Lee’s Jeet Kune Do and Filipino Kali, and also trains regularly in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Chinese Kung Fu, Muay Thai, Indonesian Silat, and the Keysi Fighting Method. Huskins lives outside of Atlanta, Georgia.
No one's ever managed to spring a prisoner from Supermax-the nation's most secure penitentiary and home to society's most dangerous criminals. But that's not going to stop Khan from trying. He's a former U.S. Special Forces operative-turned-contractor for a mysterious covert agency called the Axis Group. His mission? Extract a mysterious prisoner known only as Prisoner 866. Along for the ride is Rasputin, another operative and a lifelong survivalist, tracker, and stealth expert. Together, these two men must put their separate approaches aside to find a way inside Supermax's walls-unbeknownst to its 2,000 security cameras, watchdogs, motion detectors, heat sensors, and gun towers.
Chad Huskins is a researcher, writer, and martial artist. He is a certified instructor of Bruce Lee’s Jeet Kune Do and Filipino Kali, and also trains regularly in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Chinese Kung Fu, Muay Thai, Indonesian Silat, and the Keysi Fighting Method. Huskins lives outside of Atlanta, Georgia.