No Safe Place

Michael Hilliard

Description

Young NSA analyst Pip Palmer is the most prolific computer hacker in all the three letter government agencies. From behind his elite work station dubbed The Key, he uncovers secrets as a voyeur to the outside world.
On another continent, the most wanted terrorist in the world, Falby is back with a vengeance. Having escaped the CIA’s secret prison system, he focuses his reprisal on the American presidency.
When the former presidents are assassinated and Pip intercepts crucial information, the very people he should trust may be the ones behind it all. He’s forced on the run with an unlikely partner, and together they try to save each other and unravel the truth.
In No Safe Place, Michael Hilliard weaves another tale of suspense and intrigue; with the fulfilling characterization, plot twists, and description that have become his signature.

Sujets

• Fiction

Informations

• Publié par: AuthorHouse
• Date de parution: 22 juin 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781665562423
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

NO SAFE PLACE
MICHAEL HILLIARD


AuthorHouse™
1663 Liberty Drive
Bloomington, IN 47403
www.authorhouse.com
Phone: [phone]
 
 
 
 
 
 
© 2022 Michael Hilliard. All rights reserved.
 
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.
 
Published by AuthorHouse 09/08/2022
 
ISBN: 978-1-6655-6241-6 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-6655-6243-0 (hc)
ISBN: 978-1-6655-6242-3 (e)
 
 
 
 
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
Author Photo by Heather Crowder
 
 
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
CONTENTS
Prologue
Part 1: The Wolf Man
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Part 2: Falby The Chameleon
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Part 3: Pip & Lisa
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Part 4: A Little More About Pip…
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Part 5: No Safe Place
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Chapter 64
Chapter 65
Chapter 66
Chapter 67
Chapter 68
Chapter 69
Chapter 70
Chapter 71
Chapter 72
Chapter 73
Chapter 74
Chapter 75
Chapter 76
Chapter 77
Chapter 78
Chapter 79
Chapter 80
Chapter 81
Chapter 82
Chapter 83
Chapter 84
Chapter 85
Chapter 86
Chapter 87
Chapter 88
Part 6: End Game
Chapter 89
Chapter 90
Chapter 91
Chapter 92
Chapter 93
Chapter 94
Chapter 95
Chapter 96
Chapter 97
Chapter 98
Chapter 99
Chapter 100
 
Epilogue
Acknowledgements

Dedicated in loving memory to
“M.L.” – Mary Lou Hooper.
You weren’t the typical
mother-in-law.
I loved you. I will miss you.
You will be forever missed.
I wish you could have read this,
but God took you too soon.
PROLOGUE
Tioga, West Virginia
Present Day
T he President of the United States was on his knees.
He got up only to fall.
On all fours, his hands pressed into the warm mud, softened by the pockets of fire surrounding him.
His senses came back slowly—popping up as if born anew—competing against the throbbing in his skull. Thoughts rushed forward, even as delirium set in, and the ringing in his ears persisted.
He fought to think clearly.
I’m John Maclemore, President of the United States. Husband to Judy and father to Canon and Cole.
Noticing his tie was on fire, he threw himself to the ground to snuff out the small flame. The rush offered a small degree of understanding, a birth of thought and direction. He rose to a crouch and staggered, taking in the scene from a higher perspective.
It was like a war zone.
A massive piece of bent metal burned intensely, and he felt the heat, squinting through watering eyes. The president breathed in the harsh stink of burning fuel and placed his jacket sleeve over his mouth to stymie a cough.
Then he saw the American flag emblem and things became clearer. He’d been on Marine One somewhere over West Virginia and it was shot down!
He remembered looking to the Secret Service agents as the chopper suddenly swerved and alarms sounded. A blinding flare cut the craft in half, sending it spiraling out of control. There was shouting and panic, as his world erupted into chaos and time stood still.
Then everything went black.
Now breathing in short gasps, the president looked in every direction, searching one horrific detail to the next. He saw several dead men—his Secret Service detail—lying all around. One had limbs missing, another was half charred. The two pilots looked asleep, still strapped in their seats, though their broken bodies were splayed in awkward angles.
He was the only survivor.
President Maclemore spun around, seeing only trees and brush. On the distant horizon were two funnels of black smoke. Could they be the other choppers that had been flanking Marine One?
His thoughts were cut short by a hissing sound, as the main wreckage fell toward him, spilling the machine’s innards. The thickening black smoke was gaining spirit; and a smoky cocoon swarmed him, as the raging fire stole precious oxygen from the air.
Through the madness his resolve spiked. An innate sense of survival overtook him, and he suddenly knew what to do. Whomever had taken the choppers down had to be close, and the empty seconds that passed only worked in their favor. Looking at a thick cropping of trees, President Maclemore threw his heavy legs in front of him in a wild dash.
A whirring sound screamed from above as a drone jetted by and banked left. This time he wasted no time. The President of the United States ran for his life.
He just didn’t know where he was going.
PART ONE
THE WOLF MAN
(SIX MONTHS PRIOR)
CHAPTER 1
National Security Agency (NSA)
Fort Meade, Maryland
P ip Palmer was the best computer analyst the National Security Agency had ever recruited. Fresh out of college with a computer engineering degree, they were waiting for him.
So, when he was given only forty-eight hours to find an active serial killer, he wasn’t surprised.
The FBI was coming up against a hard time deadline—one the killer had never crossed—and they’d exhausted everything in their arsenal.
That’s when they called Pip.
At twenty-eight years old, Pip was just over five feet tall and physically-adoring. His brown eyes grew wide when he spoke and his easy, warm smile was naturally winsome. His thin, brown hair was medium in length and hung just over his eyebrows, accentuating his thin, pug nose and rounded face.
Pip was disciplined in everything he did; having never missed a day of work, always available to help a friend, and meticulous even with the most mundane of tasks.
He’d been called things like prodigy and genius; and unlike the other computer technicians, he was mostly self-taught. In school, he’d found the books and collegiate lectures important, and had taken them seriously, but his curiosity of circuitry and obsession with networking and cyberspace relationships was insatiable.
Pip had been that way since he was eight years old and took apart an old, broken Commodore 64 he’d found in the back room of the orphanage. He’d analyzed the components, re-wired it, and got it working; before repeating the process, and even adding more circuitry for increased storage and faster performance.
By sixth grade he was a hacker.
Nothing serious or harmful. He simply enjoyed the challenge of getting into locked systems and seeing how they were established. His first test was an auto repair shop somewhere in Philadelphia. He saw their inventory, payroll, and accounts receivable. He was only twelve, so he didn’t appreciate what he was looking at but was delighted that he could spy into another life from afar.
In high school, he sailed through his computer classes with easy A’s, but learned more from entering classified government mainframes, poking around, and backing out without a trace.
He was the ultimate voyeur and he reveled in it.
And through it all, he’d build on his skill set and absorb every detail. By the time he graduated from Anne Arundel Community College with a two-year degree, he could breach any system he came across. Passwords and back doors were just annoyances. He’d become a master of cyberspace and a wiz at unlocking everything within it.
If there was an algorithm or flaw to be found in any encryption software, he’d always have the answer. But it wasn’t just his mastery of the craft that made him special. He thought differently than most programmers. He was creative, imaginative, and even artistic.
Pip was a true cyber-warrior and prided himself—albeit humbly—as such.
He modified his NSA workstation with his own software to make it more efficient and far-reaching. He wrote code that gained entry into the most secure places around the world, and then layered other programs to complement everything within.
Pip was talked about at every level. He sometimes heard the rumblings in the hallways and felt the stares. But all the affirmations made him feel even smaller and unworthy. He didn’t like the spotlight and was content to perform without the accolades.
Though part of a larger team, he worked independently in the basement of building six, the brain of Research & Engineering, at the main NSA campus at Fort Meade.
His workstation was not glamorous. Huddled between several large monitors in the corner of a