Karin Jansen has gone missing-right before heading off for vacation with her boyfriend, Deke Mitchell. She disappears under very suspicious circumstances, and the authorities can't help but think it has something to do with her high-profile job as a lawyer working for the United States Attorney General. But who would have the motive? Who would want Karin to disappear-perhaps permanently? Deke isn't your usual boyfriend, though. He works for the group known only as R.E.C.O.M., the most secretive of the C.I.A's Black Op units, and he's on the verge of retiring-until his boss calls him in to request Deke take on one more job. Twenty million dollars have gone missing in Pakistan, and the C.I.A suspects terrorists. Deke knows the Middle East better than anyone, so he doesn't have a choice-even though he's having trouble reaching Karin. Once overseas, the news that Karin has actually disappeared compounds the trouble he encounters from al-Qaeda soldiers. Now Deke is in a race against time to recover millions of dollars and save his girlfriend's life. From northwestern Pakistan to the backwoods of West Virginia, this is Deke Mitchell's final mission. Only time will tell, though, whether he'll get out of the C.I.A alive. Swift Mission By Brian Cornett iUniverse, Inc. Copyright © 2011 Brian Cornett All right reserved. ISBN: 978-1-4620-0820-9 Chapter One Monday, 6:40 p.m. Karin was staggering now, and it was all Reed could do to hold her up and keep her moving across the restaurant parking lot to his car. He shoved her against the side of his Mercedes and held her there with one arm while fumbling with the door, finally getting it open, and dumping her into the front passenger seat. Once inside, she collapsed against the backrest. He leaned into the car and tried to fasten her seat belt as she struggled to speak. Her words were slurred and nearly unintelligible. Then, for a moment, her speech became clearer, and he heard her say, "What's wrong with me? I need to go home. Call Deke." The seat belt snapped into place, and he quickly went around to the driver's side and slid behind the wheel. He started the car, and looking at Karin Jansen again, he thought, You'll never go home again, and I am truly sorry for that. I really do like you, and I wish you had been willing to play when I asked you that time. But now all that is over . She rolled toward the door and tried to speak again. But now Karin could neither move nor speak, and she slowly fell into a deep sleep, a coma from which she might never awaken. * * * Only an hour before, Tom Reed was standing on the steps of Karin Jansen's apartment building, trying to get his nerve up and wondering if he really could do what Robert Chilton had insisted that he must do. Earlier in the day, Chilton had been adamant: "You've got to stop her." The two men were sitting in the front seat of Chilton's Cadillac in the deserted gravel parking lot in the rear of RFK Stadium. He continued, "I can call in some favors and try to sidetrack the investigation of the senator's finances, but if she gets a deposition from those idiots in San Antonio, there's no way I can do anything. It's up to you to keep her from going to Texas tonight." He paused for a few seconds and then continued, "And then we'll make her disappear—permanently." Reed looked hard at Senator Whiting's chief of staff. "Why me? I didn't have anything to do with his campaign." He wondered again what he had gotten himself into. Chilton had not seemed as ruthless and cold when they had first talked of stalling the attorney general's investigation into Whiting's finances. Reed looked away at the huge stadium for a moment and then turned back again to face Chilton. "You're the one who is covering up the contribution. All I did was introduce you to those people from Penta Systems." He stopped for a moment and then asked, "Do we have to go that far? Can't you think of another way? Maybe you could buy her off." He tried to think of some other, less drastic way to divert Karin from the investigation. The older man looked at him and spoke softly, "Reed, you've told me that you want to move up in Washington politics, and for that you need my help. When we got you that job with the AG, you knew that we would want you to do some things that you might not want to do. Or are you turning ethical at last?" Chilton looked away and then spoke again, "It's a little late for that, so now you will do exactly as I say. You know I can make you in this town." He paused. "Or I can break you. If you don't take care of that nosy bitch from your office, I'll see that you are finished—forever." He turned away and looked through the windshield at the bright and sunny early fall day. "I think I know a way that you can keep her from leaving tonight." Reed shifted uncomfortably in the plush seat of the car. "I don't know how you think we can stop her. She and I have a meeting with Garland to talk about the Penta depo