The Devil's Ransom: A Pike Logan Novel


 
 
 
 
 
 
 Contents
 
 Cover
 Title Page
 Dedication
 Epigraph
 Contents
 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
 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
 Chapter 44
 Chapter 45
 Chapter 46
 Chapter 47
 Chapter 48
 Chapter 49
 Chapter 50
 Chapter 51
 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
 Acknowledgments
 About the Author
 Also by Brad Taylor
 Copyright
 About the Publisher
 
 
 
 
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 Dedication
 
 
 To my editor, David Highfill, who’s decided to take a different road in life. May you have the same wind at your back that
 you’ve always given me.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Epigraph
 
 
 We live at a time when every government, every business, every person must focus on the threat of ransomware and take action
 to mitigate the risk of becoming a victim.
 
 —Jen Easterly, Director, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency
 When critical infrastructure is held at risk by foreign hackers operating from a safe haven in an adversary country, that’s
 a national security problem.
 
 —Rob Joyce, NSA Cybersecurity Director
 Ransomware remains one of the most disruptive cyber threats to organizations and individuals. This global problem requires
 a global solution.
 
 —Abigail Bradshaw CSC, Head of the Australian Cyber Security Centre
 
 
 
 
 
 Chapter 1
 
 
 August 15, 2021
 The Arg presidential palace, Kabul, Afghanistan
 
 Ahmad Khan heard the scurrying of footsteps, a scrum of people storming down the hallway outside of his office. Opening the
 door, he was startled to see the president of Afghanistan, Ashraf Ghani, walking rapidly past with his wife and a clutch of
 top advisors. Incongruously, the president was wearing plastic sandals and a thin coat.
 
 
 Ahmad exited the office and scurried to catch up to the group, wondering what was happening. As the president’s national security
 advisor, he had reason to be concerned. Jalalabad had been taken by the Taliban last night, and Mazar-e Sharif—once the bastion
 of anti-Taliban resistance—had fallen without a fight the day before. Kabul was surrounded, and even as Ghani’s top advisors
 continued to proclaim all was well, Khan knew the barbarians were at the gate.
 
 
 Others in the city apparently did as well, as the sky above the Arg—the nineteenth-century presidential palace that had been
 home to the rulers of Afghanistan for generations—radiated a constant thumping of rotor blades from helicopters of all nations,
 flying about like someone had smacked a beehive with a stick.
 
 
 Khan caught up to the entourage and snagged the sleeve of the man at the rear, saying, “What’s going on? The president has a meeting in thirty minutes about the security of the main avenues of approach into Kabul.”