Weapons of Opportunity

Subscribe to our newsletter for title recommendations, giveaways and discounts reserved only for subscribers.Join here. PRAISE FOR WEAPONS OF OPPORTUNITY “Dale Brown, the undisputed master of military adventure, is back with a relentless thrill ride . . . A spellbinding tale packed with unforgettable characters and plot twists . . . it is not to be missed.” —JOSHUA HOOD, bestselling author of The Guardian and Robert Ludlum’s Treadstone series “As Flynn cuts through his enemies like an A-10 on a gun run, Flynn shows us that not all USAF intel officers live on the golf course or in cyberspace with PowerPoint for a weapon. A high-flying thriller of the type we’ve come to expect from Dale Brown. Not to be missed!” —MATTHEW BETLEY, bestselling author of The Neighborhood “Scorchingly paced . . . Fans will be pleased.” —PUBLISHERS WEEKLY “For readers who like their action sequences bursting with badass tech and intense skirmishes in an almost nonstop pacing, Weapons of Opportunity is an immensely satisfying story with all the elements of an extraordinary thriller.” —BEST THRILLER BOOKS BOOKS BY DALE BROWN Weapons of Opportunity Countdown to Midnight Arctic Storm Rising Eagle Station The Kremlin Strike The Moscow Offensive Price of Duty Iron Wolf Starfire Tiger’s Claw A Time for Patriots Executive Intent Rogue Forces Shadow Command Strike Force Edge of Battle Act of War Plan of Attack Air Battle Force Wings of Fire Warrior Class Battle Born The Tin Man Fatal Terrain Shadows of Steel Storming Heaven Chains of Command Night of the Hawk Sky Masters Hammerheads Day of the Cheetah Silver Tower Flight of the Old Dog Copyright © 2023 by Creative Arts and Sciences, LLCE-book published in 2023 by Blackstone PublishingCover design by Alenka Vdovič LinaschkeAll rights reserved. This book or any portionthereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotationsin a book review. The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidentaland not intended by the author.Trade e-book ISBN 979-8-212-18836-4Library e-book ISBN 979-8-212-18835-7Fiction / Thrillers / MilitaryBlackstone Publishing31 Mistletoe Rd.Ashland, OR 97520www.BlackstonePublishing.com This novel is dedicated to the ones who keep watching to keep us safe . . . around the corner or around the world. “To surprise the enemy is to defeat him.” —Alexander Suvorov, eighteenth-century Russian general “Madness is however an affliction which in war carries with it the advantage of surprise.” —Winston Churchill PROLOGUE Tambov Military Airfield, Russia November Winter had come early to this part of Russia, four hundred kilometers southeast of Moscow. Snow drifted down out of the cloudy night sky, becoming a swirling curtain of dazzling white where it fell into the beams of the powerful lights ringing the airfield. Along the base’s western perimeter, a stand of bare-limbed birch trees faded from sight—obscured by the steadily increasing snowfall. Several narrow-body jets were parked out on a wide apron just off the concrete runway. Fitted with the needle-shaped nose of the much-larger Tupolev Tu-160 sweptwing supersonic bomber, they were Tu-134UBLs—models of a 1960s-vintage civilian passenger plane converted to train bomber crews rotating through Tambov’s 1,449th Air Base. But these specialized training aircraft were dwarfed by the single enormous, four-engine airliner sitting on a taxiway not far away. Comparable to America’s Air Force One, this Ilyushin-96-300PU was Russian president Piotr Zhdanov’s personal transport. Outside near the flight line, a handful of stern-faced bodyguards surrounded Zhdanov. He took a long drag from his cigarette and then irritably pitched it away across the tarmac. Its lit end glowed orange in the darkness for a brief moment before vanishing, extinguished by the falling snow. Much like any man’s life, in the end, he thought dourly. One brief flash of light and warmth and then oblivion for all eternity. His hard mouth tightened in a grimace. Despite his thick black coat and fur hat, he could feel the cold gnawing at his bones. The glory days when he could strut bare chested through freezing temperatures for propaganda videos were long gone. More and more, age and ill health were catching up to him. Impatiently, Zhdanov turned to the much younger, immaculately dressed man at his side. “Well, Voronin?” he demanded. “Now can you tell me what’s so important that you’ve dragged me out here to the ass end of nowhere?” In answer, Pavel Voronin first checked his watch before looking back down at Russia’s autocratic ruler. His well-mannered smile never reached his pale-gray eyes. “I’ve invited you here for a demonstration, Mr. President,” he said evenly. Zhdanov snorted. “A demonstration of what? Frostbite?” “The future,” Voronin answered, ignoring the older man’s show of ill temper. Although it was not widely known outside Russia, his shadowy company—Sindikat Vorona, the Raven Syndicate—supplied military and intelligence services, equipment, and expertise to the highest bidders among Moscow’s allies around the world. Aided by enormous wealth and utter ruthlessness, Voronin himself had risen through the ruling elite to become the president’s closest strategic adviser. Although he was nominally still only a private citizen, his influence over Zhdanov effectively made him the second-most-powerful man in the Russian state. Zhdanov frowned. “Pavel, I’m in no mood for riddles—” Suddenly, one of his bodyguards broke in. “Sir, we have to get you into cover! Right now!” He tapped at his radio earpiece. “The Tambov control tower reports defense radars have just picked up an unidentified aircraft at close range!” Voronin’s smile widened a bit. “Relax,” he said. “This new arrival is no threat. Not to us, at least.” He nodded toward the southern end of the runway. “You see?” And as if in response, a pale-gray shape materialized out of the darkness—gliding downward through a vortex of whirling snow. Batwing configured, the mystery aircraft was roughly seven meters long, with a similar wingspan. That made it significantly smaller than most modern combat planes, considerably less than half the size of Russia’s Su-35 air superiority fighter, as an