Blinded by the Night

Book 4: The Excoms

by Brett Battles

Genres: Conspiracy Thrillers; High-tech & Sci-fi Thrillers; Vigilante Thrillers

Synopsis

Amazon Best Seller—Spies & Political Thrillers
Amazon Best Seller—International Mystery & Crime
Amazon Best Seller—Crime Fiction Vigilante Justice
Amazon Best Seller—Terrorism Thrillers
Amazon Best Seller—Mystery Series
Amazon Best Seller—Technothrillers
Amazon Best Seller—Thriller Assassinations
Amazon Best Seller—Thriller Conspiracies
Amazon Best Seller—Literature & Fiction Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Action

“Brett Battles is a Master Storyteller.”—NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author, Sheldon Siegel.

From Barry Award winning and USA TODAY bestselling author Brett Battles comes BLINDED BY THE NIGHT, another electrifying installment in The Excoms espionage mystery suspense crime thriller series.

The Excoms specialize in dealing with problems others can’t solve. Kidnappings, human exploitation, oppression. They’ve dealt with them all, and earned the gratitude of the overlooked and the disadvantaged.

But not everyone is happy with their work.

After finishing their most recent assignment, they’re rudely awakened in the middle of the night by an explosive situation that changed the team forever.

Some may think Ananke and her friends are no longer a threat. Some would be making a mistake.

You may knock The Excoms down, but you can never count them out.

If you enjoy action-packed espionage crime thrillers with high-stakes suspense, surprising plot-twists, and a cast full of unforgettable characters, then join millions of fans who love Battles’s novels and start reading your next great read, BLINDED BY THE NIGHT, today.

PRAISE FOR BATTLES' WRITING

“Battles' writing is addictive."
—NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author, James Rollins

“Brilliant and heart pounding.”
—NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author, Jeffery Deaver

“Unputdownable.”
—NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author, Tess Gerritsen

THE FIRST REVIEWS ARE IN...

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

"I couldn't put the book down! Great characters, interesting story and a twist of an ending I wasn't expecting."

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

"Another great Excoms thriller!"

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

"I HIGHLY recommend not just this book, but the entire Excom series!"

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

"Brett Battles does not disappoint!"

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

"Just when you think you have it figured out, wrong again!"

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

"It is hard to put it down!"

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

"An edge of your seat thriller."

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

"Brett Battles delivers characters with wit and wisdom. Blinded by the Night is a 5-star read."

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

"Couldn't put down! This is HANDS DOWN the best book of the Excom series!"

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

"This is an amazingly well written novel! I wish there were more hours in the day so Brett Battles could write more. Simply fantastic!"

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

"An exciting story with characters you come to love, scenes straight out of an action movie, plot twists that have you grabbing a hold of your seat, and tactics that have you grinning at the result!"

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

"Another great installment in the Excoms series!"

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

"Addictive addition to the Excoms series."

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

"Addictive and twisty. I highly recommend anything Brett Battles writes!"

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

"This next book in the series will take you on a wild ride that leaves you wanting more!"

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

"Compelling, evocative and such a thrilling novel."

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

"You are in there until the very last word! By far my favorite book in the series."

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

"This is one of Brett Battles better books. I couldn't put it down. The plot is great. READ THIS BOOK. You will enjoy it."

WHO IS BLINDED BY THE NIGHT FOR?
Fans of David Baldacci, Gregg Hurwitz, Lee Child, Barry Eisler, Michael Connelly, Harlan Coben, James Patterson, Andrew Mayne, Dean Koontz, John Sanford, and Daniel Silva will love BLINDED BY THE NIGHT.

 

Read more

Release date: December 7, 2021

Print pages: 431

Sample

Chapter 1

SEVENTEEN MONTHS AGO
9:17 PM LOCAL TIME
Avanti sipped his tea and looked out at the starlight twinkling on the sea.
The combination of the lavender mint drink and the view from his patio almost always calmed him. Cleared his mind. Helped him rein in his impatience.
Tonight, not so much.
But that was fine. Tonight was different. Tonight was special.
Tonight was the night.
Behind him came the sound of a shoe stepping onto the patio.
Without looking back, he said, “Well?”
“They’re exactly where we expected them,” Warren said. “Everything is ready.”
Avanti allowed himself a brief smile. Tonight, the nuisance that had been plaguing him since it sprang into existence would be silenced forever.
“Do it,” he ordered.

Chapter 2

ST. HENRI ISLAND
CARIBBEAN SEA
10:17 AM LOCAL TIME
Ananke rushed into Johan Erstad’s office, Liesel Kessler right on her heels. They scanned the space, their weapons moving in tandem with their eyes.
“Clear,” Liesel said in disbelief. “He’s not here.”
Ananke whirled around in a circle, sure that they’d missed him. Erstad should have been in the room. On one of the building’s security cameras they’d seen him run inside only moments before. According to the blueprints, the office had no other exits, so it would have been impossible for him to escape without appearing on camera again.
But he hadn’t.
They’d lost him.
Capturing Erstad and getting him out of there was the last item on their to-do list. They were so close to being done.
That son of a bitch.
Gunfire echoed down the main corridor, from where Ricky Orbits and Rosario Blanca were dealing with the remaining vestiges of the asshole’s security team.
Erstad was scum of the first order. For years, he’d been using the cover of his pharmaceutical company to hide his real money maker—Cherry Archer. The round red tablet had become a highly sought recreational substance the world over, and had destroyed tens of thousands of lives in the process.
Up until a month ago, no one had known who the manufacturer was. Once the researchers at the Committee had discovered the truth, the Administrator—point person for the Committee—had tasked Ananke and her team with shutting down Erstad’s operation and capturing him alive to face justice back in the States.
The five team members had been working together for over a year, this mission their fourteenth. And while they might not have appreciated how they were brought together at the team’s inception, all would agree they were each better for their experience as a team since. And not one of them had any intention of bolting from the group.
They’d become a well-oiled machine that had yet to fail at any assignment.
And Ananke was determined that the streak would not end today.
Her comm clicked in her ear.
“Helicopter inbound,” Dylan Brody announced. “ETA nine minutes.” He was on the roof of the manufacturing building, in communication with the Karas Evonus, the refurbished container ship that served as the team’s floating headquarters. Currently it was supporting the mission from just off the coast.
“Copy,” Ananke replied, and glanced at Liesel. “There has to be some other way out of here.”
They ran their hands over the walls, tapping the surface, hoping for the echo of a hollow space that revealed a hidden doorway.
When Ananke came to a bookcase behind the desk, she gave it a hard shove but it didn’t budge. That was odd. It should have at least groaned a little. She went to the other side and pushed in the opposite direction. This time, the bookcase slid sideways, revealing a hole in the wall.
“Liesel! Here!”
Ananke shined her flashlight into the darkness, revealing a meter-wide vertical shaft. She leaned in and looked down. Attached to the wall directly below her was a ladder. How far it went down was impossible to tell. The beam of her light wasn’t strong enough to reach the bottom.
She stuck the end of her flashlight into her mouth, swung into the hole, and descended as fast as she could. Above, she heard Liesel doing the same. When the end finally came into view, she dropped the last half meter to the concrete floor. If she was right, they’d come down three floors.
Opposite the ladder was a door. Ananke turned the handle as soon as Liesel joined her. Beyond was a storage room, with empty shelves and nothing on the floor. No Erstad, either. She crossed the space to another door, opened it, and raced into a well-lit corridor, nearly identical to the one outside Erstad’s office. It was also unoccupied.
Ananke paused, listening for any sounds of life.
For a moment, she heard nothing. Then, from ahead, came the faint but distinct scrape of a shoe moving across a floor.
They moved toward the noise.
The hallway was lined with doors, most of them shut. Ananke was positive the sound had come from the far end of the hall, but it had not been muffled. Meaning it couldn’t have come from behind a closed door.
At each open doorway, Ananke and Liesel paused long enough to glance inside. The rooms were identical labs, filled with long shiny metal tables and expensive-looking equipment.
Ananke knew exactly where they were now. This was the floor Erstad showed potential investors and foreign government officials when they requested a tour. She could almost hear him say, “And here’s where we do research into the next generation of life-saving pharmaceuticals. Now please, give me your money.” Or maybe something simpler like, “See? Nothing nefarious going on here.”
Ananke and Liesel were down to the last two open doors when Dylan came over the comm again. “Three minutes out. Where are you guys?”
Ananke clicked her mic once, letting him know she was not in a position to talk.
“Ricky and I are finished and are on our way to the rendezvous point,” Rosario said. “Do you need our help?”
Two clicks this time. No.
“Copy.”
Ananke and Liesel peeked through the next doorway. Empty.
They moved to the last room and stopped centimeters shy of the entrance. Unlike the other rooms, the door here was open about the width of Ananke’s hand.
Using the butt of her flashlight, she gave it a push only hard enough to make it swing gently inward.
Before it had even moved another hand’s width, a pistol boomed and a bullet blasted into the wall near the door.
Not another empty room, then.
Ananke attached her gooseneck camera to her phone, and slipped the lens end of the half-meter-long flexible tube around the doorframe.
Another showroom lab. Just inside, cabinets protruded into the room at a ninety-degree angle, keeping her from seeing deeper into the space. They also prevented Erstad from seeing the lower half of the doorway.
After pantomiming a quick plan to Liesel, Ananke crouched down and sneaked into the room, then moved along the counter as far as she could toward the center of the room. When she was in position, she glanced back and nodded.
Liesel cupped a hand around her mouth and said in a loud voice, “Mr. Erstad, if you give yourself up now, you will not be hurt. If you do not, we cannot guarantee anything.”
The moment Liesel started speaking, Ananke moved the camera around the side of the cabinet, just below the countertop. On her screen, she saw Erstad peek up from behind a counter at the back of the room and point a gun at the door.
“It’s over,” Liesel said. “It’s time to—”
The asshole pulled the trigger twice, sending bullets crashing into the door.
He ducked back down when Liesel fired back, hitting the ceiling above him with multiple shots. Per the plan, Ananke used the distraction to swing into the aisle and move all the way to the near side of the counter Erstad was hiding behind.
When the booms stopped, Liesel said, “This is your last warning. Come out now, hands on your head, or let us know who we need to notify about your death.”
Whoa, Ananke thought. That took a dark turn. Not that she disapproved.
Erstad yelled something that sounded like a curse, in what Ananke assumed was Norwegian. While she spoke several languages, that wasn’t one of them. He punctuated his words with another shot from his gun, his aim as off target as his other attempts.
Ananke carefully moved around the corner until she was crouched at the end of the counter. She now could hear Erstad’s rapid breaths and knew he was in full-on panic mode. She placed her gun on the floor where she wouldn’t accidently kick it, and retrieved from her pocket one of her less lethal weapons.
She clicked her mic three times.
From behind her, Liesel said, “You have until the count of five. One. Two…”
As each number echoed through the room, Erstad’s intake of air increased. When Liesel reached four, he jumped up with a roar of rage and started firing at the doorway again.
Ananke leaned around the counter. He was so focused on the entrance, he didn’t even notice her. With a pull of her trigger, two Taser probes sailed toward him. The moment the barbs hit their mark, they started pumping electricity into the now former Cherry Archer king.
In the blink of an eye, Erstad went from raving madman to sack of meat writhing on the ground.
Ananke walked over and grimaced down at him. “I bet that hurts.” She picked up his gun and said, “Clear. Dylan, bring in our ride.”
##
Thirty minutes later they were back aboard the Karas Evonus, Erstad in a lower deck holding cell. The team was sitting around the conference room table, facing the large monitor on the wall that displayed a video feed of the Administrator.
“Excellent work,” he said. “You wrapped that up much faster than our projections.”
Ricky snorted. “Maybe whoever does your projections needs to pull their heads out of their—”
“Ricky,” Ananke said, eyebrow raised.
“What? All I’m saying is, we’re good at what we do. Their projections should reflect that, right?”
“I appreciate the input, Mr. Orbits,” the Administrator said. “I’ll mention it to our assessment team.”
Dylan glared at Ricky. “You just couldn’t keep your mouth shut, could you? Now we’re going to have to work harder to be appreciated.”
Ricky snorted and rolled his eyes. “Dude, we’re already the hardest-working band in the business.”
Ignoring them, Ananke said to the Administrator, “We saw more finished product than anticipated. Someone needs to secure that place right away.”
“Authorities have already arrived on scene,” he replied.
“I’m not sure the St. Henri police are the right people for the job.” Though Ananke and her colleagues had been on the island for only two days, they’d quickly established that the St. Henri government was in Erstad’s pocket, all the way to the top. Cops included.
“Which is why they are not the authorities I’m talking about,” the Administrator said, but gave no further details. “So, tell me exactly how things went.”
For the next twenty minutes, Ananke briefed him, with occasional input from the others, on everything that had happened since they started this particular mission six days ago. As usual, the Administrator stared silently at them from the screen, blinks and a nod here and there the only signs the signal hadn’t frozen.
They had long ago given up asking where he was located, as he’d never once given them a straight answer. Sometimes Ananke thought he was actually with them on the Karas Evonus. Other times she was sure he was thousands of miles away. Perhaps both were true. The room he talked to them from always looked the same, but it could easily be a digital set.
In the early months, after the team had been pulled together, she’d spent a lot of time trying to figure out the answer. Given how they were recruited, that was only natural. She, along with Rosario, Dylan, and Liesel had all—in essence—been kidnapped by a group known as the Committee, via operatives hired by its representative, the Administrator. Granted, this had been done to save them from life-threatening situations, and they had been offered the opportunity to leave whenever they wanted. But their abductions had been jarring, to say the least. In the end, they’d all stuck around and done the job the Administrator offered them. That had led to a second mission, and a third, and a fourth, and so on until none of them thought about leaving anymore, or worried about the Administrator’s actual location.
They were a team.
Even Ricky, whom Ananke had been none too pleased to see when he first showed up. Much to her surprise, he’d become a trusted part of their operation. Ricky was the only team member who hadn’t been kidnapped. He’d been in prison, and offered the chance at an early release if he joined the group. Naturally, he’d jumped at the opportunity.
Back at the start, he’d been the same arrogant, misogynistic prick he’d been in the years she’d known him previously. Including the highly regretful period when he’d been her boyfriend. But not long after they’d begun working for the Committee, he’d started to change. Oh, he was still an egotistical pain in the ass most of the time, but a lot of his hard edges had eroded, and he’d actually started to care about people other than himself, to the point where Ananke didn’t mind being around him now.
That was not something she would have ever thought possible.
In part, the missions they undertook had allowed Ricky to see beyond his own reflection. Helping those in desperate situations had a way of doing that. His constant exposure to Ananke and Rosario and Liesel and Dylan—his being part of something larger than himself—hadn’t hurt, either.
When Ananke finished her report, the Administrator asked a few questions for clarification before saying, “Thank you. I’ll brief the Committee. I have no doubt they will be as pleased as I am.”
“So, what’s next?” Dylan asked.
“We have a few possibilities that we’re working on right now, but nothing pressing. I was thinking you might enjoy a week off.”
The team perked up. This mission had run back-to-back with the one before it, so it had been nearly a month since they’d received any serious time off.
“You won’t get any argument from us,” Ananke said.
“The Karas Evonus should reach St. Croix by ten a.m. tomorrow morning,” the Administrator said. “I’ve reserved each of you a suite at the East Winds Resort. You can stay there, or if there’s somewhere else you’d rather go, I can make flight arrangements.”
“A week at a resort sounds fine to me,” Ricky said, grinning.
“Nice try, Mr. Orbits. You, of course, will be remaining on board.”
Ricky’s grin disappeared. “Figured.” One of the conditions of his release from prison was that between missions, he had to remain on the Karas Evonus.
“If the rest of you could let me know what you’d like to do before we reach port, that would be great.” The Administrator reached forward and the screen went dark.
##
An afternoon of lounging on the deck outside the recreation room was followed by a dinner of grilled snapper, fresh salad, and hot-out-of-the-oven pecan pie. After toasting their success with champagne, the team members made their way to their quarters one by one, all exhausted from the events of the last few days.
Ananke had at first thought about going home to Colorado, but when Liesel and Rosario had said they were going to stay in St. Croix, she decided to join them. Dylan would be the only one going anywhere else. He’d received a message from his father that his mother wasn’t feeling well, so he wanted to surprise her with a visit.
Within four minutes after reaching her room, Ananke had crawled into bed and picked up the book she was reading, Fellside by M. R. Carey. She made it through one page and part of a second before the words started to swim together. Her eyelids blinked once, twice, and then closed for the night, the book falling to her chest.
##
The Karas Evonus headed north-northwest through calm seas, under a night sky ablaze with stars.
The Administrator’s cabin was located just behind the bridge. He was indeed on the ship, was almost always there, in fact. He had dedicated himself to the cause, and until the time came for him to be replaced, the ship would be his home.
When Committee member Monday had first approached him about the idea of the Committee and its purpose, the Administrator had been immediately intrigued. After working nearly twenty years in both government and private sectors, he had become disillusioned by the bureaucracy and red tape and unwillingness of those in power to do what was right. Monday’s idea of creating an organization whose sole purpose was to correct real problems in the world was exactly the kind of work the Administrator had been longing for.
It also seemed too good to be true. When he’d agreed to help create the organization, he’d made a personal vow that at the first sign things were not as they seemed, he would leave. But Monday had been true to his word and those signs never materialized.
The first thing the Administrator and Monday had done was build the Committee itself. The criteria for being a member was twofold. First, all committee members had to have a net worth exceeding one billion US dollars. And second, each had to have experienced a tragic personal loss that could have been prevented if those in a position to help had done so.
Once all the slots had been filled, the Administrator had moved on to the formation of the strike team. It had been a difficult process, but in the end, everything had worked out perfectly. Ananke, Rosario, Liesel, Dylan, and Ricky had proven to be an even better group than he had hoped for.
Sure, the early days had not been without problems. One Committee member had been murdered while the strike team was still being assembled, and another had been forced out due to being less than candid about information he had passed on. It had taken another six months to refill those positions, but since then, the Committee had been operating at full strength.
At their scheduled nine p.m. meeting, the Administrator briefed the Committee on the Erstad case. As always, once the debrief had concluded and the others had signed off, he had a one-on-one conversation with Monday. The other Committee members had no idea Monday was the true power behind the organization.
The Administrator then spent the next several hours reviewing potential new missions. He was a night owl and always more productive during the dark, quiet hours. He was deep into studying the background of an arms dealer working out of Serbia when his intercom buzzed.
He looked at the clock.
Two forty-seven a.m.
He touched the talk button. “Yes?”
“Sorry to disturb you, but we may have a problem.”
The Administrator was surprised to hear the captain’s voice. One of the other officers was usually in charge of the overnight shift.
“What kind of problem?”
“We appear to have company.”
The Administrator disconnected the call and headed to the bridge.
“Show me,” he said as he hurried in.
The captain brought up the radar on the main screen. Two bright dots jumped out from the otherwise black image. The largest and northernmost one was labeled KARAS EVONUS; the other was less than half the size and tagged UNIDENTIFIED.
“You’re sure they’re following us?”
“They’ve been behind us for a few hours. We didn’t think anything of it until about twenty minutes ago, when they increased their speed and changed their course to an intercept route that will cross our path in—” He looked over at the first officer.
The man checked his watch and said, “Fifty-one minutes.”
“Have you tried altering our course?” the Administrator asked.
“We did,” the captain responded. “They matched it.”
“Have you attempted to contact them?”
“We have, but they have not responded.”
The Administrator stared at the screen. Who would be trying to catch up to them? Friends of Erstad, trying to free him? A combined force of US and French authorities had already taken possession of Erstad’s facility, and any of his associates who were still free should be worrying more about their own skins than their friend’s.
Maybe the other ship was simply traveling the same route as the Karas Evonus and not a threat. That seemed more probable, but the captain clearly did not believe that was the case.
“Where are we?” the Administrator asked.
With the push of a button, a map superimposed itself over the radar, revealing several islands to the east.
The captain pointed at one that filled the upper right corner and extended off the monitor. “Basse-Terre.” His finger moved south to a group of much smaller islands. “The Iles des Saintes. They’re all part of Guadeloupe.”
Guadeloupe was French territory.
“Can we get there before the others reach us?”
“We might be able to get in sight of the Iles des Saintes, but no way we’ll be able to reach the harbor.”
The Karas Evonus was not a warship. The weapons it had on board were limited to the personal kind used by the strike team. If there was going to be some kind of conflict, better to be close to land than not.
“Take us there. Fast as you can.”