SummaryJohn "Jett" Gavallan is a former fighter pilot, now the
high-flying CEO of Black Jet Securities, an investment firm
that earned its first billion before the techno dream
crashed and burned. Poised for an offering crucial to his
company's survival, Gavallan is banking on the riskiest
gamble of his dazzling career. In exactly six days, he will
take Mercury Broadband, Russia's leading media company,
public on the New York Stock Exchange. But rumors of fraud
have suddenly surfaced that could send the deal south.
Gavallan makes a preemptive strike by dispatching his
number-two man--fellow Desert Storm fighter pilot Grafton
Byrnes--to Moscow to penetrate the shadowy Russian
multinational. When Byrnes fails to return, Gavallan fears
the worst. But
the truth is even more diabolical than he can imagine. Plunging into a desperate search for his best friend, the
renegade top gun is suddenly fighting a different kind of
war, where there is no safe harbor and no one he can trust.
Not Konstantin Kirov, the elusive head of Mercury Broadband
who may not be what he seems. Not the bankers and traders
Gavallan does business with every day. Not the exotic
beauty who has told him all her deepest secrets--except
one. Suddenly Jett finds himself trapped in a conspiracy
that could shatter the delicate balance between nations--
and plunge the global economy into chaos. Hunted by the
F.B.I. and a band of elite killers, Jett races from Palm
Beach to Zurich to Moscow in a desperate search for
answers. But for this brave ex-commando haunted by visions
of war, the truth comes at a terrible price. With Mercury
rising and the hours ticking down, he is moving closer to a
place where murder and revenge are the currency of
choice...and where the first billion is the ultimate
insider secret--and the deadliest obsession of all. With breakneck plotting, stunning realism, and a sense of
danger that keeps the heart racing, The First Billion is a
knockout of a novel that will linger long after the final
shocking twist is revealed.
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