Robko had been in the building and the Gray Man had just got the power off for the first of four times to give Robko a chance to do what he had to do to pull the theft off. The day before he had been in the apartment with the Gray Man going over everything one last time. Stealing something so big from Governor O'Brien was both lucrative and and dangerous. The Gray man had told Robko that has been a year long job with months of surveillance. They have to bypass four levels of security to get in O'Brien's office. Then Robko while in the vault finds a box with a lot of crystals that he figures he can keep that the Gray Man does not have to know about. This could get Robko killed by the Gray Man or O’Brien but he decides to chance it. Thomas had a call from the Governor assistant 10:00 AM . Thomas was was at his job working with another company when he said something came up and they would have to meet again at another time. When he got to O'Brien's empire his secretary told Thomas there had been a big robbery the night before. The had lost some intelligence of great value. It was another round of problem solving for the Governor. Then the CEO had Thomas go to the table to sit. Dan the head of security was there and Lefarge who had handled some tricky stuff for the Governor before was there. Don showed Thomas the list of stolen items.Then Thomas was asked by O’Brien what he thought. Thomas told him to follow the trail of the money. Thomas said he knew of a firm that can follow disappearing money through the banks and determine who owns the accounts. The company moves fast and had some not so legal contacts. Don was to call the company but Thomas added to let them know it’s Thomas Stewart on behalf of Dennis O’Brien. Thomas also said if they don’t have names they do have characteristics and that will make the thieves more predictable. Lefarge went over what they could already figure out about the thieves. There was a limited number of people who would be able to do this. This tells them the mastermind is known in the business. Also the mastermind is willing to take on anything. O'Brien said he wanted a name, a location, and his date back all of it. Then they told O’Brien he had to decide whether to hand the answers over to the cops or have his own extraction team. O’Brien told Thomas the had all the data . but also the memory device with O’Brien’s total finances on it. The rest of the memory devices were political . they document who O’Brien owns and how much he paid. There was another thing stolen and O’Brien wanted Thomas and only Thomas to take personal responsibility for getting back. The device stolen was the greatest artifact ever produced and there was only three made until last night O’Brien had controlled all three. It was a new form of data storage . it can be used to store all the things that make up a man.It can download into new computers to form artificial intelligence based upon man. It can be used to archive and search the greatest minds of the world. It can be used to download a man’s mind into another human host. The Governor had the stored device in him. Thomas said he would give it his best shot. Thomas says he needs access to O’Brien and reports from both teams day and night, also he needed any resource he asked for. He also said he wanted Ryan Heavers to come behind him and take over the acquisition Thomas had been working on. O’Brien agreed. Robko figured O’Brien didn’t report the theft when he seen or heard nothing about on in the newspaper or from the media. Angie was to be Thomas’s assistant throughout his mission. O’Brien’s people came up with the nickname of The Gray Man as the probable mastermind. He was highly respected in the underworld, had never been caught, and his people were seldom arrested.
This was a good book to read if you are into corporate power and political corruption. I am not but this story did hold my interest and I did finish it. It had a complicated plot but the story was complicated. It was fast paced for the most part but at least for me some of the story dragged some. The writing was also great especially since i mistakenly picked this book but did have interest in it. It was suspenseful and had a lot of intrigue. It explained completely how detailed the robbery was and how much and went into it and I liked that. Also all Robko had to do and the time frame he had. I was however waiting for a twist and there just wasn’t one and that surprised me and not really in a good way. So all and all an interesting story I liked the ins and outs and I recommend.