Lauer had laughed and pulled Jimmy close for a squeeze. Ludmila, appearing seconds later, received a warm embrace as well.
Tasteful videos of Jimmy’s shootout on the oil rig — and quick thinking on the speed boat — earned the admiration of millions of viewers, as did Ludmila’s daring marksmanship in the basement that Fayah Kouri had turned into a torture chamber.
But the real excitement on set had taken place between the two heroes, who might have been on a dating show for all the chemistry that sparked during those sixty minutes.
By the show’s end, Lauer jokingly asked if a wedding would soon be in the works.
Indeed.
Ludmila had invited Lana and her family. For her part, Lana had been honored, but she also realized the wedding would make a likely target for terrorists. What better way to take revenge than by striking back at America’s newly crowned heroes?
So Lana’s Sig Sauer hid in her clutch, and ample agents had stationed themselves around the perimeter. Even a chopper had swept over the Oysterton park moments before the ceremony began.
But for now there were only best wishes for the couple and the country.
Acknowledgments
I’d like to thank my literary agent, Howard Morhaim, and his assistant, Kim-Mei Kirtland.
Most of all, I thank my readers for their encouragement and their word-of-mouth support.
A number of people were particularly helpful to me in researching and writing this novel. For details on technology and cybersecurity, I thank Ben Johnson, co-founder and Chief Security Strategist at the cybersecurity company Carbon Black. For insights into cell phone technology, I thank Quinn Mahoney, Security Researcher at the cybersolutions company Kyrus.
Any factual mistakes in this novel are mine.
About the Author
Thomas Waite’s critically praised debut novel, Terminal Value, reached #1 at Amazon. His bestselling thrillers Lethal Code and Trident Code were also widely acclaimed by readers and critics alike.
Waite is a board director of, and an advisor to, a number of technology companies. His nonfiction work has been published in such publications as The New York Times, the Harvard Business Review, The Boston Globe, and The Daily Beast.
Unholy Code is Waite’s third Lana Elkins thriller.