The Ascendant: A Thriller Read online

  “And?” she asked.

  Garrett smiled at her. It made him feel open and vulnerable, that smile, accepting of his true nature, as if the very act of it had expanded his heart and allowed him to say what he’d meant to say for a while now.

  “And?” he said, grinning stupidly at her. “And I still love you.”

  Silence enveloped the table. Garrett thought he saw Alexis’s cheeks color slightly. She opened her mouth to respond, but no words came. After a few more moments, Garrett pushed back from the table and stood up. “It’s okay,” he said. “You don’t have to say anything.”

  He pulled a zip-up sweatshirt around his shoulders. “It was nice seeing you, Alexis. Really nice.” He started toward the door.

  He was halfway to the exit when Alexis called after him. “They will ask for you. In the night, when the next crisis hits. And that crisis is right around the corner. Think about your answer, Garrett. I hope you make the right choice.”

  Garrett cocked his head slightly to one side, nodded wearily, and walked out into the warm New York night.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  I could not have written this book without the expert advice of the following people. My thanks to: Danny Goodwin, for his knowledge of stocks, flash crashes, and black pools of money; Nathan Wright, for helping with military jargon and attitudes; Carrie Pederson, for her brilliance on all things China; Stanley Florek, for explaining message encryption; E. J. Gong, for laying out LLCs and real estate speculation; Peter Loop, for demystifying data centers; John Krause, for updates on Internet security and the power grid; Ting Wang and Matthew Van Osdol, for making sure the Mandarin was up to snuff; Marsi Doran, for unraveling the intricacies of bond trading; and Jack Timmons, for his computer programming genius and rabid enthusiasm.

  Also invaluable in the process were Markus Hoffmann at Regal Literary in New York, and my team in LA—Matt Leipzig and Jordan Bayer at Original Artists, Dan Brecher at Rothman Brecher, and my manager, Ragna Nervik.

  On the publishing side, a special thanks to Emily Graff and to the insightful Rowland White at Penguin UK. And finally, my heartfelt gratitude to my editor at Simon & Schuster, the incomparable Marysue Rucci.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Drew Chapman has written on numerous studio movies. He also directed the indie film Standoff. Currently, he creates and writes TV shows for network television, most recently having written and executive-produced an ABC miniseries about the hunt for CIA mole Aldrich Ames. Married with two children, Chapman divides his time between Los Angeles and Seattle. The Ascendant is his first book.

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  This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2013 by Andrew Chapman

  All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Simon & Schuster Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

  First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition January 2014

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  Designed by Nancy Singer

  Jacket design by Jae Song

  Author photo by Lisa Loop

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Chapman, Drew.

   The ascendant : a novel / Drew Chapman. — First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition.

   pages cm

   Summary: “From a riveting new voice in suspense fiction, THE ASCENDANT is an action-packed thriller following a unlikely hero—a number savant named Garrett Reilly—as he races around the globe to avert total war”—Provided by publisher.

   1. Savants (Savant syndrome)—Fiction. I. Title.

   PS3603.H3635A84 2014

   813'.6—dc23   2013032632

  ISBN 978-1-4767-2588-8

  ISBN 978-1-4767-2590-1 (ebook)

  CONTENTS

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Chapter 53

  Chapter 54

  Chapter 55

  Chapter 56

  Chapter 57

  Chapter 58

  Chapter 59

  Chapter 60

  Chapter 61

  Chapter 62

  Chapter 63

  Chapter 64

  Chapter 65

  Chapter 66

  Chapter 67

  Chapter 68

  Chapter 69

  Chapter 70

  Chapter 71

  Chapter 72

  Chapter 73

  Chapter 74

  Chapter 75

  Chapter 76

  Chapter 77

  Chapter 78

  Chapter 79

  Chapter 80

  Chapter 81

  Chapter 82

  Chapter 83

  Chapter 84

  Chapter 85

  Chapter 86

  Chapter 87

  Chapter 88

  Chapter 89

  Chapter 90

  Chapter 91

  Chapter 92

  Chapter 93

  Chapter 94

  Chapter 95

  Chapter 96

  Chapter 97

  Chapter 98

  Chapter 99

  Chapter 100

  Chapter 101

  Chapter 102

  Chapter 103

  Epilogue

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

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