Honor Among Thieves

by Jeffrey Archer

Overview

Spring 1994, Washington, D.C. - While the Clinton Administration grapples with its domestic policies, a sinister plot is being masterminded six thousand miles away in Baghdad. By using $100 million as bait and spinning a deadly web of corruption, forgery, and terror, Saddam Hussein seeks to embarrass the U.S. with the ultimate revenge: to steal a treasured historical document and then destroy it before the world's media-on July 4, 1994.

As the countdown to Independence Day begins, two agents stand in the way of his nearly flawless plan: Scott Bradley, a rising star in the CIA who is desperate to prove his patriotism, and Hannah Kopec, the stunning Mossad operative who has already lost o much that she fears nothing and trusts no one. Their unrelenting quest to prevent what would undoubtedly be the most humiliating day in U.S. history takes them across four continents and climaxes in a dramatic, triple-twist ending.

Ingeniously plotted and as up-to-the-minute as today's headlines, Honor Among Thieves resonates with the brilliant pace that is the trademark of master storyteller Jeffrey Archer.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781429953856
Publisher:	St. Martin's Press
Publication date:	12/28/2004
Sold by:	Macmillan
Format:	eBook
Pages:	480
Sales rank:	64,773
File size:	911 KB

About the Author

Jeffrey Archer was educated at Oxford University. He has served five years in Britain's House of Commons and fourteen years in the House of Lords. All of his novels and short story collections--including And Thereby Hangs a Tale, Kane and Abel, Paths of Glory and False Impression--have been international bestselling books. Archer is married with two sons and lives in London and Cambridge.

Jeffrey Archer was educated at Oxford University. He has served five years in Britain's House of Commons and twenty-two years in the House of Lords. All of his novels and short story collections--including Best Kept Secret, The Sins of the Father, Only Time Will Tell, and Kane and Abel--have been international bestselling books. Archer is married with two sons and lives in London and Cambridge.

Hometown:

London and the Old Vicarage, Grantchester

Date of Birth:

April 15, 1940

Education:

Attended Brasenose College, Oxford, 1963-66. Received a diploma in sports education from Oxford Institute

Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER ONE

New York
February 15,1993

Antonio Cavalli stared intently at the Arab, who he considered looked far too young to be a Deputy Ambassador.

"One hundred million dollars," Cavalli said, pronouncing each word slowly and deliberately, giving them almost reverential respect.

Hamid Al Obaydi flicked a worry bead across the top of his well-manicured thumb, making a click that was beginning to irritate Cavalli.

"One hundred million is quite acceptable," the Deputy Ambassador replied in a clipped English accent.

Cavalli nodded. The only thing that worried him about the deal was that Al Obaydi had made no attempt to bargain, especially since the figure the American had proposed was double that which he had expected to get. Cavalli had learned from painful experience not to trust anyone who didn't bargain. It inevitably meant that he had no intention of paying in the first place.

"if the figure is agreed," he said, "all that is left to discuss is how and when the payments will be made."

The Deputy Ambassador flicked another worry bead before he nodded.

"Ten million dollars to be paid in cash immediately," said Cavalli, "the remaining ninety million to be deposited in a Swiss bank account as soon as the contract has been carried out."

"But what do I get for my first ten million?" asked the Deputy Ambassador, looking fixedly at the man whose origins were as hard to hide as his own.

"Nothing," replied Cavalli, although he acknowledged that the Arab had every right to ask such a question. After all, if Cavalli didn't honor his side of the bargain, the Deputy Ambassador had far more tolose than just his government's money.

Al Obaydi moved another worry bead, aware that he had little choice-it had taken him two years just to get an interview with Antonio Cavalli. Meanwhile, President Clinton had settled into the White House, while his own leader was growing more and more impatient for revenge. If he didn't accept Cavalli's terms, A] Obaydi knew that the chances of finding anyone else capable of carrying out the task before July the Fourth were about as promising as zero coming up on a roulette wheel with only one spin left.

Cavalli looked up at the vast portrait that dominated the wall behind the Deputy Ambassador's desk. His first contact with Al Obaydi had been only days after the war had concluded. At the time the American had refused to deal with the Arab, as few people were convinced that the Deputy Ambassador's leader would still be alive by the time a preliminary meeting could be arranged.

As the months passed, however, it began to took to Cavalli as if his potential client might survive longer than President Bush. So an exploratory meeting was agreed.

The venue selected was the Deputy Ambassador's office in New York, on East 79th Street. Despite being a little too public for Cavalli's taste, it had the virtue of proving the credentials of the party claiming to be willing to invest one hundred million dollars in such a daring enterprise.

"How would you expect the first ten million to be paid?" inquired A] Obaydi, as if he were asking a real estate agent about a down payment on a small house on the wrong side of the Brooklyn Bridge.

"The entire amount must be handed over in used, unmarked hundred-dollar bills and deposited with our bankers in Newark, New Jersey," said the American, his eyes narrowing. "And Mr. Obaydi," Cavalli added, "I don't have to remind you that we have machines that can verify —"

"You need have no anxiety about us keeping to our side of the bargain," interrupted Al Obaydi. "The money is, as your Western cliché suggests, a mere drop in the ocean. The only concern I have is whether you are capable of delivering your part of the agreement."

"You wouldn't have pressed so hard for this meeting if you doubted we were the right people for the job," retorted Cavalli. "But can I be as confident about you putting together such a large amount of cash at such short notice?"

"It may interest you to know, Mr. Cavalli," replied the Deputy Ambassador, "that the money is already lodged in a safe in the basement of the United Nations building. After all, no one would expect to find such a vast sum deposited in the vaults of a bankrupt body."

The smile that remained on Al Obaydi's face indicated that the Arab was pleased with his little witticism, despite the fact that Cavalli's lips hadn't moved.

"Me ten million will be delivered to your bank by midday tomorrow," continued Al Obaydi as he rose from the table to indicate that, as far he was concerned, the meeting was concluded. The Deputy Ambassador stretched out his hand and his visitor reluctantly shook it.

Cavalli glanced up once again at the portrait of Saddam Hussein, turned and quickly left.

When Scott Bradley entered the room there was a hush of expectancy.

He placed his notes on the table in front of him, allowing his eyes to sweep around the lecture hall. The room was packed with eager young students holding pens and pencils poised above yellow legal pads.

"My name is Scott Bradley," said the youngest professor in the law school, "and this is to be the first of fourteen lectures on constitutional law." Seventy-four faces stared down at the tall, somewhat disheveled man who obviously couldn't have noticed that the top button of his shirt was missing and who hadn't made up his mind which side to part his hair on that morning.

"I'd like to begin this first lecture with a personal statement," he announced. Some of the pens and pencils were laid to rest. 'There are many reasons to practice law in this country," he began, "but only one which is...

Editorial Reviews

Just in time for the beach, the Archer mix-and-match best-seller machine has churned out an international thriller that will no doubt be described as "fresh from this morning's headlines." This time out the key characters are a Yale constitutional law professor who moonlights as a CIA consultant but yearns for field experience, a Russian-born Israeli model who signs on as a Mossad trainee when her family is decimated by a Gulf War Scud missile, an Iraqi diplomat assigned to the United Nations, a Mafia don and his lawyer son who run a unique temporary agency. The minor characters include the quintessential stage Irishman: an aging alcoholic who, when sober, is a master forger. With cameos by Saddam, Bill, and Warren Christopher, and with a multinational cast of spooks and sadists, bankers and bureaucrats, Archer concocts an unlikely but not absolutely inconceivable high-stakes shell game motivated by vengeance, greed, conspiracy, and betrayal. It is the shallowness rather than the depth of Archer's characterization that makes the men and women who populate his novels seem familiar: we've met these folks before, not in "real life," but in other best-sellers and TV movies. Still, predictable as it is, "Honor among Thieves" pushes all the right buttons; expect heavy demand from readers who like paint-by-number fiction.

Mary Carroll

"Honor Among Thieves," the latest plotboiler by the British novelist Jeffrey Archer is a marriage of convenience between the more absurd James Bond adventures and the old "Mission: Impossible" television series; what suspense there is must be generated not by its cast but by an array of stunts, gadgets and chases. -- New York Times

Bill Kent

It's Amateur Night on the international intrigue stage, as perennial bestseller Archer (As the Crow Flies, etc.) shows Saddam Hussein's henchmen grooming an actor to take the place of the President so that they can—push the button that starts WW III? Plant a bomb that will destroy both chambers of Congress? No, steal the Declaration of Independence! Actually, the actor, one Lloyd Adams, is much less important than his support staff: Tony Cavalli, the unscrupulous, well-connected lawyer whose off-the-books "Skills" department takes on the assignment of switching the Declaration for a copy that will remain in the Archives until Saddam publicly burns the original on July 4, bringing Bill Clinton to his knees; T. Hamilton McKenzie, the Nobelist in plastic surgery (!) whose daughter is kidnapped to encourage him to rearrange Adams's face; William O'Reilly ("Dollar Bill"), nonpareil forger who copies the Declaration exactly and throws in a few near- copies for good measure; Johnny Sciasatore, distinguished director whose fake movie motorcade of the President helps get the imposter into the Archives; and a contract killer in Laura Ashley dresses who goes around mopping up the rest of the staff. The Skills crew gets the goods, of course, and then the "Mission: Impossible" scenario is reversed, as Scott Bradley, a Yale Law prof and CIA hanger-on, joins rookie Mossad agent Hannah Kopec (who already thinks she's killed Scott when his earlier cover as Mossad contact "Simon Rosenthal" was blown: don't ask) and a giant, custom-made safe named Madame Bertha to sneak the Declaration back out of Baghdad. With all those copies and all those agents plotting at cross-purposes, you justknow there are going to be multiple switches and surprises, but instead of generating suspense, they just add to the general air of genial preposterousness. Undeniably entertaining, if you can get into the spirit of farcical and inconsequential melodrama. Maps of the Washington motorcade route and the Mideast—just in case you have any questions. (First printing of 500,000)

Kirkus Reviews