Kyle Mills - Sphere of Influence

Table of Contents

Kyle Mills is that special kind of thriller writer who knows how to keep an ominous chill lurking on almost every page.

Allan Folsom, bestselling author of The Day After Tomorrow

One of the worlds master storytellers... Mills keeps readers breathless, transfixed, and turning pages.

Riveting.... A very skilled writer... Mills keeps the suspense building.... Sphere of Influence is an excellent, taut thriller.

Kyle Millss Sphere of Influence is the first 9/11-inspired thriller Ive seen, and it is an interesting and enjoyable piece of work... the kind of dark romp that Lawrence Sanders or Ross Thomas might have produced in their heyday.... Mills keeps the surprises coming fast.

Great fun.

This thriller features real people and groups drawn from the daily news headlines... engrossing and affecting.

This is a brilliant modern crime thriller with a Byzantine yet believable plot.... Mills does the large-scale thriller better than anyone else working the genre today. As a matter of fact, he may do it better than anyone whos ever sent a character out to save the world.

Booklist (starred review)

One of the countrys new up-and-coming crafters of crime... Mills is a fine writer, with a talent for hitting that right pace and finding a good balance between serious action and dark humor.

The killer rivals Hannibal Lecter in intelligence (and brutality).... Mills has a proven ability to write a gripping thriller.

Mills absolutely knows how to move a plot to warp speed. The tension is almost unbearable.

[A] treacherous, fast-moving yarn full of crumbling footholds, close shaves, narrow escapes, slippery slopes, and daredevil risk takers.

Gripping and interesting to the last, Free Fall is bound to cement Millss place near the top of the suspense genre.

Gripping.

[A] heart-pounding thriller that moves with the speed of an out-of-control luge on a downhill run.

Compelling adventure... takes readers on a staccato-paced race to the wire.

Newport News Daily Press (VA)

Several cuts above the average thriller.

A seductive action novel.... Heres one slick page-turner that makes readers think.

Rising Phoenix is gripping, authentic, and as frightening as a gunshot in the night.

W.E.B. Griffin

[An] exceptionally accomplished debut thriller.

ALSO BY KYLE MILLS

FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT, MARCH 4, 1933

HOW many people here consider the government to be highly efficient?

Charles Russell adjusted himself behind his lectern and watched his opponent warily. Dr. Terry Gale, a popular professor of criminal justice at Harvard, was good-looking by any standard, with long brown hair tied back in a ponytail and the obligatory tweed jacket and faded jeans.

Gale had abandoned his own lectern and was moving back and forth across the stage, preaching energetically to the large auditorium. He was halfway through a highly successful ten-city tour for his latest book and had polished his delivery to a lustrous shine. Crime Does Pay: The Inevitable Failure of Americas War on Crime had clawed its way to the bottom of The New York Times Best Seller List and was likely on its way to a top-five spot.

Come on, dont be bashful. Lets see some hands. Who thinks the government is efficient? He motioned toward Russell. My opponent promises me that he hasnt installed any surveillance cameras in the auditorium, so vote your conscience here.

Russell started to frown but caught himself and laughed easily instead. As the director of homeland security and overseer of Americas law enforcement agencies, he had been the target of Gales acerbic wit on more than one occasion. Best to just let it roll off his back.

Okay, I see a few hands, Gale said.

It wasnt manymaybe five, all bunched together at the front. Russell glanced down at them for a moment and then out over young faces crammed into the American University auditorium. With no television camerassomething he himself had insisted on when hed agreed to this debatethe lighting was a little softer and more academic, allowing him to discern detail despite his aging eyes. What he saw was hostility: young, wealthy intellectuals who were there because they bought into Gales fatalistic antigovernment ranting; children whose lives were still skirting the edges of the real world. Their parents were largely supporters of the conservative values he stood for, but their sons and daughters were still in a rebellious stage. At this age, with their fathers credit cards still firmly in pocket, they had the luxury to be idealistic. In ten years, though, their loyalties would change. They would want to protect their money from excessive taxation, they would want their opulent homes and neighborhoods kept safe, they would want their children to attend a drug-free school that didnt teach down to the lowest common denominator, they would want to be safe from bomb-wielding fanatics....

Okay, Gale said, it doesnt look like were going to get a lot of hands. Big surprise. Let me ask another question: How many people think private industry is pretty efficient?

Almost every hand went up.

And Ill take that one step further. Obviously there are inefficiencies in private industry, but Id argue that a lot of them are a direct result of government regulation. Compare the Post Office to Federal Express if you want proof.

Is your suggestion to relieve private industry of excessive government meddling? Russell cut in. Youre starting to sound like a Republican, Dr. Gale.

That got a titter from the crowdsomething Russell knew he desperately needed.

Of course not, sir. My point is simply that organized crime is, by definition, completely unregulated, making it almost infinitely efficient. And that, combined with the fact that the U.S. has no comprehensive policy on crime, makes the war on it a losing proposition.

Russell considered stepping out from behind his lectern, too, but then squelched the thought. Hed end up looking like Al Gore, trying to be hip. Better to just stick with... what did his son say? Old and crotchety.

Im not sure thats fair, Professor. Over the past few years weve increased the number of police on the streets, weve intercepted hundreds of millions of dollars worth of narcotics coming into this country, weve had success in convincing narcotics-producing countries to step up their output reduction efforts, weve put mandatory sentencing in place for a number of crimes, weve greatly expanded our antiterrorist efforts... I could go on. And weve seen results: a measurable drop in the use of various drugs as well as in some forms of violent crime