The First Billion - Softcover

Christopher Reich

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0747266239 ISBN 13: 9780747266235

Publisher: Headline Book Publications, 2003

Synopsis

The last thing Jett Gavallan would call himself was a hero. A fighter pilot in the Gulf War, he found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time. Now Gavallan lives with the memory and the blame for what happened. But he is determined not to let it destroy him. He has created Black Jet Securities, an international financial consulting firm, in order to use his expertise to create enough wealth to do some good in the world. It's a noble goal, but Black Jet Securities' latest and most ambitious deal could destroy everything that Gavallan has worked so hard to build.

On the surface it seems like a perfectly lucrative and legitimate business venture: bring a Russian high-tech company to the U.S. Stock Exchange. But the company's owner turns out to be one of the most ruthless bosses in the Russian Mafia whose plans go far beyond the Stock Exchange. Suddenly Gavallan is dead center in a world where hired armies fight a secret war, alliances are made if the price is right—and deals are sealed with murder. To outwit Kirov and his assassins, Gavallan will need to summon all the raw courage and cunning of the combat pilot he once was and this time he cannot afford to fail.

About this title

Review:

Money makes the world go round for Jett Gavallon, a high-tech entrepreneur who's on the brink of bringing a Russian telecom startup to market with an IPO worth billions. But when his best friend and second-in-command disappears after Gavallon sends him to Moscow to make sure the new company is on the up and up, Jett begins to have second thoughts, which are exactly what his Russian partners can't afford. Beset by an FBI task force looking into Mercury Broadband's financing by Russian mobsters, rumors of fraud being circulated by a Drudge-like online financial gossip columnist, and the discovery that his former lover is not who he thought she was, Jett puts his fortune on the line in a desperate attempt to save his company--and ultimately, his life. An exciting, fast-paced adventure by an author who puts his experience in international banking to work in the service of this carefully plotted thriller. --Jane Adams

From the Inside Flap:

Christopher Reich electrified readers with Numbered Account and The Runner, his first two international thrillers. Now the New York Times bestselling author whose work has been called ?gripping? (Chicago Tribune), ?chilling? (The Denver Post), ?wonderful? (The New York Times Book Review), ratchets up the stakes in an ingeniously plotted story of nerve-jangling intrigue and hot-wired suspense. Using today?s cutthroat global economy as a backdrop, The First Billion explodes into a breakneck tale of betrayal, revenge, and redemption...

John ?Jett? Gavallan is a former fighter pilot, now the high-flying CEO of Black Jet Securities, an investment firm that earned its first billion before the techno dream crashed and burned. Poised for an offering crucial to his company?s survival, Gavallan is banking on the riskiest gamble of his dazzling career. In exactly six days, he will take Mercury Broadband, Russia?s leading media company, public on the New York Stock Exchange. But rumors of fraud have suddenly surfaced that could send the deal south. Gavallan makes a preemptive strike by dispatching his number-two man--fellow Desert Storm fighter pilot Grafton Byrnes--to Moscow to penetrate the shadowy Russian multinational. When Byrnes fails to return, Gavallan fears the worst. But
the truth is even more diabolical than he can imagine.

Plunging into a desperate search for his best friend, the renegade top gun is suddenly fighting a different kind of war, where there is no safe harbor and no one he can trust. Not Konstantin Kirov, the elusive head of Mercury Broadband who may not be what he seems. Not the bankers and traders Gavallan does business with every day. Not the exotic beauty who has told him all her deepest secrets--except one. Suddenly Jett finds himself trapped in a conspiracy that could shatter the delicate balance between nations--and plunge the global economy into chaos. Hunted by the F.B.I. and a band of elite killers, Jett races from Palm Beach to Zurich to Moscow in a desperate search for answers. But for this brave ex-commando haunted by visions of war, the truth comes at a terrible price. With Mercury rising and the hours ticking down, he is moving closer to a place where murder and revenge are the currency of choice...and where the first billion is the ultimate insider secret--and the deadliest obsession of all.

With breakneck plotting, stunning realism, and a sense of danger that keeps the heart racing, The First Billion is a knockout of a novel that will linger long after the final shocking twist is revealed.

About this edition

• Publisher: Headline Book Publications
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0747266239
• ISBN 13: 9780747266235
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 608