The Chaos Kind (John Rain, #11, Livia Lone, #5)

by Barry Eisler

Both of them had been deaf from childhood—Dash, from meningitis; Manus, from a beating at the hands of his father.

John Rain, half-American and half-Japanese, was once so adept at “natural causes” that he had been the go-to man for elements of the Japanese government and for the CIA.

The guy they’re bringing in is more deniable. A ghost named Marvin Manus. Whose only known connection is to former NSA director Theodore Anders.”

“I’d rather use a soldier as a diplomat than a diplomat as a soldier.

Because if this thing doesn’t get unfucked, and fast, you are going to be facing a long line of people, all with pay grades even higher than mine, looking to take your scalp.”

Be bold, and mighty forces will come to your aid.

Don’t bite off more than you can chew.

book called Recursion, by Blake Crouch.

‘If you live only for yourself, dying is an especially scary proposition.’

‘Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, ’cause I’m the baddest motherfucker in the valley.’

If someone was looking, they’d already been spotted. But that didn’t mean you decloak. Better to act as if until you had no choice but to break cover. Sometimes riding out the subterfuge could buy you a little more time.

It was elegant, he had to admit. Audacious. And had just the right amount of fuck-you frisson.

That was the plan, anyway. How it went would likely be another story.

the most powerful knowledge of all was knowledge you had—and that others lacked. Which was to say, knowledge was power only when it was your knowledge. What gave you power over others was their ignorance. Asymmetrical knowledge, otherwise known as intelligence.

It was the people he was afraid to lose. And determined to protect. And if he had to face danger to that end, then he would face it willingly. No matter what.