The 6:20 Man (The 6:20 Man, #1)

by David Baldacci

But what the hell was pain anyway? It was life; you had to deal with it.

Life is a long enough journey without having only negative motivations to get your ass out of bed every day.

When in doubt, say nothing. When not in doubt, double down on that advice.

“Reality in America. And for your information, we don’t have a ‘justice’ system in this country. We have a legal system.

“Nobody likes to admit they were suckered. It’s easier on the psyche to keep living the lie.”

“Devine, there is one thing that drives our politics. It’s simple and out in the open and yet most people never give it a second thought: money. It used to be that the sources of political funding were severely limited, and those sources also had to be disclosed. That is no longer the case.”

The Pandora Papers are 11.9 million leaked documents with 2.9 terabytes of data that the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) published beginning on 3 October 2021. The leak exposed the secret offshore accounts of 35 world leaders, including current and former presidents, prime ministers, and heads of state as well as more than 100 billionaires, celebrities, and business leaders. The news organizations of the ICIJ described the document leak as their most expansive exposé of financial secrecy yet, containing documents, images, emails and spreadsheets from 14 financial service companies, in nations including Panama, Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates, surpassing their previous release of the Panama Papers in 2016, which had 11.5 million confidential documents (2.6 terabytes). At the time of the release of the papers, the ICIJ said it is not identifying its source for the documents. Estimates by the ICIJ of money held offshore (outside the country where the money was made) range from US$5 trillion to US$32 trillion.

“There’s nothing wrong with being afraid. When people are in danger, they should be afraid. But you can’t let fear paralyze you, then you’re as good as dead.”

“I made some mistakes in my earlier career, Travis. I guess you did, too. I don’t know if you know this, but Campbell collects people like you and me. We’re sort of like the misfit toys on that island in Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Damaged but capable of—” “—re-redemption,” he finished for her. “Yes, redemption.”