Backlash Quotes
"If laws and standards were not worth enforcing, then they certainly couldn’t be worth following."
"Vengeance was a necessary function of a civilized world, particularly at its margins, in its most remote and wild regions."
"Cancer was cancer. Only by tackling it head-on could you hope to beat it."
"He wanted to let it loose, to vomit it out in every direction and kill every Russian in sight. But instead, he warned himself, Not now. Keep your shit together."
"Revenge was a bitter medicine. It didn’t cure suffering. It didn’t provide closure. It only hollowed you out further."
"It was bad enough he was going to die; he shouldn’t have to die alone."
"Whatever the prisoner had done, surely he didn’t deserve to die, at least not like this."
"The Russians wanted to enjoy the peace and prosperity of a civilized world, without the encumbrances of following any of its laws."
"Even if Harvath had found something to use as a lever, he wasn’t going to make it. All he could do at this point was make him comfortable."
"The knot in McGee’s stomach hadn’t gone. In fact, it had only tightened."
"Being summoned to Minayev’s office was referred to as paying a visit to the 'devil’s asshole.'"
"What do you mean the plane fucking vanished?"
"Plausible deniability for Russia was paramount."
"The only person on that plane who wasn’t replaceable was the American—Harvath."
"If this operation went south, the closest Minayev would come to becoming a timber baron was being beaten to death with an axe handle and buried in a shallow forest grave."
"The people who felt powerless were the ones who wouldn’t make it."
"Harvath, on the other hand, was strictly a coffee guy."
"Everything was about state of mind and how he chose to perceive his situation."
"He was amazed at how close they had gotten before his Spidey sense had kicked in."
"His plan had been to leave at first light, storm or no storm."
"Under optimal circumstances, push-button starters were a breeze. When circumstances were less than optimal, though, you started having problems."
"Dragging the sled was something straight out of the Labors of Hercules."
"The burn of snowshoeing had nothing on dragging the Yeti."
"The one thing he had going for him, though, was that the storm had erased his tracks."
"There was no way they’d be able to track him. They’d have to send men in every single direction."
"In Russia, you learned not to question Peshkov or his allies."
"Russian President Fedor Peshkov and his cronies had grown astronomically wealthy by raping the country."
"In fact, you couldn’t control most things. What made him an exceptional operative was his ability to change from moment to moment and adjust to the facts on the ground."
"Can you inject that someplace else? I want to keep that arm as functional as possible."
"Seriously? Hopefully, there's no more pain in your future."
"We are looking for a man—an American spy—who has murdered four Russian soldiers and at least one Russian Air Force member."
"The Russian government is offering a reward of fifteen thousand U.S. dollars—that’s nearly a hundred thousand rubles—for information leading to his capture."
"We will be conducting house-to-house searches. If anyone is found to be sheltering this man, they will be prosecuted as an accomplice to murder and an enemy of the state."
"Even before he drew even with the man, he knew there was no saving him."
"Under the glow from the night vision goggles, Harvath watched as the life left the man’s eyes."
"He didn’t bother to wait for the good idea fairy to strike."
"Instead he raced back to retrieve his rucksack and stripped the two dead mercenaries of anything of value to his survival."
"He helped himself not only to their weapons, but also to their ammo-packed chest rigs."
"Either they were going to hand her over to the GRU, who at best would throw her in prison, and at worst would execute her."
"He didn’t want to have to go back to Nivsky to find her."
"If he knew exactly where the helicopter would land, he might have been able to find concealment nearby."
"He hoped there’d be enough chaos that he could get in all the shots he needed."
"Staying one second too long in that crawl space could mean death."
"The explosion wasn’t the loudest Harvath had ever heard. But it was significant."
"After he drilled the four at the door, he took a quick peek inside."
"Having run the weapon dry, he ejected the empty magazine, and pulling a fresh one from his chest rig, rammed it home."
"He had a general idea of where the crash had happened, but didn’t know what the terrain was like."
"All this? All the cold, all the pain, and all the miles just for this? Just to get captured?"
"He was more than pissed. He was fucking angry."
"His anger was calling up something deeper, something much more deadly. His anger was calling back up his rage."
"We're going to fight," he replied, pulling the few magazines he had left from his rucksack and handing one to her.
"I'm not going to let anything happen to you. Do you understand?"
"The point was that some of the most important battles in history had been won not by those with the greatest number of troops, but rather those with the largest commitment to winning the fight."
"It was kill or be taken prisoner, and he had already made it quite clear where he stood on that proposition."
"Once he had both his weapons in place, he said a quick prayer, exhaled, and pressed the triggers."
"We're not going to have long," he said, as he changed magazines and tried to catch his breath.
"No matter what I do for you," said Haney, rolling the spent launcher tube in the snow to cool it off, "I never get a thank-you."
"Listen to me," he said. "I’m not going to let anything happen to you. Do you understand?"
"I told you back in New Hampshire I’d find you, and that when I did, I’d kill you. So now, guess what?"
"Don’t talk, just listen. You killed my wife and you also killed two of the most important people in the world to me."
"You want to know why? Because you’re a failure. You have always been a failure. And now you will die a failure."
"I just injected you with suxamethonium chloride. Right now, all of your muscles are starting to give up."
"The only reason I spared the Russian President was so that he would spend the rest of his life grieving his son."
"The blinders the Russian President wore when it came to Misha had seen a spoiled child grow into a dangerous young adult."
"I’m going to make sure you die as painful a death as possible."
"It was said that the only thing the elder Peshkov loved more than his money and power was his son."
"He wanted the Russian President’s pain to last for years."
"Whatever it was that she was trying to tell him, he now had plenty of time to listen."