Dead Eye Quotes
"The story is so propulsive, the murders so explosive, that flipping the pages feels like playing the ultimate video game." —The New York Times
"An extremely capable warrior with multiple tricks and tradecraft, Courtland has a complicated past and a long list of mortal enemies, so readers can look forward to plenty of dangerous adventures." —Publishers Weekly
"Court is endearing in his perseverance even as his schemes are undermined by sympathetic victims, misleading information, outright lies, poor planning, betrayal, conflicting agendas, and simple bad luck." —Publishers Weekly
"Fine characterization, witty dialogue, breathtaking chase and battle scenes, and as many unforeseen twists and turns as your favorite Robert Ludlum or Vince Flynn novel—combined." —Keith Thomson
"Greaney writes smart, sharp, perfectly-paced thrillers. Intense, intelligent, and loads of fun." —Steven James
"Discovering The Gray Man was like falling in love for the first time." —Eric Wilson
"Hard, fast, and unflinching—exactly what a thriller should be." —Lee Child
"Here is a debut novel like a well-honed dagger: sharp, merciless, and deadly." —James Rollins
"Hope in one hand and shit in the other. See which one fills up first!"
"Never mind," Lee Babbitt said. "That’s Gentry."
"No, this hit was not optimal. Not optimal at all. But it was doable."
"He slowed his breathing, even exerted control over the beating of his heart by consciously relaxing his blood pressure."
"Gentry appreciated the gesture, but he didn’t know this bastard. For all he knew the tea was pure poison. Gentry was not the trusting type."
"And just like that, ladies and gentlemen, he is clear of his target."
"The only thing I care about is getting a picture of Court Gentry’s ugly mug in a pine box when this is all said and done."
"But now I am the man who sits across the street to watch instead of one of the men who swoops in to carry out justice."
"Someone has to evaluate the surroundings to give the all clear."
"Somebody is about to die on the third floor of that building over there."
"I love when it's over. As long as we have done our jobs correctly, and there is no collateral."
"I can only hope someone proclaims their intention to kill our prime minister in the next few days so that I can have a raison d'etre."
"Gentry didn’t feel bad about fucking over his employer when his employer was scum of the earth."
"Court wanted, more than anything else in this world, to return to the USA. To be free of the CIA’s shoot-on-sight sanction."
"Gentry is easy for me to read. He and I are one in the same."
"Collateral damage, in this very special case, will be understood as a necessary evil."
"The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him."
"If you are going to fight, do it for something you love. Do it for your country."
"They don’t check passports at the turnstiles. Only at time of purchase."
"Once I am on the boat, I disappear until Stockholm."
"I will not worry about you telling anyone of our transaction, and you will not worry about my friends."
"He bought coffee and bottled water and plastic-wrapped and plastic-tasting sausages from a vending machine next to the piano bar on the boat."
"This was karma, biting him back for his own misbehavior."
"He knew the Gray Man would do things in his own way, on his own schedule."
"I’ve decided I will make my own arrangements from now on."
"Every minute you spend telling me how you are going to catch and kill Court Gentry is another minute you aren’t catching and killing Court Gentry."
"We’re patriots here at Townsend. We’re proud to serve."
"Court knew it was likely Ardo Tubool would learn just as soon as he got back into the city that early that same morning groups of foreigners—Westerners, all would say—had shot it out with each other."
"Court was the Gray Man; the clerk would have forgotten more than she remembered."
"I destroy your ticket as soon as I get on board."
"I pay your fee when you return. And we must go now, and hurry, because the ferry leaves in thirty minutes."
"With a little luck, he thought, he might stay in Stockholm till late spring, when walking the streets with a hood over his head and a scarf across his face would no longer work."
"He was completely unaware that a partial image of his face had been collected by a camera built into the bezel of a laptop on a display stand in the back of the store."
"He liked it here in Sweden, and it was nice to move around fully cloaked."
"She ignored the pastries, sipped black coffee, and wrote notes to herself on a notepad, anxious about the meeting to come."
"I solve problems for him and make him look good."
"Ettinger did not miss a beat. 'And the CIA has always possessed the most impertinent executives.'"
"He could pass you in your kitchen and you would not notice him."
"If you had office buildings full of people 'just like me,' you would have already killed Gentry, ended the war on terror, and liberated both Cuba and North Korea."
"But starting today, your situation will improve, because I am here and I will find your little fuckup named Court Gentry."
"If she had the raw materials, a good psych degree and law school, for example, and she started sniffing around at FBI or CIA, it’s a good bet Mossad got wind of the fact that a Jewish girl was looking to get into the game."
"She was the only senior officer in the collections department who was not reprimanded or shit-canned for that. She even got a letter of commendation, saying had her concerns been given the care they deserved, a tragedy could have been avoided."
"She’s a bitch, but she’s a survivor. I can live with that."
"We kill Gentry," Babbitt said coolly. "Mossad can take the credit. We’ll take the cash."
"The Austrian was not completely put at ease by the scene, but in his line of work he knew he must take risks, and this transaction could not very well take place if he did not do as instructed."
"He has a skill set that, arguably, only one other person on the planet has."
"I understand, Yanis," she said, but still, there was reticence in her voice. "But when did we become the hunting dogs for the CIA?"
"I worry, Lucas. Tell your partner to keep the Sky Shark back."
"If he’s got a corner window he might have line of sight on the overwatch from his flat, but it’s a small chance. I think we dodged a bullet."
"We have to be smarter with this one. Slower, more thoughtful in our actions. Lose him, short term, if you have to, but do not get compromised."
"I find it very hard to believe Gentry would target Israel’s PM."
"Yes. I will make my own way to Stockholm. I will contact you when I get there."
"Court worried he was not changing with the times."
"People change, as do their motivations, their desires, their orders."
"I did not get into this business to help private American bounty hunters set up a half-assed and ill-conceived raid on a house full of children."
"He knew he was also under surveillance by security cameras now, and although he was confident he could avoid any facial recognition pings due to his obscured face, he also was pretty sure anyone looking for him by this point would know what his coat looked like and what his backpack looked like and could therefore make a pretty good guess that the man trudging alone through the station was probably the same guy they’d been chasing through Stockholm."
"She acknowledged her superior without her normal borderline insubordinance, because she knew Mossad surveillance was exactly what this operation needed."
"His phone sat on the backpack and his headphones were in his ears; he’d sat like this for a half hour because he was having a tough time psyching himself up to contact Dead Eye."
"Court spent the early morning hours riding a bus to Jakobsberg, a town southwest of Stockholm. There was nothing in Jakobsberg for him to see or do; as soon as he arrived he would climb aboard a bus that would return him to Stockholm."
"He considered staying outside the city for a day or two but quickly vetoed the idea. Even though the men and women watching for him would certainly be located in the capital, the crowds and clutter of the urban world were the safest place for Court to hide."
"She nodded. 'I agree, but we need to keep it static. We start moving around the city in the middle of the night and I can guarantee you he will see us before we see him. Find a stationary survey location in or near the central station, someplace where we are ironclad sure we won’t be compromised, and we’ll start a three-hour watch rotation.'"
"Court had seen no specific tell indicating that this encounter with this woman was a bump. But Court was also a suspicious man. He would assume she was part of a surveillance team until he either confirmed it or somehow proved otherwise."
"'I’m in waste management.' The girl’s voice faltered. 'Oh. Okay.'"
"It took all his might and patience to drag the gear behind him. He strained with the effort, but still he kept his eyes darting from one sentry position to the next."
"Court was completely exposed here in the center of the air base; the nearest revetment he could use for cover if the shit hit the fan was over fifty yards away."
"Court had no problems getting into the base after this; he only had to wait in an impossibly cramped position in the truck for nine hours."
"By dawn he’d made his way three hundred meters to the ditch far out across the field alongside the runway."
"He looked back up to the missiles. They sat on their rails, pointing out over the base."
"Court was worried about the sentries around the airfield... but he was terrified of the Kornet missile systems."
"Tonight’s clandestine meeting between Russians and Iranians would involve a swap of cash for nuclear secrets."
"He aimed one weapon at the man sitting in the control tower, two hundred sixty yards away, positioning the crosshairs on the only part of the target he could see from his position, the top of his helmet."
"All three rifles fired at once, creating a single cacophonous report."
"Court did not know if he’d hit all four targets; he figured he would only know for sure if an antitank missile arced into the air and began chasing him across the airfield."
"Court launched himself up and into the cabin of the aircraft, and shoved his pistol against the forehead of the first Iranian intelligence officer."
"The aircraft lifted into the air and was immediately enshrouded by the thick clouds."
"The contract is yours. I only need to know where you would like me to deliver the payment when the contract is fulfilled."
"Your organization will be tempted to keep the money owed me... That would be a mistake."
"He’d told Gentry he wouldn’t lay a hand on the Mossad, but just like in Nice, Russ had decided the tactical situation required a small adjustment to his initial plans."
"Dammit. It wasn’t the dead man’s blood; no, it was his own. His gunshot wound had ripped open again."
"She expected to hear a scratchy set of thumps indicating Dillman was tapping his Bluetooth microphone, but again, she heard nothing."
"A small gasp came from her lungs and then she ran forward."
"Ruth did not respond. Tears welled in her eyes and she stifled a cry."
"She fought to deliver the next transmission cleanly and without any hint as to the horror she felt right now."
"Ruth sat in her seat in the rear car of the train, her eyes fixed on the door ahead."
"It wasn’t assuredness, she told herself now. It was incompetence."
"She’d come out of Rome smelling like a rose; the Mossad commended her actions."
"Russell Whitlock landed at London’s Gatwick Airport shortly before two P.M."
"She knew who he was, of course, even before her eyes could focus on his face."
"But he was right, and she was wrong. Rome had ruined her."
"Kalb traveled to Belgium to pay his respects at the grave of Piet De Schepper, a Belgian doctor who had, at great personal risk, saved the lives of hundreds of Belgian Jews by secreting them from the Nazis."
"Each and every year since De Schepper’s death from natural causes in 1999, Kalb had made the pilgrimage to his grave at the Dieweg Cemetery in the southern Brussels neighborhood of Uccle."
"He hoped the superhero legend of the Gray Man would make it easy for the world to believe he knew of Kalb’s annual pilgrimage."