The Trusted
MICHELLE MEDHAT
THANK YOU FROM MICHELLE MEDHAT
I would like to thank you for reading this book.
See the end of this book for details on how you can get the free eBook Operation Snowdrop that is not available anywhere else. It is the mission that is cited in The Trusted. Together with this free eBook you’ll get early bird discounts on all books released in this series.
Details can be found at the end of this book.
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Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Chapter 64
Chapter 65
Chapter 66
Chapter 67
Chapter 68
Chapter 69
Chapter 70
Chapter 71
Chapter 72
Chapter 73
Chapter 74
Chapter 75
Chapter 76
Chapter 77
Chapter 78
Chapter 79
Chapter 80
Chapter 81
Chapter 82
Chapter 83
Chapter 84
Chapter 85
Chapter 86
Chapter 87
Chapter 88
Chapter 89
Chapter 90
Chapter 91
Chapter 92
Chapter 93
Chapter 94
Chapter 95
Chapter 96
Chapter 97
Chapter 98
Chapter 99
Sample: The Dominant - Part Two * Book Two - Chapter 1
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A WORD FROM THE AUTHOR
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Chapter 1
21 March, 2017
Ellie Noor sighed with satisfaction and gripped the leather steering wheel, turning it sharply to the left and into the lane. Ellie loved to feel the power of her Porsche Carrera 911 beneath her fingertips. Knowing she had control of something so magnificent and fierce gave her such a buzz. After the day she’d had of tough negotiations, she needed to unwind and let go. She flipped on Bluetooth and her music blasted out through the windows.
Ellie pressed down on the accelerator and hedgerows vanished in a viridian blur. She could see the traffic lights at the end of the lane, which widened into a single carriage way. The T-junction approached fast. Ellie slammed down on the brakes. The traffic lights flickered to amber, but Ellie didn’t stop. She toggled the drive mode to manual, dropped down to second gear and swung a hard right across the road, just as the light flashed to red and traffic started to move.
Exhilarated, adrenalin pumping, Ellie smiled broadly and yelled, “Yeah!”
She shifted up the gears until the six-cylinder turbo engine purred contentedly underneath her feet.
It was Friday. Sam might be coming home today, and perhaps then, she could put some fun back into her life again.
Ellie glanced in the rear-view mirror. She’d been working non-stop that week with little sleep. But the deal with PalmerPharm, one of the pharmaceutical giants she had on her radar, was finally coming through. But everything came at a cost. Her skin had a pale translucence and her face seemed gaunt from a poor diet and lack of daylight.
She’d burnt the midnight oil, putting the finishing touches on her virtual warehousing application with her programmers. The application integrated block chain capability, giving her clients better flexibility, immediacy of distribution and, most of all, unrivalled cybersecurity in their supply chain management.
That was why the pharms were getting interested. She just had to close that deal and the rest of the lucrative life sciences market would follow.
Ellie glanced again in the mirror. A morning in the spa tomorrow was her indulgence. It would be time that should be spent running the final tests on the software. She flicked a look into the mirror again. Hell, I’ve got testers for that job. I deserve a bit of pampering. I’ve got to look great for Sam.
The second Ellie thought of her husband, her phone vibrated, still on silent from her last meeting. She swallowed deeply as she looked at the face on the on-screen display and inside, she fluttered with anticipation. Although just a thumbnail image, the dark captivating eyes, chiseled jaw and high cheekbones were unmistakable. She hit the pickup button.
“Hello sweetness,” she cried, as she turned the car onto the ramp and glided smoothly into the flow of traffic on the M3.
“Hello darling,” responded Sam, her husband. “What are you up to?” In his voice, Ellie could discern a slight chuckle.
“Oh, just driving back to London. I’ve decided to have a break tomorrow. We’re almost there with the software launch. Alpha and beta testing have all gone through fine. We’ve just got one more testing set with some critical friends. I don’t need to spend another weekend in Winchester for that. My team can handle it.”
Ellie checked all around for signs of the authorities and then maneuvered the 911 quickly into the fast lane, pushing the accelerator up to her usual knuckle-whitening speed.
“Good. You’re giving them a bit of latitude at last, sweetness. You’ve been like a mother hen for too bloody long.”
Ellie detected a touch of bitterness in Sam’s response. That’s rich, coming from him. After all, he’d gone his own way when the Foreign Office called about their ‘great job’.
“Sam, you’re not still annoyed about me pursuing my dream, are you?”
They’d been together too long for Sam to harbor any feelings he didn’t express to her. Communication was key in their marriage. Anything not right was brought out into the open. They had no secrets. It had been the very foundation on which their relationship was built.
“You’re not, are you?” pressed Ellie.
But Sam didn’t answer.
The silence grew. Ellie breathed heavily, feeling uncomfortable.
“Sam, love, don’t be like this.”
Sam sighed. “It’s ok, sweetness. I’m happy for you. But I think you’ve g
iven that place too much. I know it’s your baby, but you need to know when to pull back a little.”
“Oh, and you haven’t devoted all your bloody time to the FCO? I never see you, Sam. You’re always away.”
It was Ellie’s turn to feel hard done by about her husband’s career choice.
“Of course you never see me. I’m in London and you’re always in bloody Winchester.”
“Not always!” retaliated Ellie sharply. “Sometimes I am in London. But you’re always somewhere else.”
Silence floated between them. Ellie heard Sam breathing gently. He wasn’t getting riled, but she was.
“Sam, don’t you understand? I love you. I need you. Just get back from wherever the hell you are.”
“I’m in Oslo,” said Sam. “I’m due to stay a bit longer, may two or three days. Then I’ll be back.”
Ellie heard what she didn’t want to hear. She really wanted him back. She needed him back.
“Fine. Stay a few more bloody days,” Ellie snapped.
“Look, Ellie-”
“It’s your job. Just finish it!”
“Ellie!”
“It’s fine, Sam. Really.”
Ellie stared at the road and pressed down harder on the accelerator. The speed flew past 130 mph. Cars were leaping out of the way as she tore down the road toward them.
“Ok, sweetness. I’ll cut short my business here and come back tonight.”
Ellie’s eyes dipped down to swiftly snatch a glance at Sam’s thumbnail image on the touchscreen panel. She smiled. She’d got her way. As always.
“Thank you, darling.”
“I do love you, Ellie. You know that.”
“Of course I do,” said Ellie. After a beat, she added with a touch of visible reluctance to keep Sam in check, “And I love you too.”
Chapter 2
Sam closed the connection and Ellie’s voice vanished, but her demanding, powerful cadence still rang in his ears. Even after twenty-eight years of that bubbly and often argumentative tone, he knew he’d never get tired of hearing it.
She was right. She did deserve more.
Sam lifted his head up and glanced out of the rigid square windows of the British Embassy’s administration building on Thomas Heftyes Gate. His view had some greenery, thanks to a proud, white eighteenth-century residence opposite that was replete with beautiful gardens. He considered himself far luckier than other colleagues who only had a concrete car park to enjoy.
Rain pelted relentlessly against the pane and the faintest tinge of a draft hit Sam’s cheek as he moved his head down to concentrate on the files. The name at the top of the file ‘Stor Spill’, meaning Great Game in Norwegian, spelled out the company he was evaluating.
Sam had been sent over to check out a new potential gazelle firm that had experienced extremely rapid growth, and to test the temperature with them on expanding into the UK, if the incentives were right. The company’s new augmented reality platform, which they used for their gaming environment, had many industrial applications beyond the entertainment industry. It was Sam’s job to analyze whether Stor Spill could be a good future investment for UK PLC.
Recalling his earlier engagement with Stor Spill’s prickly, twenty-something managing director, Sam wondered whether they were worth his effort.
“What do you think, Dr. Noor?” asked Stor Spill’s MD.
Sam shrugged, keeping things neutral until he had a chance to run the proposition over with his boss. “I believe your technology offers interesting opportunities.”
The MD scoffed, clearly annoyed. “Interesting opportunities? A bet on the horses at Ovrevoll Racecourse is an interesting opportunity. What I’m offering to the UK government is a dead cert, as you say.”
Sam didn’t give anything away. “As I say, consideration of various options is being undertaken. I will get back to you once decisions have been made.”
The MD retorted, “You may come back, but we may not be here. We may have taken our ‘interesting opportunity’ to another country.”
Sam smirked slowly. “And that is your choice.”
Sam glared at the file, turning the pages over until he arrived at the potential for investment section. Working with companies meant partnership. Sam didn’t feel that the MD wanted to play straight. The technology was good but not unbelievable. He’d seen other examples around the world.
After picking up the ‘Reject’ stamp, he then hesitated. The tech could be useful in other areas, especially the Ministry of Defense. Yes, the MD was an upstart, but he could be brought around. Sam put down the ‘Reject’ stamp and picked up the ‘Pending’ stamp. Then he slammed it down on the file.
Sam pulled out a drawer out and took out a file. It was completely different to the others piling up on his desk. It was foolscap, beige and marked up ‘Rikard Allan.’
Sam moved his hand over to pick up Rickard’s file, but his mobile rang.
“Yes,” said Sam with a terse inflection.
“Need you back Sam. Meeting tonight. Debrief on everything.”
“Understood sir.”
“And Sam, we need to talk about Kinley,” added the caller.
Sam gritted his teeth hard, and said, “Yes, sir. Ok.”
By the end of the conversation, Sam was enraged. They were making the wrong decision, but they couldn’t see it. Sam breathed deep and concentrated on something else in a bid to quieten his overflowing anger.
He picked up Rikard’s file again, scanned inside and shut it abruptly, scowling.
Then, unexpectedly, Ellie’s face popped up in his mind. Her beautiful grey-blue eyes were enticing him to make his move. Sam breathed in. For God’s sake Ellie, not now thought Sam, feeling a desperate need to compartmentalize better.
He pressed the intercom on his phone.
“Helga, get me on the next plane out of Oslo.”
Chapter 3
A woman, svelte and stunning with long dark hair blowing in the wind, joined an equally handsome and tall man. Both were in their early forties. They smiled, linked arms and walked together. The man flashed a smile to his partner that showed perfect white teeth shining from a chiseled face bursting with wholesome goodness. She returned the smile with a traffic-stopping ruby red grin of her own.
They could have been new lovers wrapped in the radiance of each other’s love. They could have been actors from a rom-com film set. They could have been top models promoting the latest fashion or fragrance. What they couldn’t possibly have been were international terrorists. At least, that’s what a casual onlooker glancing their way would say. But they’d be wrong.
The man was Dr. Salim Al Douri, leader of Al Nadir.
The woman, Dr. Sabena Sanantoni, was his second in command. Although beautiful, she was colder than an Antarctic glacier. Known within the Al Nadir collective as The Slayer, her reputation afforded her the right to stand by the side of the man who was soon to be the most powerful force on Earth.
Chapter 4
The drive had been longer than usual. A four-car pileup just before junction two left Ellie stuck in a five-mile tailback that ended up lasting over two hours.
Ellie tried to call Sam, but his phone was on voicemail. She left a couple of messages and then gave up trying. You’re never where you should be, thought Ellie, resenting the fact he was not with her.
The heavy rock music she’d blasted earlier had lost its effect. Tired from the drive, or lack of it, Ellie switched to a classical music channel on the radio. Scheherazade by Rimsky-Korsakov gently tickled her senses. The hypnotic music was accentuated by the power of the car’s Burmester surround sound speakers, and she calmed down. The music soothed away her frustrations.
By the time the accident had been cleared away, she’d hit rush hour. Traffic coming out of Brentford and Twickenham made the rest of her journey a slow crawl. The red tail lights of the cars blurred in front of Ellie’s eyes and her lids started to close. Her concentration was waning. The classics that had calmed her were
now turning the interior of her car into a soporific bubble. Ellie breathed deeply, pulled her back straight, shoved a chewing gum in her mouth (chewing always helped her concentrate), and pressed Bluetooth again. Rock music jumped out. Ellie jolted back as the notes assaulted her weary brain. She flicked on another artist. A strong, pounding ballad enveloped her. Throughout her body, Ellie could feel the harmonic energies of the music and her own energy level rose just enough to continue the laborious drive home.
Ellie turned into the driveway of her apartment, Silent Waters in London’s Chelsea Wharf. The automatic gates sensed the RFID on her windscreen and opened. Nearly four hours had passed since Ellie had spoken to Sam back in Winchester, and exhaustion was now setting in.
Ellie parked next to Sam’s C63 AMG Merc, grabbed her Mulberry tote, and headed for the lift.
Halfway across the car park, a little vibration shook against her shoulder. Ellie swung the tote around and dived into the pocket housing her phone. It was Sam.
“Hiya, gorgeous. Where are you?” she asked.
“Just touched down. I’m going into a meeting now but it should be finished soon.”
“Oh! Ok.” Ellie breathed despondently. “But I thought we…”
Ellie’s voice wandered off, and between the beat, Sam replied with a curt, “Bye.”
Ellie stared at her phone for a few seconds, hoping Sam would call back. But he didn’t. The phone stayed inanimate of vibration. Ellie sighed with annoyance, threw the phone back into her tote, and finished her journey to the lift.
Chapter 5
A few miles away from Ellie, Sam ran across the tarmac at RAF Northolt to a waiting Jaguar. He climbed into the back seat beside his boss, Sir Justin Maide. The car moved as Sam closed the door.
On seeing each other, they issued convivial greetings. Neither spoke about the heated conversation they’d had several hours earlier. Sam could see Maide wanted to bury it and focus on business. And just forget it happened.
Maide handed Sam his tablet. Sam took it and scanned through the reports, shaking his head.
“A lot’s happened since I’ve been away?” said Sam, reading at speed.
“You’re telling me. The PM wants a debrief.”
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