by Andy Maslen
“Good morning, Chief of Staff Fleming. Thank you for making the time to answer some more of our questions.”
Scott Fleming leaned forwards towards the mic and placed his elbows on the table.
“My pleasure, Senator,” he said with a smile.
“I just have one question for you this morning, Mr Fleming.”
“Fire away.”
“What can you tell us about Project ROSS?”
Terri-Ann had lent Gabriel Vinnie’s all-black Camaro. He was sitting in the parking lot of a diner on I-10, just outside San Antonio. As he waited for his call to be answered he looked up at the sign mounted on a tall steel pole. “Michelle’s Diner” was picked out in red, white and blue lettering above an outline map of Texas. Below that a rectangular yellow metal plate read “Watch for rattlesnakes”. I did, Gabriel thought. The ringing stopped and the line clicked twice.
After the briefest of pauses, Gabriel smiled as he heard a familiar voice.
“You took your time, Old Sport. I was beginning to think we’d lost you.”
“I’m ready to come back to work, Boss. If you’ll have me back.”
Don Webster laughed, and Gabriel felt the tension that had been sitting screwed up in his gut like a tangle of barbed wire disappear.
“Oh, I’ll have you back. Where are you at the moment?”
“Texas.”
“The Lone Star State. How appropriate. Let me know when you’re back in England and come and see me at MOD Rothford. There’s a young lady been asking after you, too. I might just invite her along. Now, you’ll have to forgive me, but I can see a rather important servant of the crown marching down the corridor towards me. Got to go. You take care, Gabriel.”
Gabriel looked at the darkening screen of his phone as Don ended the call. He smiled. It felt good, talking to his boss again after over a year of radio silence. He felt good. He’d kept his promise to Vinnie. He’d brought some measure of, if not peace, then at least closure to Terri-Ann. He’d helped Visna Chey and Lina Ly right wrongs in their country. Best of all, nobody he cared about had suffered as a result of his actions.
He looked through the windscreen at the shimmering road ahead. Just for a second he thought he saw three men in camo standing watching him, the right arm of one raised in a wave. He lifted his hand off the steering wheel. Then they were gone.
He let out a breath. Replaced his hand. And headed back.
The End
Copyright
© 2018 Sunfish Ltd
Published by Tyton Press, an imprint of Sunfish Ltd, PO Box 2107, Salisbury SP2 2BW T: 0844 502 2061
The right of Andy Maslen to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. Requests for permission should be addressed to the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Cover illustration copyright © Stuart Bache
Cover design by Books Covered
Author photograph for the print edition © Kin Ho
Edited by Michelle Lowery
Acknowledgments
Rather like Gabriel Wolfe, I was aware of the 1975 Cambodian genocide, but not in any great detail. It is a truly terrifying story of how a political ideology can be perverted and corrupted until it becomes a rationale for absolute evil.
My yoga teacher and dear friend, Clare Allen, does work for the Ponheary Ly Foundation in Cambodia. It is through conversations with Clare that I learned more about the genocide and went on to do my own research. She supplied the chapter title City of Gangsters and much of the background. Ponheary Ly is an incredible woman. She survived the genocide though she lost everyone else in her family. I am proud and humbled to know her, and to have helped her in her mission to educate Cambodia’s children. Thank you both.
This is a work of fiction. I’ve tried to be as factually accurate as possible, but I put people, places and things where they need to be for the story. Having said that, and acknowledging that all mistakes in the text are mine, the following people are deserving of special thanks.
As well as being a sensitive and knowledgeable editor, Michelle Lowery lives in San Antonio. Thank you, Michelle, and your husband, John, for your help in making sure I got the Texan end of things right. I wouldn’t want to upset the good people of the Lone Star State and especially “Military City.”
As always, I relied on the help of various friends who have served or are still serving in the British Army for advice and help with military matters. Giles Bassett, Mike Dempsey, Mark Budden, Dickie Gittins: thank you, guys.
Bill Wilson, thanks for your incredibly detailed knowledge of firearms and military affairs generally.
Jo Maslen, Helena Elliott and Sandy Wallace: thank you for your brilliant first readings.
Thank you, Crystal Watanabe and Sarah Liu, for your eagle-eyed proofreading.
Ann Finn, Gillian Petrie, Simon Alphonso, Yvonne Henderson, Vanessa Knowles, Nina Rip and Bill Wilson (again): thank you for being my “sniper spotters.”
Thanks, Stuart Bache for a fantastic cover design.
Thank you, too, for reading my stories.
Finally, and most deeply of all, I would like to thank my family, for their patience, advice and love.
Andy Maslen
Salisbury, 2018
Also by Andy Maslen
The Gabriel Wolfe series
Trigger Point
Reversal of Fortune (short story)
Blind Impact
Condor
First Casualty
Fury
The DI Stella Cole series
Hit and Run
Hit Back Harder
Hit and Done
Other fiction
Blood Loss - a Vampire Story
Non-fiction
Write to Sell
100 Great Copywriting Ideas
The Copywriting Sourcebook
Write Copy, Make Money
Persuasive Copywriting
About the Author
Andy Maslen was born in Nottingham, in the UK, home of legendary bowman Robin Hood. Andy once won a medal for archery, although he has never been locked up by the sheriff.
He has worked in a record shop, as a barman, as a door-to-door DIY products salesman and a cook in an Italian restaurant. He eventually landed a job in marketing, writing mailshots to sell business management reports. He spent ten years in the corporate world before launching a business writing agency, Sunfish, where he writes for clients including The Economist, Christie’s and World Vision.
As well as the Stella Cole and Gabriel Wolfe thrillers, Andy has published five works of non-fiction, on copywriting and freelancing, with Marshall Cavendish and Kogan Page. They are all available online and in bookshops.
He lives in Wiltshire with his wife, two sons and a whippet named Merlin.
Want to know more?
To get two free books, and exclusive news and offers, join Andy Maslen’s Readers’ Group at www.andymaslen.com.
Email Andy at [email protected].
Follow and tweet him at @Andy_Maslen
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