“Yes,” replied Joe, keeping his eyes closed.
“They reckon there’ll be riots.”
“Over a mayor?” One eye opened.
“A black mayor killed by the Klan, you think there won’t be?”
“Haven’t you heard? It’s got worse,” said a man from behind, entering a conversation Joe didn’t want to have. The elderly woman turned in her seat to face the man.
Joe looked at his bottle of bourbon. A third was gone already; he had hoped it would last until Washington, he’d be lucky if it lasted to Houston, four hours away unless he slowed down. He took another long pull.
The man from behind pulled himself to the front of his seat, filling the aisle, so he could talk to them both more easily. Joe reluctantly half turned to face the man, while the elderly woman waited eagerly to hear the latest.
“One of those officers, you know from last year, that shot that unarmed black boy and wasn’t charged?”
“Yes,” said the elderly lady.
“No,” Joe mumbled.
“A group of young black boys kidnapped him, tied him to the back of their car, and dragged him through the streets. Exactly like the Klan used to do.”
“Is he okay?” asked the elderly woman with deep concern.
“I’d imagine he died, and very unpleasantly,” Joe said.
“Very,” agreed the man. “Although that’s not all. The president announced this afternoon he was adding the group that accepted responsibility for the FBI director’s death, the New Black Panthers Party, to a terrorist list. Supposedly evidence has come to light that they donated money to Al Qaeda back in 2000 via their ties to the Nation of Islam.”
“What’s Al Qaeda got to do with anything nowadays?” asked the elderly lady.
Joe didn’t know, but he did know Clay Caldwell enough to know that there was always a reason for what he did. He closed his eyes again, zoning out from the rest of the conversation. His concern was for Clay’s daughter, assuming that was why Clay had called him.
A year after Clay moved to Florida they had arranged to meet. Both had secretly saved for months and bought tickets to Atlanta unbeknownst to their parents. They reckoned it was halfway for each, and with a cover story of a sleepover at friend’s, it allowed them two days to meet up. At the last minute Maddy, a girl who both of them liked and had known as long as each other, informed Joe she was going too. Initially Joe thought it was cool, although after some probing, he discovered that Maddy had been keeping in touch with Clay a lot more than Joe realized.
After two of the best days of his life, they parted once again and amazingly managed to keep the meeting secret. With money tight in all of their households, such an extravagance was unthinkable, and more importantly, would be deemed unforgivable. However, not as secret as Clay and Maddy had managed to keep their sexual encounter, until a few months later when Maddy started to show, and exactly nine months to the day after their trip she gave birth to a baby daughter.
Maddy refused to divulge the father’s name, claiming it was just some boy she had met at the fair. Her father demanded a description, reaching for his gun, supporting Maddy’s refusal to name Clay.
Shortly after their meeting in Atlanta, Clay’s mother died and he moved once again with his grandparents. Thereafter, all contact was lost, and Clay remained blissfully unaware of his daughter until she was ten, when Joe met him again for the first time in almost eleven years.
By that time Clay was married and expecting what he thought was his first child. His wife was Southern royalty, one of the most wealthy, politically connected families across the Southern States and responsible for numerous senators and governors throughout their history. Staunchly Republican and Christian to the core. A husband who had abandoned an out of wedlock child wasn’t going to go over well, particularly as it seemed they were already planning his political path.
Despite all of that, Clay had taken leave and secretly visited Maddy and his daughter, Clara. Maddy could see Clay was a man going places and was no fool as to how the revelation that he had a ten-year-old out of wedlock daughter would affect him. She also knew her father would still, after all these years, quite possibly kill Clay, and felt it best the secret remained. With a heavy heart Clay had accepted, though not at the expense of his daughter. She wanted for nothing. Maddy had to explain away her newfound fortune to a lottery win as Clay ensured his daughter lived in the best neighborhood and received the finest education money could buy. He had attended her graduation from both high school and college, and was always there if she ever needed him. The only day he had ever failed her since learning of her existence was the day her mother Maddy was buried. By that time he was running for president, and she understood his presence at the funeral would have raised far too many questions that he couldn’t have answered. As a secret father, he was probably one of the best.
Joe had last seen Clara shortly before Clay met her for the first time. She had been a pretty child, and from the photos that had been displayed on the news story, an even more beautiful woman. From what Joe had managed to understand from the sketchy news report, she had been bundled into a van off the streets of New York, where she worked at one the city’s most prestigious law firms. The van had later been found burnt out under an overpass with no sign of Clara. The trail ended there.
The bus slowed, and Joe cracked open his right eye, not wanting to let his fellow passengers know he was awake. The Houston skyline was off in the distance. He opened his left eye. The elderly lady was asleep and a glow from behind suggested the man was reading some type of device. Joe wasn’t up on the latest technology. Smart phones, e-readers, and tablets were words he had heard not really understanding what they meant. Computers, laptops, and cells were about his limit.
Sandy stirred in her seat as the skyline neared, and Joe gave her a reassuring pat. They neared the towering skyscrapers of the downtown area dominating the sprawling city around them, each one taller and prouder than its neighbor, stretching up into the blackness of the night sky.
Sandy sat bolt upright, staring at the sight ahead. Joe followed her gaze. She was looking towards the base, not at the top of the towers as he was. Joe spotted it, even from miles out, you could see it, the red and blue lights of the emergency services. It wasn’t at the base of one tower, every tower looked as though it was rising from a sea of blue/red.
It was just before 11.00 p.m.. The rioting had started.
Joe reached for his bourbon and took a swig as the first sounds of the wailing sirens invaded the bus. He couldn’t remember ever hearing that many at once. He took another pull and finished the bottle. It was going to be a long journey.
PLEASE VISIT AMAZON TO READ ON….
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Other titles by Murray McDonald
SCION
CRITICAL ERROR
DIVIDE & CONQUER
AMERICA’S TRUST
TRAITOR
THE GOD COMPLEX
CAPTIVE-IN-CHIEF
TRIAL (COMING SOON)
ROCKLAND (NOVELLA – USA ONLY)
(YOUNG ADULT – THE BILLIONAIRE SERIES)
KIDNAP
ASSASSIN
TABLE OF CONTENTS
America’s Trust
Critical Error
Traitor
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
Epilogue
Critical Error
Part One
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Part Two
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
Part Three
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
Part Four
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
Epilogue
Traitor
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
Epilogue
Captive-in-Chief
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Other titles by Murray McDonald
ALL ACTION THRILLER BOXSET: THREE MURRAY MCDONALD STANDALONE THRILLERS Page 101
