by Alan Annand
“Not a damn peep,” the radio operator said. “I don’t understand it. Yesterday’s test, the signal was so clear it was like coming from the next bulkhead.”
“Could it be bad weather?” Richter said.
The radio operator shook his head. “It was designed for all weather. The batteries are supposed to last six months.”
“What about your equipment?” Wolff asked.
“No problem here. I just received a message from Naval Command, clear as a bell.”
“What did they want?” Wolff said.
The radio operator handed him a message slip. “Confirmation of objective.”
Wolff read it and handed it back. He ran his fingers through his hair.
“What will you tell them?” Richter said.
“I don’t know.”
“We can’t go back to repair it. We’re scheduled to rendezvous...”
“I know,” Wolff said. “We need to get underway. Would you set up the coordinates with the navigator?”
Wolff left the radio room. Richter and the radio operator exchanged looks.
~~~
Agatak sat on the beach, stitching together the ragged flaps of their tent. He finished a panel and took a break to watch his son.
Shogan lay on a large rock a few yards offshore, eyes fixed on something beneath the surface. In one hand he held the radio antenna, poised like a spear. Suddenly he whipped his arm and hurled it into the water. In a moment, he reeled it back in with a length of cord. He held aloft a thrashing 10-pound char. The hand-tooled barb at the antenna’s tip protruded through the fish’s head.
“Hah. Look at that.”
“Big enough for my supper,” Agatak said. “What are you going to eat?”
“The next one.”
~~~
In the U-boat’s control room, the steady shudder of engines was punctuated by the ping of the sonar device. Valves sighed with intermittent hisses.
At his console the helmsman adjusted the plane and rudder controls. His eyes moved back and forth across the instruments before him – heading, depth and air pressure.
Wolff sat nearby, watching the flickering phosphorous green of the sonar screen. His complexion was slightly pockmarked, and in close-up resembled a lunar landscape under a green sun. There was a faraway look in his eyes, wherein was reflected the rotating sonar beam. His eyes were like tiny pressure gauges in some half-human machine, still functional but starting to deform with fatigue.
~~~
Agatak and Shogan sat together beside the campfire, eating roasted Arctic char. Their faces were bronze with the glow of the flames and the warmth of the fish in their bellies. Agatak burped and smiled at his son. He tore off another handful of fish.
Above them, the northern lights danced in ropes of colored fire.
~~~~~~~~~
ALAN ANNAND
Alan Annand is a writer of crime fiction, offering an intriguing blend of mystery, suspense, thriller and New Age noir. When he’s not dreaming up ingenious ways to kill people and thrill readers, he occasionally finds therapy in writing humor, short stories and faux book reviews.
Before becoming a full-time novelist, he worked as a technical writer for the railway industry, a corporate writer for private and public sectors, a human resources manager and an underground surveyor.
Currently, he divides his time between writing in the AM, astrology in the PM, and meditation on the OM. For those who care, he’s an Aries with a dash of Scorpio.
You can find him on Facebook, Goodreads and LinkedIn,
or follow him on Pinterest, Tumblr and Twitter.
For more information, see his website
www.sextile.com
~~~
Have you read all of Alan Annand’s novels?
Please write a review on Amazon and/or Goodreads.
~~~
AL-QUEBECA
Montreal detective Sophie Gillette, still mourning the death of her brother during covert ops in Afghanistan, investigates a fatal hit-and-run, uncovering a terrorist plot to assassinate an American governor, disable New England’s electrical grid, and kill 10,000 hockey fans.
~~~
SCORPIO RISING (New Age Noir #1)
A criminal profiler investigates the killing of a New York heiress and discovers her death is linked to two other murders on the same day: a dot-com millionaire in San Francisco and the team leader of a CIA counter-terrorist project in Los Alamos.
~~~
FELONIOUS MONK (New Age Noir #2)
Profiler Axel Crowe investigates the murder of a reporter at an ashram. His esoteric detective work reveals a series of Manhattan rape-murders dating back 12 years, with connections to sex trafficking, drug smuggling and the theft of an ancient golden Buddha.
~~~
HARM’S WAY
A private investigator searches for the runaway daughter of an aspiring politician, only to become embroiled in a plot of corruption, decadence and murder. Although violence endangers everyone dear to him, his selfless sense of duty drives him onward to a twisted resolution.
~~~
HIDE IN PLAIN SIGHT
A man assumes his twin brother’s identity in order to alibi his own wife who’s accidentally killed his brother in an argument. But when he finds himself sharing a bed with his beautiful sister-in-law, he faces bigger challenges and harder choices.
~~~
ANTENNA SYNDROME
New York, 2026. In the aftermath of a dirty A-bomb, private investigator Keith Savage searches for a kidnapped artist, the paraplegic daughter of a crime-busting politician, but the trail leads to a place where her fascination with insects collides with his fears.
~~~
