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| ISBN-13: | 9781490747095 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Trafford Publishing |
| Publication date: | 12/02/2014 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 396 |
| File size: | 461 KB |
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Parthian Stranger 6 Agency of Spies
By Stewart N. Johnson
Trafford Publishing
Copyright © 2014 Stewart N. JohnsonAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4907-4708-8
CHAPTER 1
Meeting of the minds
High above the skies was a 757 jumbo jet, carrying passengers from Ramstein AFB Germany, outside the window, looked a woman who remark, "Look at the canoe shaped windows, they are of blue, yellow and red, in color."
As another said, "Don't you know, that is the UN building."
Inside, all the spies were led into the auditorium, as an advisor said "Through these doors, take a seat and we will begin."
The doors opened to see these curved like seating. It was like it was going to a live play. All filed in, some marveled at seating configuration, while others could care less. Jack found his way in and sat alone in the back. Someone up at the podium said, "Quickly take your seats, let's go, please," as that Advisor left.
Jack saw on the stage, a door slide open, and two older men came out, one wrote on the chalk board while the other was at the podium, to say, "Welcome spies, from all over the world, my name is Professor Claude Benz, I'm from Germany, and my partner is Professor Gustave Goins he is from France, we will be speaking in English, for those who seek some translation, place on your headsets now, and this will be translated to your native tongue."
"Look up at the chalk board, we have the current world rankings for spies, but with this turn out and any one of this spots could be up for grabs. this where it currently stands, "Number one, is Vadim Adonis, of Russia, Number two, Alexei Putin, of Russia as well, of the famous Putin dynasty, Number three, Chu," is from Japan. Number four, is, Hendon Aziz, from Iran." "Number five is Thomas Jones, of the famed British, secret air service, or SAS for short." "Number six is Jonathon Razor, from France." "Next number seven, Alexander Yashin, from Russia." "Number eight, Chung, from China, Next up is Number nine, is Tad Jones, son of famed Thomas, from Britain." "And Number ten, is Louie Bellini, from Italy. For the rest of you, some we may have heard of you, but to be a member, you need to be pledged in, by someone of the known, some of you operate as a spy in your own countries, that the UN has no real control over such as the United States, Canada, and Russia, for that group, well their simply left to do as they please. Mark my words, you can look around the room, at the older agents and you ask yourself what are they doing different, than yourself, or are not really in the game at all, the current life span of a true working spy is two years, after that you're looking over your shoulder, for those wanting to take down the best, and even today in this room there is probably some sort of retribution from the Russians, so they think, over the debacle from the kidnapping of Victoria Ecklon, problem is what US and UN investigator found down below."
"Hush" said the other Professor.
The Professor Benz composed himself to say, "We will start out with a pre-qualifier, to insure that you can qualify to be a spy, tomorrow morning, there will be a fundamental race against the clock, those that qualify will be told so, and may come back here".
"Let's talk about tomorrow, we are trying to create real world situation, by having you go through a few test's put on by the SAS, and in coordination with the UN, several other detachments also will be there to assist, so for the time being, we are through till tomorrow, exit through those doors, and you will be shown where you will stay. Good bye and good luck."
Everyone got up and filed out, as Jack followed in order, as he saw some Russian's together, as they went through a tunnel, down ward, to an open door, to Quanson huts, for one tough SAS member said," Between the four huts, is a bunk, take a bunk, anyone, there all the same, Jack went to the furthest one, in a hut by itself and waited, as time passed it filled up with 89 others. He was in the back, a signup sheet, was placed up, for all to hear, "Put your name down at the time you wish to do this?"
Jack got up and went to the board, as people were putting 1pm down, he chose 8 am, he figured to get it over with and went back to his bunk and rested.
Meanwhile another jumbo jet landed, and taxied, and pulled in next to prop plane, it dropped its ramp, and over one hundred and twenty women exited, along with the support teams and Jim saw Debby, the two embraced, and kissed, for her to say, "Looks like I'm here to help out". Then she told him what was going on. "The UN has decided to open this competition up to the women. So there are these, our top twenty, plus anyone else may try out for this, such as Jill, and Gia?"
"I'll let them know" said Jim, to add, "What about you, what are your plans?"
"I guess I don't know yet, we will play it by ear," said Debby, to add, "I wouldn't mind going back in?"
The strike team was called for assembly, for Jim to say, "Jill and Gia, I was just informed that the UN is opening up the competition to women, do you all want to participate?"
"I don't know, what did Jack say?" asked Jill.
"That's just it, you're here to train as spies, so I think he would say yes" said Jim.
"Then count me in", said Jill, as Gia said, "Why not, how hard can this be, as the two looked over at the other US women, some they knew, others not so much, for Jim to say," Drop your gear and weapons, and follow the girls in." Jim, motioned for them to go, as they dropped their gear and handed Brian their weapons. Jill and Gia followed the girls into the UN, as one by one, they took their turn, undressed, and redressed in the UN gear, for one senior UN lady to say, "This is nothing compared to these super spies, what is their credit limit?" she asked her advisor.
He said, 100, thousand, and a daily of five hundred on per diem card." She turned to see Jill, to say, "The red card is your expense card, and white is per diem, such as for the base store, and mess, now move along."
After all two hundred plus, went through processing, they were all led to their floor, where Jill saw, Michelle, and went into a room, took a seat next to her, as she saw several other girls from the plane.
An advisor, came in and introduced himself as Professor Gustave Goins, said, "Ladies take a seat, thank you, all of you have some sort of affiliations with the men, that are the spies, for those that are purely the wives, and don't want to participate, stand up and proceed through those doors, where you'll be waiting to hear if your men have qualified, for those of you who are spies, and work with a male counterpart, stay here". Michelle was torn, from doing this or to be available for Jack, as she saw her competition, and knew she could take anyone of them, even the Russian girls, so she went along with the program, to hear, "Fine, now, unlike your male counterparts, we will tell you what will be going on, first each of you will participate in a fitness test, five, pull ups, 100 sit-ups and 100 pushups, then a two mile run, and three mile bike ride, finally a swim, oh sorry, I read this wrong, it's all the opposite, does anyone think they can't handle this? After all this you will come back and the training will start."
A few got up and left, but Michelle just shrugged her shoulders and is ready to go. The meeting was over, and all were led out, to a floor, where it opened up to a huge squad bay, with at least enough bunks for them, as each took a bunk, as they peeled off the line, and heard, "There is a sign-up sheet, as Michelle, got up and saw the early one, at 9am, and took it.
Next morning was a base wakeup call of 0530, which gave you one hour to shit, shower and shave Same for the women, everyone was dressed in camouflage gear, as was assigned to them, after going through the early morning call line, then it was off to mess, at 0600- to 0630. Jack loaded up on whatever they served, scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, hash browns, fruit, four milks, of them two chocolate. Jack ate rapidly, and was done in ten minutes, and deposited his platter, and went back to his Hut, as he heard, "One hut partied way into the night, did you hear?" Jack sat on his bunk, he took the time to make it tight, enough to drop a quarter on it, waiting till when they would be off.
Back in the hanger, Gregory and Jonny, the UN guys, met up with the Black Ops group, to say; "How would you guy's, care to help us out again?"
Casey looks him over, to say; "Sure" as Gregory was trying to see what was inside the plane, for Casey to say, "She isn't here?"
"Who, what, what do you mean?" asked Gregory.
"Jill and Gia both went in to try for the next big spy thing."
"Oh" said a rather disappointed Gregory, to add, "Have your team ready by 0900."
Casey shook his head, and told the rest of the remaining team.
Meanwhile back at the quanson huts it was 0700 came and went, to a call at 0730, for those to be ready. Jack got up, and went to the door, where a big guy blocked the entrance, to say; "So you're the famous Jack Cash, you don't look that intimidating, at least not here, anyway, where's all your gadgets?, Now that they are off of you, sometime during this event, I'm coming with several of my friends, to kill you" said Vadim, the Russian, and the World's number one spy.
Jack thought about striking him in the knee, and crippling him and in that instance Vadim allowed Jack to pass, to hear, "I'll be watching you" said the tall Russian with a smile.
Jack shrugged it off, and fell in with others, as they all took a truck ride, over to the lake, all got out, and onto the platform, all 75 of those that wanted to go first, the boat took off, it was more like a platform, with a steering box and an engine. The water on lake Geneva was fierce, as they got to the middle, as a guy with a bull horn spoke, "An on the count of three, you'll swim to shore, 3, 2, 1 Go", with that Jack dove into the water, as others simply jumped into the near freezing water and hung onto the platform, as Jack took the early led, swimming, in full camo gear, and boots. Meanwhile on the shore, a group meeting was held, "Now each of you line up, and whom ever comes out first, help them get changed into shorts, a shirt, which has the name of the spy, and make sure, each get a water pack, and a protein bar."
The line formed quickly, as an announcer, said, "In the lead, is Jack Cash, followed by a New Zealander, Steven Smith". And that was it, as guys were flopping around, as countless others simply quit, so from 75 instantly they were down to 50, and still others were flopping around. Jack was near the boat ramp, as his feet touched bottom, as he was out, and up as a girl named Christina, said "Right over here, is your bike, care to change?"
"Nah, I'm fine", said Jack, putting on the shirt with his name and the water pack and in hand a protein bar, and pedaled off onto the course, still in the water was countless others, as he did a long lap, came back, dropped off the bike, as his boots were dry, he picked up another protein bar, and went off running, meanwhile others were coming on shore, Jack took to the course, up a hill, and down, and then through a field, he noticed, something off to his left, as he made his way up, and instantly, someone came out and attacked him, Jack had the man in a rear naked choke hold, on the ground, as he used his feet to subdue him, and he was out, and threw him off, and got up and saw the other SAS commandos. Jack saluted them, as they saluted him back. He was at the halfway mark on the run, and then there was nothing, all the way to the end, was the finish line, where a board monitored his time of 32:15, as he saw Christina, to say, "Now the time has stopped, all you have to do is the sit-ups and then the pushups all you can do in five minutes, go, as someone held Jack's feet, he laid on his back, as Jack began and Christina counted, five minutes later, the count was 246, instantly he flipped over, as Christina placed her hand under his chest, as he went for it, and for the first hundred he was good, then tapered off quickly, to finish with 152, now tired, he saw the make shift high bar, for the cocky Christina, to say, "You need at least three pullups to qualify, Jack went to the bar, hoisted himself up, and Christina, began the count, 1,2,3 and more, and just like anything Jack does, he got into a rhythm, she counted out ten, twenty, thirty, forty and at five minutes, he ended and at fifty five. Jack let go, to hear, from Christina, "Your Qualified, Jack Cash, you can go into the UN and follow me to your room, and I'll be your advisor for the rest of your time here."
"Great" said Jack, as Jack followed Christina, and saw that there were still men out in the water flailing along.
Back in UN HQ, it was another story, as the two Professors were in sheer panic, as Claude says, "Now we have to push everyone back an hour."
"Who do we have next?"
"The women."
"Fine, let's get the rest of the men out of there, I sure thought we would have had more than two qualify," as it hit the one hour mark, and the rest were non-qualifiers, some was fished out of the lake as dive teams were called, as one had drowned, and one was missing, for Claude to say, "Lets reverse this whole process, and get all the men down here at 1pm." to add, "Once those men are cleared away, bring on the women, how many do we have?"
"Two hundred twenty six, prospects, plus give or take some volunteers?"
"Good lets reverse the course and see who emerges on top."
"You know a thought had occurred to me, what if the top ten spies don't give it their all, and were left with those that have the guarantee and those that really want this position, of three."
"Then let them go, let's use those that want to be here and get rid of the old guard."
"I second that, now let's see if Miss Hohlstein is on board with that?"
"She will, if its Jack Cash, and now that he is qualified, all others don't matter, you know I was reading a profile on him, as he knows 96 ways to subdue a man, his go to is to rip the cartilage from the knee, maybe the ranking are miss-screwed, take for instant Jonathon Razor, who has corruption ties, we really should consider who we put on that list, just to find agents that will obey, rather than on their own agenda."
"So this is what we will do, allow those that qualify in, and train, and we will reserve the right to cut as we see fit."
Back at the women's barracks, the women were told to all assemble, and told all would compete now, after the rest was ready, they were then led down to the playing field, to hear, "Pair up, as their was groups of two to equal 102, for a total of 204 participates, and now the nine o'clock start time, and with that the SAS and UN and Black Ops, Casey and Clark was all there, to watch five minutes go by, and the women were dropping like flies, then it was time to switch, and now it was down to 157, the other side did it for five minutes, same results, six rested on the ground, and quit, exhausted to leave 151 of 204. Next up was the pushups, Michelle led the pack, with a clear, 196, in five minutes, her partner she egged on, to do 36, at five minutes, the blonde, dropped, another 12 quit, leaving 139, overall, next was the pull ups, and the high bar, it was the single biggest factor, in wiping out over half, leaving 70, at five minutes. Next up was the second half, led by Michelle was at forty two, easily the clear winner, her companion quit at two, and another 24 dropped out, leaving 46 to move on to the run, and on the start line, three distinct groups formed. Then an advisor called out, "Ready, on your mark, 3,2,1, Start", the gazelles took off, such as Michelle, Jill followed her, and paced her, as for another American, Cami Ross, took the early lead, those three had a three minute lead, going onto the bikes, and was completing it as the others broke to the bikes, they were turning in, as Michelle was the clear leader overall, and had a good time, as the last event was the swim, Michelle swam, to easily out distancing the others, as she hit the platform, with a time of 35:26, easily making her the top woman, as the others were finishing, in the following order; Jill Hoyt, US, Cami Ross, US, Lea Lucas, of Monaco, Simone, from US. Then another group led by Protima, from Brazil, Colonel Tam-Lu, from China, Chloe Ryan, from Ireland. Behind them was this group, led by, Raisa Sergel, from Russia, Dana Scott from US. Behind them just getting off the bikes, and diving into the water, was Callista Leander from Greece, Rebecca Adams, from Russia, Kendra Augustus, from Russia. Following them was another so called group, led by, Ellie Morgan, from England, Roxy Carr, from US, Peleruth Jaizem, from Poland, Maja Quincy, from Columbia, Nina Ivan, from Russia, Esmeralda Romero, from US-Spain, Z'sofia Baptiste, from Turkey, Nina Toop, from Russia, Nika Kenna, from Romania, Erica Adams, from US, Darlene Lewis, from US, Kellie Ryan, from US. Then it was all closing off, as the time was close to a hour, as the last group was left and accepted, as they got in the water, led by, Joana Celek, from US- Portugal, Freya Lyons, from US, Grace Fabian, from Wales-Britain, and Dayle Amos, from Mexico. All in all, twenty nine, as the last name was read off, all others were led off the course, to tell them it was over. The platform took all 29 back to shore, whereas they were escorted, back to the UN and up to their distinct floor, where they passed two rooms of size, the mess room, and into an open courtyard, to see all glass suites. Michelle was in the front, followed by those that finished, as the UN Advisor, Mark, said, "Follow me into Suite one," as Michelle was first in, as the door slid open, as others marveled at the rich décor, brand new smell, of a fresh clean room, from right to left, Mark said, "As you can can see, everything is brand new, a counter top, sink, a cooler, and cabinets, as we turn around, it is a tv room, complete with sofa's, and through that door, is a pool, and hot tub, as others went to explore that, for Mark to say, "Behind me is three bedrooms, currently we have ten suites available, with two still under construction." As the others went snooping, Mark said, "In each of the room, you need a card key, as it will be keyed to the room you are in, and you will be the only one who has access to that, now in this room, is Michelle Quan from the US and Callista Leander, from Greece." Now lets go to the next room?" as Mark tried to herd them out. The group all went to room number two, As Mark waved his pass, to say, "Jill Hoyt, her two roommates, are, Rebecca Adams and the other one is Dayle Amos".
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Parthian Stranger 6 Agency of Spies by Stewart N. Johnson. Copyright © 2014 Stewart N. Johnson. Excerpted by permission of Trafford Publishing.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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Table of Contents
Contents
Chapter 1 Meeting of the minds, 1,Chapter 2 Sunday's assassination plot, 24,
Chapter 3 A new spy's line up, 42,
Chapter 4 Both teams set, let the games begin, spy vs. spy, 67,
Chapter 5 Field ops for fun and a little danger, 82,
Chapter 6 It's a free for all; a traitor is exposed, 106,
Chapter 7 A son finds out the truth and a father finds a son, 123,
Chapter 8 Kelly Kline and her candy company, 144,
Chapter 9 Surprises, Surprises and lots of fun, 171,
Chapter 10 Paris 101, 190,
Chapter 11 Rest and relaxation, while being worshipped, 219,
Chapter 12 Let the games begin, 242,
Chapter 13 The shooter is hit, and surprises follow, 269,
Chapter 14 Jack spends time with his friends, 297,
Chapter 15 Graduation with Honors- Special Mission, 313,
Chapter 16 Varfolomey's disappointment, 327,
Chapter 17 Scores are finally settled, 351,
Chapter 18 The wedding, 374,