Archive for January 2015
Excerpt from the forthcoming London Calling
This is the follow up Riley Spenser / Monuments Men thriller. This is the next book in the series led by The Russian van Gogh.
I wanted to share an excerpt from a chapter with you.
Chapter 4
St.
Stephens Tavern, London
The morning debrief had unfolded as Justin had expected - disastrous. He was not used to coming out on the short end of a mission. Being recalled home was the height of professional embarrassment. Transfer was a looming possibility, demotion or worse. Justin pondered it all and his next move as he raised a Dorset ale to his lips at a small black circular table near the curving mahogany bar. St. Stephens, a gilded age era pub, boasted tin-coffered twenty foot ceilings and dark paneled walls. It had a comforting old world feel that Justin needed right now. At his table by the window he regularly glanced back over his shoulder out to the busy street. Suddenly beside his table appeared the lanky man he was hoping to see. Justin turned back from the window surprised, “Director?”
The morning debrief had unfolded as Justin had expected - disastrous. He was not used to coming out on the short end of a mission. Being recalled home was the height of professional embarrassment. Transfer was a looming possibility, demotion or worse. Justin pondered it all and his next move as he raised a Dorset ale to his lips at a small black circular table near the curving mahogany bar. St. Stephens, a gilded age era pub, boasted tin-coffered twenty foot ceilings and dark paneled walls. It had a comforting old world feel that Justin needed right now. At his table by the window he regularly glanced back over his shoulder out to the busy street. Suddenly beside his table appeared the lanky man he was hoping to see. Justin turned back from the window surprised, “Director?”
“Never use the front door, Watson,
especially when there is a need for discretion,” Jeremy Lloyd deadpanned.
Justin nodded and motioned him to a
chair, “Thanks for seeing me.”
The Director of Special
Investigations had pretty much saved Justin’s hide during the recovery of the
van Gogh in Russia directing insertion of Georgian Special Forces and enlisting
CIA support. Justin knew he would be dead in a Grozny alley or worse if weren’t
for Jeremy Lloyd.
“ I cannot stay long but I will
have a pint,” Lloyd said as he turned back around and waved two fingers in the
air to the bartender who snapped to attention. In short order two frothy pints
arrived.
“I hear events did not go well.”
“Well? Disastrous might be a more
appropriate term.” Justin moaned.
“Syria is fluid. The situation
grows graver by the day.”
Justin nodded.
“And British strategy has been
constantly evolving.”
“And there’s the issue,” as Justin
leaned forward intense, “We are now propping up a regime that has killed
hundreds of thousands. First we are supplying arms to the rebels, next we are
cutting ties… No one trusts us. I had to put a bullet in the head of the Commander
I had sheparded arms to the month before. It is madness.”
“It is Britain’s new homeland
protection strategy. There is a looming chemical catastrophe in Syria. Assad
has vast stockpiles of Sarin, Ricin, mustard gas and VX. We have confirmed
usage from the Americans of multiple deployments of Sarin on bands of
opposition fighters.”
Now Available on Amazon America's First D-day film
Folks interested in a fresh retelling of the Crossing of the Delaware should check out the newly released DVD, America's First D-day Washington Crossing. It is the film I wrote and directed last year for the Continental Film Alliance, LLC
Synopsis:
Our first President is often remembered as a humble, grey wigged, elder statesman. But by 1776 the American Revolution almost came to an end. George Washington made a bold move that saved the American cause. The Continental Army crossed the Delaware River on Christmas Day to attack the Hessians in Trenton. This was America's First D-Day.
Happy Birthday today Alexander Hamilton
There is a certain enthusiasm in liberty, that makes human nature rise above itself, in acts of bravery and heroism.
The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for among old parchments or musty records. They are written, as with a sunbeam, in the whole volume of human nature, by the hand of the divinity itself; and can never be erased.
A national debt, if it is not excessive, will be to us a national blessing.
The nation which can prefer disgrace to danger is prepared for a master and deserves one.
