Sneak Peek -

Book 2 of the Mike and Rick series!

Chapter 4 – Men in Black

Jerry, Peggy, and Mandy bolted from the hotel, the humid Bangkok air hitting them like a wall. The scent of spicy food mingled with the fumes of exhaust, creating a sensory overload that heightened their urgency. The ever-present sound of street food merchants and traffic added to the cacophony of the bustling city that engulfed them.

Peggy and Mandy were hesitant to ditch their expensive high-heeled shoes, the iconic red soles of their Louboutins flashing as they ran. But the uneven pavement and the necessity for speed overruled their vanity, and they slipped off the shoes, clutching them in their hands as they sprinted through the throngs of pedestrians.

Behind them, their pursuers chased with persistent determination. Their suits, absurdly out of place in the vibrant tropical setting, drew stares from passersby, but they moved with a singular focus, their dark sunglasses hiding their blank expressions.

As they navigated the crowded streets, dodging tuk-tuks and weaving through traffic, Peggy put a communication device in her ear. "Antoine, we need backup. Now!" she shouted, her voice strained with exertion. Antoine, who had been surveilling the Professor from the bar, had already sprung into action.

"I'm on my way," Antoine replied, his French accent calm yet urgent. “Head to the temple! Head to the temple!”

Antoine was a tall, imposing figure with a rugged demeanour. His weathered face told tales of countless adventures, and his piercing blue eyes held an intensity that spoke of his unwavering resolve.His past as a French Foreign Legion soldier was evident in his disciplined actions and the authoritative way he commanded attention. Already having studied the layout of this part of the city, he had three possible rescue plans in place for three different scenarios. In this case, the girls had headed south as planned and followed the river. He swiftly coordinated a rescue plan, according to their pre-planned ‘Course of Action 1’, and directed the group towards the famous Wat Arun temple. The girls knew exactly what to do.

“I will meet you there in 15 minutes! Be on the wharf!”  

Jerry’s heart pounded as he followed Peggy and Mandy, now fully aware that the unexpected envelope in his pocket had drawn the attention of very dangerous people.

“Gunfire! Keep dodging, Jerry! Zig-zag! Try not to run in a straight line!” yelled Mandy as they tore down the busy street. Suppressed rounds flew overhead, shattering lights and embedding into trees. Mandy glanced back to see what weapons they were using and at the same time concerned about nearby pedestrians. It was impossible to tell in the movement of the crowd, but an educated guess said they were some sort of 9mm automatic weapon. Maybe MP5s or even MAC-10s? That wasn’t good, but she couldn’t be sure. Something compact with a high rate of fire that they could conceal beneath their jackets. Hopefully their aim was as bad as their dress sense, she thought as she ran.

The wide Chao Phraya River on their left was alive with traffic — longboats packed with tourists darting between darker barges and small freighters that glided serenely farther out. As the main thoroughfare of Bangkok, the river was a bustling highway and the city’s lifeblood. Its dark waters caught the lights along the shoreline and the skyline beyond, turning them into a shifting, glittering backdrop.

The temple rose a few hundred yards ahead, glowing gold under a thousand lights. Its spires shimmered against the night sky, drawing crowds of photographers that clogged the already busy streets, now pulsing with tourists and restaurant‑goers. They scanned the throng for Antoine, but the place was packed. Jerry, breathing hard, bent over to catch his breath.

“Keep moving, Jerry!” yelled Mandy, grabbing his arm and dragging him down an alleyway to the water’s edge. “It’s not far now! Hang in there!” She could see that he was hurting and probably hadn’t been shot at before. But he was trying hard.

More rounds zipped overhead. Peggy was ahead looking urgently left and right for Antoine. She knew they had to head for the temple and then cut down to the river. They were close!

Antoine suddenly appeared from the shadows, yelling, “Get down! Get down!” He had a handgun raised and fired four quick well aimed shots back over their heads. They were double taps, so their pursuers must have been close. Mandy and Peggy turned to look, seeing their pursuers dive for cover behind some bins and a tree.

“OK, this way! Let’s go!” They sprinted down to the riverbank and jumped into a longboat. They all crashed in a heap on the wooden decking of the vessel. The engine was already running. Antoine quickly released a line from a bollard on the shore, gunned the engine and they sped off into the night, weaving fast into the dark. The river, normally a serene pathway for leisurely cruises, was now a frantic escape route.

“Are they following? I don’t see them!” he shouted, looking back over the stern. “Keep low!”

“No, I don’t see them!”  yelled Mandy, scanning the busy waterway to their rear. “Jerry, get down!”

The boat’s engine roared as they tore up the river, water churning violently in their wake. Diesel fumes hung in the air, mixing with the salt spray. The tropical shoreline blurred past as they raced into the night. But the chase wasn’t over. A police boat broke from the river traffic, lights flashing and sirens wailing as it joined the pursuit. They must have been alerted to the gunfire, Mandy thought.

As night settled on the vast river, the atmosphere took on a different tone. The city lights shone brightly, casting an ethereal glow over the waterway. Lanterns illuminated the banks, and the sounds of nightlife filled the air. The local people, usually accustomed to the river's tranquillity, watched with concern at the unexpected commotion. Fishermen paused their work, and families dining in riverside restaurants turned their heads, hearing the sirens and sensing the urgency in the air.

Peggy gripped the edge of the boat, her knuckles white. "We need to lose them!" she shouted, her voice barely audible over the roar of the engine.

Antoine handled the boat with effortless precision. He’d studied the river map and knew exactly where to go, slipping between obstacles with the confidence of a man who’d spent years running small craft in his military days. He was in his element, weaving through the traffic at full throttle while the police thundered after them.

“Antoine! They’re going to fire into the engines! They’re gaining!”

“Here!” he shouted as he tossed his weapon to Mandy. “Don’t worry! They’re pepper spray rounds! Non-lethal! I’m trialling it. I picked it up yesterday!” He smiled maniacally over his shoulder.

Mandy fired off a volley of rounds from Antoine’s pistol at the gaining Water Police vessel and they immediately pulled away to follow at a safer distance.

“We’re nearly at the RV! Hold on!” Antoine yelled over his shoulder. He continued weaving through the boats in front of them, at full throttle and engine screaming.

Suddenly, and silently, the massive hull of the Moonlight Freighter appeared in front of them, dropping out of the sky to water level fast. Its back ramp was already down dipping into the lapping water as the craft hovered almost on the surface. All lights were out on the craft except for two small red lights indicating the edges of the ramp.

“Hold on tight!” Antoine directed the longboat towards the Freighter, and with a final burst of speed, ran up the back ramp with a hard bump and slid raucously into the cargo bay. No sooner had they come to a stop, than the back ramp was up, and the Freighter accelerated up into the night sky.

The longboat, now resting at an angle in the Freighter’s cargo bay, wobbled as the crew hurried over to help them out. Far below, their pursuers stood frozen on the river, unsure of what they’d just witnessed and their chase abruptly ended. Jerry climbed out last, hands trembling, still shaken by the ordeal. Peggy and Mandy, dripping with spray, burst into laughter at Antoine’s triumphant grin and slapped him a high‑five.

“Well, I’ve never driven one of those before!” said Antoine. “I enjoyed that!”

“That was awesome, Antoine! Great work!” said Mandy, clearing Antoine’s pistol and returning it to him.

“Well, that certainly got the pulse racing!” Peggy chimed in, laughing.

Jerry looked a bit distressed.

“You going all right, Jerry? You look a little shaken up,” said Mandy, a little concerned by his pale and dishevelled appearance. His forehead looked rather sweaty and there was a slight wobble in his step as he climbed off the longboat and looked around at his surroundings. She grabbed his arm to steady him.

“Umm… yeah, ok thanks. So… where are we exactly?”

“Hi Professor,” said Jeff the Operations Officer, walking over. “Sorry about the rather frantic extraction. That was surprising, I must say! We certainly weren’t expecting company. Not with sub-machine guns, anyway! I’m Jeff.” They shook hands.

“Jerry,” said the Professor, by way of introduction. “Err… so what is this place?”

“Welcome aboard, Jerry. This is the Moonlight Freighter.”

Do you have the right clearance?

Here’s a bonus snippet from Book 3 of the Mike and Rick series:

Chapter 13 – Uneasy Focus

They came in the dark of night.

The old Bed and Breakfast, a delightful old two storey home just off the mainstreet, was all shadows and silence, the faint ticking of the old clock downstairs swallowed up by a deeper hush. In the dark, something shifted, a subtle chill prickled across the sleeping Lilly’s bare arms. Without warning, the bedroom door eased open soundlessly, betraying neither squeak nor groan. Three figures, impossibly tall and broad-shouldered, melted from the gloom; their dark grey scales glimmered with mottled patterns that seemed to absorb the ambient light, rendering them spectral and immense. Reptilian eyes, flecked with gold and ancient knowledge, fixated on the unmoving form beneath the patchwork quilt.

Down the hall, the old lady who ran the B&B was fast asleep, unaware of the silent intruders. Her cat however, attuned to the slightest sound and now wide awake, glared at the unwelcome visitors and hissed. Knowing that they were up to no good, he uttered a low growl and dived for safety beneath Penny’s bed.

The Reptilians glanced in Penny’s bedroom and noted that she too was unconscious. They had done this before, this team, so breaking into a house and removing the occupants was nothing new to them. The female of the team was ensuring all inhabitants remained asleep by way of neural interference, knowing well that the human brain was nicely responsive to this method of cognitive tampering.

The old lady, Dorothy, had bought the B&B as her retirement investment, some years ago. Her two kids had long ago left for jobs in London and her husband, Ted, had died a few years prior. She was alone but she liked this life and met so many interesting young people. Her visitors always left comments in her visitor’s book in the hallway about how nice she was and how much they enjoyed their stay. And of course, her cat Geoffrey was just adorable. This was now her life, post career, where she had spent decades as one of the few female combat instructors for MI6, the foreign intelligence service for the United Kingdom.

The Reptilian team was confident and knew that they would have the girl outside the house and then into their craft in a couple of minutes. Nobody would even know they had been there. These fragile brains were just like all the other humans. Susceptible to intrusion. They knew this well because they had done this so many times over many years. This was pure routine.

What they didn’t know was the cat’s brain was not susceptible to intrusion. Come to that, neither was Dorothy’s. As it happened, the old lady had been meditating for the past fifty years, and her brain was strong as an ox.

Her half sleeping brain had registered Geoffrey’s hiss first and she awoke immediately, knowing that something was going on in her old house. She was fully awake in seconds and listened for movement, her senses finely attuned to discrete and unusual sounds in the night, in the house she knew so well. There was the slightest creak of a floorboard in the hallway and the shifting of air. There was more than one, she thought, concentrating hard. Possibly three. She could feel them, the bastards. She reached slowly over and from under the pillow next to hers, the one where her beloved Ted used to rest his head when he was alive, she felt for the cool hard metal of her extendable baton. She adjusted the familiar heavy weight in her right hand and eased out of her bed, placing her feet firmly on the floor. She could feel their presence, in the house and in her mind.

She was having none of this.

The female Reptilian from the Barge was the one running psychological manipulation for the team, as she always did. The three female humans were easy targets for her and she probably wasn’t even needed on this operation. Honestly, their minds were like moulding play dough! Her team could probably have done this without her but they insisted that she come along. It was important to be thorough and avoid complacency. What did the humans say… dot the T’s and cross the I’s? No, no… it was dot the I’s because…

That was as far as she got. That was the exact moment when Geoffrey dug his claws deep into her leg and started clawing his way up her body as if it were his favourite tree trunk in the back yard. She let out a low hiss and a scream of surprise and unexpected pain. Her mind hold on Lilly and Penny was suddenly nullified. The two girls immediately woke up and sat bolt upright in their beds. The two large male Reptilians turned in astonishment, wondering what the hell was going on and fully aware that this operation had just gone bad.

Then things got worse. Silent, except for the last three or four fast steps, Dorothy leapt at the female Reptilian, ramming the end of her baton as hard as she could into her eye socket. Then she extended the baton with a dynamic flick of her wrist and jammed it horizontally into the intruder’s neck with as much explosive force as she could muster, accompanied by an enraged guttural yell. This all took about two seconds of furious energy. The female Reptilian dropped to the ground and was out of the game.

Dorothy immediately turned on the two large males who were staring, momentarily stunned in disbelief at what they saw. This response they were definitely not expecting. Dorothy didn’t waste any time and advanced on the first male, delivering a fast strike to the side of his head in the temple region with the end of her baton, and then swiftly kicked him hard in the outer mid-thigh area where, if he was human, there would be a pressure point that would drop him to the ground. This well-placed kick dropped the large Reptilian to the ground like a sack of potatoes. As he fell, Dorothy delivered another fast backhand strike to the side of his head with her baton with another furious yell, for good measure.

While this was going on, Penny jumped out of bed and raced to the neighbouring room where her good friend Lilly had been sleeping. She screamed as she stepped over the supine form of the female Reptilian, prostrate on the carpet. She yelled, “Lilly!”

Lilly snapped out of her momentary shock upon waking and seeing Dorothy attacking a very large… Alien? In her bedroom! What the hell? She swore, jumped out of bed and then ran from the room, screaming.

The two girls paused in the hallway and then Penny said, “Wait!” she quickly grabbed an old jug from the small table in the hallway then ran back into the room and saw Dorothy with her legs wrapped tightly around the last Reptilian and striking him in the back of his head repeatedly with the hard end of her baton. He was ducking and spinning and trying to dislodge her without much success. Penny yelled and struck the male in the head with the hard ceramic urn, which shattered, scattering the contents, a fine dark powder, into a cloud of particles in the air that made him cough and choke. He collapsed on the ground, temporarily blinded by the dust particles and unable to breathe.

Dorothy jumped off and fell to the ground. She yelled, “Run! Run! Go, go, go! Outside!”

The three of them ran. Fast.

They ran down the stairs, got the front door open and ran out into the street in their pyjamas. They kept running down the street and got to the T-junction at the main road, where they paused. Dorothy was pretty fit for a sixty-year-old lady although much slower than the girls, but they were all fatigued now and breathing hard.

“What the hell was that?” said Penny between breaths, hands on her knees.

“Quick, in here,” said Dorothy, who led the girls to a house a couple of doors farther on and took them in through the open front door. Once they had all bustled inside she locked the door behind them and said, “Stay in the loungeroom! I’m going to call the police. And some friends.” With that, she raced up the stairs and disappeared.

“We’re not safe here!” said Penny. “That was a freaking Alien! They’ll come after us.”

Friends. Lilly paused, wondering. “Wait… I’m going to try something,” she said. She closed her eyes and concentrated. She sat down and focused all her attention on her thoughts. This might not work. She tried to contact the guy from before. The guy from the ship she saw that night as it flew past in such a graceful arc through the starry night sky. The guy who responded once and just might respond again. This was a long shot.

Brace yourself for Book 4!

You better sit down for this…

Chapter 14 – Problematic Transfer

Lira’s guards hauled her out of the transport cuffed, battered and bleeding. As she looked around, she could feel her bruised ribs complaining badly. Was one of them cracked again? Probably. Goddam. That meant weeks of painful sleep ahead.

Where were they? Another containment facility, high security compound by the looks of it. Why wouldn’t it be? High walls, perimeter filament – that stuff’s nasty. She turned her head and registered her transport lifting back off the surface and silently sweeping away over the high walls.

“You’re a troublemaker. Don’t try anything or you’ll get more of the same, do you hear me?” the black clad guard smashed her on the side of her head with the palm of his hand for good measure, just to drive home his point. The guards had given her a good going over in the last facility, after she had spat at them and kicked one viciously in the groin.

“Sure thing, Travis!” she said with a crooked grin and blood smeared across her cheek. “That’s your name isn’t it, Travis? What was your mum thinking? Yeah, I heard your stupid colleague over here say your name before. I know, right! What a fucking idiot!”

“Hey, shut up!” said Travis, miffed, and giving his mate a nasty glare.

“By the way, Travis, your mum called. She wants you to be home by ten; and you know how she gets, am I right?” She made a hilarious angry, whingy face. “Moan, moan, moan… blah, blah, blah…”

Travis punched her in the side of the head. “Hey! I said shut up! Shut your mouth!”

Lira felt the hit, it hurt, but she didn’t shut up. “Oh, that felt good, Travis! Thanks! Where’d you learn to punch? I can give you some lessons if you want. Also, when you see your mum later, can you tell her to stop calling me? It’s starting to get a bit annoying now.”

“Goddammit! Don’t you ever shut up?”

Now she had a decent voice recording as well. Was it enough for her system to work on? Sometimes that was useful with some security mechanisms. You never knew. A common three factor system in law enforcement here was a voice recognition system combined with PIN and proximity band. It could be the watch he’s wearing, that could be programmable. She’ll know soon enough…

She turned quickly, and building on her insults, and the physical violence she received in return, kicked Travis’s partner swiftly in the ribs. She then delivered a painful one to his upper thigh, dropping him immediately to the ground. The pressure point located mid-thigh was commonly used and well known as an easy way to take someone down. This it did, whereupon Travis immediately grabbed Lira in a vigorous headlock from behind.

“Travis, you piece of shit!” she shouted, struggling so he would hold her tighter in the headlock for a few more seconds. She chuckled to herself. He’ll be limping for a while!

Bingo! That should be enough! Thank you, Travis, you champion!

Lira was relying on Travis getting her in a headlock with his right arm, thus putting his watch, and RFID device, next to her eye which promptly read its RFID/NFC signal, copying the identifier. This was essentially a form of credential cloning and all it took was two seconds in close proximity.

They dragged her off, feeling decidedly off balance from the attitude she was giving them. It seemed that they didn’t have the overbearing and dominating effect on her that they expected. She was laughing at them. Who was this girl? She was attacking their masculinity! They’re the ones who should be in charge! Not her!

Meanwhile, Lira kept scanning the exterior of the facility, her cybernetic eye performing a silent volumetric sweep, building a spatial model of the compound. Each time she stalled, turned her head, struggled, her eye compiled more data. The blueprint slotted itself into her neural cache, ready to overlay her vision when she needed it. Depth readings, material density, guard patrol vectors—her eye threaded it all into a living schematic she could call up when the time came.

They made their way through a gate within the main compound as they approached an imposing building at one end that had high dark walls and no windows on the first couple of levels. Now, Lira could see that the doors and gates were opened by Travis’s wristwatch as he held it near to the monitor. Bingo! But it could be biometrically coded. At least it wasn’t a hand scan. She didn’t really want to have to remove his hand. That would be messy. But a watch was another thing altogether…

He said “Authenticate, Voice key: gamma-nine.” Then he punched in an old school PIN code into a keypad. Dammit! She couldn’t see it! She’ll need that code!

They came up to the wall of the building where it was the same thing. Swipe. Voice authentication. Then… Come on, Travis! The code! The code! She lurched to the side moaning, half collapsing on the ground, feigning a faint, trying to see the PIN. She stumbled, trying to get up.

“Hey! Get up! Stand up!” The barked order hit her a second before his hands did. The second guard hauled her upright with all the finesse of a cargo crane, fingers digging into her organic arm as he tried to wrench her back onto her feet. Lira let her knees go slack and leaned her full weight into him, a dead‑mass that forced him to compensate.

“Wow, you’re good, and so gentle! If you wanted a dance partner, you could’ve just asked!” Lira felt the familiar spark of satisfaction. Baiting these goons was the only fun she’d had all day.

“Shut your gobby mouth!” came the humourless reply.

Got it! Thank you, Travis! PIN… check!  So far, so good. Now what…?

They led her through a twisting maze of corridors and stopped at a cell. At the end of a narrow passage, Travis keyed open a cell door and shoved her inside. Lira caught her balance, ready to spit another insult, and then she froze.

A little girl, in clothes smeared with dirt and tears, was hugging her knees, rocking back and forth in the far corner of the otherwise empty cell. Her long, unkempt dark hair fell across her face, shifting as she moved, moaning, with a rhythm that suggested advanced emotional stress. As Travis removed her cuffs with a low audible beep, and pushed her forward into the cell, Lira’s sense of rage crystallised, sharpening into something cold and deliberate. Lira approached the girl gently, cautiously, not hearing the cell door slam to behind her.