The Pact - Episode 3 E-Book

Christian Marshall

• Herausgeber: Bastei Lübbe
• Kategorie: Abenteuer, Thriller, Horror
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 108

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015

Beschreibung

EPISODE 3 OF 8: Five young agents recruited by NBS, an internationally supported secret organization, return home after having failed their first assignment: preventing The Syndicate from stealing smallpox samples to make biological weapons to sell for profit. Agent Felicity Wilson travels home, intent on using her stepfather's association with The Syndicate as a way to infiltrate the corrupt organization. Once there, she unexpectedly discovers a photo of her birth father a man she's never met only to recognize the person standing next to him in the photo as her NBS recruiter, Agent Sullivan. Will uncovering Agent Sullivan's past give Felicity answers about her family she's been looking for? Meanwhile, Cape Town detective and fellow NBS Agent Nicholas Clark is determined to stop transport tycoon Rolf Voigt from getting away with cocaine smuggling. In his efforts to thwart the drug kingpin, Nick learns The Syndicate is looking to start smuggling something more costly than drugs. Now Nick and Agent Paul Leclerc must find that something. -- ABOUT THE SERIES: NBS agents are trained for one purpose: bringing down The Syndicate, an international crime organization aimed at profiteering by keeping countries at war with one another. When an NBS agent is murdered shortly before her first assignment, five new recruits quickly realize the agency they're working for may not be as trustworthy as it seems, forcing them to make a pact in order to survive. Can the new agents stay alive long enough to uncover the truth behind their fellow recruit's death? Or is finding answers hidden deep within both organizations tempting enough to make one of them break the pact? -- For fans of Robert Ludlum, THE BOURNE IDENTITY, John le Carré, THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD, Daniel Silva, THE UNLIKELY SPY and HOMELAND. -- Christian Liberty Marshall is an Austrian-based writer, and musician with degrees from Vanderbilt University, and University of Music and Performing Arts Graz. When not performing as a violist, he can be found teaching at the Popakademie Baden-Württemberg, writing educational material for children, or translating German literature. His first serial novel, The Pact, is available in summer 2015.

Leseprobe

Contents

Cover

The Pact — About the Series

About the Book

List of Main Characters

About the Author

Title

Copyright

Episode 3: Divert

Next Episode

The Pact — About the Series

NBS agents are trained for one purpose: bringing down The Syndicate, an international crime organization aimed at profiteering by keeping countries at war with one another.

When an NBS agent is murdered shortly before her first assignment, five new recruits quickly realize the agency they’re working for may not be as trustworthy as it seems, forcing them to make a pact in order to survive.

Can the new agents stay alive long enough to uncover the truth behind their fellow recruit’s death? Or is finding answers hidden deep within both organizations tempting enough to make one of them break the pact?

About the Book

Episode 3 of 8 — Divert

Five young agents recruited by NBS, an internationally supported secret organization, return home after having failed their first assignment: preventing The Syndicate from stealing smallpox samples to make biological weapons to sell for profit. Agent Felicity Wilson travels home, intent on using her stepfather’s association with The Syndicate as a way to infiltrate the corrupt organization. Once there, she unexpectedly discovers a photo of her birth father  a man she’s never met  only to recognize the person standing next to him in the photo as her NBS recruiter, Agent Sullivan. Will uncovering Agent Sullivan’s past give Felicity answers about her family she’s been looking for? Meanwhile, Cape Town detective and fellow NBS Agent Nicholas Clark is determined to stop transport tycoon Rolf Voigt from getting away with cocaine smuggling. In his efforts to thwart the drug kingpin, Nick learns The Syndicate is looking to start smuggling something more costly than drugs. Now Nick and Agent Paul Leclerc must find that something.

List of Main Characters

Paul Leclerc loves life aboard a ship. But he also loves Scotch. That’s why he chose to leave his life at sea and open up a bar in his hometown, Marseilles. Yet he’s rarely in one place for long, always travelling the globe looking for new spirits to bring back to the port city. But is there another reason this Frenchman pulls his disappearing acts?

Jian Zhang doesn’t remember much about life in China’s Guangzhou. That’s why he decided to stay in New York City, to run his family’s dumpling dynasty after his parents returned home. There’s also his wife, Agnieszka, and their hopes of starting a family. Will their love for the arts—and each other—be Jian’s moral compass? Or will shocking discoveries force him to act against his nature?

An introverted coder, Swedish-born Dr. Leah Carlsson hates getting close to anyone—be it as a member of a team or on the receiving end of a handshake. Her years of hard work have earned her a full professorship at the University of Stockholm. Upon learning her work has been compromised, she must decide if she’s willing to risk her reputation to step out from behind the walls she’s built—both around herself and in her field.

Originally from New York City, Nicholas Clark is a detective now in Cape Town, South Africa. After his fiancé’s tragic death, Nick loses himself in his police work. But ousting crooked cops and putting criminals behind bars can only numb the pain for so long. Will the opportunity to play a part in a secret agency give him the new purpose he’s been looking for?

Felicity Wilson may call Los Angeles home, but her roots are solidly in the Midwest. Fresh out of graduate school, she’s convinced all her friends and family into believing she’s ambitiously pursuing a career in politics. But what she’s secretly looking for is the answer to a question haunting her since childhood. The startling revelations she’s about to uncover will lead her to risk her life for the truth.

Eliska Novak worked as a high-class escort in Manhattan, affording her pleasures she’d only dreamt of as a child on the streets of Prague. On her first assignment as an NBS agent she met with an untimely death.

About the Author

Christian Liberty Marshall is an Austrian-based writer, and musician with degrees from Vanderbilt University, and University of Music and Performing Arts Graz. When not performing as a violist, he can be found teaching at the Popakademie Baden-Württemberg, writing educational material for children, or translating German literature. His first serial novel, The Pact, is available in summer 2015.

Christian Liberty Marshall

Episode 3: Divert

BASTEI ENTERTAINMENT

Digital original edition

Bastei Entertainment is an imprint of Bastei Lübbe AG

Copyright © 2015 by Bastei Lübbe AG, Schanzenstraße 6-20, 51063 Cologne, Germany

Written by Christian Liberty Marshall

Edited by Gail Werner

Project management: Lori Herber, Julia Hubschmid, Kathrin Kummer

Cover illustration and design: Travis Harvey

E-book production: Urban SatzKonzept, Düsseldorf

ISBN 978-3-7325-0838-9

www.bastei-entertainment.com

Episode 3: Divert

Felicity froze. As she stared at the photo, she felt paralyzed by what she saw in front of her. The man standing next to her father was none other than Agent Sullivan.

Felicity’s life had changed dramatically over the past several weeks. Not only was she fresh out of college with a master’s degree, she was also one of NBS’s newest agents. Felicity, along with five other bright, young individuals, had been recruited by NBS on a London-bound flight. The NBS, an internationally supported secret organization dedicated to stopping organized crime, was fighting an undeclared war against an equally international, corrupt organization known as The Syndicate that kept countries at strife in order to sell them weapons and secrets about supposed enemies.

Felicity had been completely unaware she’d grown up around The Syndicate. Los Angeles had become her new hometown when she was two, after her mother wanted to leave Kansas and start a new life. Her mother started working as a secretary and it wasn’t long before she was romantically involved with her boss. He had the money to provide her and Felicity with everything they’d needed, and months later, she was no longer June Daniels, rather June Wilson.

Felicity’s stepfather was an important businessman in Los Angeles, and he made sure she benefited from his contacts. She had attended the best schools, working hard to earn admission to a top university, but he was able to open doors she couldn’t on her own. After racking up debt during a rebellious phase in college, Felicity realized just how dependent on his money she had become.

Still, she’d inherited a fierce streak of Midwestern perseverance, determined to find a job on her own. An invitation to an international conference on health policies had seemed like a promising start. But en route to the conference, Felicity wound up being recruited by the NBS. Suddenly, instead of exchanging business cards with conference colleagues, she was training for undercover assignments.

Agent Sullivan was the NBS agent who’d recruited her and Felicity knew little about him. She was surprised to discover how caring he’d been when she had failed to retrieve the smallpox samples on her first assignment as an agent. Now, seeing him in the photograph next to her birth father caused her mind to race. Each possible explanation sent a blow to her gut.

Sullivan had told Felicity she had been recruited for NBS because of her close proximity to The Syndicate. Her responsibility was to get inside The Syndicate so she could operate as a double agent. She’d assumed the information she would uncover and deliver to Agent Sullivan would be new, but now she asked herself just for whom she was working.

So far, Agent Sullivan’s attitude towards the recruits had been cool and collected. So much so he’d seemed indifferent to the death of a fellow recruit, Eliska Novak. Like Felicity, Eliska had been preparing to enter the lab where the smallpox vaccine was stored, helping her retrieve the samples from TriMark. But her death had forced Agent Sullivan to make changes to their initial plan; changes he seemed unfazed by, though they made retrieving the samples even more difficult for his new recruits.

It had been Agent Sullivan’s remark, not the crime scene, which had left her fellow recruit, Nicholas Clark, unsettled after finding Eliska’s dead body on the floor of her hotel room. Two bodies lay lifeless on the floor and Agent Sullivan had already known this piece of information, though Nick had only mentioned one victim. Nick had warned Felicity, and the other recruits. Whether they wanted to be or not, they were involved with the NBS and their main contact couldn’t be trusted. Once the initial shock had worn off, they had made a pact to protect each other — in and out of assignments. Their priority was to survive.

With the locket containing the photo in her hand, Felicity took several deep breaths, trying to think clearly. She couldn’t tell her mother about this. Her involvement in NBS was top secret, which meant that wasn’t an option. She contemplated calling Nick, but it was already well after midnight in Cape Town, an entire continent away. She didn’t want to wake him, not unless she had some concrete information to share. Right now, all she had was questions. It was answers she needed.

“Mom,” Felicity called out as she walked down the stairs. In her hands, she held the box containing her childhood toys June had gathered to donate. “Do you think Dad would be willing to help find a position for me in the company?”

Felicity knew referring to her stepfather as “Dad” always put her mother in a good mood. Once, during a post-pubescent rebellious phase, Felicity had taken to referring to her stepfather as “your husband,” or “my mother’s husband.” She rarely used the phrase anymore, but when she did, she made sure the timing was perfect, using the words as a carving knife to cut to her mother’s core. Being petty wasn’t a skill Felicity was necessarily proud of, but inflicting emotional pain on others had become one of her trusted weapons. In college she’d used many admirers as whetstones whenever they got too close.

“I’m sure he’ll help you in whatever way he can,” June replied. Her curiosity piqued, she added, “What made you change your mind about working for your father?”

“My trip to London didn’t turn out like I’d hoped.” Felicity realized she should have taken more time to think through a more plausible excuse.

“I thought you had some leads. What happened?” her mother asked, pressing for details.

“More like what didn’t happen. None of my contacts was that promising, just dead-end networking. I’d rather not sit around waiting for a phone call. Plus, I didn’t really want to move to London anyway.” Felicity paused. “I’m thinking New York City may be the perfect place for a new start.”

She set the box down with a thud as June eyed her suspiciously.

“Honey, you just asked me if I thought your father could help you find a job. You haven’t been home more than a couple hours and you’re already talking about leaving Los Angeles again, this time for New York.”

Felicity was surprised by her own statement.

“I know, but Dad has contacts all over the world. I’m sure he knows somebody in New York. I’ve decided that’s where I want to live.”

She was relieved to see her mother relax, giving her a nonchalant shrug of her shoulders.

“You can ask him yourself,” June said. “He’ll be home soon. We have reservations at the Amethyst at eight. Do you want to join us?”

Unlike June, Felicity wasn’t a fan of family dinners — always quick to find conveniently conflicting appointments. This had proven easier the older she’d gotten. She knew, however, she couldn’t just appear on The Syndicate’s doorstep unannounced. She had to start somewhere inconspicuous. It might as well be at home.

“I’d like to, honestly. But I’m exhausted from the trip. What if we ate in tonight?” she proposed tentatively. “We could order takeout, or try to cook something.”

Her mother cocked an eyebrow at her. “The last time we tried to cook together we were forced to order takeout.”

“That was an accident!” Felicity declared.

“The Amethyst doesn’t do accidents,” her mother reminded her.

“What about breakfast tomorrow? Just the two of us?”

“I’m afraid I have an appointment tomorrow morning. I don’t think they’ll be too pleased if I cancel on them last minute.”

The mother-daughter duo whipped their heads toward the deep voice that had interrupted their conversation, catching them by surprise.

“Win, you’re home earlier than expected!” June said, approaching her husband with open arms.

Edwin “Win” Wilson was one of Los Angeles’s leading entrepreneurs — one known for a flawless track record when it came to investing in start-ups. He attributed his success, and small fortune, to the hours he kept which, like his negotiation tactics, were impossible to predict. Though June had been his secretary for two years, she’d never managed to fully understand his schedule. One thing she could rely on, however, was the fact he rarely missed a date with her.