The Pact - Episode 6 E-Book

Christian Marshall

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

Seitenzahl: 104

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015

Beschreibung

EPISODE 6 OF 8: Discovering NBS Agent Arthur Hall has been keeping an eye on her, Agent Felicity Wilson shows him the picture she found of Agent Sullivan at her parent's wedding. Unable to make sense of his connection to her long-lost father, Felicity continues her undercover work with The Syndicate. Doing so, she learns her new boss, Mr. Lennox, is after something inside TriMark, the New York medical lab where she and her fellow NBS recruits bungled their first assignment for the agency. Alarmed, she relays the news to Agent Hall. The pair soon discover evidence making them suspect the recruits' assignment was compromised by someone within NBS. Meanwhile, desperate to escape her role as an NBS agent, coding genius, and mathematics professor Dr. Leah Carlsson is hard at work trying to cripple The Syndicate in exchange for her freedom. With her plan in place, she learns The Syndicate's Project Tessarap may have greater implications than she anticipated. As each piece of the puzzle falls into place, pointing to the likelihood of a rogue agent within NBS, Agent Hall must rally the new agents for what may be their third and final assignment ... -- 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 6: Resist

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 6 of 8 — Resist

Discovering NBS Agent Arthur Hall has been keeping an eye on her, Agent Felicity Wilson shows him the picture she found of Agent Sullivan at her parent’s wedding. Unable to make sense of his connection to her long-lost father, Felicity continues her undercover work with The Syndicate. Doing so, she learns her new boss, Mr. Lennox, is after something inside TriMark, the New York medical lab where she and her fellow NBS recruits bungled their first assignment for the agency. Alarmed, she relays the news to Agent Hall. The pair soon discover evidence making them suspect the recruits’ assignment was compromised by someone within NBS. Meanwhile, desperate to escape her role as an NBS agent, coding genius, and mathematics professor Dr. Leah Carlsson is hard at work trying to cripple The Syndicate in exchange for her freedom. With her plan in place, she learns The Syndicate’s Project Tessarap may have greater implications than she anticipated. As each piece of the puzzle falls into place, pointing to the likelihood of a rogue agent within NBS, Agent Hall must rally the new agents for what may be their third and final assignment …

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 6: Resist

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:

E-book production: Urban SatzKonzept, Düsseldorf

ISBN 978-3-7325-0840-2

www.bastei-entertainment.com

Episode 6: Resist

Shocked after realizing fellow NBS agent Arthur Hall has been keeping a careful eye on her for good reason, Felicity Wilson reveals to him the picture of her recruiter Agent Sullivan she found inside her mother’s locket. Unable to make sense of the mystery surrounding Agent Sullivan’s connection to her long-lost father, Felicity continues her undercover work at The Syndicate, only to learn that her new boss Mr. Lennox is after something inside TriMark, a medical lab in upstate New York. Alarmed by this news, she relays the information to Agent Hall. Together they uncover startling evidence that Felicity and her fellow recruits’ first assignment may have been compromised by someone within NBS

Meanwhile, desperate to escape her role as an NBS agent, coding genius and mathematics professor Leah Carlsson is hard at work concocting a plan that will cripple The Syndicate in exchange for her freedom. With her plan in place, she learns that The Syndicate’s Project Tessarap may have greater implications than she anticipated.

As each piece of the puzzle falls into place, pointing to a rogue agent within NBS , Agent Hall must bring together the new agents for what may be their third and final assignment.

***

Felicity Wilson felt her knees weaken as she found herself too taken aback to speak. She’d been overwhelmed by a number of surprises over the last three weeks, each having affected her body differently. None however had paralyzed her to this degree.

Agent Hall’s words echoed in her mind as she stood motionless before him. Not only did he know she had remained logged in to the servers while using his clearance, but that she had specifically searched for files containing information on Agent Sullivan. Even if Agent Hall’s remark hadn’t caught her off guard, playing dumb wasn’t an option. Nor could she rely on her flirting skills. This time, Agent Hall would see right through them. Had he seen through them before? Felicity wondered, knowing now wasn’t the time to ask.

Setting his coffee mug on the table, Agent Hall brushed past Felicity and placed his back against the door.

“You’re not the first agent who’s been curious about her recruiter,” he said. “But they usually ask questions outright.”

Felicity was glad when Agent Hall finally said something. Amplified by the nauseating feeling of getting caught, the silence in the room had gone from uncomfortable to excruciating. She had been too weak to break it. Now she stared back at him. His eyes, while fixed on her, were soft, and she could tell his actions were a sign of protection and not imprisonment. Still, just because he claimed to have been protecting her didn’t mean he was telling the truth. Agent Hall had also warned her that Brick was following her. But judging from his coolness since she’d entered the room, she suspected Agent Hall had also been keeping a close eye on her since the day they’d met.

“Asking questions didn’t seem like an option to me,” Felicity said, “especially after failing my first assignment. Plus, from what I gathered in London, Agent Sullivan operates on a need-to-know basis.”

“And what exactly is it you need to know?” Agent Hall asked, his eyebrows lifting as he stressed the final three words.

Felicity bit her lip, unsure whether to come up with an excuse for her snooping or tell Agent Hall the truth. She’d come to NBS ’s New York headquarters today intent on finding out why he’d warned her about Brick and then ratted her out to Agent Sullivan. Now she was the one being interrogated. Suddenly aware of her reaction, she released her lip. But it was too late, Agent Hall had noticed. His eyes narrowed. She knew she was going to have to give him some sort of explanation. Why didn’t he rat me out for abusing his clearance? she wondered, returning his gaze.

“I was looking into my recruitment file,” she replied. Keeping her answers vague was one of the easiest ways to escape conversations in which she felt trapped. Experience had also taught her answers that were either too short or too long were less credible than those she could say in half a breath.

Agent Hall stared back, unamused.

“Our training was cut short because of the assignment at TriMark,” Felicity offered as an additional fact. She could tell he remained unsatisfied with her answers. “I was never told how long Agent Sullivan had had his eye on me before I was recruited.”

“Why is that so important?”

“Not everyone comes out of college squeaky clean,” she said. Her past certainly wasn’t as checkered as some of her fellow recruits, but at the moment, she didn’t care if Agent Hall assumed otherwise. “I wanted to know just how much of my personal life was actually personal. There’s no harm in that, is there?”

Agent Hall’s eyes widened. “Is that what you told Agent Carlsson? She is the one who told you where to search, isn’t she?”

His question was like a slap in the face. Felicity could tell by his patronizing tone he meant it rhetorically.

“How did you know?” she asked.

“Your first day here gave most of it away,” he said, a bashful look flashing across his face. “I could tell you weren’t computer savvy, so I looked into your training. I saw that Agent Campbell was in charge. We’re both responsible for agents under surveillance and I called in a personal favor.”

Felicity remembered spending hours with Leah in London’s NBS station, learning how to run remote access Trojans to look for information, and how she’d hoped to find something about her father. Agent Campbell had been the one to interrupt Felicity’s initial attempt to search NBS files, and now she recalled the slight warning that had been in her tone.

“It turns out Leah also did some searching of her own while at NBS , but that was to be expected from someone like her.”

But not like me, Felicity thought. She said, “And what did she find?”

“The same thing you did.”

She wrinkled her forehead. I didn’t find anything. She didn’t like this game he was playing. He was keeping her in the dark and she had no way of knowing what he was thinking.

Moving to the computer, Agent Hall shot her a boastful glance, as though he’d read her mind. “Sit down,” he said.

Felicity took her place in front of the monitor. She remembered it being where Agent Hall had given her the ring and the briefcase for her first assignment.

“Agent Campbell said Leah also looked into her own recruitment, but agents’ recruitment files are confidential until training’s been completed, so that’s why she couldn’t access anything. Sure, she found basic information—general background check information, that sort of thing. But not everything, especially not as it relates to The Syndicate. That got me thinking, so I checked your file. And that’s how I discovered Agent Sullivan’s been keeping an eye on you, Felicity.”

She didn’t move. Her chest now tight, she felt the weight of what Agent Hall was about to reveal. She was close to uncovering Agent Sullivan’s connection to her past.

“What was inside?” she asked cautiously, feeling powerless as she looked up at him, hoping his response would answer her many questions.

Agent Hall opened a new window with a list of folders inside. He clicked on Felicity’s and pointed to the screen. “See for yourself.”