by Bob Mayer
The cigar glowed as Grant puffed and in that dim light he saw Ben’s blood on his hands. Then he spoke. “Yep. Lick ‘em tomorrow, though.”
THE END
The second trilogy of Duty, Honor, Country is currently under development to take Cord & Rumble and the rest of our characters through the Civil War.
Bob Mayer has always had a fascination for mythology and history. In his Atlantis Series, he mixes them both to create a thrilling ride into a lost world.
FLIGHT 19 AD 1945
FORT LAUDERDALE AIR STATION
“Sir, I request stand-down from this afternoon's training flight.”
Captain Henderson looked up from the papers on his desk. The young man standing in front of him wore starched khakis, the insignia of a corporal in the Marine Corps sewn onto the short sleeves. On his chest were campaign ribbons dating back to Guadalcanal.
“You have a reason, Corporal Foreman?” Henderson asked. He didn't add that Lieutenant Presson, the leader of Training Flight 19 had just been in his office making the same request. Henderson had denied the officer's immediately, but Foreman was a different matter.
“Sir, I've got enough service points to be mustered out in the next week or so.” Foreman was a large man, broad shouldered. His dark hair was swept back in thick waves, flirting with regulations, but with the war just a few months over, some rules had waned in the euphoria of victory.
“What does that have to do with the flight?” Henderson asked.
Foreman paused and his stance broke slightly from the parade rest he had assumed after saluting. “Sir, I--”
“Yes?”
“Sir, I just don't feel good. I think I might be sick.”
Henderson frowned. Foreman didn't look sick. In fact his tan skin radiated health. Henderson had heard this sort of thing before, but only before combat missions, not a training flight. He looked at the ribbons on Foreman's chest, noted the Navy Cross and bit back the hasty reply that had formed on his lips.
“I need more than that,” Henderson said, softening his tone.
“Sir, I have a bad feeling about this flight.”
“A bad feeling?”
“Yes, sir.”
Henderson let the silence stretch out.
Foreman finally went on. “I had a feeling like this before. In combat.” He stopped, as if no further words were required.
Henderson leaned back in his seat, his fingers rolling his pencil end over end.
“What happened then, corporal?”
“I was on the Enterprise, sir. Back in February. We were scheduled to do an attack run off the coast of Japan. Destroy everything that was floating. I went on that mission.”
“And?”
“My entire squadron was lost.”
“Lost?”
“Yes, sir. They all disappeared.”
“Disappeared?”
“Yes, sir.”
“No survivors?”
“Just my plane's crew, sir.”
“How did you get back?”
“My plane had engine trouble. The pilot and I had to bail out early. We were picked up by a destroyer. The rest of the squadron never came back. Not a plane. Not a man.”
Henderson felt a chill tickle the bare skin below his own regulation haircut. Foreman’s flat voice, and the lack of detail, bothered the captain.
“My brother was in my squadron,” Foreman continued. “He never came back. I felt bad before that flight, Captain. As bad as I feel right now.”
Henderson looked at the pencil in his hand. First, Lieutenant Presson with his feelings of unease and now this. Henderson's instinct was to give Foreman the same order he'd given the young aviator. But he looked at the ribbons one more time. Foreman had done his duty many times. Presson had never been under fire. Foreman was a gunner, so his presence would make no difference one way or the other. “All right, corporal, you can sit the flight out. But I want you to be in the tower and work the monitoring shift. Are you healthy enough to do that?”
Foreman snapped to attention. There was no look of relief on his face, just the same stoic Marine Corps stare. “Yes, sir.”
“You're dismissed.”
THE CELLAR SERIES
Bodyguard of lies
Praise for Bodyguard of Lies: “Thelma and Louise go clandestine.” Kirkus Reviews
“Heart-racing non-stop action that is difficult to put down.” Mystery News
CHAPTER 1
The old man sat alone in the darkness contemplating failure on a scale that historians would write about it for centuries, and the subsequent inevitable need for change. He was one of the most powerful people in the world, but only a few knew of his existence. His position had been born out of failure over sixty years previously, as smoke still smoldered above the mangled ships and dead bodies in Pearl Harbor. For over six decades, he had given his life to his country. His most valuable asset was dispassion, so he could view his own recent failures objectively, although recent was a subjective term. He realized now it had all begun over ten years ago.
His office lacked any charm or comfort. There was a scarcity about the room that was unnerving. The cheap desk and two chairs made it look more like an interview room in an improvised police station than the office of a man so powerful his name brought fear throughout the government he served in Washington. The top of the desk was almost clear. Just a secure phone and a stack of folders.
There were, naturally, no windows. Not three hundred feet underground, buried beneath the ‘crystal palace’ of the top secret National Security Agency at Fort Meade, Maryland. And not that he could have used windows. The few who knew of the organization sometimes wondered if this location was what had led to its name. While the CIA made headlines every week, the Cellar was only whispered about in the hallowed halls of the nation's capitol. It might have been located underneath the NSA building but it was an entity unto itself answerable only to its founding mandate.
The room was lit only by the dim red lights on the secure phone. They showed the scars on the old man’s face and the raw red, puckered skin where his eyes had once rested. There was track lighting, currently off, all three bulbs of which were over the old man’s head and angled toward the door. When on, they placed his face in a shadow and caused any guest to squint against the light. The few who had the misfortune to sit across from him didn’t know whether the lighting was placed in such a way to blind them as if he was, or to hide the severity of his old wounds.
He was not a man given much too sentimental reflection, but he knew his time was coming to an end, which made him think back to his beginning, as he knew all things were cyclical. He opened a right side desk drawer and pulled out a three dimensional representation of an old black and white photograph. He ran his fingers lightly over the raised images of three smiling young men dressed in World War II era uniforms—British, French and American. He was on the right. The other two were killed the day after the photo was taken.
He left the image on the desktop and reached for the files. The ones he wanted were the first two. He placed them on his lap. Paper files, the writing in Braille. He’d never trusted computers, even though there were ones now that could work completely on voice commands and read to him. Perhaps that was part of the problem. He was out of date. An anachronism.
They were labeled respectively Gant, Anthony and Masterson. He ran his fingers over the names punched on the tabs. He was patient. He had waited decades for plans born out of seeds he had sown to come to fruition. Quite a few similar plans had failed, so there was no reason to believe this one would succeed. But this plan was now in motion, initiated by an event he had had nothing to do with, the way the best plans in the covert world always started to allow deniability.
Despite his gifts of dispassion and patience, he felt a stirring in his chest. It puzzled him for a few moments before he realized he was experiencing hope. He squashed the feeling and picked up the phone to set another piece of the puzzle in motion.
Bodygu
ard of lies
More Books by Bob Mayer
THE CELLAR SERIES
Bodyguard of lies
Praise for Bodyguard of Lies: “Thelma and Louise go clandestine.” Kirkus Reviews
“Heart-racing non-stop action that is difficult to put down.” Mystery News
Lost Girls
Praise for Lost Girls: “ . . .delivers top-notch action and adventure, creating a full cast of lethal operatives armed with all the latest weaponry. Excellent writing and well-drawn, appealing characters help make this another taut, crackling read.” Publishers Weekly
THE SHADOW WARRIOR SERIES
The Gate
“A pulsing technothriller. A nailbiter in the best tradition of adventure fiction.” Publishers Weekly.
The Line
“Mayer has crafted a military thriller in the tradition of John Grisham’s The Firm.” Kirkus
Omega Missile
“Rogue politicians, a maniac scientist and the doomsday weapon—The Omega Missile comes screaming down on target. A great action reader!” Stephen Coonts.
Omega Sanction
“A very good novel. This is one book you can trust.
Behind the Lines.”
Section Eight
THE GREEN BERET SERIES
An 8 book series featuring Dave Rile and Horace Chase
Eyes of the Hammer
“Exciting and authentic. Author Mayer, a Green Beret himself, gave me a vivid look at the world of the Army’s Special Forces as they battle America’s most deadly enemy. His portrayal of Green Beret operations and techniques takes you deep into the covert world of Special Operations as a you follow an A-Team into combat. Don’t miss this one.”
WEB Griffin
Dragon Sim-13
“Incredibly believable and absolutely riveting. Quite possibly the best book every written about the Green Berets. Bob Mayer tells Green Beret stories like Joseph Wambaugh tells cop stories!
Macon News-Record”
Synbat
“Mayer keeps story and characters firmly under control. The venal motives of the scientists and military bureaucracy are tellingly contrasted with the idealism of the soldiers. A treat for military fiction readers.” Publishers Weekly
Cut Out
“A masterpiece of technology and suspense.” Library Journal
Eternity Base
“Sinewy writing enhances this already potent action fix. An adrenaline cocktail from start to finish.” Kirkus Reviews
Z: The Final Countdown
Mayer has written a very good novel and has established himself as one of today’s better military technothriller writers. A background in Special Operations gives him credibility and understanding from having been there and done that.”
Airpower Journal
Chasing the Ghost
“Fascinating, imaginative and nerve-wracking.” Kirkus Reviews
Chasing the Lost
Simply irresistible.” Booklist
THE ATLANTIS SERIES
A 6 book Science Fiction Series
Atlantis
Atlantis Bermuda Triangle
Atlantis Devil’s Sea
Atlantis Gate
Assault on Atlantis
Battle for Atlantis
“Spell-binding! Will keep you on the edge of your seat. Call it techno-thriller, call it science fiction, call it just terrific story-telling.” Terry Brooks, #1 NY Times Bestselling author of the Shannara series and Star Wars Phantom Menace
THE AREA 51 SERIES
A 9 book Science Fiction Series
Area 51
Area 51: The Reply
Area 51: The Mission
Area 51: The Sphinx
Area 51: The Grail
Area 51: Excalibur
Area 51: The Truth
Area 51: Nosferatu
Area 51: Legend
When nine atmospheric crafts of unknown origin were discovered in the Antarctic in the late 1940s, the U.S. government established Area 51 to study the abandoned technology. Dr. Hans Von Seeckt, who is the only original member of the secret research committee, has observed the marvelous craft in flight and witnessed a fantastic array of bizarre, unexplained phenomena. But Dr. Van Seeckt fears that the technology of the mothership is beyond our scope and an explosive threat to the entire planet. He must race against time to unlock the secret of the ship--and to the origins of mankind itself.
THE NIGHTSTALKERS SERIES
Bob Mayer’s Nightstalkers grabs you by the rocket launcher and doesn’t let go. Fast-moving military SF action—just the way I like it. Highly recommended. -B.V. Larson
Nightstalkers Book One
Nightstalkers: The Book of Truths (Book Two)
Nightstalkers: The Rift (Book Three)
For more information on Bob Mayer please visit http://bobmayer.org or http://coolgus.com
About Bob Mayer
NY Times Bestselling Author Bob Mayer attended West Point where he earned a degree in Psychology and later he earned a Master's degree in Education. He went on to serve in the Infantry and then Special Forces as a Green Beret and commanded an A-team, which is where many of his bestselling ideas were formulated.
Mayer's obsession with mythology and his vast knowledge of the military and Special Forces, mixed with his strong desire to learn from history, is the foundation for his science fiction series Atlantis, Area 51 and Psychic Warrior. Mayer is a master at blending elements of truth into all of his thrillers such as The Green Beret Series, The Shadow Warrior Series, The Presidential Series as well his historical fiction, leaving the reader questioning what is real and what isn't.
Bob has lived all over the world and beyond, but has settled down on Write on the River with his wife and 2 golden labs, Cool Gus and Sassy Becca. He spends his free time running with the dogs, biking, kayaking, and watching or reading whatever his much smarter wife tells him to. She controls the remote. He has a grandson, whom he is training to be the leader of the resistance against the machines.
For more information about Bob Mayer, his books or his business consulting business, Who Dares Wins, please go to http://bobmayer.org or http://coolgus.com
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Copyright
Cool Gus Publishing
www.CoolGus.com
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance of fictional characters to actual persons living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. Because this is Historical Fiction, real persons of history are woven into the story, however, they are still characterized as fictional. The author tried to make the history elements as true to historical time lines, however things in the story have been altered in the name of fiction and entertainment.
COPYRIGHT © 2011 by Bob Mayer
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission from the author (Bob Mayer and Cool Gus Publishing) except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.