Hell's Mouth

by BATEMAN, A P

  O’Bryan sat back on the bench. The trees were starting to shed their leaves and even though he was only three-hundred miles east and a hundred miles north of Cornwall, he felt a chill upon returning. The summer was finally over and like so many things in his life, he would be glad to lay it to rest and move on.

  “Are you here for Commander Anderson?” The voice belonged to a man, but was unduly quiet.

  In his respectful, sombre state, O’Bryan had been startled by the voice behind him and flinched. He turned and saw a gentle-looking man in his fifties. He wore a dog collar and a black shirt. Anderson had been Church of England so this would make the man a vicar, or at least O’Bryan assumed so. “I have,” he said. “I missed the ceremony…”

  “Funeral, my son,” the vicar smiled. “Ceremonies are for weddings…” There was no condescension in his tone.

  “Fair enough.”

  “Are you a family member? I could say a few words if you’d like?”

  O’Bryan shook his head. “No, I’m not. And no, that’s okay, thanks.”

  “A colleague?”

  “Yes.”

  “And a member?”

  O’Bryan frowned. “Sorry?”

  “Not member, no. I mean a fellow brother.”

  “Brother?”

  “Yes,” the vicar said. “There was a good showing, a little ceremony afterwards from his brothers at the lodge.” He looked at O’Bryan, then added, “The freemasons…”

  O’Bryan got up off the bench and walked over to the grave. He looked at the headstone. At the top, in the centre of the stone, above the name was an emblem, an insignia. A set-square and compass, centred over a letter F within a globe. There were no accompanying words. It was small and he had mistaken it for a rose or something similar.

  O’Bryan thought about what Sarah had said about John Pascoe. A freemason from a family of freemasons. Clive Gowndry’s handshake. O’Bryan had confronted him about it, taunted him even, in Malforth Manor at the charity event.

  Had Anderson known? Had they approached him, a fellow mason? Asked him to help them in their sickening endeavour? What had sparked Anderson to have his inkling about the deaths of the Elmaleh family? How did he know there was going to be more? He had marked the dates and times of the high tides for O’Bryan to keep a lookout. And why had he not briefed O’Bryan thoroughly, given him a clear path to follow, rather than instructions to start at the beginning and see what he could turn up? Would he have felt torn between justice and the idea of turning against his fellow brethren?

  Tell me when you see it…

  Those had been Anderson’s final words to O’Bryan.

  O’Bryan looked down at the headstone. He had a lump in his throat and a tear was welling in his eye and he said quietly, “I see it now…”

  Author’s Note

  Thanks for making it this far and I hope you enjoyed reading the story as much as I enjoyed writing it.

  This story marks a new direction. It’s always exciting to create a new character and I think DCI Ross O’Bryan has much to give. There’s a dark past in there, but a true heart. He’s flawed, possibly because the best people always are, but from rock bottom comes the will to battle on and show true strength and I plan more outings for him soon.

  That’s not to say previous series are over. Far from it. I have left Rob Stone hanging at the border to Alaska with half the FBI on his tail and few options ahead of him, while Alex King seems to have it all at his feet – a new love, career and a life ahead of him, with the killing in his past. Oh, how we writers can pull the rug from under our characters at any minute… I’m working on more of these stories and these guys have had it easy so far!

  There are links at the front of the book if you would like to connect with me and know more about what I’m writing, when the next book is out and other related topics – thanks for reading once again and I hope to entertain you soon!

  A P Bateman

  Also by A P Bateman

  The Ares Virus

  At a US research facility funded by the military and clandestine agencies a super-virus has been created as a first strike military weapon. During its conception the anti-virus has furthered the possibilities of medical research by decades. Such is its potential, treachery has struck from within. If the virus is released, then the anti-virus will be worth billions to the pharmaceutical industry. Isobel Bartlett worked on the project and knows its potential.

  After the suspicious death of her mentor, and upon hearing part of an audacious plan to make money from the project she flees the facility with the information needed to culture the viruses to seek help from a contact with the FBI. Up against rogue government forces, she is helped by Agent Rob Stone of the Secret Service who has been tasked by the president to investigate a disbanded assassination program after his investigation led him to the bio research facility. The two are hunted mercilessly by an assassin from Washington to the streets of New York. Only when the hunt reaches the wild forests of Vermont can ex-special forces soldier Stone take the fight to the enemy.

  The Contract Man

  When an MI6 agent is found to be keeping records of his missions to protect himself from betrayal he unwittingly makes himself a priority target. But how do you silence the most dangerous man imaginable? Send him into hell on earth…

  While Alex King is sent into Northern Iraq to tidy the loose ends of a botched mission, the archipelago of Indonesia is under communist threat from within its own military. A consortium of worried businessmen call for desperate measures and seek the services of an assassin. But what if MI6 could be duped into taking care of their problems for them? With secret links to China the communist contingent threatens Britain’s trade initiatives with the largest mineral producing country on the planet.

  In the dark world of intelligence, it seems that everybody has their price.

  Lies and Retribution

  MI5 agents have been executed and more agents have been abducted with no terms received from the kidnappers. An MI5 analyst is missing having accessed and downloaded prohibited security data.

  The trial of notorious radical cleric Mullah Al-Shaqqaf collapses, his extradition falls apart. A man known to have funded ISIS, recruit fighters for Syria and coerce teenagers to martyr themselves. Again he walks free.

  The hunt for a nuclear warhead stolen ten years ago has led Russian intelligence to London.

  One man connects them all…

  When retired MI6 operative Alex King is contacted by the deputy director of MI5 with a proposition, he feels compelled to act. His brief is illegal, his actions unprecedented. The law and the courts have failed. Time and events are against the nation’s intelligence services and the battle can no longer be fought by the rules. Britain’s enemies will soon find the game has changed.

  As MI5 agent Caroline Darby investigates with the help of a seasoned Scotland Yard detective she soon starts to look through the elaborate misdirection and discovers the horrifying truth…

  The Town

  Rob Stone is taking time out to climb in the mountains of Oregon. Taking a break, drinking coffee in a diner in a small mountain town he watches a helpless man humiliated. Stepping in to help, he sparks a confrontation. Within an hour somebody tries to kill him.

  A message has been sent, but Stone will not be pushed. As he starts to investigate what some people in the town do not want uncovered, the truth becomes unthinkable. Cruelty on a scale unimaginable, Stone is determined to shut it down and reclaim the town for its people.

  Outnumbered, hunted through the dense forest and mountain terrain, his enemy are unaware that they haven’t gained the advantage. They have merely released him into his element.

  Murder… Abduction… Betrayal… Sometimes you can’t see the woods for the trees…

  The Island

  Waking naked and alone on a deserted island, Rob Stone has no recollection of how he got there, or who he is. His memory is one of snapshots, each one building a picture of what he does and
who he truly is.

  He discovers he has both the skills and will to survive. But survival is one thing, being hunted is another.

  A beautiful journalist in desperate need of help. The dark web, the dumping ground for the evil of the internet. An enemy from his past. Murder, abduction and betrayal. Stone must try to remember the time before the island changed everything. The island will help him remember. The island will make him wish he could forget.

  When the unthinkable becomes reality…

  Shadows of Good Friday

  (An Alex King Prequel, set seventeen years before The Contract Man)

  In the last days before signing the peace agreement, an IRA splinter cell mounts an operation on the British mainland using English criminals. This unprecedented move intrigues MI6 and they assume command of MI5’s surveillance operation.

  A career criminal is released from prison and aims to win back the wife and child his sentence has cost him, but before he can, he is forced back into his old world. The stakes have changed and his family have become leverage for the most ruthless people imaginable.

  A woman imprisoned in an abusive relationship, desperate to escape with her son and rekindle her past becomes the pawn in a deadly world of deception, violence and retribution.

  A clandestine wing of the secret intelligence service tests its newest recruit. Alex King has trained and operated in the shadowy world of intelligence and now he must kill for his country, but before he can, he needs to discover more about the men he has been sent to kill.