* * *
Matt woke up two hours after the lieutenant worked on him. He was in the back of a small white pickup. His three wounds were bandaged, and although it wasn’t a very professional job, at least he wasn’t bleeding to death. Gustafson, his accomplice was driving.
“We did it, sir. No trace. I followed your exact words. This is the second car, and we’ll be in Stockholm in a few hours. Your clothes are in the sack, all large, as you asked. I hope your wounds are okay?”
Matt nodded. Since his head was still spinning, he opened the window and took several breaths of fresh air. He then checked his pocket and was happy to find a small, metallic chip. “I knew it,” he said to himself. “The Feds planted another one.”
He thought back to his conversation with Thomasson, and he was glad the lieutenant had had time to check all three scars before they entered the warehouse. ”Thomasson,” he’d said, “you worked at record speeds in Afghanistan, with little light. I need you to check three places on my body, not just one. It should be easy, as we’ll have plenty of light, but there will be some smoke from the gas…”
Matt remained silent till they reached the city, where he asked Gustafson to drop him near the port. “I’m off to Zurich. Good luck,” he said as he got out of the truck and shook Gustafson’s hand. He handed him a tracking chip. “Don’t keep this as a souvenir now,” he said through the window. “Just drop it somewhere halfway through your trip. Oh, and get rid of the bag, would you?” he asked, pointing to the sack that was full of bandages, antibiotics, and the masks they had used.
“Will do, sir. I am off to Hamburg myself,” replied Gustafson.
* * *
Matt never saw Zurich, of course, as he’d never fancied cold weather. He loved his salted Mojito somewhere else, where the sun lasted for days and days…
“It was a great journey while writing Matt. I hope you all got to enjoy it.”
Ahmad Ardalan
About the Author
Ahmad Ardalan was born in Baghdad in 1979. At the age of two, he moved with his parents to Vienna, Austria, where he spent most of his childhood and underwent his primary studies. After his father's diplomatic mission finished at the end of 1989, he returned to Iraq, where he continued his studies and graduated from the University of Dentistry. As a result of the unstable political, military, social, and economic conditions in his home country, Ahmad decided to leave Iraq and move to the UAE. After facing difficulties to pursue his career in dentistry, he opted to pursue employment in the business world. Since then, Ardalan has held several senior roles within the pharmaceutical and FMCG industries, throughout much of the Middle East. His early childhood in a mixed cultural environment, as well as his world travels, increased his passion for learning about cultures of the world and inspired him to pen The Clout of Gen, his first novel. After eleven years of being away, Ahmad returned to Baghdad in January 2013 on a visit that was full of mixed emotions. Inspired by his trip to Iraq, he wrote his second novel, The Gardener of Baghdad. He did not stop there, as "Matt" his latest Short Story Thriller Series became available beginning 2015.
Other novels by Ahmad Ardalan:
Mystery Fiction ~The Clout of Gen~
"What if major events in modern history were planned decades ago?"
Newspaper reporter John Teddy’s miserable life is turned upside down when he uncovers a voice from the past—a voice that suspiciously knows far too much about the would-be future. John’s natural curiosity to understand the hidden message takes him to places he never imagined seeing, and ongoing conspiracies he never thought existed. The more John gets involved, the more he is led towards mysteries that are beyond his understanding. The circle of people involved grows bigger stretching from west to east; each step forward is like a step backward.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008J0BSZO
~ Historical Fiction~
“The Gardener of Baghdad”
“Two people, one city, different times; connected by a memoir. Can love exist in a city destined for decades of misery?”
Adnan leads a weary existence as a bookshop owner in modern-day, war-torn Baghdad, where bombings, corruption and assault are everyday occurrences and the struggle to survive has suffocated the joy out of life for most. But when he begins to clean out his bookshop of forty years to leave his city in search of somewhere safer, he comes across the story of Ali, the Gardener of Baghdad, Adnan rediscovers through a memoir handwritten by the gardener decades ago that beauty, love and hope can still exist, even in the darkest corners of the world.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00M91LJGW
AuthorFacebook Page:
https://www.facebook.com/AhmadArdalan799
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Matt: A Matt Godfrey Short thriller Trilogy Page 17