Muhammad dropped the fishline, opened the door, and slipped into the driver seat. Car thieves in movies would always yank at the wiring behind the steering wheel and rub the wires together to start the car. No doubt cars could be hot-wired so crudely, but you could yank loose more than you bargained for. Instead, Muhammad simply jammed a screwdriver into the ignition lock. He took off his shoe and hammered the screwdriver deeper into the lock until the lock gave out and he could turn the cylinder. The Opel started on the second try and he put his shoe back on, put the car in gear and disengaged the handbrake, driving slowly out of the parking lot before heading south.
First things first, destroy all evidence.
PRESENT DAY VII
The water tower close to the industrial area had been in disuse for over a decade, but the concrete and steel cylinder had some kind of monument status that prevented the city council from tearing it down. The staircase leading up to the top had a locked gate that didn’t pose any problem for someone with Katla’s lock picking skills. She sat with her legs crossed on the top of the tower, keeping an eye on Brandt’s cabin. The industrial area was far from industrious, so she passed the time playing Free Flow on her iPad.
Roel Brandt would return, if he wasn’t caught. Twenty minutes ago, the local radio news had interrupted their programming to give a bulletin about a thwarted terrorist attack at Magna Plaza with one arrest and one fugitive. The arrest would be the guy with the poodle. Brandt’s bomb-making skills made him too valuable to waste in a terrorist attack.
The sky was tinged pink over the lush green forest to her right, when she noticed movement on the far side of the industrial area, near the second gate.
Through her binoculars Katla studied the car approaching the cabin from the direction of the second gate. An unfamiliar Opel Kadett, bouncing on worn shocks. The internal rangefinder measured the distance to the Kadett at sixty-three meters, which was well within striking distance. The cabin was even closer and the monitor she’d installed inside had a range close to a thousand meters, so Katla had eyes on and ears inside the cabin.
The driver drove out of the first gate and turned right on the parallel road. Katla followed the car through her binoculars as it passed the second gate, then backed onto the industrial area. The driver parked the Opel Kadett with the nose aimed at the second gate and got out of the car. Even in the twilight Katla recognised Brandt as he strode towards the forest while swinging a dog leash. The dark figure disappeared into the forest. She kept her binoculars trained on the small path leading from the cabin to the forest.
The mark of a true hunter shows in the capacity for patience.
After ten minutes, Katla saw motion in the forest. Another minute passed before Brandt strode confidently along the path past the cabin, idly swinging his dog leash. He passed the cabin, walked on to the gate and stood there for a moment. Then he turned on his heel and strode back to the cabin, unlocked the door and went inside.
Katla donned her headphones and listened to the terrorist rummaging in the workshop. Soft grunts of exertion were followed by the sound of liquid sloshing.
“Live by the sword, die by the sword,” she spoke into her handheld radio.
Over her headphone she heard something crash on the floor and the gulp of liquid draining from a fallen canister.
“What the fuck?” Roel Brandt muttered, then screamed, “Who the fuck are you?”
She pressed the remote control that shorted the circuit of the cabin’s booby-trapped electric light.
Over the monitor Katla heard a whooshing sound as the interior of the cabin was set ablaze from the napalm in the light bulb. The door to the cabin crashed open and a human torch stumbled out, fell to its knees and dropped flat on its burning face. The raging flames consumed Brandt’s body, while the door behind him slammed shut on the burning interior of the cabin. The monitor crackled, then stopped working. She pulled the jack of her headphones from the receiver and watched Brandt’s body burn to a crisp.
Her sixth target. The first to die by fire.
Live by the sword.
Violence begets violence. Would she end up like Brandt someday?
Katla stretched out on the concrete roof, taking soft deep breaths as she watched smoke swirling up in the reddening sky, reminding her of her father’s favourite Psalm: As smoke is driven away, so you shall drive them away, as wax melts before fire, so the wicked shall perish before God.
In the distance the sirens of firetrucks grew louder.
Time to go. She put away her gear and climbed down the roof to the metal stairs. Her pager vibrated and she checked the screen.
Peter Brandt.
Katla assembled her phone as she walked down the steel steps circling the water tower.
“I’m sorry,” she said as Brandt answered the phone. “It looks like your brother tripped one of his own booby-traps.”
“He’s dead?”
“His body will be difficult to identify. The booby-trap was some kind of firebomb.”
Brandt was silent for a moment, then whispered, “Did he suffer?”
“I’m sure his body will look that way. The intense heat of a fire contracts the muscles in what arson investigators call a pugilist pose. Your brother’s body will look contorted, but that doesn’t mean he suffered.” Katla mounted her Vespa, smiling at her own fabrications. “In most burn cases the searing heat and intense smoke overload the senses, forcing the nervous system to shut down before pain is registered. I hope that eases your mind.”
“It does,” Brandt replied, sounding relieved. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. You have my sympathies.”
After a moment of silence on the other end Brandt hung up the phone.
Whistling Fire in Cairo under her breath, Katla started her Vespa and rode home.
Thank you for reading the Amsterdam Assassin Series.
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To the Reader,
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Kind regards,
Martyn V. Halm
THE AMSTERDAM ASSASSIN SERIES
Novels
Reprobate
Assassin Katla breaks her own rules when confronted with an unusual witness...
Blessed with an almost non-existent conscience, freelance assassin and corporate troubleshooter Katla Sieltjes, expert in disguising homicide, regards murder for profit as an intricate and rewarding occupation. Her solitary existence seems more than satisfactory until a blind musician wanders in on her crime scene.
Katla only kills for profit or to protect her anonymity, and Bram Merleyn seems harmless and unable to identify her. By sparing his life, she breaks one of her most important rules—never leave a living witness. A decision Katla might not survive to regret...
Reprobate is the first novel in the Amsterdam Assassin Series.
Peccadillo
Assassin Katla’s legitimate business becomes the target of a hostile takeover...
Still recuperating from injuries sustained in Reprobate, freelance assassin and corporate troubleshooter Katla Sieltjes, expert in disguising homicide, finds herself at war with the Kau Hong, a gang of ruthless criminals who will stop at nothing to get their hands on Sphinx Shipping.
The potentially lethal situation quickly becomes untenable, when victims fall on both sides, and a Hong Kong sniper arrives to team up with a mute enforcer from the competitive 14K Triad.
Amsterdam might prove too small for Katla to play hide and seek, when her enemies match her skills in search and destroy...
Peccadillo is the second novel in the Amsterdam Assassin Series.
Rogue
Assassin Katla kills the wrong target and draws attention from combined intelligence communities…
Freelance assassin and corporate troubleshooter Katla Sieltjes runs her business of disguising homicide below the radar of law enforcement, but when her latest target is a judas goat intended to draw her out into the open, the hunter becomes the hunted.
Fooling local law enforcement can be challenging, but hiding from intelligence communities aiming to enlist Katla for their dirty work might prove impossible.
With Homeland Security, DEA, and the German BKA joining forces with Dutch Intelligence in an effort to track down Loki Enterprises, not only Katla’s future is threatened, but also the lives of her lover and his friends.
Rogue is the third novel in the Amsterdam Assassin Series.
Ghosting
Assassin Katla's sabbatical year turns out to be her biggest challenge yet…
After her narrow escape from the intense investigations by combined intelligence forces, freelance assassin and corporate troubleshooter Katla Sieltjes takes a sabbatical to thwart the relentless scrutiny by the authorities.
But there's no rest for the wicked.
An unexpected pregnancy, a brother in peril, a secretive consultant, and an assiduous infiltrator conspire to force Katla to renege on her vows and once again do what she does best: solving problems in her own unparalleled way.
Ghosting is the fourth novel in the Amsterdam Assassin Series.
KillFiles
The Katla KillFile short stories chronologically precede the novels in the Amsterdam Assassin Series.
Each KillFile features freelance assassin and corporate troubleshooter Katla Sieltjes, expert in disguising homicide, executing one of her contracts. While not mandatory reading, each KillFile provides insight both in Katla’s work methods and skill, and additional background information in her character and personal history. The KillFiles can be read out of order, as the contracts are random samples from Katla’s past.
Locked Room
Assassin Katla reinvents a forensic landmark while creating a Locked Room mystery...
The Locked Room KillFile (7,800 words) follows freelance assassin Katla Sieltjes executing a contract on a physician responsible for the death of her client’s wife. Using an updated version of a lethal puzzle that astounded forensic scientists at the end of the twentieth century, Katla recreates a diabolical killing method that became a landmark in the forensic sciences. Thwarting forensic scientists is not her only hurdle in fulfilling her contract, as her target has to be killed in his home, an opulent penthouse in a fortress-like apartment building…
Microchip Murder
Assassin Katla has to kill an industrial spy and retrieve the stolen item...
The Microchip Murder KillFile (8,500 words) follows freelance assassin Katla Sieltjes executing a contract on an industrial spy, who is in the process of selling a stolen microchip with valuable software to the competition. Katla’s client wants the stolen microchip and research materials returned to him, but her target is wary and the unscrupulous buyers are prepared to kill for the stolen software.
Fundamental Error
Assassin Katla is hired by a client whose brother is planning a terrorist attack…
The Fundamental Error KillFile (9,800 words) follows freelance assassin Katla Sieltjes on her most dangerous assignment yet. When Peter Brandt watches his brother Roel convert to Islam and turn into a domestic terrorist, Katla needs to enter into the mind of a fanatic suicide bomber in order to thwart a mass-murder attack in the shopping mecca of Amsterdam.
Aconite Attack
Assassin Katla finds a devious way to get a target to poison himself…
The Aconite Attack KillFile (10,700 words) follows Katla Sieltjes on her first foray as a freelance assassin and corporate troubleshooter, when she gets herself hired by the CEO of a modelling agency to permanently remove his playboy partner draining the firm’s resources on his downward spiral into self-destruction. Katla finds a way to administer poison to the target, but he has to be isolated for her plan to succeed. Every plan has a fluke factor though, and Katla soon finds herself in mortal danger, when the target reveals his darker side…
About the author:
Martyn V. Halm lives in Amsterdam with his wife Maaike, two children, two cats, and countless imaginary characters vying for attention.
Writing realistic crime fiction is hard work, especially when you're a stickler for verisimilitude. When your protagonist is a seasoned killer, research can take you right up to Nietzsche’s abyss. Luckily, things get easier after the first few killings...
Apart from being an accomplished prevaricator, Martyn already possessed an eclectic variety of skills that qualified him to write the Amsterdam Assassin Series. Skills he shares with his deadly fictional characters...
If you want to contact Martyn…
Email: [email protected]
Mailing List: Click here for the form
Blog: http://amsterdamassassin.wordpress.com/
Website: www.tao-of-violence.weebly.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Tao_Of_Violence
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/katla.sieltjes
Publishers Weekly Review of Reprobate - A Katla Novel:
Fast-moving and intricately plotted, this manuscript of Dutch intrigue follows assassin Katla, who’s renowned for her ability to cover up a job. When the U.S. DEA’s base in the Netherlands catches wind of a heroin ring within the U.S. military, they set up an undercover operation. When the heads of the drug ring discover the plot, they arrange for Katla to assassinate the undercover agents, but the assassination doesn’t go as planned. As Katla recovers from injuries sustained in the botched job, DEA agent Deborah Stern and her colleagues investigate. Violence, drugs, and sex abound in this intense story, and the plot is less farcical than a lot of the thrillers clogging the shelves.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Blog Reviews:
Sunday, 27 January 2013
http://hannah-thompson.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/blindness-in-fiction-4-reprobate-katla.html
Blindness in Fiction 4: Reprobate: A Katla Novel
It is notoriously difficult for non-blind writers to depict blind characters in fiction. Although anyone can close their eyes and imagine blindness for a few minutes, living in a world where sight has lost its meaning is incredibly hard
to imagine. For this reason, blind characters in fiction are relatively rare. Where they do exist, they are either secondary and therefore always described from someone else’s point of view (as in Adrian Mole) or evil and not described sympathetically at all (as in Ratburger). Like Star Gazing which I blogged about last April, Reprobate is a novel of shared viewpoints, in which a blind character, Bram, plays a crucial role.
When the reader first encounters Bram, it is easy to mistakenly think that he is nothing but a fascinating plot device. We initially encounter him just after assassin Katla has finished a job. When he interrupts her as she is cleaning up the crime scene, her first instinct is to kill him, as she normally would an ‘additional’ who might later be able to place her at the scene. But when Katla realises Bram is blind she decides to spare him. Her reasoning is that he poses no threat to her because he will never be able to make a positive identification of her.
Fundamental Error - A Katla KillFile (Amsterdam Assassin Series) Page 4