ALL ACTION THRILLER BOXSET: THREE MURRAY MCDONALD STANDALONE THRILLERS

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ALL ACTION THRILLER BOXSET: THREE MURRAY MCDONALD STANDALONE THRILLERS Page 101

by Murray Mcdonald


  “Yes,” replied Joe, keeping his eyes closed.

  “They reckon there’ll be riots.”

  “Over a mayor?” One eye opened.

  “A black mayor killed by the Klan, you think there won’t be?”

  “Haven’t you heard? It’s got worse,” said a man from behind, entering a conversation Joe didn’t want to have. The elderly woman turned in her seat to face the man.

  Joe looked at his bottle of bourbon. A third was gone already; he had hoped it would last until Washington, he’d be lucky if it lasted to Houston, four hours away unless he slowed down. He took another long pull.

  The man from behind pulled himself to the front of his seat, filling the aisle, so he could talk to them both more easily. Joe reluctantly half turned to face the man, while the elderly woman waited eagerly to hear the latest.

  “One of those officers, you know from last year, that shot that unarmed black boy and wasn’t charged?”

  “Yes,” said the elderly lady.

  “No,” Joe mumbled.

  “A group of young black boys kidnapped him, tied him to the back of their car, and dragged him through the streets. Exactly like the Klan used to do.”

  “Is he okay?” asked the elderly woman with deep concern.

  “I’d imagine he died, and very unpleasantly,” Joe said.

  “Very,” agreed the man. “Although that’s not all. The president announced this afternoon he was adding the group that accepted responsibility for the FBI director’s death, the New Black Panthers Party, to a terrorist list. Supposedly evidence has come to light that they donated money to Al Qaeda back in 2000 via their ties to the Nation of Islam.”

  “What’s Al Qaeda got to do with anything nowadays?” asked the elderly lady.

  Joe didn’t know, but he did know Clay Caldwell enough to know that there was always a reason for what he did. He closed his eyes again, zoning out from the rest of the conversation. His concern was for Clay’s daughter, assuming that was why Clay had called him.

  A year after Clay moved to Florida they had arranged to meet. Both had secretly saved for months and bought tickets to Atlanta unbeknownst to their parents. They reckoned it was halfway for each, and with a cover story of a sleepover at friend’s, it allowed them two days to meet up. At the last minute Maddy, a girl who both of them liked and had known as long as each other, informed Joe she was going too. Initially Joe thought it was cool, although after some probing, he discovered that Maddy had been keeping in touch with Clay a lot more than Joe realized.

  After two of the best days of his life, they parted once again and amazingly managed to keep the meeting secret. With money tight in all of their households, such an extravagance was unthinkable, and more importantly, would be deemed unforgivable. However, not as secret as Clay and Maddy had managed to keep their sexual encounter, until a few months later when Maddy started to show, and exactly nine months to the day after their trip she gave birth to a baby daughter.

  Maddy refused to divulge the father’s name, claiming it was just some boy she had met at the fair. Her father demanded a description, reaching for his gun, supporting Maddy’s refusal to name Clay.

  Shortly after their meeting in Atlanta, Clay’s mother died and he moved once again with his grandparents. Thereafter, all contact was lost, and Clay remained blissfully unaware of his daughter until she was ten, when Joe met him again for the first time in almost eleven years.

  By that time Clay was married and expecting what he thought was his first child. His wife was Southern royalty, one of the most wealthy, politically connected families across the Southern States and responsible for numerous senators and governors throughout their history. Staunchly Republican and Christian to the core. A husband who had abandoned an out of wedlock child wasn’t going to go over well, particularly as it seemed they were already planning his political path.

  Despite all of that, Clay had taken leave and secretly visited Maddy and his daughter, Clara. Maddy could see Clay was a man going places and was no fool as to how the revelation that he had a ten-year-old out of wedlock daughter would affect him. She also knew her father would still, after all these years, quite possibly kill Clay, and felt it best the secret remained. With a heavy heart Clay had accepted, though not at the expense of his daughter. She wanted for nothing. Maddy had to explain away her newfound fortune to a lottery win as Clay ensured his daughter lived in the best neighborhood and received the finest education money could buy. He had attended her graduation from both high school and college, and was always there if she ever needed him. The only day he had ever failed her since learning of her existence was the day her mother Maddy was buried. By that time he was running for president, and she understood his presence at the funeral would have raised far too many questions that he couldn’t have answered. As a secret father, he was probably one of the best.

  Joe had last seen Clara shortly before Clay met her for the first time. She had been a pretty child, and from the photos that had been displayed on the news story, an even more beautiful woman. From what Joe had managed to understand from the sketchy news report, she had been bundled into a van off the streets of New York, where she worked at one the city’s most prestigious law firms. The van had later been found burnt out under an overpass with no sign of Clara. The trail ended there.

  The bus slowed, and Joe cracked open his right eye, not wanting to let his fellow passengers know he was awake. The Houston skyline was off in the distance. He opened his left eye. The elderly lady was asleep and a glow from behind suggested the man was reading some type of device. Joe wasn’t up on the latest technology. Smart phones, e-readers, and tablets were words he had heard not really understanding what they meant. Computers, laptops, and cells were about his limit.

  Sandy stirred in her seat as the skyline neared, and Joe gave her a reassuring pat. They neared the towering skyscrapers of the downtown area dominating the sprawling city around them, each one taller and prouder than its neighbor, stretching up into the blackness of the night sky.

  Sandy sat bolt upright, staring at the sight ahead. Joe followed her gaze. She was looking towards the base, not at the top of the towers as he was. Joe spotted it, even from miles out, you could see it, the red and blue lights of the emergency services. It wasn’t at the base of one tower, every tower looked as though it was rising from a sea of blue/red.

  It was just before 11.00 p.m.. The rioting had started.

  Joe reached for his bourbon and took a swig as the first sounds of the wailing sirens invaded the bus. He couldn’t remember ever hearing that many at once. He took another pull and finished the bottle. It was going to be a long journey.

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  Other titles by Murray McDonald

  SCION

  CRITICAL ERROR

  DIVIDE & CONQUER

  AMERICA’S TRUST

  TRAITOR

  THE GOD COMPLEX

  CAPTIVE-IN-CHIEF

  TRIAL (COMING SOON)

  ROCKLAND (NOVELLA – USA ONLY)

  (YOUNG ADULT – THE BILLIONAIRE SERIES)

  KIDNAP

  ASSASSIN

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  America’s Trust

  Critical Error

  Traitor

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24


  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Chapter 53

  Chapter 54

  Chapter 55

  Chapter 56

  Chapter 57

  Chapter 58

  Chapter 59

  Chapter 60

  Chapter 61

  Chapter 62

  Chapter 63

  Chapter 64

  Chapter 65

  Chapter 66

  Chapter 67

  Chapter 68

  Chapter 69

  Chapter 70

  Chapter 71

  Chapter 72

  Chapter 73

  Chapter 74

  Chapter 75

  Chapter 76

  Chapter 77

  Chapter 78

  Chapter 79

  Chapter 80

  Chapter 81

  Chapter 82

  Chapter 83

  Epilogue

  Critical Error

  Part One

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Part Two

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Part Three

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Part Four

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Chapter 53

  Chapter 54

  Chapter 55

  Chapter 56

  Chapter 57

  Chapter 58

  Chapter 59

  Chapter 60

  Chapter 61

  Chapter 62

  Chapter 63

  Chapter 64

  Chapter 65

  Chapter 66

  Chapter 67

  Chapter 68

  Chapter 69

  Chapter 70

  Chapter 71

  Chapter 72

  Chapter 73

  Chapter 74

  Chapter 75

  Chapter 76

  Chapter 77

  Chapter 78

  Chapter 79

  Chapter 80

  Chapter 81

  Chapter 82

  Chapter 83

  Chapter 84

  Chapter 85

  Chapter 86

  Chapter 87

  Chapter 88

  Chapter 89

  Chapter 90

  Chapter 91

  Chapter 92

  Chapter 93

  Chapter 94

  Epilogue

  Traitor

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Chapter 53

  Chapter 54

  Chapter 55

  Chapter 56

  Chapter 57

  Chapter 58

  Chapter 59

  Chapter 60

  Chapter 61

  Chapter 62

  Chapter 63

  Chapter 64

  Chapter 65

  Chapter 66

  Chapter 67

  Chapter 68

  Chapter 69

  Chapter 70

  Chapter 71

  Chapter 72

  Chapter 73

  Chapter 74

  Chapter 75

  Chapter 76

  Chapter 77

  Chapter 78

  Chapter 79

  Chapter 80

  Chapter 81

  Chapter 82

  Chapter 83

  Chapter 84

  Chapter 85

  Chapter 86

  Chapter 87

  Chapter 88

  Chapter 89

  Chapter 90

  Chapter 91

  Chapter 92

  Epilogue

  Captive-in-Chief

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Other titles by Murray McDonald

 

 

 


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