Infiltration: A Spy Thriller - Sample Chapter
Here is a preview of my action novel, 'Infiltration: A Spy Thriller', available now on Amazon.
Prologue
April 1987
The girl burstthrough the door of her small home, an envelope in her right hand.
“Hey, anyone home?!” She crossed the foyer.
“In here honey.”
She rushed over, “I got in, I got in!”
A man rose from his chair in the corner and came over to hug her, “Way to go babygirl, I knew you could do it.”
The woman stayed seated on the couch, a deep frown on her face, “This is step one of a thousand steps you’re going to have to take. If you’re going to wet yourself over every little thing, you might as well go home right now and work at a goddamn grocery store!” She stormed out and slammed the power button on the TV.
The girl waited until she went into the kitchen, “Can I ever get excited about anything? I worked my ass off to get this.”
He motioned over to the couch and they both sat down, “I know it can be tough sometimes, but you’re not like everyone else. You’re special. And being special means that you can’t have the same things as a regular person. You should know by now that you aren’t going to be living a normal life, so having a normal reaction to something isn't really an excuse.”
He pulled his hands towards his chest like he was holding an invisible poker hand.
“You always have to stay here,” he extended his arms back out until they were straight, “other people in life can be out here.”
The girl huffed and looked away.
He put his hands on hers, “Congratulations. Getting into a prestigious college is a big step. But it's just that. One step. It’s just something you always have to keep in your mind.”
Her eyes narrowed, “I know my role, and I will never deviate from it. But if I'm going to integrate fully, properly, I have to act like a normal person. I have to blend, I have to be able to show emotion. Right now, I feel stifled. That leads to desperation. And that is not an emotion I ever want to feel.”
“I understand that, and that's why you go to public school. Social skills are half the battle, but so is the ability to flick that switch when you walk through that door. Practice it every day. Cross that threshold and drop everything, because that's exactly what you'll have to do for the rest of your life. Compartmentalize, or perish.”
She nodded.
“It's not an easy life, but easy usually means purposeless. Every minute of every day we have purpose. We are truly powerful. We secure the future.” He patted her hand and followed his wife out of the room.
To some this would have been a true moral dilemma, a crossroads. Not her though. She moved into the kitchen towards the two people who had raised her, head down, “I apologize. I am the Phoenix, a true soldier of the Brotherhood. I'll never forget it again.”
The woman came over to her side, “I never doubted that dear. Every minute of every day. You're going to change this world, but only if you stay strong.”
The girl stared out the window, “Always. Libertas vel excessum.”
Part I – Preparation
Chapter One
J. Edgar Hoover Building
June 2003
Bill Neilson had arrived early to the office. He had his normal morning paperwork, plus a new recruit class to tour around the building in the afternoon.
The office was empty, just a few people here and there.
Bill had been through the doors around the same time for ten years. Through that time, he had more than earned his reputation as a man who had the worst luck in all of human history.
He had broken bones, walked into ambushes, been grazed by bullets and generally put his heart through more stress than the lifetimes of ten accountants.
And he loved every minute of it.
He turned down a dozen promotions to stay out there. Field work and training the new recruits fresh out of school was his wheelhouse, and he stuck to it.
A few hours rolled by, complete with a few pots of coffee before Bill pulled himself up from his desk. He stretched and moved his neck back and forth.
He checked his watch. It was about that time.
There were five people waiting down in the lobby for him. It would be down to four within an hour, three after two hours, and then sometime after lunch, Bill would choose his new partner from whoever was left.
That person would be on the fast track to the FBI's upper ranks. The last four people Bill mentored were all high up in the food chain, and he was intent on keeping that streak alive.
Bill put his jacket on and adjusted it into place. He made sure his tie was straight. He looked up to find the Deputy Director, and one of his oldest friends, Alex Jones.
“Back still bugging you?”
“Well Tripoli was a very formative time in our lives. But snake pits and torture dens aside, I gotta be downstairs for the newbies in a minute. Time to hang another ace on the wall.” He winked at Alex.
Alex slapped him on the back, “The Bill Neilson School is back in session. Best of luck.”
Bill went down a back stairway and came up behind the group. He studied them for a moment before he jumped in. They all looked the part very nicely.
There were three men and two women in the group, all wearing finely cut business suits, all standing attentively. He stepped around them.
“Hello fresh faces, I'm Bill Neilson, your tour guide for the day and possibly longer if you fit the bill. I know you've all been prepared, trained, quizzed, etcetera, but this will be a whole other level. Take that class time and apply it to reality. Or you'll be applying your ass to a chair in front of a desk.” He paced in front of them. His kids. His responsibility, “Ladies and gentlemen, I hope you enjoyed everything up until this moment, because things are about to get very real.”
Bill turned and walked down the hallway. It was his first small test of the day. He stopped and turned to see who had taken any steps to follow him.
Only two had, both of the young females. He looked past them, “You three think that I’m gonna bring the building to you? Move your asses.”
“S-sorry sir, I didn’t know if we were supposed to follow you or not.” One of the young men said.
“Well there's your first piece of advice, learn from your counterparts and take some initiative.”
Bill walked away again, but this time five bodies hurriedly moved to follow. They turned down the first hallway to the right and Bill swiped his card to give them access through a thick steel door at the end of the hall.
Through the door, there was a lone desk against the wall with a thin blond-haired woman behind it.
“Hey Judy.”
“Agent Neilson…these the new recruits?”
“You got it. Was hoping we could get a little time on the range.”
“Oh maybe…” she said, her face a blank slate, “you ready to run off to a tropical island with me yet…?”
Bill snickered, “Well Judy, you know I would, but with your husband being the leader of the ERT,” he turned back to the recruits, “that’s Emergency Response Team kids, pure badasses with really big guns,” he turned back to Judy, “I think I might need to pass for fear of my own personal safety, although it does break my heart to do so.” He placed a hand on his chest.
She cracked a thin smile, “Well then I guess you can have half an hour. Handguns, rifles?”
“Handguns, actually. Signature weapon time.”
Bill pulled a list from his pocket and read off the first name, “James Sowolski?’
A tall man stepped forward, “Yes sir.”
“Weapon of choice?”
“9mm SIG-Sauer P220 sir.”
“Fine choice, may I ask why?”
“It was the standard issue in my police force sir.”
“Alright, go retrieve it from the weapons shack.” He indicated a door off to the right of Judy.
“Steven Smith, your choice.”
“I’ll take the same weapon as Sowolski sir.” A well-built man with short black hair said.
“Well ain’t that sweet. Standard issue on the force?”
“Yessir.”
“Alright, weapons shack son. Wendy Porter?”
“I’m going to go with a Desert Eagle .357 sir.”
Bill turned, “That’s a big toy, and I just gotta ask, not because you’re a woman by any means and I want to make that perfectly clear, you sure you can handle that? Not sure I could.” He said with a little smile.
“Yes sir, I’ve shot that weapon four times a week for five years. I can manage.”
“I like that attitude, follow the other two.” Bill looked back to his list, “Next up, Louis Bourden, I assume that’s you,” Bill pointed to the only remaining man.
“Yessuh.” Louis had a thick Louisiana drawl, “Beretta PX4.”
“Nice choice, motivation?”
“Just one that I’ve grown accustomed to suh.”
“How’s that?”
“My father owns a gun shop suh.”
“Good enough. I expect you to shoot straight in there.”
“I won’t disappoint.”
“Alright, and last but not least, Beth Maz…Mazar…”
“It’s pronounced Muh-zare-ick sir, just how it’s spelled.” The last woman in line replied, her long dark hair tied into a tight ponytail.
“Ok, Beth Mazarik, and your weapon is?”
“Glock .40 sir. I became familiar with it for a very good reason.”
“And that is?” Bill said.
“I think you’re about to tell them,” she cocked her head towards the rest of the group, “don’t wanna spoil the surprise.”
Bill nodded and walked into the weapons room to join the rest, “As, you can see, there are no Desert Eagles, no SIG-Sauer's, and sure as hell no Berettas, but for Mazarik, we have her choice in stock,” Bill picked one off the shelf and handed it to her, “because it’s the standard issue firearm of the Bureau. Leaves me wondering something…” he panned over the other four, “why didn’t the rest of you do your damned research?”
Four sets of eyes looked away from his.
“Alright then. Good start. Mazarik, I think that merits you the first go.”
Everyone suited up and went through a door to the range. The other four stood off to the side as Bill stood directly behind Beth. He watched her grip, stance and overall technique.
She peeled through the clip quickly.
“Alright Mazarik, give someone else a chance to land nine out of ten perfect shots.”
“That one could be classified as in the zone sir, it’s a judgment call.”
“Just an exercise. Trust me when I say you're already maxing out the good impression scale.”
She placed the gun onto the platform in front of her and stepped back with the others. “Alright…sir.”
Bill did a small double take. Perfectionist. He logged that away, “Solowski, step on up.”
***
Steven Smith had been eliminated after he placed the lowest score of the five. His last shot totally missed the target area. He was almost in tears as he was told to report to a secretary in a sub-basement to receive his assignment.
Sowolski, Porter and Bourden all shot very well, but not as good as Beth.
From the range they went on a tour of the various office spaces, where the recruits met people they would barely ever see again, let alone talk to.
Bill then quickly cut Louis Bourden after he tripped over his feet a few times on the cubicle tour. Clumsy with a good shot was still clumsy, and Bill was too old to compensate.
After the office tour, it was on to three hours of stress analysis, rigorous IQ and personality testing, along with a complete physical exam. Then lunch.
After introducing them to the limited choices of the cafeteria, Bill sat them down at a table near the window. As he picked up his ham and cheese sandwich, he caught Beth’s eyes lingering on him.
“Would you like a bite of my sandwich Mazarik?”
She cracked a little smile, “No thank you sir, I was just wondering how you can eat that stuff.”
“What, you don’t like processed ham and processed cheese in between mass-produced bread?” he offered the sandwich out in his hand.
“Not so much.” She mixed the dressing into her chef’s salad.
“Sowolski, I see you don’t mind.”
“Gotta keep the energy up sir.” He said in between bites of a double cheeseburger.
“That is true son, although the wife won’t let me eat like a…how old are you again?”
“Twenty-five sir.”
“Yes, like that…see my birth certificate might read that I was born fifty-two years ago, but I think my heart ranks about sixty-five by now.”
“It’s all in how you live it sir.” Wendy said quietly.
“Well Porter, nice to hear you speak up, been a bit quiet today.”
“Well honestly sir, this whole operation is a bit intimidating. I mean this is the FBI, the Federal Bureau-”
“We know the acronym Wendy.” Beth said with a thin smile.
Wendy narrowed her eyes, “Sorry Mazarik, but I mean, isn’t this a little awe-inspiring to you?”
Beth put her fork down, folded her hands and looked into Wendy’s eyes, “I’ve been waiting for this day for years. It’s why I went to college and it’s why I spent four years beating the pavement in Illinois. So of course, this morning there were some butterflies. But I dealt with it, because I’m a professional, not some wide-eyed tourist.” Beth picked her fork back up.
Everyone at the table was silent. Bill took a bite of his sandwich with a little whimsy in his eye. Establishing the pecking order was always fun.
Wendy was stuck on her plate, “I won't be talked down to by a person who started here the exact minute I did. Act like you’ve been here for the three hours you have.”
Beth opened her mouth but was cut off by Bill, “Alright guys, lets finish up, we gotta be in the lab in ten for your results.” He pointed across the room, “I’ll meet you on the other side of those double doors in five minutes. Don’t rip each other’s hearts out in the meantime.”
As soon as Bill was out of earshot, Sowolski turned to Beth, “What the fuck Mazarik? We should have each other’s backs, we’re all on the same ground here.”
“We may be starting here on the same day, but we are far from being on the same ground.” Beth checked her watch and swept the tray off the table. She dumped the trash and walked through the doors Bill had pointed to.
She stood against the thick concrete wall and counted the seconds. Bill rounded the corner with three file folders in hand.
“Mazarik, where are the other two?”
“Still eating I guess, haven’t come out yet.”
Bill shuffled her folder from the bottom of his stack to the top, “That’s actually good, I wanted to talk to you alone anyways-”
Just as he opened the folder, a tremendous shockwave rocked the area, the epicenter behind the double doors. The doors themselves were blown from the hinges and flew against the wall.
Bill and Beth were thrown to the ground. Pieces of concrete, plastic and metal flew through the air.
Bill was able to regain his footing a half second after Beth did. Smoke filled the hallway.
“Mazarik, you alright?” He ducked down to avoid the smoke.
“Fine, you got an extra piece?”
Bill had his gun out already, something that was just a reflex after all his years, “Yeah, but that’s not the point, we have to get outta here.”
He began to move down the hallway, but Beth grabbed his arm, “I don’t think this is just some accident sir.”
“Why in the hell would you think that, there’s no way an attack could penetrate us here-”
Almost as if on cue, automatic weapons fire sounded all around them. He pulled his backup from his waistband and handed it to her without another word.
“We have to get out front and approach it from that direction, we can’t go through there.” Bill pointed to the inferno that had once been the cafeteria.
“Lead the way chief.”
They made their way out of the immediate area to the main foyer, where the smoke was a little thinner and they were able to stand up straight.
The lobby was completely deserted. It was always bustling with activity, so the stillness gave Bill pause for a second.
“We need to find Alex Jones, the Deputy Director, he’ll be able to update us on the situation.”
“With all respect, what the hell is he going to tell us? This is still too fluid. We might be the only ones in a position to help.” She moved towards the main doors.
“Mazarik, we can’t just charge outside like cowboys, we have to ascertain the situation before we do anything else.”
She turned, gun still outstretched in her hands, “What was the first piece of advice you gave us sir? Take some initiative. So let’s do just that.”
She didn’t wait for another word before she moved forward, crouched down just a touch to lower her profile. Bill cursed under his breath and reluctantly followed.
When they came through the doors, all they could see was destruction. A gaping hole was blown into the wall, right beside where they had been peacefully eating lunch fifteen minutes before. There were two dozen bodies laid out just in the direct area, all dead or very close to it.
A unit of at least twenty balaclava-clad men moved towards the front of the building. Some broke off from the pack to finish off the wounded.
“Shit Mazarik, we gotta pull back, there’s way too many. This is nuts.”
“Pull back to where?”
“The secure command post, that’s probably where Alex is anyways, its three floors down, let’s move it.”
As they reached the stairwell, the first of the attackers came through the doors about fifty yards behind them.
As Beth went through she turned, dropped to a knee and buried two shots right into his skull. She barely had time to see him drop before she followed Bill down the stairs.
They were only able to get two floors down before the door they had passed through crashed open. A stream of bullets was haphazardly fired down towards them. While none of the shots came close to their mark, it stopped them in their tracks. They hunkered down in a corner.
“Okay, we have seconds before they’re right on top of us, I’m gonna go for the door, I need you to give me cover fire, can you handle that?”
“Not a problem boss, handled incoming fire before.”
“Okay, on my count, just fire up that stairwell, no more than five shots, I don’t have any extra ammo.”
“I already fired two off before.”
“I heard, you get ‘em?”
“Two to the brain, say hello to God for me.”
“Alright, let’s do this, two, one, now!”
Beth moved into position and fired two rounds immediately. She scanned for any movement that would have required more. Bill went across the landing to a door that would give them access to the second level basement.
He keyed in a four-digit combination and then used his swipe card as Beth fired two more rounds up into the stairwell.
As they began to move through to safety, there was a shout from above and the thundering of feet down the stairs.
Bill pulled Beth through and slammed the door behind them as the rounds from three machine guns tore into it. There were faint indentations on the other side as the two lay on the ground gasping for breath.
“Why am I so ragged here?”
“Stress Mazarik, tires the body quicker than anything else.” Bill wiped soot mixed with sweat from his forehead, “Let’s keep this moving.”
“We have to go down one more story, right?”
“Yea, we’re gonna have to use the service elevator to get there though, this stairwell obviously isn’t going to work.”
The two hurried down the hallway as more weapons fire sounded from behind the heavy steel door.
“Are they gonna be able to get through there?” She asked.
“Not with those, but a nice chunk of C-4 and we could be back in real deep shit.”
“Let's haul then.”
Bill and Beth hustled down the hallway, a camaraderie already growing. They reached the elevator without any further resistance. The coast seemed clear as Bill pressed the call button.
They stepped in and Bill punched his access code into a keypad. The elevator would only move for a certain few people. Luckily for Beth, Bill was one of those.
The stairwell door blew from the frame as they waited for the doors to close. Three men rushed through with weapons held up.
Bill and Beth pressed against the sides of the elevator. The men came around the corner as the doors were coming back together. They fired in unison, but there was only enough time for a few to strike the back wall and break the mirror.
The elevator started to move, and they both relaxed and peeled themselves slowly away from the walls.
“You okay?”
Beth nodded, “Hell of a first day, I’ll say that much.”
“Yea, this one goes down in the record books.”
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