Out of the Shadows (Akira and Deane Thriller Series Book 1) (34 page)

Olsen sat back
down next to Carter and caught the glare coming his way from
Jordan, who sat two rows ahead. Despite his new life waiting for
him away from MI6, he couldn’t hide a sense of real disappointment
at the impending loss of his career and it really
hurt
. Like it or not Sam, you were good at
this job.
‘You should have told me about
those hostages, Alex. Their blood is on your hands; not mine!’ he
snapped.

Jordan merely
shrugged his shoulders. ‘It hardly matters now does it, huh? They
were probably moneymen of the Kiprich brothers that didn’t pay up
or something. We gotta stick together Sam, otherwise we’ll be up
the creek without a p-’

Olsen shook his head in
disgust. ‘You’re on your own Alex, as far as I’m concerned you
crucified all of us!’

Jordan leaped
over two rows and lunged at the younger agent. ‘Cocky little
shit!’

Carter stepped in and
restrained Jordan, latching his heavily built arms around his
waist. ‘Get a hold of yourself!’

The commotion
instantly died down as the Chief of MI6 walked back into the room
and saw the ending of a scuffle. ‘Be seated, please.’ He said to
the attendees. ‘Following our short recess, the Inquiry Committee
for Operation Reprisal has now reached our final recommendations.
All of us have been shocked at the lack of discipline showed by
several of our most experienced agents when on assignment. At
times, we have felt that they are legalised criminals, instead of
the elite strike teams they should be. With these changing times,
it is the recommendation of this committee that S.U.C.O. be
deactivated immediately. All agents will be reassigned pending
another review, with the exception of Agent Jordan and Agent
Olsen.’ Drake paused for a moment as he saw Olsen get up and head
to the exit. He looked down and continued. ‘As team leaders, it is
this committee’s view that the responsibility rests solely with
these agents. Both are to be suspended for three months and then
re-assigned. All committee members feel this is a reasonable
recommendation, as it still offers these agents the chance to
redeem themselves.’ Drake said the words but didn’t mean them. He
looked out at the stunned faces. ‘That concludes the inquiry. Thank
you.’ He walked quickly out of the room and rushed along the
corridor. The low lighting on the floor gave him no indication of
what was to come as he pressed the control pad to request the
lift.

Olsen watched
from the shadows at the corner of the corridor. The thought of
Rachel waiting for him soothed one half of his body but the other
half, the man of skill that had dodged death and been trained to
perfection, refused to let it go.
It’s all
been a sick joke.
Olsen leapt out of the
semi-dark corner, flew through the air and locked Drake’s neck into
his muscled right arm, refusing to let go.

Drake lurched
to one side, dropped the files and gasped as he struggled for
breath. His instinct knew who it was. ‘Olsen! Don’t make it any
worse for yourself!’ He lifted his weak arms and tried everything
he could to release himself from the brace but made no
impact.

The demons
swirled around inside the mind of the former Government agent as he
began to squeeze slowly, speaking quietly into Drake’s left ear.
‘You should be aware, everything I’m capable of I learnt from the
training I was given by MI6.’ Olsen’s voice changed to a terrifying
whisper. ‘You should never have crossed me.’ The thoughts inside of
him took over again and within seconds he had made his
decision.

A powerful deep voice pierced
the moment. ‘Sam…’ There was a long pause before the voice spoke
again. ‘Let him go. He’s not the enemy and you know it.’

Olsen’s ears
pricked up in amazement. He turned around slowly, continued to hear
his hostage choking and saw Deane standing nearby, just a few feet
away. Olsen had to blink twice to be certain. Sure enough, the
tall, powerful frame of his former partner and mentor stood there
staring back at him. ‘You know what he’s done?’ Olsen still spoke
in a whisper but it was tinged with sadness as if he knew he was
making things worse but just couldn’t help himself.

Deane took a
step forward, his dark blue eyes locked onto the piercing dark
brown of the man he regarded as his son. ‘I heard every word.’ He
stepped closer still, keeping eye contact throughout. ‘But we can’t
control everything, not even here. There are other ways to make a
difference. Drake has his own agenda and you have
yours.’

‘Don’t defend him.’

‘Never.’
Deane’s eyes burned bright as he held his ground. ‘This isn’t going
to achieve anything; you know that. Let him go and come back with
me.’
To Oman
he
wanted to say but he forced himself not to.

‘My career, my
team, who I am; this man has gone out of his way to take that
away.’ Olsen’s eyes looked lost.

A faint smile
came to his lips. ‘Unlike me…you’ve always been more than just the
job. You’ve built a life away from the agency. The biggest mistake
you could ever make would be to throw that away now. Don’t let
someone like him take you away from what you were born to
do.’

Drake had given up trying to
break free but glared at Deane ahead of him. He had never felt so
helpless.

Deane took another two steps
and reached the boy he loved. He slowly placed a hand on Olsen’s
arm and spoke in delicate tone. ‘Let him go…Rachel is waiting for
you. I can take you to her. Come on.’

Thoughts
continued to scream at Olsen in his mind, but they were slowing
down now. Just minutes ago when he had pounced on Drake he had
struggled to make out one from the other. The contact from Deane
had broken through to him and his pace of thought was now slowing.
Olsen realised he was out of breath and for the first time
registered Drake’s body next to his. He slowly released the Chief
of MI6, who promptly collapsed on the floor. Olsen knelt down and
saw the red-faced weasel gasping for breath. He spoke in a more
controlled voice, the terrifying whisper now gone. ‘You should
count yourself lucky.’ His large right hand grabbed Drake’s hair on
the side of his head and lifted him slightly. ‘By the way, I
quit.’

Without so much
as a second look he stepped over his adversary and followed Deane
down the corridor. Along the way, a touch of sympathy welled up
inside of him as he caught sight of Jordan sitting all alone in
briefing room three, his head in his hands.
No fiancée waiting for him…

Deane studied
Olsen’s features as they made their way out of MI6 headquarters. He
struggled to decide what to say, with so many words to choose from.
‘Sam. Quitting is a drastic measure. There will always be a place
for you in Oman with me.’ As they came to the security checkpoint,
he saw a young woman in the distance. ‘For you and Rachel, if
that’s what you want.’ He placed his huge right hand on Olsen’s
shoulder. ‘I’d just hate to see you throw it all away and I don’t
want to lose you.’

Despite having
his career crushed by one man and feeling terrified about what he
would become, he still couldn’t repress a smile. Ahead of him was
Rachel, who stood by the checkpoint, with the Thames nearby and a
beautiful blue sky above her. Streaming golden rays of sunlight
gave Rachel an almost angelic look about her. Olsen was worried
about his future; there was no doubt about it. The lost at sea
feeling he had been expecting had yet to come though and why would
it? With Rachel beside him and Deane, as ever, always there, things
could have been so much worse. He turned to face his mentor. ‘You
know something, in the last three months I think we’ve learned more
about each other than we have in the last twenty years. There’s
never any chance you’ll lose me, I’ll always be here, no matter
what job I do.’

Deane closed
his eyes briefly and grasped his former partner by the scruff of
the neck. ‘Contact me if you change your mind.’ He couldn’t deny
it, there was a deep sadness within him, knowing that Olsen was
leaving and would no longer be doing what his destiny had led him
to from the start. Feelings of failure welled up inside him and he
couldn’t push them away.

Olsen said his
goodbyes and walked towards the love of his life. He felt better
than he had expected but an uneasy feeling lingered in the
background. He used every ounce of energy inside him to push it
away as he tried to adapt to the future that awaited
him.

Jozef heard his
boots squelch underneath the sodden grass, as he stood near his
brother’s coffin in the bleak looking graveyard. The thick drizzle
continued to pour down as dark, deadly looking clouds loomed
overhead. Jozef stood next to Ferec. His dark green lifeless eyes
focussed on the coffin in front of him. Jozef felt in a trance and
had done for hours, as the loss of his twin brother refused to sink
in. The words on the plaque almost changed to a different name; not
Gyorgy. He bowed his head and didn’t feel the rain run down him,
the senses inside him felt deadened with every passing moment. He
grabbed Ferec’s arm and dragged him away from the bleak scene.
Jozef spoke in an emotionless tone, one that was totally fixed on
every word. ‘I don’t care how long it takes Zoltan, what we have to
do, I will avenge my brother, I promise you that.’

Ferec watched his friend walk
back to the coffin and wondered what excitement was coming his way.
For a moment he caught the glance of another mourner whose glare
was so intense, even Ferec had to look away.

Akira had heard
every word, his eyes had never strayed from Ferec, who was
beginning to walk off. Everyone in the cemetery could feel Akira’s
vibe. No one stood near him and nobody spoke to him. The continuous
rainfall soaked his darkened robe to the core but the scene to him
seemed somewhat appropriate. The loss of Gyorgy Kiprich, a devoted
follower to the cause, had been felt by the entire network but
emotional revenge had no place in Akira’s thoughts or actions. He
had considered intervening in the vow he had overheard but had
immediately decided against it. Jozef, with Ferec at his side,
could prove to be a formidable partnership, one that could well do
some damage to their Western enemies.

Akira lowered
his head and trudged away from the scene. There had been danger,
but Patrice Marraud was gone forever and could no longer threaten
him. His bid for Salenko to be the next President of Russia was on
course and the protectors of the West were diminishing in numbers
by the day.
Let Jozef have his revenge. My
plans for the West are all that matters. The future will be so
different.

Look out for the
next novel in the series…

UNDERGROUND MURMURS

(Akira and Deane Thriller Series Book 2)

The path to revenge is not an
easy one. Akira has been stopped once but his hunger and desire for
global change grows stronger every day. With the help of a
political puppet he starts down a dangerous path to bring a former
super power back from the dead to aid his strike at the heart of
the West.

With Russia in turmoil Thomas
Deane is dispatched with his new partner to prevent a political
uprising unaware that he is walking into a trap. With his health
failing him he has to draw on all of his experience to survive, but
standing in his way is Akira who will stop at nothing to gain his
revenge.

With MI6
de-stabilised by an attack it’s forced to re-activate S.U.C.O.
(
S
pecial
U
ndercover
C
overt
O
perations) who together
must prevent an attack on home soil. Masterminded by two of Akira’s
closest allies, Jozef Kiprich and Zoltan Ferec what lines will
S.U.C.O. have to cross to stop them? Sam Olsen leads his team into
the depths of the London Underground network and its many abandoned
stations. Deep beneath ground level in tunnels not touched for
decades are the clues they need to stop another attack.

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