Chapter One: Kazan to Novorossiysk As soon as he had seen the truck convoy start to pull into the courtyard of the makeshift main building of the Imperial Military Academy, Pyotr dropped the weights he was working with in the exercise yard and loped down the slope and through the grove of trees that bordered one side of the river park on the rise above Kaza...
Kenton stood on the terrace of the rental vacation villa and watched Georgiou enter the taxi on the street down the steep incline at the base of the complex. The bullet-headed bald, yet otherwise hirsute, Greek with the physique of a wrestler didn't turn to wave back. He just folded himself in the taxi and was gone from Kenton's life. Kenton hadn't really e...
April 1st, 2019 I extracted Hakan's hand, with a regretfully voiced, "I've got to dress and run to catch my ride," and struggled to zip my shorts up in the forced sitting position I was in in the low tent by the Salamis dig. "I'll take a camp car and drive you to Ercan Airport later myself. We have time, Evan—" "No, we don't have time, Hakan," I said. "We...
"Not bad, Andy. You live here alone?" Paul sounded impressed. Andy opened the gate and motioned for Paul to precede him through it into the garden, then stood looking at his home, trying to see it as Paul probably did. He wasn't glib or artless enough to pretend that this was just a place to live, although it was that, as well, and had been for all 42 years...
Angelo had been so tense through his set at the café this evening, that he was afraid that it could be heard in his voice or in a change in how he coaxed the music out of the strings of his guitar. But those sitting around a smoking and drinking long after the food service had been shut down didn't seem to have reacted any differently than before, with just...
Phil ambled through the narrow streets of the small village. At this time of the year he liked to be comparatively near to where his family had their original home and Litochoro was as good as any of the similar villages in the vicinity. "Hey, Phil." He turned at the shout and returned the wave from a young man. He had already been there several days and...
Monday evening, 9:45 When I moved to Montreal three years ago from Winnipeg, I chose the South West district of the city because of the George-Vanier sports complex and its amazing pool. I retired from competitive swimming after the London Olympic Games and went back to College to finish my MBA. After that, I went to work for Scotia Bank and... when the opp...
It was well past midnight on a Friday evening at the Boléro on the Wollestraat in Bruges' Garenmarkt district. This was the third night in a row I'd occupied this small table in the shadows of the basement strip club bar, nursing my drinks, keeping my black cloak firmly wrapped about me, and searching for just the right one. I had assessed all of the club's...
Sometimes the simplest of questions require the greatest amount of preparation. "The golden question for this week the same as for last week?" "Yep," my boss answered. We were sitting in the office of the chief of station, the highest-ranking CIA agent in country, in the Nicosia, Cyprus, embassy and, as usual, I was trying to see if I could see anything a...
While living on the island of Cyprus, I developed quite a taste for young Turkish men. If you could get a good-looking, well-constructed Turkish guy before he got too far into his forties, you could almost guarantee you'd have something forceful, vigorous, straightforward, and good natured to play with. You also, quite often, would have a guy with a pretty h...