“With characters robust and dynamic, a plot complex and absorbing like riding in a Corvette Z06 gunning up a switchback mountainside road, Force No One keeps the knuckles white, the fingernails buried in leather. Strap in, hang on!”
— Mike Hancock, author of Fallen
Chapter One
If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the results of a hundred battles.
— Sun Tzu (Unknown-496 BC), Chinese philosopher
“So Joe, my friend, you owe me. You owe me, and you have been dodging me.” Xavier Cloud—Zave to his friends—had been looking for his friend for a long time, and he was often not a patient man.
The two men were isolated in an empty Detroit warehouse under the bright yellow cone from a shaded light. It hung from an industrial I-beam, a rafter thick with countless coats of institutional green paint. Translucent dust particles, random bits of asbestos, and traces of animal feces floated in the dirty beam.
In the distance, a summer storm birthed powerful rumbles as it drew closer.
“You were supposed to find me, weren’t you? And yet it was I who had to find you. I understand you don’t want to give me the briefcase. I understand the reasons why you have been a ghost for twelve years—all one hundred million of them. But your loyalties are divided, aren’t they, Joe? They need a tune-up. That’s why we’re old friends, bro. And friends don’t let friends screw up.”
He paused for a moment, making an allowance for their shared history. There was a lot of it.
“Therefore ... my friend ... I am here to help you in the not screwing up part.”
Without a breeze to relieve the dank conditions in the space, the two men had dissolved into their shirts. One, however, sweated more vigorously than the other.
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“Force No One is a bear-trap of a thriller—smart, relentlessly propulsive, and no, it won’t let you go.”
— Richard Adams Carey, author of In The Evil Day
Following is an excerpt from the next STORM CELL thriller
FORCE MAJEURE
The liberties of a people never were nor ever
will be secure when the transactions of their
rulers may be concealed from them.
PATRICK HENRY
The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time
with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill,
that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship,
support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival
and the success of liberty.
JOHN F. KENNEDY
COMING IN 2019
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