Drag and Drop: A Marc Jaggard Espionage Thriller (Marc Jaggard Espionage Thrillers Book 1) by Nick Turner

Drag and Drop: A Marc Jaggard Espionage Thriller (Marc Jaggard Espionage Thrillers Book 1) by Nick Turner

Author:Nick Turner [Turner, Nick]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-05-12T00:00:00+00:00


3

They slowed down at the beginning of the descent into a valley containing a triumvirate of towns connected on a string by railway tracks. Jaggard could glimpse them as they eased round and round. Chelopech, Zlatitsa and Pirdop – the three sisters. The copper mine was visible at Chelopech, as were the metal refineries in the other towns, sending out smoke trails billowing up into the azure sky, announcing here we are, here we are, when they were the last places on earth Jaggard wanted to reach. Why couldn’t the car just keep going round until it started back to Sofia? There was a change in engine sound as Anton pulled off the road and stopped at a memorial. Jaggard initially thought it was to let an impatient commuter pass, but there was no one. The Audi parked itself nose away from the monument and looked over the valley below. It was quiet as a ghost. Jaggard tensed.

Surely not? Not here. Not now. Panic rose in his throat. But who knew? Anton stared out the windscreen at the industrial villages below, exhaling softly before he spoke.

“Hometown.” He acknowledged, peering forward to the steaming chimneys and assortment of grim industrial buildings too far away to be identified. Jaggard hesitated, nervous and not sure what was coming next, waiting, panic growing in his belly. A trickle of fear tingled between his shoulder blades. Jesus, pull yourself together, he thought, this guy is the driver, that’s all. A noise made him jump in his seat, but it was only the soft clunk of a door opening.

“Come. Let’s look. Stretch legs.”

Jaggard got out at the same time as Anton, still hesitant and slightly relieved by the passing of a couple of cars and the inappropriateness of the killing jar. Still, he wished he had a weapon. Pearce’s knife? No, that was in the Congo bush. A gun, then? No, that was in the Indian Ocean. He followed Anton over to the memorial cut into the verge on the side of the mountain. Jaggard could sense an aura about the man in front of him. The bad teeth, magenta T-shirt and polished shoes could not hide an emanating sense of calm, of masculinity. Jaggard had sensed it before in a few men. There was nothing they could not cope with, protect you from, father you about.

There was a man he remembered on the subway, pretty much every morning, back in his old life, on the way to work. Jaggard had forgotten all about him, but the encounter with Anton brought him back from the lumber room of his sub-conscious. A bear of a man really, with bushy red hair and a thick beard, kind eyes and an easy demeanor, dressed typically in chinos and a plaid shirt, a heavy wax jacket his concession to winter. To Jaggard, the man simply oozed wellness and comfort and he just wanted to be near him. Only a few times had he met men that overwhelmed him with their life force: Subway Man was one, Anton felt like another.



Download



Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.