Tidal Rage by David Evans (best big ereader .TXT) 📗

had set up with the proceeds from the sale of his dead mother’s house. The only thing he needed to access the funds was a pin code he had memorized, and he could have money transferred to the nearest bank, no identification required.

Sebastian needed to put some distance between himself and the investigators, so the transfer of cash would have to wait. To the north was mainland Europe, with thousands of eyes across several countries looking for him. To the south lay fewer prying eyes, as he would only have Italian officers on the lookout. Sicily was the obvious place he could rest up and heal while planning for his future.

Sebastian drove east at first, only turning south after accessing cashpoints for several days, to disguise his direction of travel and ultimate destination. On the third day, the ATM retained his card, and Sebastian knew the wheels of justice had begun to turn.

Sebastian purchased a black beret, and clothes more fitting for southern Italy, at the port, where he boarded the ferry for the short trip to Sicily, unhindered or challenged.

Isolated beneath the tallest volcano in Europe, Sebastian leased a converted farmhouse, so he could recover from his wounds and plan for the future. He used the last of his ATM money to pay the deposit. He now had no choice but to set up a transfer from his Swiss account.

***

For several years, Fabienne had been subcontracted out to Government Communicating Headquarters; usually referred to as GCHQ. The covert department owned and run by the British was the epicenter for data and intelligence gathering. Not just throughout Europe, but for the rest of the world.

Within this role, Fabienne had created software for facial mapping used by both American and British intelligence agencies to identify individuals who posed a threat to these nations. This was not a new weapon in their fight against Global Terrorism; it was enhanced technology to positively identify targets. She knew the software would be used to identify targets, locations and would end up with a drone dropping its deadly cargo on top of the individual.

Fabienne had been working for the German Federal Intelligence Service for over twenty years when she was contracted out to GCHQ. She was reared in an orphanage in Geneva, her birth mother giving her up immediately after her introduction to the world.

Once Cutler had begun investigating the German counterfeit gang while working for the American Secret Service, it became apparent to the Germans that there was someone within the German government who was involved.

The German hierarchy became worried a scandal of this nature would knock back the progress Germany had strived to achieve in the post-war years. They also fretted about what information the person involved had access to. Number one priority was to identify the person and quietly eliminate the problem, or better still have Cutler do it for them.

Once Cutler had left the Secret Service and set up MIDAS, Fabienne discovered that Cutler was continuing the investigation into the counterfeit gang. Fabienne maintained high level contacts in the German government, and they fed her some of the information that led to Cutler tracking Werner to Turkey.

Cutler thought they had killed the delegate in the explosion, but she survived, albeit with severe burns. It was Fabienne who had identified Luther Gottschalk as the main sniper for the gang. Gottschalk also did some work for German Intelligence.

Gottschalk was dispatched to Turkey. He was five hundred yards away from the villa when Cutler attacked it. He was perched on the rocks, completely concealed. He had Cutler in his sights and felt the irony when he had been told to protect Cutler’s back, rather than cut short his life. German Intelligence paid more than Werner, and he could see Werner’s days were over. Fabienne was kept in the loop. The German Intelligence agency had no idea that Gottschalk had killed Hoagie. But Fabienne was not going to let this go.

Delegate Frau Uebering had staggered out of the safe room, smouldering. Gottschalk put a bullet between her eyes, and made his way back to the airport, having ditched his weapon.

Although Fabienne had met Hoagie only a few times, she liked the man. He was part of the MIDAS team, and everyone was upset at his death. The main reason Hoagie died was that Gottschalk shot and killed Richter on the steps of the plane in Liverpool airport, causing a stampede which led to his death. She had monitored Gottschalk’s movements, hitching a lift on the satellite feeds from several countries.

With her expertise, she took over a NATO drone that had been returning from the Syrian border. The drone was on surveillance and had the latest camera technology on board. The loss of the NATO drone caused consternation and bemusement back in the control centre. They believed it had either crashed or been brought down. As the drone hovered a thousand feet in the sky above the villas, Fabienne switched the camera on when Gottschalk shot the delegate, and got high-resolution pictures of him as he made his escape.

It only took a minute to route the footage to the Turkish intelligence agency; with notification that a German delegate had been shot. She made it appear the information had come from a NATO source. She then put the drone back under NATO Control.

The Turks do not take kindly to foreign dignitaries being murdered on their home soil, especially by international hitmen. Gottschalk was easily identified, as not many albino men pass through the airport each day. The Turkish police swarmed him as he exited the taxi in front of the Departure lounge at Bodrum airport. No need for a costly trial; the lead officer shot him twice in the chest, claiming that he thought he saw a gun. The taxi driver was in shock as he scraped Gottschalk’s innards off his clothes.

Once she knew that Sebastian had survived