My untitled novel.

Hullo,

Thanks for your feedback Mrs Figg.

I am getting close to revealing my identity as I do not have many chapters left written.... about 4 i think.

Would be good to hear anybody else's feedback too. All the guesses of an identity have been incorrect so far!!

The boss was pleased. Behind his suit and glasses, his usually unmoved face let out a wry smile as his operators opened their quarry.
‘Three hundred 30mm depleted uranium shells,’ said one of the men. All eight were dressed in black and wore balaclavas.
The man in the glasses turned and walked away.
‘Ok guys,’ said the same man, the leader of the team. ‘Let’s get this stuff loaded and get out of here. I don’t want to see the same incompetence as Kenya.’
He walked over to the unmarked, white Mercedes truck in front of him. Inside the hold, stacks of metal boxes held their radioactive cargo. A painful moan came from the cab in front. As he walked over, the short Korean driver opened the door and managed to slide out on to the floor. The right leg of his olive green, Korean army issue trousers was torn and bloody.
The driver had not been wearing his seatbelt and had learnt an excruciating lesson as to their use. In front of his truck, another vehicle sat in the road. The black Nissan truck had driven across the central reservation and thrown itself in the path of the oncoming traffic. The frightened Korean driver instinctively slammed his brake and swerved, the momentum throwing him out of his seat. Somehow, his right leg had trapped itself under the trucks black, plastic dashboard, the force of the movement hyper extending and subsequently rupturing the muscles and ligaments. The blood had come from a section of skin that had been penetrated by his slender right fibula as it found the easiest exit point from his leg.
He briefly looked up to see the man standing over him before a new form of pain attacked his already failing body. The metallic taste in his mouth was now joined by the taste of dirt and rubber of the road as his face was pressed against the asphalt, the pressure of a heavy boot against the back of his head.
‘What do we do with this one?’ A voice with a strong Dutch accent asked. The direction of the speech suggested it came from whoever was above him.
‘You know the drill,’ said the leader of the group. No matter what the Korean soldier may have seen, heard or known about what had just happened, any information was more than the boss would tolerate getting out. He turned and walked to inspect the tucks cabin before they left. A short, sharp thud came from behind, the sound of silenced pistol unloading its deadly contents. He took a quick search of the cabin to see if there were any items of interest. An empty, green can of Chilsung Cider and several packs of Saewookkang shrimp crackers were all that littered the small space.
The rest of the team had continued their clean up. All of them knew that while response rates in the cities were normally very fast, their white, blue and yellow cars of Korea’s police forces wouldn’t be this far out of town in a hurry.
‘We are ready,’ the group’s leader said to his employer. ‘We have left the cargo in the specified place for pickup. The area has been sanitized, no witnesses.’
The man in the glasses nodded and walked towards his car. In the five operations they had been on, he had never heard the boss talk. All directives had been sent via highly encrypted emails or secure telephone calls with others in the organisation. The boss did, however, always accompany them on each mission. Maybe it was because he didn’t trust this band or mercenaries or maybe he just enjoyed seeing his money at work.
The team loaded themselves into their vehicles and headed to their safe house. The other thing that was never explained is who exactly was picking up all of this gear. So long as they were paid enough, he and his team never asked.

Chapter 14

Kate sat back in her chair and surveyed the piles of paperwork and file folders that had piled up on her desk during the few days she had been away. Normally, the unorganised ramble that was now beginning to spill over to the printer cabinet would have elicited an immediate, frantic response to ensure everything was organised and prioritised. Today, Kate was just happy to be sitting in her own chair at her own desk.
While Kate and her team had been in the air over the Atlantic Ocean, each and every item that had been recovered on the quayside in Umm Qasr had been catalogued with any serial number, batch number or any other form of identifying the weapon being noted. These details had then been sent to the Bureau for Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the ATF, to work their magic. Any legally made firearm in the United States would be held within their database and could be identified and traced back to the factory in which it was initially produced.
Kate checked her answer phone messages and flicked through the files on her desk. A few ongoing cases local to the Washington area had not made much progress and what had seemed like a certain breakthrough for a possible major east coast terrorist cell had come to nothing with those believed to be central figures leaving the country or having been tracked for months to no avail. A voice broke the silence of the office.
‘Do you even have a home?’
‘If I do I can’t remember what it looks like,’ replied Kate, recognising the voice of her supervising officer.
‘Maybe you should try and get back there and make sure nobody has moved in.’
‘Have you seen this pile of paper Mark? I haven’t even started on this yet.’
‘Yeah you have, I saw you reading that same page for the last half hour. Besides, a few have crossed my desk and there isn’t anything that can’t bore you to death tomorrow.’
Kate had known Mark Pearce for as long as she had been in the CIA, having worked jointly on several cases and more recently, becoming her supervising officer, a job she had been gunning for. They had also had several attempts at a personal relationship, none of which had lasted too long. Over the years, they had both had their understanding of one another to fall back on. Mark was probably the only person she really trusted and looked to for advice.
‘I don’t want to be out of the office when Jose or one of his guys in the ATF call with some details of those weapons.’
‘Kate, first of all you came straight from Dulles having given your own team the R&R talk and sent them home. Second, if I know you then everyone who could possibly be involved has your cell number, your work number, your home number, your email address and your house address to contact you on. I think they will manage to get hold of you if they have anything to tell.’
Mark was right and she knew it. On this occasion, she could accept being beaten.
‘Alright, I’ll go home and try and get some sleep.’
‘You will feel better about it in the morning,’ he said as he walked back towards to office door. ‘Oh, and if you’re late tomorrow, you’re fired.’
Kate smiled at his parting snipe as she got her things together. They both knew she would be back in the office early even though he did not expect her to be.

Kate woke with a jump. As she opened her eyes, everything seemed to be saturated with light blue fuzz. A noise like a small bore drill echoed in her head, on, then off again, then on.
Kate’s eyes focused as she began to realise she had fallen in to a deep sleep. The television had been left on mute and various papers were strewn around her bed covers. Evidently she had drifted off in the middle of going over her notes from the previous few days.
The buzzing seemed to have been coming from somewhere on the bed, however had now stopped. A shrill ring pierced the silence of the night making her jump for the second time. She answered the phone next to her bed.
‘Catherine Anderson speaking,’ she said as she looked over to her clock. It was just after 4am.
‘Agent Anderson?’ spoke a quizzical voice. ‘My name is Carl Fox, I am a technician in the ATF and have some information for you.’
‘Hi Carl,’ she replied, becoming suddenly very alert. ‘Yes, this is agent Anderson. Please, go ahead.’
‘Sorry for calling you so late. I have been working on tracing some of the weapons your team helped recover in the Middle East and had very specific instructions to call on any number as soon as I had anything. I tried calling your cell phone but there was no answer’
Kate found the phone on her bed and realised that this had been the source of the earlier buzzing noise.
‘No need to apologise Carl, I left those instructions. What have you got?’
‘Well, I am not sure how helpful this will turn out to be. Every item listed has been made legitimately by each of the manufacturers at their standard plants. Each was properly registered, stored and sold on legally to various different companies. As far as I can see here, there is nothing out of the ordinary.’
Kate let out a sigh. She had hoped that something would turn up that would explain how these items all ended up on the same boat in Iraq. The sigh had clearly been a very audible one.
‘Sorry Agent Anderson, I did the best I could.’
‘No, I’m sorry. That wasn’t aimed at you. I am just disappointed that this didn’t reveal anything more. Can you send me over all of the details you have?’
‘I already have. All the details are waiting in your inbox.’
‘Thanks Carl, I’ll try and make sure you didn’t stay up until four in the morning for nothing.’
‘No problem. Let me know if I can be of any more help. Goodnight agent Anderson.’

Kate got up and made herself a coffee. She turned on her laptop and opened the file that Carl had sent on to her. As much as she had started to become drowsy again, there was no way her brain could shut down when she knew she was sitting on new information. As she trawled through the data she picked out the names of the companies that had bought each batch of equipment and begun researching each of them. By the time she was back in the office, she was determined to have a plan of action.

I must confess this is still on my to do list!
But I will get round to it I promise and make comment (and my guess at who you are). I'm trying to catch up on the Needlhole Mysteries too and I was making my way through Turumbar Hall but I fear the writting of it may have fallen off! (but that does give me a chance to start on this!)

Anonymous writer wrote:

I am getting close to revealing my identity as I do not have many chapters left written.... about 4 i think.

Would be good to hear anybody else's feedback too. All the guesses of an identity have been incorrect so far!!

Are you serious? I thought we had your identity pegged!

Its a mystery.

Petty I cant continue 'Turembar Hall' without Turembar can I?

I bet that will annoy anyone that has taken an interest... only a couple of chapters left.

You need to get that pen out.

Last 3 chapters!

Kate sat back in her chair and surveyed the piles of paperwork and file folders that had piled up on her desk during the few days she had been away. Normally, the unorganised ramble that was now beginning to spill over to the printer cabinet would have elicited an immediate, frantic response to ensure everything was organised and prioritised. Today, Kate was just happy to be sitting in her own chair at her own desk.
While Kate and her team had been in the air over the Atlantic Ocean, each and every item that had been recovered on the quayside in Umm Qasr had been catalogued with any serial number, batch number or any other form of identifying the weapon being noted. These details had then been sent to the Bureau for Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the ATF, to work their magic. Any legally made firearm in the United States would be held within their database and could be identified and traced back to the factory in which it was initially produced.
Kate checked her answer phone messages and flicked through the files on her desk. A few ongoing cases local to the Washington area had not made much progress and what had seemed like a certain breakthrough for a possible major east coast terrorist cell had come to nothing with those believed to be central figures leaving the country or having been tracked for months to no avail. A voice broke the silence of the office.
‘Do you even have a home?’
‘If I do I can’t remember what it looks like,’ replied Kate, recognising the voice of her supervising officer.
‘Maybe you should try and get back there and make sure nobody has moved in.’
‘Have you seen this pile of paper Mark? I haven’t even started on this yet.’
‘Yeah you have, I saw you reading that same page for the last half hour. Besides, a few have crossed my desk and there isn’t anything that can’t bore you to death tomorrow.’
Kate had known Mark Pearce for as long as she had been in the CIA, having worked jointly on several cases and more recently, becoming her supervising officer, a job she had been gunning for. They had also had several attempts at a personal relationship, none of which had lasted too long. Over the years, they had both had their understanding of one another to fall back on. Mark was probably the only person she really trusted and looked to for advice.
‘I don’t want to be out of the office when Jose or one of his guys in the ATF call with some details of those weapons.’
‘Kate, first of all you came straight from Dulles having given your own team the R&R talk and sent them home. Second, if I know you then everyone who could possibly be involved has your cell number, your work number, your home number, your email address and your house address to contact you on. I think they will manage to get hold of you if they have anything to tell.’
Mark was right and she knew it. On this occasion, she could accept being beaten.
‘Alright, I’ll go home and try and get some sleep.’
‘You will feel better about it in the morning,’ he said as he walked back towards to office door. ‘Oh, and if you’re late tomorrow, you’re fired.’
Kate smiled at his parting snipe as she got her things together. They both knew she would be back in the office early even though he did not expect her to be.

Kate woke with a jump. As she opened her eyes, everything seemed to be saturated with light blue fuzz. A noise like a small bore drill echoed in her head, on, then off again, then on.
Kate’s eyes focused as she began to realise she had fallen in to a deep sleep. The television had been left on mute and various papers were strewn around her bed covers. Evidently she had drifted off in the middle of going over her notes from the previous few days.
The buzzing seemed to have been coming from somewhere on the bed, however had now stopped. A shrill ring pierced the silence of the night making her jump for the second time. She answered the phone next to her bed.
‘Catherine Anderson speaking,’ she said as she looked over to her clock. It was just after 4am.
‘Agent Anderson?’ spoke a quizzical voice. ‘My name is Carl Fox, I am a technician in the ATF and have some information for you.’
‘Hi Carl,’ she replied, becoming suddenly very alert. ‘Yes, this is agent Anderson. Please, go ahead.’
‘Sorry for calling you so late. I have been working on tracing some of the weapons your team helped recover in the Middle East and had very specific instructions to call on any number as soon as I had anything. I tried calling your cell phone but there was no answer’
Kate found the phone on her bed and realised that this had been the source of the earlier buzzing noise.
‘No need to apologise Carl, I left those instructions. What have you got?’
‘Well, I am not sure how helpful this will turn out to be. Every item listed has been made legitimately by each of the manufacturers at their standard plants. Each was properly registered, stored and sold on legally to various different companies. As far as I can see here, there is nothing out of the ordinary.’
Kate let out a sigh. She had hoped that something would turn up that would explain how these items all ended up on the same boat in Iraq. The sigh had clearly been a very audible one.
‘Sorry Agent Anderson, I did the best I could.’
‘No, I’m sorry. That wasn’t aimed at you. I am just disappointed that this didn’t reveal anything more. Can you send me over all of the details you have?’
‘I already have. All the details are waiting in your inbox.’
‘Thanks Carl, I’ll try and make sure you didn’t stay up until four in the morning for nothing.’
‘No problem. Let me know if I can be of any more help. Goodnight agent Anderson.’

Kate got up and made herself a coffee. She turned on her laptop and opened the file that Carl had sent on to her. As much as she had started to become drowsy again, there was no way her brain could shut down when she knew she was sitting on new information. As she trawled through the data she picked out the names of the companied that had bought each batch of equipment and begun researching each of them. By the time she was back in the office, she was determined to have a plan of action.

Next chapter

That evening, as they prepared for bed, Peter and Margaret came in to the main room and stood in front of Marshall.
‘Margaret and I were talking on the beach today,’ for the first time since they met, Peter looked quite serious as he spoke. ‘I do not know what is really going on here, but we want to help you.’
‘Peter, really…’ started Marshall, but was cut short.
‘Tomorrow we will get up early and I will take you to Nairobi.’
Marshall did not know what to say. He already felt incredibly indebted to them both for what they had done, but both of their faces showed that he could not talk them out of it.
‘Thank you,’ he said finally. ‘I’m not sure how just yet but I will repay all you have done for me.’
‘There is nothing to repay, we do this because we want to,’ said Margaret.
Marshall smiled, again not knowing what to say.
‘Get a good nights sleep,’ said Peter. ‘Tomorrow will be along day.’
With that, they both said goodnight and went to their bedroom.

The following day, Marshall was woken up by Peter who was already dressed and ready to go. Marshall quickly roused himself and washed up as best he could. As he was about to ask for his clothes, Margaret appeared from the back room, with a set of almost pristine clothes. It seemed she had managed to clean and dry them since he handed them to her yesterday. She had even managed to sew up a few of the holes. He put on his clothes and was ready to leave.
‘I hope you find what you need to,’ said Margaret. ‘And if you are ever here again, come and say hello.’
‘Thanks for everything,’ his reply slightly choked by an unexpected feeling of sadness.
‘Go and open up the truck,’ said Peter, handing over a slightly bent key. ‘I will join you in a minute.’
Marshall went outside and waited in the truck. After a few minutes, Peter came out of the house and got in.

The trip to Nairobi was a long one. Marshall had stopped there during his inbound flight and knew it was a distance even by air. They took the road out past the airport and headed North-West towards the capital. Peter had brought enough money with him for fuel and a little for food during the trip. Not only had they invested a lot of time in helping him but they had clearly also invested a lot of resources too. After a few hours driving on the Nairobi – Mombasa highway, Peter left the road and made for a small town for some fuel and a break. It was now late morning and they were about halfway along the three-hundred mile journey in a small town called Kibwezi. As Peter got out and began filling the trucks tank, Marshall took the chance to stretch his legs and survey the area. There wasn’t really much to see. A few green trees made a stark contrast to the orange-red dirt below. In the distance, an outline of distant hills provided the backdrop for what looked like a highly uneventful place. A small black and white cat appeared from around a stone building. Evidently looking for something to do itself, it sauntered over to Marshall and began stroking itself on his leg, arching its back and tail to ensure maximum contact. Although he was not particularly fond of cats, Marshall began to bend down, something the cat was not expecting. Clearly startled, the cat darted under the truck and disappeared. As his eyes surveyed the surroundings, they met those of an equally bored looking man fuelling his light green Fiat. Looking at his rounded features and pale skin, Marshall figured him to be a fellow European, possibly British. After an exchange of courteous smiles, both mae carried on with their business.
It wasn’t long before they were back on the highway again. The green flora of the Chyulu National Park soon turned to farmland and then back to wilderness as the highway continued its course toward the countries capital. The odd town or village appeared, breaking up the wilderness. The trading town of Sultan Hamud, Salama, Kyumvi, the industrial town of Athi River. At last the skyline of Nairobi revealed itself on the horizon. Being far and away the largest city in Kenya with some three million inhabitants, this was very different from Marshall’s experiences of the last few weeks. The high-rise towers of banks and international companies, the tree lined roads and general hustle and bustle of people going about their daily business gave a sense of security and a feeling of somehow being a little closer to home. The sight of the large Marabou Stork sitting atop the trees reminded that this wasn’t quite home yet.
The Mombasa Road headed a short way in to Central Nairobi, passing Wilson Airport and the Southern Suburbs of the city.
A left turn took them on to Haile Selassie Avenue and in to Upper Hill. Upper Hill was fast becoming one of the cities new business districts. Another left turn on to Upper Hill road took them past the grey concrete and blue glass of the Rahimtulla Tower and finally, the British High Commission building.
‘I will find myself somewhere to park and wait for you. I am sure you will be a little while trying to explain this one,’ said Peter with the same smile that seemed to be permanently etched on to his face. Marshall knew better than to argue.
‘It will probably take long enough just getting through the front door without any I.D. I’ll come and find you if this is going to take more than an hour.’
‘You are very kind. I could do with a rest after the drive anyway, no rush my friend.’
With a nod and smile, Marshall turned towards to the security check point outside the door to begin the first of what was likely to be a series of difficult conversations.

The chapters here went a bit out of order... Kate shouldn't have had 2 in a row... I am in the middle of writing the next one for Marshall so had to post 2 in a row. I do have the next for Kate though... this is the last one I have.

At 7am, the white Volvo pulled in to its space at Langley. Kate stepped out and headed to her office. By the time Arnold and Forrest had arrived, the office had been set up like a small task force headquarters.
On the far side of the room, a large whiteboard had contained various details surrounding some of the smaller cases that were being worked on. It now had various pieces of paper, arrows and pictures spread around that looked like the beginnings of a complicated operation. All of the team had now arrived and were ready to be briefed.
‘Good morning everyone,’ Kate began. ‘We seem to have gotten ourselves in the middle of a rather large and complicated international smuggling operation. So far, we know that at least some of the trail starts here in the U.S. and at some point ends up supplying terrorist cells across at least the Middle East.’
‘Our friends over at the ATF have managed to trace all of the weapons systems and equipment to their manufacturers and then on to their first point of sale, all of which has been above board. That means that the trail has a few more points for us to trace and profile. We are going to split in to three areas to get this going as fast as we can.’
‘I need one team on directly tracing the sales and receipts of these goods. There must be a common thread somewhere for all of these things to end up on the same boat. It may end up being a third party that never handles the goods and just arranges shipping which will mean going through payments that companies have received, shipping addresses and all that goes with moving this type of equipment overseas.’
‘The next team will help here. I want ALL of these companies profiled. I want to know about executives and management personnel. I want to know WHO could be arranging these things to happen. Where the connections are between these companied and where the connections are outside to the cells that are receiving the goods.’
‘Last, we are going to need some guys on the ground where this is all happening. If we can catch a shipment at any earlier point then we may fill in some of the gaps from the other end. Let’s start with the ship we impounded at Umm Qasr and find out where it came from. We know when it got there so lets get some satellite data and work out where it came from.’
‘I am going to lead the first team, Forrest, you take the second and Tom, you the third. I have already dropped an email to all of you to let you know who you will be working with. Sorry if you had any plans over the next few days but they just got cancelled. Any questions?’

Kate surveyed the room that was now filled with silence and shaking heads. She knew her team would know exactly what needed to be done and what was expected of them during a large operation. It was what most of them had joined the CIA for.
‘Let’s get going,’ she said as she walked away towards her desk. She called to her new team as she walked. ‘Emily, Jack, don’t waste time checking your emails, come with me.’
She took a file from her desk and headed out of the office, Emily and Jack followed close behind.
‘I got a call with this information at 4am, I need a coffee. You guys want anything? I’m buying.’

All three settled down around a table in the cafeteria. This time of the morning was one of the busiest of the day and they were lucky to have found an empty table at all.
‘Okay,’ started Kate as she passed a handful of documents around the table. ‘Here is what we have got so far. Most of the small arms, rifles and equipment have come direct from this side of the pond. This is a list of seven companies that bought these items from the manufacturers.’
‘I have highlighted what each of us is going to concentrate on. Emily and I will take on these as it will be easier for us to get access to the company accounts and documents in the US. Jack, there are two companies here based in Europe that I want you to get stuck in to. You will have to go through DCRI in France and MI6 or GCHQ in the U.K. if these companies wont open up directly, which I don’t expect them to.’
‘Are they aware we are looking in to this yet,’ asked Jack. He had had many experiences dealing with foreign intelligence services and knew how reluctant they could be when not kept in the loop.
‘Sorry Jack, I only got this information last night and we didn’t know if this was more than just our problem until then. I’m sure they will understand. If you get any trouble, I’ll get on to the boys at the state department to smooth things over.’
‘I’ll get the subpoena process started here in case any of the companies decide to withhold information. That normally takes a few days to go through the system by which time we will know who we need to start squeezing.’
Emily was the legal expert on the team having majored in law and worked in both county and state courts as a researcher before moving to the CIA. Kate has recently recruited her to the team after her last major operation in which she could have made good use of someone in that field.

‘Sounds like we are all set then. If you need to requisition any of the agencies assets, follow the usual procedure and I will make sure it gets approved asap. We have the full backing of our superiors here and, from what I have heard, backing from quite a few people in the Army.’
‘Well, its kinda their asses that we are trying to save here so they better be backing us,’ said Emily, showing her usual bulldog spirit.
‘Dead U.S. soldiers killed by U.S. made guns doesn’t tend to go down to well with the public either so expect a little prying by other departments if this start going on too long,’ added Jack.
‘Quicker we get done; the easier this will be on everyone. Plus don’t forget that there are actual people’s lives at stake here, so let’s get on it.’

At seven o’clock that evening, the office around Kate was still buzzing with activity. Although a workaholic herself, she felt slightly guilty that she had only just briefed them that morning and they were already working late in to the evening. Many of the team had families that would have cooked dinner or had small children waiting for them to come home and had so far only received a short phone call to say they would be late, but not giving a reason why. That reason was something that was rarely given and was expected to be understood why not. And that was why any attempt at a relationship she had made ended up as a failure.
‘Okay everyone, today is only the first night and I don’t need you burning out already. Get going and pick up where you left off first thing tomorrow.’
After a few surprised and appreciative looks, the team finished their discussions and trains of thought, got there things together and left. A goodbye from Forrest left Kate once again alone in the office. Several arbitrary yet apparently essential pieces of paperwork would need to be done before she would let herself venture home and these would take at least another hour.
As she carried on, a small thought emerged, more a wish that she would hear a voice to break the heavy silence of the office. Someone that would engage in conversation about something other than work maybe. She could not do that with her own team. To them, she was the job and nothing else. But it was also something she would not get at home. The silence was soon broken by the ringing of her desk phone.
‘Catherine Anderson,’ she answered.
‘Special Agent Anderson,’ said a leathery, worn voice at the end of the line. ‘This is assistant director Douglas Addlington. I heard you spent most of your waking life in the office, I am glad I managed to catch you so late.’
Kate had seen Douglas Addlington many times, but either on the television standing behind a state official making a speech, or heading some seminar or the other. She had never spoken to the second in command of the entire agency.
‘Mr Addlington, how can I help you?’ she replied, slightly shaking half through the unexpected phone call and half because of the even more unexpected caller.
‘No need to panic Miss Anderson. I have heard through the grapevine that your team is working on a possible large scale arms smuggling operation.’
‘Yes sir, that is correct.’
‘Well, it sounds like you are making good progress. I wanted to talk to you directly as this is clearly a matter that crosses with various other departments from the ATF right through to the Department of Defence. I want to keep a close eye on this one Miss Anderson. I expect daily progress reports from you to let me know what it is you guys are up to and whether or not I need to make a call to move this from an intelligence agency to an enforcement agency. Does that make sense to you Miss Anderson?’
‘Yes sir,’ she replied. ‘I understand that we are supposed to be the data gatherers and that we need to make sure the final mop up is done by right people.’
‘Good. I’m glad you see it the same way.’
‘Yes sir, although I will add that sometimes we do need to get our own hands dirty to make sure that the intelligence is correct and that we don’t waste anyone’s time.’
‘Again we agree Miss Anderson. If you are going to make any big moves, let me know before hand though as the lines at a high level get very blurred. I don’t want to bore you with the politics but let’s just say if it goes wrong and an inquiry finds out that the right people were not involved, your intentions wont save you from having to find another job.’
‘Yes sir, I understand. I will keep you fully up to date with any developments.’
‘Thank you Miss Anderson. Have a good evening.’

Kate put down the receiver. That was one conversation she was very glad was over. She looked down at her paperwork and decided that there would be nobody to give it to tonight and nobody would be able to process it until tomorrow afternoon at the earliest anyway. She turned off her computer, packed her things and headed home.

Hullo

Please let me know what you think. I might just reveal my identity later on today or tomorrow. Still would like people to make some guesses though.

Hopefully nobody was on here earlier today to see my big mistake.... you would have known who it was if you were on. If you do happen to have been on... please dont let everyone know!!

Nice work I sincerely hope you will continue your writing.

are you Kendalf? or Lance? come on I think you are English and a bloke, I did think American but I changed my mind after I saw one spelling in English rather than American.

I promise I will read all this- I have set aside some time later tonight especially for it in fact! (So if you could hold of the big reveal till after then I can still have a guess!)

ur so cute, Petty on every major writing thread you just promise you'll read them ^^

There is so much stuff Norc! And I do try I was catching up on Mrs Figgs and Turembars piece and only stopped becasue it did- I have read the frst few Needlehole Mysteries now too. And I've read the start of the Agent Nora stuff.
But what with alll that, the Archet Bugle, anon writers springing up and delivering NotP I barely have time to drink anymore!

it wasn't a critisism I just think it's cute that you promise you'll get trhough it cause there is soo much to read

Unfortunately I cant write my and Turembars story on my own, the whole point of it was two of us writing intertwingly, sigh, but Turembar has moved on to bananas new I fear.


Cumon anon author tell us who you are!


There is a lot of stuff to read but if you make the effort its worth it.

yeah, tellus!

Right I've made a start on this- not my usual genre for reading (or watching for that matter) but I am enjoying this. No idea as to who you are mystery writer but I agree with Mrs Figg- I don't think you are American.

Hullo

I feel it only right that Pettytyrant is allowed to have time to fulfil his promise yesterday. Should the 59th second of the 59th minute of the 23rd hour of this very day come to pass without evidence to suggest this is the case, then I should be obliged to reveal my identity to those of you that would like to know.

By the way, if anyone here has any suggestions around what they have read so far then please feel free to let me know. As this is my first draft, there are a lot of things that I have already identified in the text that could be added/amended to add some color. I would like to be able to get people imagining what is going on, to really picture scenes and feelings etc. If there are any points you think this does not come across then please let me know.

I have a plan for the rest of the book and I know exactly where I want it to go. I am hoping that I can also get an element of people guessing who did it and why but also to get a 'whoa, I didn't see that coming' in there without it being completely out of the blue and unrealistic.

Other than Tolkein, I have read quite a lot of Robert Ludlum books too so I am sure you can see the inspiration. Trying to keep true to life I am also using locations I have had the fortune of visiting instead of making up the feel of the places.