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Category:
Action/Thriller
Publisher: Create Space
ISBN-10: 1461172969
Pages: 178
Copyright: May 11, 2011
ISBN-13: 9781461172963
Price: $8.97 (eBook)
To escape the relentless tedium of his insurance job, his marriage and his do-nothing life, Arthur Bayly retreats into his imaginary world of James Bond, KGB agents and exotic scenes of eternal sunshine.
Mary Collins left the grinding poverty of Scotland with high hopes of wealth and romance. That hope quietly, slowly died as she climbed the ladder of success in the insurance industry. She returns home to realise she doesn't belong there either.
A case he is working on grows savage before his eyes and, with Mary, he discovers it is linked to the dubious activities of a wealthy politician, Lord Atkinson, who is to be investigated by England's Financial Services Authority and, perhaps, MI5. Their safe and boring lives become unsafe and unpredictable.
An international cast of unsuspecting characters is brought together as the intrigue and corruption unfolds, involving senior members of England's police force, parliament and government agencies. The face of the Olympics is changed forever and so is the viability of many developing nations.
As the "little people" are confronted by the immense power and scale of greed, they find they have nowhere to turn ... until they stop and listen to the still, quiet voice inside. What starts out as a race of confusion and fear then turns into a struggle to quell the inner demons we all must face. Some listen to that voice and some don't, with quite divergent results.
Based around actual events in New Zealand and England, the story weaves in the author's experiences as an international banker and publisher.
Inspired by A Course in Miracles, Arthur, Mary and some unlikely friends discover the futility of trying to be someone else (e.g. James Bond, Andrew Carnegie) and the importance of being themselves and, in one case, the importance of being Arthur.
Excerpt
The front door wasn’t locked, thankfully, and he took the five paces up the passage with a thumping heart. All was quiet. Eerily quiet. He peered round the door and saw Joan, in the lounge, on a kitchen chair, hands tied behind her back, ankles tied together and with a mouth-gag. Her grey-tinged blonde curls looked as if someone had grabbed hanks of it and her eyes were wide and frightened. She nodded to her left and Arthur looked further round the door to see Mollie, their neighbour, trussed up similarly. Joan was then indicating to him furiously and he determined that she was trying to tell him about something upstairs. He listened and could hear rustling, probably in his office. He dropped the bag and rushed to Joan, untying her gag as the phone rang.
“Get it!” she whispered urgently and he fled with the wings of Pegasus into the dining room and picked up the phone.
“Help! hel …” he yelled, then the phone went dead. There was a curse from upstairs and then the sound of someone running along the passage and clattering down the stairs. Had there been time for Arthur to panic or react, he would have done the former. As it was, Toby burst into the dining room, wrenched the phone from his hand and twisted him around in an arm lock before he had time to do either. He was then pushed, rather rudely, into the lounge and onto the couch.
“Don’t you move an inch!” commanded Toby as he disappeared and reappeared with another dining room chair. “Sit!”
Arthur got up and sat in the appointed chair.
“Now, where do you keep rope?” asked Toby, looking around quickly as if it might be stored in the lounge.
“Oh dear, rope …” said Arthur, pondering. “It’s not something we usually carry here …”
“And where’s the stuff for the Atkinson case?” interrupted Toby.
“Ah, I took it with me …” said Arthur, instantly regretting his helpfulness. He made a mental note to tell more lies.
“I know that, Arthur!” said Toby. “You must have stuff in your computer …”
“Not much, really, it’s all in the files, I’m afraid,” said Arthur, thankful he’d taken the precaution of regularly downloading all the Atkinson files onto computer sticks, now hidden in Joan’s underwear drawer.
“My god, you old codgers, just not computer savvy are you!” said Toby, obviously impatient.
“No, I suppose not …” said Arthur.
“So, where’s your rope then?” demanded Toby, returning to his initial problem.
“Ah, it should be in the back shed, behind the mattress and freezer against the back wall,” said Arthur, thinking of the most inaccessible place he could imagine.
“Right. So, move a muscle and you’re dead. Got it?”
“Oh, yes, dead,” said Arthur, trying to look submissive.
Toby fled out the back and Arthur leapt up. Joan had acted suitably statue-like for Toby not to notice her gag was loose. Arthur untied her hands and, when done, bent down to untie her ankles.
“No, no, I can do that,” whispered Joan. “Get Dottie’s.”
“Yes, just a minute,” said Arthur, rushing from the room. He quietly opened the front door and motioned frantically to Dominik, who was watching, with great intent, two young girls walking past.
Arthur didn’t want to be seen out of his seat or to make any noise before Dominik arrived. He continued to wave frantically and, just as he was about to give up, Dominik looked his way and then burst from the van like fireworks.
“Yes Mr Arthur, trouble?” asked Dominik, obviously relishing some action.
“Yes, aah, bad man out the back,” said Arthur, pointing down the passage.
“Right suh! Me deal with bad man then,” said Dominik, squaring his massive shoulders and walking purposefully, though cautiously, into the dining room. Arthur returned to the lounge to see the two ladies fully untied but sitting as if they weren’t.
“So Arthur, what now?” asked Joan, constantly peering out the door.
“Hmm, I’m not sure,” said Arthur, knowing that was what the two ladies did not want to hear. “Perhaps I should help Dominik and you two could rush up the road and get help …” He was interrupted by yells, thuds, crashes and bangs. Then there was an “Umph!” in a distinctly Polish accent. Arthur felt sick and immobilised. He looked at Joan who shrugged with a quiet resignation. Dottie, on the other hand, looked stricken and Arthur was about to go over and comfort her when Toby appeared in the doorway, panting.
“So, where did you get that oaf, Arthur Bayly?” demanded Toby. “Any other tricks up your sleeve I should know about?”
“Aah, no, not …”
“And, mysteriously, there’s no rope in your wee shed, Mr Bayly,” said Toby, his frustration giving way to anger.
“But what about Dominik? Have you killed him?” asked Arthur, relieved to have the thought of a diversion from his previous diversion.
“Killed him? Goodness no!” said Toby, laughing. “Just a wee prod in the kidneys. He’ll be awake in five minutes or so. Just enough time for me to get the files and finish here.” He opened the tool bag and Arthur felt sick all over again – all the work he’d put into the case and all the details he’d amassed … to be taken by Karate Kid here.
“Where’s the damned files, Bayly?” demanded Toby, tossing tools out of the box with increasing ferocity. “Another of your diversions, huh?”
“Uh, oh, they were there … should be there … I promise you,” said Arthur, confused. He knew he’d put the files back in the bag at Lord Atkinson’s house, he was sure of it. He stood up to help looking in the bag.
“Get back!” yelled Toby. “Stay there! Don’t move!” Then he stopped and looked at the two ladies whose ropes were off. He had the look of a parachutist who realises there is a rip in his parachute that’s growing wider with alarming speed. This was obviously not going the way Toby had planned.
Arthur felt a small surge of pleasure, despite Toby’s ability to inflict pain. Toby now had, Arthur realised, three unruly children, a sleeping monster about to wake any minute and no files … something that still mystified Arthur. He knew he had put them in the bag.
Then, through the net curtains, he saw something flash past the window. It was gone in an instant but it gave him hope. In his fear and panic he had forgotten that there was another world out there – neighbours, passers-by – and he was not as alone as he had imagined.
“You’re so clever, untying everyone, Arthur, I guess you need to be trussed up first,” said Toby wearily. “Now, get your hands behind your back and your feet together.”
Arthur did as he was commanded, while Toby looked in vain for the ropes he’d used on the ladies. Arthur could see, out the corner of his eye, Dottie was trying very hard to suppress a smile. It infected Arthur who felt at huge giggle rising up, knowing Toby could not find the ropes.
“This is not funny at all!” said Toby in frustration. “Now, where did you put those ropes, Mr Clever Clogs?”
“Uh, I’m not sure now,” said Arthur, hoping Toby would not look at the floor behind the curtain.
“Not sure? Not sure!” said Toby looming over him angrily. “You were very sure where you put them a few minutes ago.”
“Uh, yes …” said Arthur.
“Look Arthur, there are two ways to do this – the easy way or the painful way,” said Toby, obviously working hard to calm his troubled nerves. “Whatever you choose, I’m going to get those files out of here and so you’d better decide which way; that way of pain or the way of gain.”
Arthur knew he should have felt threatened but, somehow, he didn’t feel Toby really had his heart in the job. He just didn’t seem to be a bad or evil kind of person. However, as Arthur reasoned, in the split second it takes to reason anything, he didn’t actually know any evil people and how would he know what they were like. Dominik, for example, looked tremendously ferocious and evil but he used his force to combat bad men. It was a conundrum – should he stand for good or should he take the easy way out?
“Under the couch. The ropes are under the couch,” said Joan quickly. He looked at her and she smiled and winked at him as Toby dived to the floor and fished around for the ropes which weren’t there. Arthur’s eye was taken by a flash of movement in the doorway and it was gone. He wondered, with all the stress, if he was losing his grip on life, if he was seeing things that weren’t there. He didn’t have time to wonder long as Martin’s head appeared around the door, cautiously.
Arthur stared, unbelieving, then Martin’s vigorous waving reminded him to act a little more moderately, even nonchalantly, which, given the tense circumstances, was a challenge for Arthur.
Toby stopped his frenetic activity and just stood there. Arthur looked at his face and he seemed about to cry or something.
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