Produktdetails
- Verlag
- Dolman Scott Publishing
- Erschienen
- 2015
- Sprache
- English
- Seiten
- 198
- Infos
- 198 Seiten
- ISBN
- 978-1-909204-75-1
Kurztext / Annotation
When British soldier, twenty-four year old Captain Alex McCloud is injured and blinded in Afghanistan during 2010, he is flown back to the U.K. for treatment at the Queen Elizabeth hospital in Birmingham. After a painful, slow recovery, during which his fiancé, Helen, ends their engagement, he is feeling angry and thoroughly dejected, with no possible hope for the future. A small ray of hope seems possible when he is offered the chance of sight using bionic implants, developed by Professor Goldman of Moorfields Eye Hospital in London, in conjunction with Augmented Reality specialist, Major Jennifer Sherlock of the C.I.A. These implants not only provide him with sight, but much, much more than he could ever have imagined or expected, proving to be of great interest both to the M.O.D. and the C.I.A. His new life as an intelligence officer based in London brings him many challenges utilising his unique abilities, particularly when he uncovers a highly dangerous mafia-like organisation.
John Stephen Raynor, born in 1944 in Oldham, Lancashire was diagnosed with a serious progressive eye condition, Retinitis Pigmentosa. ,At fifteen, he began working in Architecture, eventually becoming a software developer, marrying Marie in 1967. Self-employed by 1980, he spent long hours building up his business, moving to Sale in 1983. The work took its toll on his marriage and the couple separated in 1989. In 1991 he thought he had found a new partner, but after sixteen traumatic months the relationship ended. He kept a detailed diary. It was in the Philippines where he found his soul-mate, marrying Aleth in 1993, but experienced problems bringing her into the U.K. His wife's traumatic childhood, provided John with a wealth of material for his novel, 'A Comfortable Death' After twenty years, John used the information from his diaries to publish 'A Chronicle of Intimacies', followed by 'Who wants to be British?', the two autobiographical works describing his most traumatic period. Registered blind since the age of 35, John relies on his computer with speech synthesis for software development and creative writing.
Textauszug
PROLOGUE
Captain Alex McCloud looked up when he heard the all-too familiar sound of sniper-fire. It seemed uncomfortably close to the base camp at Kandahar. "Jack! Quick! Come with me!" The two men ran towards the camp entrance and soon saw the crumpled bodies of two Afghan soldiers who had been guarding the camp's main entrance gates. A third soldier was calling out for assistance and trying to revive the two unfortunate men who were, obviously, beyond any earthly assistance.
Alex and Jack were soon by the man's side. The young captain was familiar with all three Afghans who had been willing to assist American and British forces in an attempt to rid the country of the Taliban insurgents. To make it worse, all three men were related.
"Did you see the attackers?"
"Yes, Sir." He looked devastated at the loss of his cousins. "There were four Taliban." He turned and pointed. Alex looked and saw a vehicle racing away from the camp. Four figures were in the battered vehicle as they made their escape.
Alex wasted no time and ran with Jack towards a lightarmoured vehicle. "Watkins! Adamson! Come with us, quickly!"
Within seconds, the four were in their vehicle and racing in pursuit of the killers.
Alex had been assigned to take charge of flushing out groups of Taliban fighters entrenched near to the villages where they could intimidate and keep pressure on frightened residents. Now he had a job to do. "Just get this right!", he said to himself.
While Jack drove the vehicle, his foot pressed hard on the accelerator, alex was on his radio, instructing a helicopter pilot to take off and assist in this dangerous task.
After a few minutes driving at speed, on poorly-maintained roads, through village streets, the car entered open countryside with just the occasional small group of dwellings. The car with the Taliban fighters came to a halt near to a mainly open area. They jumped out of their vehicle and ran away in the direction of a simple building. It was one of several similar buildings in this area.
Jack pulled up, without getting too close to the other vehicle, in case it had been booby-trapped. All four ran after the escaping insurgents.
The first three Taliban fighters were easy to dispatch as they, seemingly, made easy targets. When another fighter retreated into the small, ordinary-looking building, Alex's unit followed, unaware that this was a deadly trap.
As the man ran inside, he quickly hid behind a stack of boxes, waiting for the British soldiers to enter. When he was satisfied that several soldiers were inside the building, he shouted "Praise be to Allah!" and detonated a huge bomb, ensuring not only his own death, but that of several of the infidel fighters.
In the explosion that followed, Alex's Sergeant and best friend, Jack Prentice, was literally torn to pieces, while Corporal Doug Adamson was decapitated and a third soldier, Private Bill Watkins lost both legs.
Alex felt the full force of the blast, his clothes immediately catching fire, while he received a great deal of shrapnel wounds to his face and one side of his body.
Luckily for him, the force of the explosion hurled him away from the structure and out of further danger from the now, fiercely-burning building. a second huge explosion ripped through the air, making it impossible to retrieve what was left of the bodies of his three unfortunate comrades.
Alex was uncertain what happened next, but, somehow, he stumbled away from the blazing inferno that had trapped them and, after collapsing, was quickly dragged away by his fellow soldiers who had disembarked from the helicopter and had come to his aid. While enemy snipers were firing at Alex, he was quickly rolled on the ground to extinguish the flames from his burning clothes. Alex was not only dazed, but also completely blinded from the frags which had, painfully, torn into his face, making it i
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