More Short Fuses (Four Free Short Stories)

MORE SHORT FUSES

  By Stephen Leather

  ***

  Published by:

  Copyright (c) 2014 by Stephen Leather

  ****

  All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  ****

  More Short Fuses is a collection of four free short stories from bestselling author Stephen Leather. The short stories are followed by sample chapters of some of his bestselling thrillers. If you want to stop reading at the end of the free short stories, that’s just fine. You can find out more about Stephen Leather at www.stephenleather.com or follow him on Twitter at www.twitter/stephenleather If you do enjoy the short stories, please do leave a review. Reviews actually do make a difference and writers are always grateful for them.

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  About The Author

  Rules Of Engagement

  The Constituency Meeting

  Ghost Kids

  Massage Therapy

  The Stretch (first chapter)

  The Tunnel Rats (first chapter)

  The Solitary Man (first chapter)

  The Eyewitness (first chapter)

  Hard Landing (first chapter)

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Stephen Leather is one of the UK’s most successful thriller writers, an eBook and Sunday Times bestseller and author of the critically acclaimed Dan "Spider’ Shepherd series and the Jack Nightingale supernatural detective novels. Before becoming a novelist he was a journalist for more than ten years on newspapers such as The Times, the Daily Mirror, the Glasgow Herald, the Daily Mail and the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong. He is one of the country’s most successful eBook authors and his eBooks have topped the Amazon Kindle charts in the UK and the US.. His bestsellers have been translated into fifteen languages. He has also written for television shows such as London’s Burning, The Knock and the BBC’s Murder in Mind series and two of his books, The Stretch and The Bombmaker, were filmed for TV. You can find out more from his website www.stephenleather.com and you can follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/stephenleather

  RULES OF ENGAGEMENT

  Dan Shepherd carried his microwaved Marks and Spencer meal over to the coffee table and sat down. Working undercover meant he was never sure when he’d be able to eat so the fridge was full of ready meals that could be microwaved at short notice. He’d chosen pork sausages in onion gravy with mashed potatoes, and as he sat and ate he had to admit that it wasn’t half bad.

  There were four phones lined up on the coffee table. The Blackberry was his own. The Nokia was a pay-as-you-go and the only number he’d ever called on it belonged to a sailor who at that minute was somewhere out in the English Channel, hopefully heading towards the south coast. The iPhone had three numbers stored in it, all big-time drug dealers based in Spain. The Samsung had two Sim cards in it along with the numbers of the accountant who had served as middleman in a multi-million pound cocaine deal that Shepherd was involved in, the man driving the truck that would collect the drugs, and half a dozen drinking buddies who all thought Shepherd’s name was Micky Lawson.

  If all went to plan the sailor would confirm the arrival of the drugs on the south coast, and a few hours later the driver would confirm delivery to a warehouse in North London. At that point Shepherd would make a call to Charlotte Button and armed cops would move in, seizing the drugs and the members of the gang who had put the deal together. It would bring to an end an operation that had taken the best part of three months to put together. For most of that time Shepherd had been living in a luxury Thames-side apartment with stunning views along the river, playing the part of armed robber turned drug dealer Lawson. He would be glad when it was over – he had pretty much overdosed on steak dinners, Cristal champagne and nightclubs full of young women with a thing for well-heeled gangsters.

  The Blackberry burst into life and he put down his fork and reached for it. The caller was withholding his number but he hit the green button anyway. Most of his friends and colleagues were the secretive type and more often than not Shepherd blocked his own number.

  He put the phone to his ear. ‘Yeah?’

  ‘Spider? It’s Billy. Billy Armstrong.’

  ‘Long time, no hear, Billy,’ said Shepherd. It had been three years since he’d last seen the former SAS trooper, and the time before that they’d been in Iraq, trying to rescue Geordie Mitchell. The late Geordie Mitchell. Late as in dead, shot by a Taliban sniper.

  ‘Where are you?’

  ‘On the sofa in front of the TV.’

  ‘Don’t be a prick, Spider. This is serious.’

  ‘London.’

  ‘Have you got Sky News?’

  Shepherd picked up the remote and flicked through the channels. ‘What’s going on, Billy?’

  ‘Jock McIntyre’s in trouble.’

  Sky News came onto the screen. A camera had focussed on a terraced house. Parked in front of the house was a police car. The front windscreen was smashed and one of the tyres was flat. Across the bottom of the screen was a headline that said ‘BREAKING NEWS – Gun Siege In Brixton.’ Shepherd frowned as he turned up the volume. ‘What am I looking at?’ he said.

  ‘Jock’s the guy under siege,’ said Armstrong.

  ‘Are you serious?’ Shepherd leaned forward. A woman was talking, hesitantly as if she was making it up as she went along. ‘Police say shots were fired from the house and that after they went to investigate, more shots were fired. The police have now evacuated neighbours and two armed response vehicles are on the scene.’

  ‘They haven’t said it’s Jock,’ said Shepherd.

  ‘Yeah, well it is,’ said Armstrong. ‘I was there last year. Had a few beers with him and I had to take him home.’

  The camera pulled back and Shepherd saw a police armed response vehicle parked across the road. Three men in black coveralls and bullet-proof vests were checking their carbines.

  ‘Did he have a gun?’ asked Shepherd.

  ‘He wasn’t waving one around, but he wouldn’t be the first of the lads to be holding onto something for a rainy day. Where in London?’

  ‘Battersea.’

  ‘I’ll see you there, yeah?’

  Shepherd stared at the three mobile phones on the coffee table in front of him.

  ‘Spider? You’re on your way, right?’

  Spider sighed and gathered up the phones as he stood up. ‘Yeah. I’ll be there.’