It’s been a long, hard job getting this novel from the planning stages, through several rewrites and title changes, endless comments for revision from not one but two editors, and a host of beta readers, to get where we are now.
This is the sequel to “What sets us apart” which was published nearly eight years ago. This probably could have been published earlier, but events like COVID got in the way, and then there is the day job, you know the one, as a writer, don’t give up your day job.
That comes from those harsh critics.
If I listened to the critics, I would have taken a one-way trip to the moon to get away from them. The reason why I haven’t is those that who loved the books; they outweigh those who don’t.
But I don’t write for the praise, I write because I love writing, and will continue to do so until the day I die. I’m hoping it won’t take another eight years before it’s published.
It’s been a long, hard job getting this novel from the planning stages, through several rewrites and title changes, endless comments for revision from not one but two editors, and a host of beta readers, to get where we are now.
This is the sequel to “What sets us apart” which was published nearly eight years ago. This probably could have been published earlier, but events like COVID got in the way, and then there is the day job, you know the one, as a writer, don’t give up your day job.
That comes from those harsh critics.
If I listened to the critics, I would have taken a one-way trip to the moon to get away from them. The reason why I haven’t is those that who loved the books; they outweigh those who don’t.
But I don’t write for the praise, I write because I love writing, and will continue to do so until the day I die. I’m hoping it won’t take another eight years before it’s published.
In the spy business, it pays not to make solid plans, just have an idea of what you might do, and execute it.
When it goes wrong, as it inevitably does, then you can always say, “I knew it was going to fail” and feel good about it.
Expecting a plan to work without it going south is like winning the lottery. What are the odds?
What you can rely on every time is human nature. Yes, sometimes the bad guy is thoroughly bad and goes off the reservation, but that’s the exception. Counterspy measures always include an element of ‘what’s in it for me’ when an opportunity comes up.
So, David and Alisha get captured. It’s the easiest way in.
Then Alisha escapes in the middle of a freak storm with torrential rain that has a visibility range of ten feet at best. Enough time for her to disappear.
It’s all part of the plan.
Others search for her, while David is taken to the main compound, assessing the odds and situation as he goes. He ends up in a cell, left to ponder his fate, and then dragged out for interrogation.
Not exactly part of the plan, but he does learn something new, and quite disconcerting. Someone close to him is a traitor.
West Lake is a freshwater lake in Hangzhou, China. It is divided into five sections by three causeways. There are numerous temples, pagodas, gardens, and artificial islands within the lake.
Measuring 3.2 kilometers (2 miles) in length, 2.8 kilometers (1.7 miles) in width, and 2.3 meters (7.5 feet) in average depth, the lake spreads itself in an area totaling 6.5 square kilometers (2.5 square miles).
The earliest recorded name for West Lake was the “Wu Forest River”, but over time it changed to two distinct names. One is “Qiantang Lake”, due to the fact that Hangzhou was called “Qiantang” in ancient times. The other, “West Lake”, due to the lake being west of the city
It’s about to get busy, with a number of activities planned, and the warmth of the day is starting to make an impact.
The tour starts in the car park about a kilometer away, but the moment we left the car park we were getting a taste of the park walking along a tree-lined avenue.
When we cross the road, once again dicing with death with the silent assassins on motor scooters.
We are in the park proper, and it is magnificent, with flowers, mostly at the start hydrangeas and then any number of other trees and shrubs, some carved into other flower shapes like a lotus.
Then there was the lake and the backdrop of bridges and walkways.
.
And if you can tune out the background white noise the place would be great for serenity and relaxation.
That, in fact, was how the boat ride panned out, about half an hour or more gliding across the lake in an almost silent boat, by an open window, with the air and the majestic scenery.
No, not that boat, which would be great to have lunch on while cruising, but the boat below:
Not quite in the same class, but all the same, very easy to tune out and soak it in.
It was peaceful, amazingly quiet, on a summery day
A pagoda in the hazy distance, an island we were about to circumnavigate.
Of all the legends, the most touching one is the love story between Bai Suzhen and Xu Xi’an. Bai Suzhen was a white snake spirit and Xu Xi’an was a mortal man.
They fell in love when they first met on a boat on the West Lake, and got married very soon after.
However, the evil monk Fa Hai attempted to separate the couple by imprisoning Xu Xi’an. Bai Suzhen fought against Fa Hai and tried her best to rescue her husband, but she failed and was imprisoned under the Leifeng Pagoda by the lake.
Years later the couple was rescued by Xiao Qing, the sister of Baisuzhen, and from then on, Bai Suzhen and Xu Xi’an lived together happily.
The retelling of the story varied between tour guides, and on the cruise boat, we had two. Our guide kept to the legend, the other tour guide had a different ending.
Suffice to say it had relevance to the two pagodas on the far side of the lake.
There was a cafe or restaurant on the island, but that was not our lunch destination.
Nor were the buildings further along from where we disembarked.
All in all the whole cruise took about 45 minutes and was an interesting break from the hectic nature of the tour.
Oh yes, and the boat captain had postcards for sale. We didn’t buy any.
Lunch
At the disembarkation point there was a mall that sold souvenirs and had a few ‘fast food’ shops, and a KFC, not exactly what we came to China for, but it seemed like the only place in town a food cautious Australian could eat at.
And when tried to get in the door, that’s where at least 3 busloads were, if they were not in the local Starbucks. Apparently, these were the places of first choice wherever we went.
The chicken supply by the time we got to the head of the line amounted to pieces at 22.5 RMB a piece and nuggets. Everything else had run out, and for me, there were only 5 pieces left. Good thing there were chips.
And Starbucks with coffee and cheesecake.
At least the setting for what could have been a picnic lunch was idyllic.
In the spy business, it pays not to make solid plans, just have an idea of what you might do, and execute it.
When it goes wrong, as it inevitably does, then you can always say, “I knew it was going to fail” and feel good about it.
Expecting a plan to work without it going south is like winning the lottery. What are the odds?
What you can rely on every time is human nature. Yes, sometimes the bad guy is thoroughly bad and goes off the reservation, but that’s the exception. Counterspy measures always include an element of ‘what’s in it for me’ when an opportunity comes up.
So, David and Alisha get captured. It’s the easiest way in.
Then Alisha escapes in the middle of a freak storm with torrential rain that has a visibility range of ten feet at best. Enough time for her to disappear.
It’s all part of the plan.
Others search for her, while David is taken to the main compound, assessing the odds and situation as he goes. He ends up in a cell, left to ponder his fate, and then dragged out for interrogation.
Not exactly part of the plan, but he does learn something new, and quite disconcerting. Someone close to him is a traitor.
West Lake is a freshwater lake in Hangzhou, China. It is divided into five sections by three causeways. There are numerous temples, pagodas, gardens, and artificial islands within the lake.
Measuring 3.2 kilometers (2 miles) in length, 2.8 kilometers (1.7 miles) in width, and 2.3 meters (7.5 feet) in average depth, the lake spreads itself in an area totaling 6.5 square kilometers (2.5 square miles).
The earliest recorded name for West Lake was the “Wu Forest River”, but over time it changed to two distinct names. One is “Qiantang Lake”, due to the fact that Hangzhou was called “Qiantang” in ancient times. The other, “West Lake”, due to the lake being west of the city
It’s about to get busy, with a number of activities planned, and the warmth of the day is starting to make an impact.
The tour starts in the car park about a kilometer away, but the moment we left the car park we were getting a taste of the park walking along a tree-lined avenue.
When we cross the road, once again dicing with death with the silent assassins on motor scooters.
We are in the park proper, and it is magnificent, with flowers, mostly at the start hydrangeas and then any number of other trees and shrubs, some carved into other flower shapes like a lotus.
Then there was the lake and the backdrop of bridges and walkways.
.
And if you can tune out the background white noise the place would be great for serenity and relaxation.
That, in fact, was how the boat ride panned out, about half an hour or more gliding across the lake in an almost silent boat, by an open window, with the air and the majestic scenery.
No, not that boat, which would be great to have lunch on while cruising, but the boat below:
Not quite in the same class, but all the same, very easy to tune out and soak it in.
It was peaceful, amazingly quiet, on a summery day
A pagoda in the hazy distance, an island we were about to circumnavigate.
Of all the legends, the most touching one is the love story between Bai Suzhen and Xu Xi’an. Bai Suzhen was a white snake spirit and Xu Xi’an was a mortal man.
They fell in love when they first met on a boat on the West Lake, and got married very soon after.
However, the evil monk Fa Hai attempted to separate the couple by imprisoning Xu Xi’an. Bai Suzhen fought against Fa Hai and tried her best to rescue her husband, but she failed and was imprisoned under the Leifeng Pagoda by the lake.
Years later the couple was rescued by Xiao Qing, the sister of Baisuzhen, and from then on, Bai Suzhen and Xu Xi’an lived together happily.
The retelling of the story varied between tour guides, and on the cruise boat, we had two. Our guide kept to the legend, the other tour guide had a different ending.
Suffice to say it had relevance to the two pagodas on the far side of the lake.
There was a cafe or restaurant on the island, but that was not our lunch destination.
Nor were the buildings further along from where we disembarked.
All in all the whole cruise took about 45 minutes and was an interesting break from the hectic nature of the tour.
Oh yes, and the boat captain had postcards for sale. We didn’t buy any.
Lunch
At the disembarkation point there was a mall that sold souvenirs and had a few ‘fast food’ shops, and a KFC, not exactly what we came to China for, but it seemed like the only place in town a food cautious Australian could eat at.
And when tried to get in the door, that’s where at least 3 busloads were, if they were not in the local Starbucks. Apparently, these were the places of first choice wherever we went.
The chicken supply by the time we got to the head of the line amounted to pieces at 22.5 RMB a piece and nuggets. Everything else had run out, and for me, there were only 5 pieces left. Good thing there were chips.
And Starbucks with coffee and cheesecake.
At least the setting for what could have been a picnic lunch was idyllic.
This one, at times almost wrote itself because the elements were such a joy to write.
It started in a dance, two people who knew deep down they were in love with each other, they just either didn’t want to acknowledge it or didn’t think it was possible the other would ever see it.
How many of us sometimes look wistfully at the one we love and know it will never happen?
I’ve been there, and I know that feeling.
And then, when it is recognised, in a mad moment of realisation, you go from not having it to having it and not wanting to mess it up or wanting it to end.
Love is one of those emotions that is very hard to understand, or control, or manage, and as it is often said, the heart does what it wants to do and you sometimes have to go along for the ride.
And sometimes put yourself out there and be damned to the consequences.
It’s going to hurt, one way or another, and we can only hope it’s a good hurt and not a bad one.
But will it help to go from relatively poor to very, very rich?
If she did not walk through the door when she did then Jack would have walked away.
From the policewoman’s perspective:
She crossed the street from the corner instead of remaining on the same side of the street as she did every other night. When she reached the other sidewalk, she was about 20 yards from the nearest window of the store.
As she crossed, she got a better view of the three people in the store and noticed the woman, or girl, was acting oddly as if she had something in her hand, and, from time to time looked down beside her.
A yard or two from the window she stopped, took a deep breath, and then moved slowly, getting a better view of the scene with each step.
Then she saw the gun in the girl’s hand, and the two men, the shopkeeper and a customer facing her, hands up.
It was a convenience store robbery in progress.
She reached for her radio, but it wasn’t there. She was off duty. Instead, she withdrew, and called the station on her mobile phone, and reported the robbery. The officer at the end of the phone said a car would be there in five minutes.
In five minutes there could be dead bodies.
She had to do something, and reached into her bag and pulled out a gun. Not her service weapon, but one she carried in case of personal danger.
Guns are dangerous weapons in the hands of professional and amateur alike. You would expect a professional who has trained to use a gun to not have a problem but consider what might happen in exceptional circumstances.
People freeze under pressure. Alternately, some shoot first and ask questions later.
We have an edgy and frightened girl with a loaded gun, one bullet or thirteen in a magazine, it doesn’t matter. It only takes one bullet to kill someone.
Then there’s the trigger pressure, light or heavy, the recoil after the shot and whether it causes the bullet to go into or above the intended target, especially if the person has never used a gun.
The policewoman, with training, will need two hands to take the shot, but in getting into the shop she will need one to open the door, and then be briefly distracted before using that hand to steady the other.
It will take a lifetime, even if it is only a few seconds.
Actions have consequences:
The policewoman crouched below the window shelf line so the girl wouldn’t see her, and made it to the door before straightening. She was in dark clothes so the chances were the girl would not see her against the dark street backdrop.
Her hand was on the door handle about to push it inwards when she could feel in being yanked hard from the other side, and the momentum and surprise of it caused her to lose balance and crash into the man who was trying to get out.
What the hell…
A second or two later both were on the floor in a tangled mess, her gun hand caught underneath her, and a glance in the direction of the girl with the gun told her the situation had gone from bad to worse.
The girl had swung the gun around and aimed it at her and squeezed the trigger twice.
The two bangs in the small room were almost deafening and definitely disorientating.
Behind her, the glass door disintegrated when the bullet hit it.
Neither she nor the man beside her had been hit.
Yet.
She felt a kick in the back and the tickling of glass then broke free as the man she’d run into rolled out of the way.
Quickly on her feet, she saw the girl had gone, and wasted precious seconds getting up off the floor, then out the door to find she had disappeared.
She could hear a siren in the distance. They’d find her.
If the policewoman had not picked that precise moment to enter the shop, maybe the man would have got away.
Maybe.
If he’d been aware of the fact he was allowed to leave.
He was lucky not to be shot.
Yet there were two shots, and we know at least one of them broke the door’s glass panel.
After rescuing Tim and not fulfilling the mission, which might seem to become a running theme in the relationship between the grandmother and our boy, they arrive home, hitch a ride to New York in the corporate jet, and then dispatch it to Switzerland where Annie is booked into a clinic.
Good deed for the day done.
And in a last-minute move he didn’t see coming sister Darcy, best friends with everyone, has gone with Annie to be someone familiar. Tim of course goes with her. A ride to Europe in a private jet, and the prospect of a holiday was worth sacrificing being at the wedding.
Well, the first wedding.
But the bad news is, while our boy was away having fun in helicopters the grandmother’s condition deteriorated as anyone with stage four cancer knows. One minute you’re reasonably OK the next, at death’s door.
Fresh off the plane, there’s just enough time to change and get to the ceremony.
There is no time to reflect on the merits of what is essentially a shotgun wedding, it’s done.
Of course, there’s a little sidebar in doing it, one that may play out in a sequel.
Shotguns are in abundance, Tim has one, and it’s a standoff until he sees Annie.
I guess when I was writing this it was a little moving, and not for the first time when writing something that is emotionally difficult, a tear or two happens.
It’s the same when I watch really emotional movies, though I never used to be like that.
To be honest, I don’t know what it would be like to be confronted with a very ill loved one. I think there would be stunned silence, then the start of the realisation of what it means, followed by all sorts of thoughts.
Not what it would be like if there was nothing I could do.
It has happened to a lot of people around me. My sister-in-law lost a daughter, taken by cancer. They had been hoping she had beaten it, but it came back.
My wife’s best friend’s daughter has finally discovered why she was having stomach pains, yes, cancer again, stage 3 and there is hope.
But the emotional roller coaster is not one any of us want to get on.
Thrills, Spills, and just a dash of Romance 