This book has also been written for some time, like The Document, and the manuscript was also sitting in a box with half a dozen others gathering dust and not quite as complete, so this month it is going to get the makeover, a first draft for the editor.

And so it begins…

…

Everyone lies

…

Of course, they do, this is espionage at it’s finest. If everyone told the truth, we wouldn’t need spies, would we?

Then, of course, there are different versions of the truth, half-truths, perhaps, little white lies, and then just the truth but so much is omitted, it’s like reading a novel without the last chapter.

Hang on, wasn’t there a series on TV about just that?

Well, no one is telling Jack all of the story, so he has to find it out for himself, with a little help from his father, and friends, but just how far can he trust any of them?

But before he can worry about that, he receives a mysterious text message from the number of the phone that he gave Evelyn. He was not expecting her to use it.

It will provide a little welcome relief from being hunted by the people who are looking for Luigi Marchesi, and or the stolen cryptocurrency. If it is indeed about that because it had implausibility written all over it.

Back to Evelyn….

She’s had a hard time of it, but rescue is imminent, and revenge, well, that’s been keeping her from that edge tortured people reach and more often than not go over.

Just remember, revenge is best served cold. And, really, I don’t know why that is so.

This book has also been written for some time, like The Document, and the manuscript was also sitting in a box with half a dozen others gathering dust and not quite as complete, so this month it is going to get the makeover, a first draft for the editor.

And so it begins…

…

I’m looking at the title and seeking the hidden meaning behind it.

…

The Enemy Within.

Exactly what enemy are we referring to?

The people we work with, or for?

Someone closer like a relative?

A boyfriend or a girlfriend.

What lurks in the back of our mind, where do the dark thoughts come from?

Or more tangible enemies, the people who are trying to kill you for whatever reason.

None of the above,

The enemy is someone you know, someone you would least expect, and that makes them all the more insidious and effective in destabilising you.

All you have to do is open your eyes.

This book has also been written for some time, like The Document, and the manuscript was also sitting in a box with half a dozen others gathering dust and not quite as complete, so this month it is going to get the makeover, a first draft for the editor.

And so it begins…

…

I’m looking at the title and seeking the hidden meaning behind it.

…

The Enemy Within.

Exactly what enemy are we referring to?

The people we work with, or for?

Someone closer like a relative?

A boyfriend or a girlfriend.

What lurks in the back of our mind, where do the dark thoughts come from?

Or more tangible enemies, the people who are trying to kill you for whatever reason.

None of the above,

The enemy is someone you know, someone you would least expect, and that makes them all the more insidious and effective in destabilising you.

All you have to do is open your eyes.

This book has also been written for some time, like The Document, and the manuscript was also sitting in a box with half a dozen others gathering dust and not quite as complete, so this month it is going to get the makeover, a first draft for the editor.

And so it begins…

…

Finally, there’s going to be a funeral

…

For Jack, it might also be a time to get some answers if the right people turn up to it.

And it’s in Scotland, so there would be time to get some Scotch Whiskey

It’s cold and snowing, a bleak setting for the last moments of his mentor’s stay above ground.

Very few attend the funeral, but there is one notable attendee, the countess. Jack does not get to see her at the funeral and will have to find where she is staying.

At the inn where he has a room, there’s a motley collection of individuals in the bar. Jack is checking for trouble, but it does not eventuate.

Not that night.

Then when it comes, he barely manages to get away, but that only lasts for a short time. Two assassins, he realizes he is a marked man.

Why?

They crash their car in the icy conditions and neither survives.

Talking to the countess, she gives him nothing to work with, only that she fears for her life and has two permanent bodyguards.

This book has also been written for some time, like The Document, and the manuscript was also sitting in a box with half a dozen others gathering dust and not quite as complete, so this month it is going to get the makeover, a first draft for the editor.

And so it begins…

…

Finally, there’s going to be a funeral

…

For Jack, it might also be a time to get some answers if the right people turn up to it.

And it’s in Scotland, so there would be time to get some Scotch Whiskey

It’s cold and snowing, a bleak setting for the last moments of his mentor’s stay above ground.

Very few attend the funeral, but there is one notable attendee, the countess. Jack does not get to see her at the funeral and will have to find where she is staying.

At the inn where he has a room, there’s a motley collection of individuals in the bar. Jack is checking for trouble, but it does not eventuate.

Not that night.

Then when it comes, he barely manages to get away, but that only lasts for a short time. Two assassins, he realizes he is a marked man.

Why?

They crash their car in the icy conditions and neither survives.

Talking to the countess, she gives him nothing to work with, only that she fears for her life and has two permanent bodyguards.

This book has also been written for some time, like The Document, and the manuscript was also sitting in a box with half a dozen others gathering dust and not quite as complete, so this month it is going to get the makeover, a first draft for the editor.

And so it begins…

…

Jack is in the deep end!

…

While Jack is juggling avoiding surveillance, visiting his mentor’s flat and trying to figure out his next move, the rewrite of Evelyn’s interrogation is taking shape.

She never expects it will get to the sub-basement where the real interrogations take place.

The place where the only furniture is a plastic chair over a drain and four seasons in one day happen alarmingly more often than not.

She reasons that it is conditioning.

She also has the memory of Jack having gone through an interrogation session that lasted two days and was as agonisingly painful as she was suffering.

She knows the end result is no matter what she tells them they will not believe her and it will only get worse.

Time then to start conditioning the mind to play with them.

This is from a researcher, they have no real idea why it’s going the way it is, which is nowhere, until certain drugs are employed, and she becomes a gibbering idiot.

If this is an unsanctioned interrogation, then the proverbial is about to hit the fan.

And then there’s that one other thing, what was sustaining her: the fact she was going to kill each and every one of them very, very horribly.

This book has also been written for some time, like The Document, and the manuscript was also sitting in a box with half a dozen others gathering dust and not quite as complete, so this month it is going to get the makeover, a first draft for the editor.

And so it begins…

…

Jack is in the deep end!

…

While Jack is juggling avoiding surveillance, visiting his mentor’s flat and trying to figure out his next move, the rewrite of Evelyn’s interrogation is taking shape.

She never expects it will get to the sub-basement where the real interrogations take place.

The place where the only furniture is a plastic chair over a drain and four seasons in one day happen alarmingly more often than not.

She reasons that it is conditioning.

She also has the memory of Jack having gone through an interrogation session that lasted two days and was as agonisingly painful as she was suffering.

She knows the end result is no matter what she tells them they will not believe her and it will only get worse.

Time then to start conditioning the mind to play with them.

This is from a researcher, they have no real idea why it’s going the way it is, which is nowhere, until certain drugs are employed, and she becomes a gibbering idiot.

If this is an unsanctioned interrogation, then the proverbial is about to hit the fan.

And then there’s that one other thing, what was sustaining her: the fact she was going to kill each and every one of them very, very horribly.

This book has also been written for some time, like The Document, and the manuscript was also sitting in a box with half a dozen others gathering dust and not quite as complete, so this month it is going to get the makeover, a first draft for the editor.

And so it begins…

…

Evelyn is just a researcher, or is she?

…

We know that Jack and Evelyn have a history. Their back story is an interesting one, because he met her quite by chance, or was it, before he became a field agent.

She could not tell him what she did, other than some bland research job for a government agency.

Jack couldn’t tell her what he did, even though his name was familiar to her, but exactly what he did was above her pay grade.

When they did find out, it was across the table at a briefing, and both had to keep poker faces.

Later, this relationship will have some significance, particularly when it’s decided she had to b e debriefed, and then interrogated.

But while she may not know as much as they think she does, they completely underestimate her resolve and resourcefulness.

The moral of the story is don’t judge a book by its cover.

Is that a pun??

This book has also been written for some time, like The Document, and the manuscript was also sitting in a box with half a dozen others gathering dust and not quite as complete, so this month it is going to get the makeover, a first draft for the editor.

And so it begins…

…

Evelyn is just a researcher, or is she?

…

We know that Jack and Evelyn have a history. Their back story is an interesting one, because he met her quite by chance, or was it, before he became a field agent.

She could not tell him what she did, other than some bland research job for a government agency.

Jack couldn’t tell her what he did, even though his name was familiar to her, but exactly what he did was above her pay grade.

When they did find out, it was across the table at a briefing, and both had to keep poker faces.

Later, this relationship will have some significance, particularly when it’s decided she had to b e debriefed, and then interrogated.

But while she may not know as much as they think she does, they completely underestimate her resolve and resourcefulness.

The moral of the story is don’t judge a book by its cover.

Is that a pun??

This book has also been written for some time, like The Document, and the manuscript was also sitting in a box with half a dozen others gathering dust and not quite as complete, so this month it is going to get the makeover, a first draft for the editor.

And so it begins…

…

Characters can take on a life of their own

…

The basic premise of the story is evolving faster than I can write the later chapters and it’s hard to keep up.

The post-it notes are getting used at an alarming rate, and the wall is beginning to look like a major crime investigation.

It wouldn’t be like this if I had planned it better the first time.

But, then, that’s the joy of writing, watching a basic premise turn into something far more sophisticated than you first imagined.

And that is down to charters taking on lives of their own

Like ordinary people, there is more than meets the eye, layers that we might never get to see unless the right buttons are pushed.

And I’m going to push those buttons and see what happens.