Shadow
Catcher
by
James R. Hannibal
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BLURB:
From
James R. Hannibal—a veteran combat pilot with Top Secret clearance
from the U.S. government—comes an electrifying high-tech thriller
in the great tradition of Tom Clancy…
Over
ten years ago, Air Force major Nick Baron was part of a failed
special ops mission that left a B-2 stealth bomber at the bottom of
the Persian Gulf. Now, leading his men—the Triple Seven Chase
team—Baron must find the bomber and dispose of it for good before
any unfriendly nation can steal the onboard technology for its own
purposes. But as the team embarks on its mission, there are greater
dangers waiting.
When
the CIA intercepts a call signal from an operative in China long
thought dead, the Triple Seven Chase team is given the perilous task
of retrieving the lone soldier from deep within the Chinese
wilderness. There is only one plane for such a dangerous mission: the
Shadow Catcher, a plane with capabilities beyond anything that has
ever flown.
What
Baron and his men don’t know is that the enemy is already among
them—and that the Shadow Catcher itself may be the ultimate prize.
Excerpt
From
Chapter 3
Where am
I?
Nick
stood on a dirt road in thick darkness. He could not remember how he
got there. On either side of the road, he saw the high mud walls
common to desert villages. They seemed to be closing in on him. He
could not feel the ground beneath his feet. The sound of his own
breathing echoed in his ears. Then he saw the mosque, its distinctive
dome with the worn crescent carved into the west side. Suddenly he
knew where he was. He knew what he had to do.
He had
to save Danny.
Nick
found his teammate less than fifty yards ahead, crouched next to a
gap in the wall surrounding the mosque’s small courtyard. Danny
looked back at him. He stood up and waved as if they were meeting on
a neighborhood street back home in Maryland, wearing that same
ridiculous grin that he always wore.
“Get
down, you idiot,” Nick whispered into his communications implant.
“Stay there. Wait until I get to you.”
Danny
did not respond. Instead, he disappeared through the gap in the wall
like a ghost.
“Drake,
I lost visual with Danny,” said Nick, rushing forward. “What’s
going on in that courtyard? Where is the target?” He had to get to
his friend, but no matter how hard he ran, the mosque stayed fifty
yards ahead of him.
“You
can see what I can,” replied Drake, his voice mechanical, distant.
“Check the image on your handheld. I’ve got nothing on the
thermal.”
Nick
checked the faintly glowing monitor attached to his Falcon ROVER
handheld. The receiver pulled real-time thermal video from an RQ-7
Shadow UAV flying overhead. He held the small screen up to his eyes,
but he couldn’t focus his vision. He couldn’t make any sense of
the hazy green image.
The
target, Zaman Ramiz, had smuggled a nuclear weapon out of southern
Russia. The Triple Seven had chased him from Azerbaijan, across
northern Turkey and into Bazargan, just across the Iranian border.
Drake had stayed behind to fly the Shadow. Nick and Danny had crossed
the border in pursuit. Now the arms dealer’s men were dead, and
Ramiz was holed up in the small mosque.
The
whole village seemed to shift around him. Suddenly Nick was at the
wall. Where was Danny? What a stupid question. He knew where Danny
was. He was in that courtyard, and that courtyard was a deathtrap. He
looked down at the handheld again. He still couldn’t see the video
feed. He put the receiver away and cautiously leaned into the gap to
get a look with his own eyes. A spray of bullets ricocheted off the
wall beside his head, kicking brick fragments and dust into his face.
“He
just shot at me,” Nick shouted as he pulled back behind the wall.
He tried to rub the debris from his eyes. “I need to know where
that’s coming from.”
Drake
gave no response.
Nick had
to keep the pressure on. He burst into the courtyard with his MP7
tucked into his shoulder, searching for a target, searching for his
teammate. There, just ahead. Danny was lying motionless beside a
wide, square fountain. The ancient stones were wet with blood.
Another
burst of gunfire rang out from the shadows of the mosque. Nick felt
two bullets slam into his vest. He dove into a prone position behind
the fountain, shouting at Danny. But Danny did not answer.
Nick
felt an icy grip crushing his chest. Pain radiated through his torso.
He couldn’t breathe. He rolled over and tried to rip off his Kevlar
vest, but there was no vest. He wore no protection over his cotton
undershirt. The fabric felt warm and wet against his fingertips. He
raised his hand to his eyes. It was covered in blood.
Footsteps.
Ramiz stood over him, a blur at first and then slowly coming into
focus. The arms dealer smiled down from behind the barrel of his
Stechkin machine pistol.
He
pulled the trigger.
“Okay,
that’s really annoying.”
Nick
fought to open his eyes. Drake’s hand was on his arm, shaking him.
“Seriously,
how does Katy get any sleep when you’re home? You’re thrashing
around in your bunk and moaning like a creature from a low-grade
zombie movie.”
Nick
blinked until his small berth on the Illustro came into focus. He
wiped the sweat from his forehead. After taking a moment to gather
his wits, he rolled onto his side and glowered across the tiny room
at Drake. “I wasn’t moaning,” he said, trying to steady his
voice. “And for the record, all zombie movies are low grade.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AUTHOR
Bio and Links:
James R.
Hannibal is a former US Air Force Stealth Bomber pilot with over a
thousand hours of combat experience including over-watch, close air
support, and HVI captures. He graduated from the US Air Force Academy
in 1997 with a bachelors of science in Middle
Eastern
Studies and earned a masters of science from Central Missouri State
University in Aviation Safety Sciences. His flying career included
the A-10 Warthog, B-2 Stealth Bomber, MQ-1 Predator, T-38 Talon, T-37
Tweet, and the Boeing 737, 757, and 767. When he is not flying or
writing thrillers, James occasionally reviews for the New York
Journal of Books.
Buy
links:
IndieBound
- www.indiebound.org/book/9780425266885
Walmart
- http://www.walmart.com/ip/31893105
Social
Media:
Facebook
– http://www.facebook.com/JamesRHannibal
Twitter
– http://twitter.com/JamesRHannibal
Website
– http://stealthcommand.com/
Shadow
Maker:
How far
will collateral damage from a CIA drone strike reach?
When a
suicide bomber shatters the peace of a winter afternoon on the
National Mall in Washington, D.C., former pilot and undercover
Cerberus operative Nick Baron receives an eerie invitation from the
chess app on his phone—a mysterious figure named The Emissary wants
to play.
Nick and
his covert unit—the Triple Seven Chase team—soon find themselves
drawn into battle against an unknown opponent who has resurrected an
ancient order of assassins: the legendary Hashashin. And there is a
long-awaited prophecy being fulfilled by a series of violent attacks
which may culminate in a final apocalypse over Jerusalem.
As the
Triple Seven fight to stop each attack, Nick tries to keep The
Emissary on the hook by playing their digital chess game. The lines
between the game and the fight begin to blur, as every time Nick
loses a piece on the board, he loses one of his men. And if Nick
cannot find a way to stop the terrorist mastermind, a checkmate may
kill millions…
Wraith:
After
the towers fall on 9/11, Lieutenant Nick Baron and the rest of the
81st Fighter Squadron are desperate for action. But CENTCOM puts them
on the sidelines, leaving the young Warthog pilots restless—and
reckless. Then the unthinkable happens. During a high-risk training
flight, a rookie wingman slams into the ground.
In the
darkness that follows, Nick wonders if he will ever learn to trust a
wingman again—or even learn to trust himself. He will soon find
out. Despite the black mark on his record, Nick’s application to
the elite Stealth Wing is approved. A recruiter for a new covert team
has taken note of Nick’s unique combination of skills. Suddenly
Nick is swept into Operation Cerberus—a top secret mission that
will take him from a harrowing flight over a black testing facility
to a fight for his life on the Iraqi Dunes.
“Hannibal
brings together a terrific mix of real air technology with intrigue
and nonstop action. A true suspenseful story that will keep you
turning the pages until the exciting finale; it really is a great
tale.”—Clive Cussler
“Get
out of the way, Nelson DeMille. Brad Thor—you’ve got
competition!”—Raymond Benson
“A
feast for thriller lovers!”—Grant Blackwood, New York Times
bestselling author of The Kill Switch
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ReplyDeleteI liked the excerpt - current storyline should make for an interesting read.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like you bring lots of personal experience to your writing.
ReplyDelete