Triple Cross is a story with the Deep State, Deep Fakes, Deep Cover.

JD Ross was satisfied with his life. Then, after ten years in the Army, his life is turned upside down because of a relationship that ended eight years before. Kicked out of the Army, the place he felt he truly belonged, he found himself being hunted for a murder he didn’t commit. And through the hunt, he had to protect his daughter. He hadn’t known she even existed, then she was the most important person in his world.

Check it out. It’s available on Kindle, Kindle Unlimited and in print. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08R2Z5ML4/

This was actually one of my favorite stories to write. Some of the Dixon-Prince characters appear in this story, but their roles are minor, although one will be more popular in future Dixon-Prince stories…

I enjoyed creating new characters and placing them in a new setting. I hope you enjoy reading this book, and I’d LOVE for you to leave a review after reading it.

Thank you.

As mentioned Monday ,this is my NaNoWriMo project for 2021. It hasn’t really been edited yet, and there will be a lot of changes before it is developed further. Warren Chestik is a former special forces operator before becoming an undercover agent for my fictional version of the DEA. However, his work has meant abandoning his family far too often.

The four men took off through the woods.  It was half a mile to the house.  They weren’t hurrying.  At four in the morning, there was little activity inside, and they wanted to do their best to be silent and invisible as they approached. 

“Scott, Juke, you guys take the back.  Warren and I will have the front.  We will blow the doors on my mark.”

The two other men disappeared into the gloom without a sound while Jack and Warren moved toward the front of the house.  They stopped just off the porch. 

“Any changes from the drone?” Warren heard Jack say quietly in his ear.

“Negative, Mustang.  All clear,” was the reply.

“Let’s get ready,” Jack said before creeping up the steps onto the porch to the front door. 

He opened a pocket and pulled out something that looked like a rope.  He pressed it around the door and then backed away to the side. 

“Ready to breach,” Warren heard Scott say in his ear. 

“Three…  Two…  One… Go,” Jack said, the door exploding inward on the last word. 

Warren heard the other explosion half a heartbeat later.  He briefly thought the timing must have been as perfect as it could be.  Aside from the last few weeks, it had been a long time since he’d breached a building, and the stakes had never been higher, but it felt like no time had passed since he’d done it in Iraq. 

He rushed through the door and to the left.  Jack was right behind, rolling to the right.  Both men pumped shots into the closest man to each of them.  Warren heard a similar sound at the back of the house.  A moment later, Jack had tasered two of the men, keeping them down.

“Juke, wrap them up and toss me another taser,” Jack said confidently.

Jack neatly caught the taser and holstered it as Warren broke for the stairs. 

“Warren, he knows we’re here.  I have your six,” Jack said. 

As he led up the steps, Jack was right behind him, Scott on their tail. 

“Heat sigs to the left at the top,” Warren heard in his ear from their mysterious overwatch.  He turned that direction as he peeked around the edge.  The corner of the wall exploded with a round striking it. 

“Thirty-eight Special was what he was carrying before,” Scott said over comms.  “Six shots, now five.  Unless he takes the time to reload.”

Warren looked across the hallway.  There was a bathroom, but the door was closed.  He looked back at Jack and Scott, pointed at the door, then himself.  He punched his hand to show them his plan.  A moment later, he exploded across the hall, splintering the door as he slammed into it.  Two more shots rang out from Ron’s direction. 

“That should leave him with three,” Scott said quietly. 

“Jack, I’m going to shoot up the hall… high… ceiling.  One of you can come over here.  Then I’ll need cover to break for the bedroom door ten feet up the hall,” Warren whispered. 

“Roger that,” Scott replied. 

Warren stuck his head out and pumped eight shots from his sidearm into the top of the bedroom doorway at the end of the hall.  At the same time, Scott burst across the hallway into the bathroom almost bowling Warren over.  One shot rang out in response. 

“Two left,” Scott said flatly. 

“Ok, Warren… go for your door on three,” Jack said. 

A few seconds later, the hallway once again lit up with the sound of gunfire as Warren raced up the hall toward the bedroom, diving to the side when he got to the first doorway. 

“I’m in,” he said on the radio a moment later. 

“What’s the play, Warren?” Jack said. 

They could hear a thudding from the bedroom as they waited for a response from Warren. 

“I’m going to go through the wall behind him.  I need him distracted… only for a moment.  I think I can get the rest of the way through in one hit.”

“Roger that,” Jack replied.  Then he yelled out, “Ron March, this is Jack Dixon.  What’s your play?  We can still fix this.”

“Go away, man.”

“I can’t do that, Ron.  Why don’t you let Vivian go, then we can square everything away.  Nobody else has to get hurt here.”

Jack snuck a look around the corner just before another round from the pistol struck the wall just below where his head had been.  At the sound of the gunshot, Warren slammed into the spot he’d selected on the wall.  As promised, he broke all the way though and emerged in the bedroom. 

Ron swung around at the explosion of sound off to his side, seeing the man emerge from the wall, stumbling a couple of steps into the room, then charging him.  He shot his last round at the man, point blank.  The gun clicked just before Ron was lifted from the floor, losing his grip on Vivian.  The man carried him across the room and slammed him into the wall hard enough to break out the sheetrock around two studs. 

Jack rushed down the hall, pulling Vivian away and shielding her from the other men with his body. 

“Warren, I have her.  I have Vivian.”

Scott rushed into the room behind Jack and rolled to the right toward where Warren was pushing Ronald March into the wall.  He pulled Warren off the other man and dropped March to the floor, cuffing him. 

“Warren, I got this.  Jack is taking your wife downstairs,” he said. 

Warren started running back up the hallway, but stumbled at the top of the stairs, collapsing and then rolling down the hardwood steps. 

“Jack, I think Warren is hit,” Scott said into the radio. 

At the bottom of the stairs, Jack turned back, releasing Vivian.  Warren rolled into a heap at his feet. 

“I need medical, right now.  My guy is hit,” Jack yelled for the benefit of the communications person outside.  “Warren, I have you, relax, ok?”

He rolled Warren onto his back on the flat part of the floor and started stripping away the gear that prevented him from seeing the extent of the other man’s injuries. 

“GSW in the leg, another in the shoulder.” Jack said into his comm.  “Vivian, I need you to help me,” he said over his shoulder. 

Vivian was drugged through this exchange, which is why she doesn’t seem to understand what is going on around her. Warren though, is dedicated to protecting her, no matter the personal cost.

If you enjoy this excerpt, check out my full novels. I would recommend Triple Cross, which is a story of Deep Fakes, Deep Cover and Deep State intrigues.

I don’t think I have put this one on the blog. It is a little bit of a spoiler, JD Ross is captured. But now he has to fight for his life. The Deep State powers that set him up want him dead. If he is gone, there is no longer a reason to question the narrative. Check out Triple Cross on Kindle, or get a copy printed.

Thursday, October 29^th–

Prisoner 62665707 had been in isolation since arriving at the Maryland State Detention Center outside of Hagerstown.  He was being kept out of general population… genpop… for safety reasons, restricted to a single cell.

He was resting in his cell.  The lights had been out for a while, but he hadn’t been able to sleep since arriving.  As he lay there, he thought he heard a sound outside the cell.  A moment later he saw a thin sliver of light as his cell door quietly opened and someone slipped in.  As dark as it was, he could only see their shadow against the light coming through the door, but he watched to see if their moves seemed threatening. 

As the shadow approached his cot, he saw them slip something out of their sleeve… a knife.  As the mystery person reached for him, he snatched the man’s arm and twisted it around, pulling him down and off balance.  The knife was in his other hand, and it started down.  He slipped toward the foot of the bed, twisting the man’s arm as he went. 

The knife buried hilt deep in the pillow he’d been laying his head on just a moment before.  There was a sickening snap as the man’s arm finally broke.  It was followed by the prisoner snapping the heel of his hand into the jaw of the attacker.  His head bounced back as he pulled back his hand from the thrust. 

The prisoner was instantly on his feet, driving his fists into the sides of the attacker’s head.  It only took a moment for the attacker to lose consciousness.  The prisoner pulled the knife from the pillow, dropped it to the floor, and kicked it into the corridor outside of his room.  The guards should have been watching the cameras, and he didn’t want them to think he was trying to keep the knife.  He wasn’t going to give them an excuse to do anything to him. 

He sat down on the bed, expecting there would be a guard coming any minute.  Even if they were dozing, the commotion should have alerted them that something had happened in his cell.  He didn’t want to be anywhere near the knife when the guards responded.  Instead, he saw the knife come back in the hand of another inmate. 

“Don’t do it, man,” prisoner 62665707 said. 

“You’re goin’ down, bitch,” was the response. 

The newcomer leapt forward with the knife leading the way.  It was a wild, uncontrolled stab.  The prisoner easily sidestepped the attempted attack, and grabbed the arm holding the knife.  He tried to twist it around, but the newcomer broke free and spun around for a second shot. 

Out of the corner of his eye, Prisoner 62665707 saw a guard standing in the doorway.  In one hand was taser and in the other, his collapsible wand. 

As the knife lurched toward him again, Prisoner 62665707 reached out and grabbed the newcomer’s wrist.  This time he was able hang on and give it a twist.  As his wrist snapped, the newcomer dropped the knife.  Prisoner 62665707 pulled the other man toward him by his broken wrist.  The man cried out in pain as he was hoisted above the Prisoner’s head and then spun around, only to be slammed down on the concrete floor next to the bed. 

Prisoner 62665707 sat down on the bed, the unmoving form on the floor at his feet. 

“What’s going on here, Ross?” the guard finally said. 

“You tell me, Boss.  I was laying on the bed when the first guy came in.  Then waiting for you guys when the second one came in.  Not exactly like I can open the door, you know?”

“Don’t be a smart-ass.  Not if you want to make it to trial.”

Another guard walked into the cell behind the first.  It was obvious by the reaction of the first guard that he hadn’t been aware of the second until he’d stepped into his peripheral vision.

“Come on, Man!  It’s not like I’m trolling for trouble.  I’ve been in this room continuously for two days.  I’ve been outside for exactly two hours, and there were no other prisoners in the yard when I was out.”

More guards removed the beaten attackers.  A moment later, his cell door was once again locked, and he was left alone. 

“Watch yourself, Ross,” the second guard said through the door.

“I guess sleeping is off the table for a while,“ JD said through the small window in his cell door.  He walked back over and sat back down on his bed. 

I hope you enjoyed this little slice of Triple Cross. The book has a lot more action, as well as a touch of romance. Pick up your copy today!

Triple Cross is technically in the Dixon-Prince universe, but it isn’t part of the main storyline. There are a couple of characters that cross over, but it is mostly out of convenience. Oddly, there is a more solid connection in one of the books currently in progress. In Sniper (which is about one of Jack Dixon’s security people) we will find out how Ellen Stewart was pulled into the Dixon-Prince world.

Tuesday, October 20^th–

Christi bounded over the forest roads like a rally driver, catching air on some of the rises and sliding the little SUV through turns sideways.  She’d found a route over the mountains on backroads that would get her out of Colorado quickly and she could be a couple of hours into Arizona by daybreak.  With any luck, she would be in Vegas by late-afternoon.  Dinner at the latest. 

As she drove just outside St. George, Utah, she picked up one of the burner phones she’d acquired.  She dialed a number and waited as the phone rang. 

“Joseph,” she said when the man answered after the third ring, “you lied to me.  You said you were going to keep Jason safe and not let the Russians follow-through on their plan.  You let them kill the Senator and you have left Jason holding the bag for something you know he didn’t do.”

“Miss Nova,” Sanders replied, “I have no idea what you’re talking about.  You have gone rogue and helped your boyfriend kill a US Presidential candidate… an honored Senator.  How much have the Russians paid you to turn your back on this country which has done so much for you?”

She pulled to the side of the road and pulled up the internet on another phone.  She opened her bank account and found the balance to be just over ten million dollars.  If they wanted to play that game… make it look like she took the money, she would take it and then use it to fund their downfall.  She quickly keyed in a series of transfers, eventually leading to an account in the Caymans that she’d been using to shelter money she was saving.  It wasn’t traceable for either the Russians or the Americans.  She only left a few hundred dollars in the account so she could ping it to throw off pursuit.

“You tell me, Joseph.  I’m sure you’re the one that authorized the transfers.  I should have known you were lying to me the whole time.  I won’t make the same mistake twice.  How long have you been cooperating with the SVR?”

“Again, Miss Nova, I surely don’t have any idea what you are talking about.”

She ended the call and pulled back out onto the road.  A couple of miles later, she pulled into a gas station and filled up the Cherokee, using her debit card.  It would be a loud ping to anyone searching for her.  After pumping the gas, she walked into the store and picked up a few snacks.  She bumped into a man coming around the end of one of the aisles, dropping the phone into his pocket.  Two minutes later and she was back on the road, headed west toward Las Vegas.  Her phone was headed south. 

Her third phone pinged a file upload notification.  She picked it up and looked at it as she drove along the deserted road.  She was pretty sure that would be the last piece she needed. 

***

Joseph Sanders hung up the phone.  He was pissed.  When he’d originally taken over handling Christina Nova, his primary goal had been getting in her pants.  She was hot, and as far as he was concerned, that was her primary attribute.  She was already involved with the Russians, but to his knowledge, they hadn’t used her for anything of value.  He just assumed that the only reason they kept her around was because of her parents, and possibly to use in a honey-trap. 

Then they had started talking about this business with Ross.  At first, he didn’t know who it was actually being set up by… but they were running it.  When she approached him about the Russian involvement, he reported it to his superiors, and he was told to let it run its course.  After a few weeks, he figured out what was really happening.  By then, he was in too deep.  He was implicated and there was no way out unless the op ran to completion.  She hadn’t been the one that played him, but he’d been too busy staring at her ass to see what was really going on. 

“Max,” he said when he placed his call, using his normal trace masking service, “we have a problem.”

…

“She knows.  Nova might not know that Connors is pulling the strings, but she knows that we’re talking.  And she might be smart enough to figure out Connors, and then that Hayes is connected to this.”

…

“Las Vegas or Phoenix would be my guess.  I had her in southwest Utah a few minutes ago.  The phone is still active.  It looks like it’s headed to Phoenix, but Vegas isn’t out of the question.  Do you have assets that can take care of her?”

…

“As soon as she lights somewhere, I’ll get the location to you,” Sanders said before ending the call.

***

Sitting in a rest area off I-15, just outside of Las Vegas, Christi listened to Sanders’ end of the phone call he’d made to Maxin Bogdanov.  “I got you, bastard.  Now I just need the evidence to hang the rest of your friends,” she said in triumph. 

She pulled out of the rest area and rejoined traffic headed to Las Vegas.  She had a few more tricks up her sleeve.  Hopefully, she’d be alive to make them happen.  But first, she needed to sit down with her computer and put together a care package for Detective Clay.  He seemed like a smart and curious cop, and if so, he would be ready for another piece of the puzzle.  First, she had another call to make.

“Ellen, it’s Christi.  Please help him,” she said as soon as her friend picked up the phone.

“Christi?  Oh my God, where are you?” was the reply. 

“That isn’t important.  What is important is keeping him from getting killed.  There are powerful people that REALLY want him dead before he casts any doubt on being the killer.  He didn’t do this.”

“I know he didn’t.  But, right now, more than anything he wants to protect Jane, and I will do everything I can to help him… and help him protect her.”

Christi could feel the tears welling up in her eyes.  “You’re a good friend, Ellen.  I’m so thankful for you.  Jane is the only person more important to me than Jason.”

“I understand, and you have my word.  I will do everything I can for them,” Ellen replied.

Christi knew how much Ellen cared for Jason.  It had been obvious from the first time they’d met.  She had idolized him then.  He and her brother had been best friends as long as anyone could remember.  Despite her affection for Jason, or maybe because of it, the two women bonded after he left for the Army.  Christi was an only child but had often dreamed of having a little sister.  Ellen had become that little sister to her. 

Ellen hadn’t known, but Christi had been involved behind the scenes in Ellen getting her job.  And several times over the years, Christi had found herself in a place to secretly assist her.  One time, a couple of years before, Ellen had been in Berlin and Christi had seen her in a club.  She had to fight the temptation to talk with her, but she knew that it would be easier for everyone if she remained hidden. 

If she’d known then what she knew now, so many things would be different. 

If you enjoyed this, you should enjoy the rest of it. Triple Cross is a story with Deep Fakes, Deep Cover and a Deep State plot. One soldier stands in the way. All he wants is to prove his innocence.

A question that I’m commonly asked is, in what order should I read your books?Read More

Whatever order you read them in is cool with me, though… as long as you read them. 😉

One advantage to ebooks is the ability to push no content to them. The issue I’ve been having is that as I have updated them… finding a typo or clarifying a paragraph… that update hasn’t been populating existing copies. I have been working the last few weeks (and probably another two weeks) to correct that.

Amazon doesn’t make it easy. Read More

Anyway, thanks… and go buy some books. And subscribe and get a FREE book… Thank you.