Espionage/Techno Thriller

When CIA assassin, John Taylor, receives an assignment to eliminate a top ranking U.S. Air Force General, he draws the line, even though he knows he will be on the company’s hit list for knowing about an assignment but not carrying it out.

In an attempt to warn the target he is in danger, Taylor becomes entangled in an operation much larger than the assassination of the general.  A top-secret military device has been stolen, and it looks as if the general and his daughter might be involved in the theft. 

When he figures out he, himself, is on someone’s hit list, Taylor is on his own to not only stay alive, but to figure out what the hell is going on and who wants him and the general dead.

When he goes to London to confront or warn the general (he’s not sure which) an attempt is made on Taylor's life by a small group of army rangers.  But, they don’t know the kind of survivor-at-all-costs they have taken on.   He kills all the would-be assassins and makes it to the general’s headquarters in London.

Taylor isn’t prepared for what he encounters; namely, the general’s daughter,  Tracy, an army first lieutenant.   He has never seen a soldier that looks like her, and they soon become lovers.    Tracy is a computer expert and works in the Allied Headquarters, Europe.  Actually, the headquarters is a huge listening station, staying on top of what European leaders are saying in their phone conversations and communications.  It is a spy network headquarters.

Tracy has intercepted a message from a satellite system that isn’t even supposed to be online unless the US is involved in a war.  It’s a highly secret system about which very few people are aware.  The message is a complete dossier on the general and the commander of Army Special Forces.  They are both marked for assassination. 

Taylor’s search, which includes Tracy as an assistant, leads him to a top-secret facility in Utah.  There, a scientist has developed a device that will “see” stealth aircraft and that device is for sale by someone to the highest bidder.

John Taylor’s only living relative is his sister, Doris.  Although he is confident no one knows she exists, when his life is in danger, he sends her off on a trip to Barbados to get her out of the line of fire.  She is kidnapped and held aboard a yacht, so the enemy might lure Taylor into a trap.  They believe he knows where the missing device is hidden.

Taylor doesn’t disappoint them and walks right into their trap.  Then, he finds out Tracy is much more than a lieutenant who knows her way around computers, when she comes to the rescue.

He has always used women and dumped them when it was convenient.  But, he finds himself truly in love for the first time in his life.  Then, as they return to DC from Utah, a passing car fires into their car and Tracy is killed.

Taylor is, to say the least, pissed!  He has always done his job without passion, much like a mechanic changing a tire.  He was given an assignment to kill someone and he killed him or her, always knowing it was for the good of freedom, democracy and his country.  But now, that has changed!  They made it personal when they killed Tracy and he vows to “kill them all,” whomever they are.

A seemingly unrelated incident takes place in the Caribbean.  A team of army rangers fires a deadly missile at a US frigate, then, the army team is all murdered on the shore of Honduras.  The helicopter crew, which ferried the rangers ashore picks up the bodies and takes them to an aircraft carrier on maneuvers in the Caribbean.  As they leave the carrier, a missile shoots down their helicopter.

A large naval fleet is participating in war games, and the president goes to visit the carrier.  Before Taylor killed one of the perpetrators aboard the yacht where Doris had been held, the man told him the entire thing was about assassinating the president.  Now, Taylor realizes a team is aboard the carrier to sink it with explosives, while the president is aboard.  He and a team of rangers thwart their effort, but the ship is badly damaged and nearly sinks.

After all that has taken place, Taylor and a few trusted allies realize the device that was stolen was a phony, but the real device is missing.   Finally, he must confront a rogue CIA agent at a remote location, where the general has hidden the device.  Trapped by the rogue and his cohorts, Taylor finally gains the upper hand and kills the traitor.  The device is recovered and placed directly in the hands of the president.

The story ends with Taylor taking a much-needed vacation to South Padre Island, where his sister Doris has been hiding out with her FBI bodyguard/boyfriend.   He seriously thinks it might be time to resign his hit man position with the CIA, but….

(AUTHOR’S NOTE)  A sequel, with John Taylor returning to his role as a CIA agent, DEATH IS DEADLY, is currently in the works.