Depth of The Light, THE THIRD in the cave sun series
Sex, Betrayal, Power
Attorney Craig Malcault’s special problem is a blessing in disguise: Colleagues in the intelligence community at times do not trust the mental faculties of the rogue, former special operations agent. He could have been Craig’s favorite client. The international spy rings with their own agendas need his expertise. Ara Pacis,’ the failed state’s notorious, covert leadership is preparing for another power grab, but now the complete destruction of Ara Pacis by any means is the spy rings’ ultimate goal. If the failed state survives, its secrets will test the sanity of mankind, and the agent has the key to that experiment.
Craig knows the agent wants a new life, but is he ready to take on the risk? The case will bring Craig one step closer to solving the mystery of Ara Pacis’ sinister world where the extrajudicial killing of unarmed non-combatants can be the norm. As much the classified, covert leadership has promised Craig. Noblesse oblige when the law and morals don’t.
Excerpt
The merciless midday heat had been Stefan’s best friend since infancy. He decided on a walk in the desert to cool his mind and soothe his churning heart at the many trials, traps, and battles ahead. The desert gleamed a furnace into which he passed. The expanse of midday sky, shining from within itself, fell behind him, and the sun's heat protruded into and narrowed his shadow. Far ahead, he detected, rushing, a silent, ferocious flicker. Her spirit was a fata morgana seething in the distance,
longing for heat, twisting, simmering. She was frenzied in her silent scream, attracting him to lead his way.
Stefan fixated on the miraculous being. The near identical landscape of Ara Pacis surfaced in his mind: The secret militia taking to the streets, once again claiming to prevent upheavals that hardly ever occurred. The police once again swapped their pistols for Uzis. The identities of dead bodies were not the same as those of the men and women U.S. military intelligence had listed as missing. Unsuspecting patrols of volunteer police ensured body parts expertly disappeared. The rivers and streams, at times, were awash with corpses in certain places. The patrols meandered, zigzagged through marshes, cut through deep forests to collect evidence, make arrests, enforce order, and provide for the leadership of this land deprived of any government. Through the barred peephole of the entrance to the log cabin on his island, she had seized up George, with the replacement of the head of the security forces already eager in the background. ‘I will kill for you,’ Stefan felt she had said to him, then she had opened the door to admit George to the hell soon to begin. ‘Noblesse oblige,’ Stefan consoled himself. In building the empire, he could not leave a stone unturned. No mistake could mar her secret, hiding behind the black shroud of humble cotton clothing.