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    Dead Man’s Switch
    Dead Man’s Switch
    Dead Man’s Switch
    Ebook69 pages1 hour

    Dead Man’s Switch

    By Mike Ward

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    About this ebook

    Present Day:

    An Irish American woman called Mary Berman travels to Ireland to see Ian Morton. Morton was in “The Troubles” and is one of the most dangerous men in all Ireland. Mary Berman wants to know how to build a “Dead Man’s Switch” that will blow her and all the men who come for her to kingdom come. One of the guards with Ian Morton asks what she has done and she answers that so far she has done nothing. The man then says “what the hell are you doing here” but Ian Morton holds a hand up and tells her he will listen to what she has to say.

    Flash forward six years and Mary Berman and five other teams are at six different points twenty miles outside Washington D.C. At precisely 8 pm all teams fire crossbows with steel wires attached to them. Steel wires arc over power lines at six points around the city. One minute later the power goes out all over Washington D.C. It stays off for four days.

    So begins the hunt for Mary Berman and the group she founded. Early on the government comes for a key member Paul Spencer. Rather than be taken Paul Spencer leaps out of the window and dies when he lands head first on the roof of a police car. Always in the background is a shadowy figure known as “The Scarecrow” or “The Wicker Man”. Over the years membership of the group waxes and wanes, sometimes down to just a few key members. But persecution grows and with persecution so does membership. Soon membership is in the thousands, the group becomes unstoppable and the government knows that now things are out of control. Helen Trantor is brought in to hunt down Mary Berman. Trantor is a real dangerous bitch and many times citizens have died after she has taken over an interrogation. Trantor’s assistant John Markham is told that if he doesn’t get results he will be posted to Iran or the hell-hole that is Syria. Markham gets inside the mind of Mary Berman and sees that all this is being driven by just one thing. Without Berman the group would have fallen apart years ago. Eventually Mary Berman is cornered and the government homes in on her, unaware that Ian Morton’s “Dead Man’s Switch” is ready to be activated. Back in Ireland Ian Morton has been watching the news and is amazed that the young woman who came to see him has achieved so much. If Mary Berman dies then Morton will travel to the Caribbean and if he does that then his target will be a major Senator. There are a lot of balls in the air and the government is in the position where it might just drop all of them. What will happen? Read on and find out.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMike Ward
    Release dateMar 15, 2016
    ISBN9781311406064
    Dead Man’s Switch
    Author

    Mike Ward

    Mike Ward was born in Glasgow, Scotland and currently lives in Florida, United States with his wife and two children. He is the author of two novels, two non-fiction books and six series of novellas:Parallel Realities seriesThe House on Mars seriesJacksonville Jack seriesStephen Haggerty Assassin seriesLisa Molin Assassin seriesDangerous Scotsman seriesHe is also the author of 60 short stories and novellas

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      Book preview

      Dead Man’s Switch - Mike Ward

      Dead Man’s Switch

      by Mike Ward

      (Author of The Banker With a Face Full of Evil)

      Cover photo taken in Labadee, Haiti by Mike Ward

      Copyright 2016 Mike Ward

      Published by Mike Ward at Smashwords

      Smashwords Edition License Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your enjoyment only, then please return to Smashwords.com or your favorite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      Table of Contents

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      #ExcerptfromTheBankerWithaFaceFullofEvil

      Dead Man’s Switch

      May 23, 2018

      Is he in here? she said

      He’s waiting for you over there, the man with the hard face said.

      There were several men at the table. I don’t know what he looks like, she said.

      Not many people do. He’s the tall one with dark hair. Don’t be put off by his accent. He’s half Scottish and half Irish.

      She walked across the pub to the table in the back room. She was scared but this had to be done. Ian Morton looked up as she walked over. She had deliberately dressed down. She could look quite pretty but this was not the place for that. There was a scar on Ian Morton’s left arm. She knew how he’d gotten that scar. British soldiers had come for him one night and one of them had gotten himself separated from the others. Morton had cut him down but not before the Brit had opened his arm up right down to the bone. She knew a lot about him. She knew that he favored a kill stroke with the Italian stiletto knife. He’d once killed a minor British politician with a stiletto in a crowded ballroom and he’d been out of the room before the man dropped. He had balls this man. She hoped that he would give her what she wanted.

      She sat down in front of him. She didn’t smile at him, she was direct in the manner of the people in her adopted country. I heard you were in The Troubles" she said.

      Several men looked at her sharply. Two men at another table got up and blocked the exit. He looked at her. If you were a man they would already be taking you out back, he said. If you are here to cause trouble then you might not make it through the night.

      I’m here to get you to teach me how to build a kill switch and when I trip it I want it to blow me and the men who come for me to Kingdom Come.

      He looked interested but there was danger there too, she could see it. She could see in his eyes that there was a chance she might not leave this room alive. The danger would not come from him, she knew that, but the men with him might not let her leave. What have you done? he said.

      I have done nothing.

      You stupid girl. Why are you here? one of the men said.

      Ian Morton held up his hand. I’ll hear what you have to say, he said.

      November 29, 2018

      Mary Berman held a crossbow in her hands. It was bitterly cold and the wind howled across the field. Two men stood with her. One of them held a crossbow and the other one held a watch. The man who held the watch had synchronized it with five other watches the day before. If they were caught the government would never let them go but that would come later, nobody would be expecting this. She looked to her left. A steel post had been hammered into the ground. Attached to the post was a long length of steel wire. That wire was thick enough to carry 100,000 volts of electricity. The other end of the wire was attached to the specially adapted steel bolt in her crossbow. Over to her right the man who held the other crossbow had positioned himself in an exact mirror image of her. It was quiet here and it was 8 pm. They needed darkness and they would need it each time. This time the satellites wouldn’t be looking for them, next time they would. She was glad that so many kids had hacked the drones. If they had drone flights they could never have done this.

      The man behind her began his countdown. Sixty and counting, he said. He sounded like the announcer on one of the old Apollo missions. Forty and counting, he said.

      She shifted her stance and took one more look at the crossbow. She’d already checked it six times. It was good.

      Twenty and counting. Ten and counting, 9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1, Go.

      She hit the trigger and the crossbow fired. The man beside her fired at the same time she did. In five other locations around Washington D.C. five pairs of men fired crossbows that were just like hers. She watched the bolt as it soared into the air. The light of the moon caught it and it caught the line too. Her dead husband had been a poet and had he been here to see this he would have said that the line arcing up would have been poetry in motion. The crossbow bolt hit the top of its arc and began to fall.

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