Dying For LA by Ian Jones (top fiction books of all time .txt) 📕

with a twenty page document on a new mobile ground to air missile which had long since been abandoned due to cost and overall feasibility. He added in his name, rank and number then sent a copy of the cover sheet to Rostov and Yin, and the game was underway.

The only other person he discussed it with was his old friend Colonel Carter, who was as usual impressed and keen to help. He offered to assist in hiding any paperwork which Morgan was very glad about as he couldn’t think of anywhere and this appeared to be key in the game unfolding.

Morgan did a presentation to the Senate on the seminar and requested that he should attend the next summit, which was agreed. For the staff involved this was a win–win, it would mean they wouldn’t have to lose anybody actually useful, Morgan could do no harm there and wouldn’t be missed, he would be retiring soon after anyway.

Morgan was delighted, and enjoyed telling everyone about how important the summit was, then he forgot all about it.

Until six months previously, when he had got a call on his personal mobile phone. It was from a man who did not give his name, but advised that his organisation was working for the Russians to find the plans that Morgan was hiding. He was told that they would succeed. A disbelieving Morgan argued, it was impossible. No, the man told him. His organisation could do anything.

And maybe Morgan would care to use them to find the Russian and Chinese information. The man told him he didn’t care who’s side he was on.

After all, it was only about winning.

Morgan admitted he didn’t think very long about it, the pride of the US army; his army, was at stake. Until he got the call he hadn’t taken it seriously at all, but once he realised the game was actually happening and he had so far done nothing he made the decision, one that would ultimately cause the deaths of innocent people and his own downfall.

There was not much else to ask.

Chapter Forty-Five

The cheeseburger was good again, and even better chased down with a beer. Major Turner was happy. Lieutenant Colonel Mathews was happy. The army was in the clear. Any fallout would go to no more than two individuals, there would be no impact anywhere else. They sat around a table in the corner; Turner and Reed on one side and Mathews and John on the other.

‘You’re welcome back here anytime John, and I mean that,’ Turner said seriously.

‘Thank you. I plan on keeping in touch with Tom anyway.’

‘You better.’ Reed clinked his bottle hard against John’s.

‘You know this thing is almost impossible to imagine. When we first started working on it I thought either the CIA or the FBI would take it and everyone else could forget about it. But it just got more and more complicated. It’s like a bad film. General Morgan, Colonel Carter and poor old Hayter all involved in it and look how it all turned out,’ John said.

‘Well, General Morgan is in it now for sure, I guess he’s looking at jail time and I’m guessing Carter has a lot of explaining to do. He is doing all he can right now for damage limitation. Miraculously he produced the schematics, like he just found them by chance, but there ain’t nobody gonna fall for that. You know I really believe that Hayter had no idea. He was told to look after the drawings and that’s what he did. But Morgan knew that 1-Too were playing both sides, he can’t have told Carter everything,’ Reed pondered.

‘Morgan and Carter were old buddies, and the pair of them also knew Hayter pretty well. So there is a history between them, but for sure Hayter didn’t have a clue what was going on. Hell, all he ever thought about was going to Vegas every weekend. The army was strictly just there for the paycheque every month. My guess is that as soon as Morgan knew he was off to the Pentagon, him and Carter panicked that the drawings could get found. After all, Morgan’s name was all over the schematics, which he would never have been able to explain. So they must have wanted to stash them, and where better than with the guy that runs the stores? Tons of paperwork goes through there every year, nobody would notice. Hayter had no idea what it was, and just stashed it in an old ammo case to get rid of it. He probably forgot all about it. You know we would never have found it, Carter cracked, although he tried to make out he guessed and we got lucky there,’ Turner said with a wry smile.

‘It’s all about money. This kind of crap always is. Always. 1-Too must have decided if the Russians wanted it that badly then so will the US. They would have made it sound easy to Morgan. But this couldn’t have been cheap, and I suppose we’ll never find out where the money came from. Morgan can’t have got it out the army coffers surely?’ John asked.

‘I think I can help there. Colonel Carter’s wife is rich. I mean really rich. So my guess is that is one of the reasons Morgan got him involved, it wouldn’t have just been because they are buddies,’ Turner explained.

‘Rich? Then why the hell is he in the army?’ Reed wanted to know.

‘Appearances. You know how these rich guys look; son-in-law a colonel in the army, it’s all good. He’s a less successful clone of General Morgan, and his father, grandfather, etc. all served, all heavy hitters in the army. So they follow in the footsteps and as we all know, if you’re in with the right people then that’s how to get on. And that ain’t just the military. It’s that shit everywhere. So Colonel Carter is gonna be real uncomfortable now, my bet is he’ll have some kind of a story