MASSAGE THERAPY I first met Ricky sitting at bar on Walking Street in Pattaya. He was tall and thin and pretty much bald, hunched over a glass of iced water. He seemed a bit miserable and I’m a cheerful enough chap so I asked him what was wrong. He had one hell of a story – most people mov...
One of the advantages of working for MI5 was that life was never boring, but that wasn’t always necessarily a good thing and sometimes there was a price to be paid. His day had started out as a good one but all that had changed when the men in ski masks had bundled him into the back of a Transit ...
It’s a great city to kill in. The best. You've got something like fifteen million people living cheek by jowl, and most of them couldn't give a damn about anyone else. No one wants to get involved. No one gives a damn. It's terrific. Walk down any street in the Big Bad Apple and the only time you...
‘Can I get you anything else, gents?’ she asked. She was Australian, in her mid-twenties, with a sprinkle of freckles across her upturned nose, and breasts that rippled under her black T-shirt. The younger of the two men raised his beer and winked. ‘Your phone number?’ The barmaid’s eyes hardened...
A football match was playing on a television mounted above the door but they paid it no attention. Dennis Weaver was holding court. He was a big man gone to fat, with a gut as large as a full-term pregnancy that bumped the table each time he moved. He was wearing an England football shirt and gle...
Afghanistan. Dan ‘Spider’ Shepherd shifted position slightly, trying to ease the pressure from the rocks beneath him and the ammo belt pressing into his chest. He lay prone, scanning the terrain through his sniperscope. A rough dirt road ran along the foot of the hillside below their observat...
Seven thirty. It was Saturday, his first weekend behind bars. There was no work at weekends, and no breakfast packs in the cells: breakfast was served at the hotplate. Shepherd had found himself waking at seven thirty every morning, a few minutes before the prison officers started the roll-call. ...
‘He was in Spain for a while, hanging out with the Costa del Crime mob, putting together cannabis deals out of North Africa. Things got a bit hot for him in Spain so he relocated to Thailand. Lives quite the life out there, I’m told.’ Shepherd shrugged. ‘Like I said, we’re not that close any more...