Loose Cannon

"so pray ... pray that Jake Cutter
never finds his missing wife."


FBI Special Agent Jake Cutter has a reputation for independent action, stepping on toes and kicking butts, especially those at the CIA. He's also the best Narcotics Agent the D.C. Bureau has.

But his personal life and twenty-year marriage to Verna are in jeopardy. He suspects there's another man, but that’s something he doesn’t want to face – can't face.

So Jake isn’t too bothered when a wanted drug dealer turns up dead in Georgia. Except to close the file on another scumbag. Meanwhile, Verna decides to visit her pregnant sister, Vicky, in Detroit.

When a second body – a murdered trucker, from Detroit, without his truck – is found near the dead dealer, Jake is drawn into a mystery that started five years earlier. And which will end in seven days with the destruction of the American way of life.

Nobody in authority knows about that deadline. But ... a newbie CIA agent at Langley has crucial humint which no CIA boss will listen to....

Oblivious, Jake suspects the trucker murder involves large shipments of heroin or cocaine. Which takes Jake to Detroit to continue investigating the trucking company and other aspects.

Moreover, with Verna nearby, he thinks he can patch up their marriage. But at Vicky's place, nobody's home: she's in a hospital maternity ward, but Verna and her brother-in-law, Tommy, are gone. Missing.

Vanished....

So, while Jake continues the murder investigation and hunting for the hijacked truck, he's now also desperately - but privately - searching for Verna. And at the same time, he's jealously brooding on the unthinkable: Is Tommy the other man in Verna's emotional life?  

Six days into the hunt, Jake gets a lead on Verna’s location: a rural pig farm in southern Michigan. However: she and Tommy are hostages with terrorists who are - right now - on the road, trucking an Hiroshima-style nuclear bomb directly into America’s heart.

When Jake arrives at the now-abandoned farm, he discovers the nuclear plot, alerts D.C. and begins pursuit of the rig. But: he doesn't know Verna and Tommy are prisoners on it.

Worse: He’s heading for Ground Zero – now only sixty ticking minutes from detonation.

And he doesn't know that either....

*****

You can now download the entire novel for free. This was originally self-published wayback under my pseudonym of Cyrus H. Milton. At a future date, though, I'll be publishing a revised edition (minor edits) through one or more major online channels. For now, however, get it while it's free, in PDF format. And, just by the way, it's Part One of a trilogy.

Do, by all means, pass it on to your family and friends, if you wish. But, as with my free short stories, please ensure other readers have the same free opportunity. Thanks.

 

Roger's sign off

Roger J. Burke.

Mixed Mentations


Some Passing Thoughts:



Get the free download of my complete chiastic thoughts in Volume 1, Volume 2 and Volume 3.

Words sounding the same....

Confused by words that sound the same? Almost everybody I've encountered is, sometimes.

They're called homonyms and homophones. And I've maintained a dictionary of them for fifteen years. Click here for more....


Heard about chiasmus?

It's a commonly used language tool. Most people have used it, including you. It's been used continuously for millennia by many of the greatest minds in history.

Join the fun here to see how it works....


Here's the novel app about challenging words used in literary fiction:

It's the app that takes the tedium out of the medium!


Want to go to Papua-New Guinea?

Well ... let me take you there with my non-fiction narrative (aka memoir) about the last years of Australia's colonial life in the 1960s. And where I was a Cadet Patrol Officer from 1961 to 1964.

Read more about it and choose a fully illustrated paperback here or choose the ebook here.


Everybody has an opinion!

Over many years, I've written on a large variety of topics, all of which are here for you to read.

You can browse through the titles here, including one describing in detail how I cured arthritis in my hands. And how, amazingly and inadvertently, the end of a rainbow found me and my wife. I kid you not!


Most people like to see movies....

And I like writing reviews. I've been doing that for years at IMDB.COM. You can read, at IMDB, a few from my entire portfolio here. Or, you can sample a larger selection right here.


Is Terminator coming soon?

The short answer is no. Should you be afraid? Not yet....

For more information, news and articles on that touchy topic, you can read through my roboticswatch blog here at Wordpress.


Novel ideas and stories....

I completed a contemporary thriller, under a pseudonym of Cyrus H. Milton, ten years ago titled Loose Cannon. You can find out more here and get a free copy (PDF) of the original edition.


Here's the short of it.

Short stories are fun to write for many reasons. You can browse all the titles for my shorts here and read them all if you wish.

Note: occasionally, there is foul and profane language and explicit sex in a couple of stories.



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