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PREVIEW of Chapter Four

The Chronicles of Moses
The Man who would be Pharaoh
Epic Novel




- The Man who would be Pharaoh



By Paul Rodricks



– The Man who would be Pharaoh


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Historical-Ancient-Egyptian-Biblical Fiction Thriller.  

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Glossary of Ancient Egyptian Names  

Senmut, Senenmut        “Mother’s brother” 
Kemet                          Egypt, ‘black’ land 
Waset                          Thebes 
Mennefer                      Memphis 
On                               Heliopolis
Ta-Seti                         Cush, Kush
Ta netjer                       Punt

Read the preview of the CHAPTER four here:


PART ONE 

 CHAPTER FOUR


   1510 BC – Tuthmosis III


     When his father Tuthmosis II died, Tuthmosis born in the year 1510 BC was a two-year old child. His mother Iset, concubine of his late father raised him in the royal household. After his mother died, his stepmother Hatshepsut brought him up living with his “half-brother”, Senenmut.

Tuthmosis' father, Tuthmosis II married Hatshepsut, but the union did not bear any issue. On his death, the infant Tuthmosis became the next-in-line Pharaoh. Now, since Tuthmosis was a minor Hatshepsut, already a Co-regent during his father's rule took over the reign of the ruling Pharaoh.

During the growing up and learning period of his life Tuthmosis, accepted and took for granted the governance role of his stepmother and Senenmut, her trusted aide. Meantime, the young Tuthmosis was receiving the prescribed academic and military training and taking part in the governance affairs at the Royal Court. The Amun-Ra priesthood introduced him into their fraternity after he completed his study to be a high priest.

When Tuthmosis was 18 years old, the Ruling Council awarded Hatshepsut with the title of Queen Pharaoh, but not without opposition from the clergy. 

On reaching adulthood, Tuthmosis realized Hatshepsut’s strong influence on his life as an astute politician, diplomat, and civil administrator. She had already built an enviable reputation for herself in the Kemet Empire including the southern regions. There was peace and prosperity during her reign. In Kemet, Hatshepsut had also commissioned several civil projects. 

Considering his stepmother’s domineering personality it would have been a folly to utter a word of dissent against her. But as he grew older and gained expertise, he was developing and strengthening his confidence and the contacts he would need later. 

He had also witnessed the rise of Senenmut, whom she had appointed her Chief Steward after proclaiming herself as the Queen Pharaoh. Years ago, he had noted the growing intimacy between them. It remained no more a secret among the courtiers and officials when his stepmother gave birth to their love child, Neferure. 

Seeds of bitter dissent against Hatshepsut and Senenmut were taking root in the mind of young Tuthmosis. He was beginning to feel usurped of his right to the throne by his stepmother - “that hated, lying, despicable woman.” The vile Senenmut pretended to rule as her Co-regent while sidestepping him, Tuthmosis, the legal heir to the throne to suffer humiliation. 

Meantime, a new generation of court officials and politicians including those in the Amun-Ra priesthood, were making their presence felt. They willfully rallied behind Tuthmosis, as one of their generation.  

To them, Tuthmosis was a natural leader, who had proven his talent for combat and military skills. He had inherited his grandfather’s qualities for warfare.   

                                                                ***

To be continued ....

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PREVIEW of Chapter 4

TERROR BLOODLINE Series Book 1


CROSSFIRE   Book #1


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CROSSFIRE  Book #1 



Terror Bloodline Series

Featuring Ex-CIA Agent, Jon Bradley



By Paul Rodricks


International fast-paced Action #Thriller 

# Suspense #Adventure 

#Crime  #Mystery


Reviews: 


"The fact that it is the first of three books makes Crossfire all that more compelling plus it's a fun to read. Paul POV shifts from telling a story to the illusion of real time which creates a healthy tension throughout. One of the finer elements in the book that helps make it authentic is the authors knowledge of the geo areas where the story takes place."


"The novel is multidimensional. There are several plot elements working simultaneously that the author handles with skill. The murder of his friend and the personal relationship between Jon and his lady friend, a rape victim, add depth to the novel. The story shifts between the current investigation and his previous, very dangerous, actions in Lebanon as a CIA operative."


Read here the Preview of the CHAPTER FOUR from this Thriller,                                                          
                                               CROSSFIRE


                                        CHAPTER FOUR   

                                  BEIRUT, Lebanon - 1993  
                                      American Embassy   

It was 20 minutes later that they arrived at the Embassy building, without any further untoward incident.  There, he first met with Richard Darwin, the Beirut Station Chief and the Deputy Station Chief, Ignatius Brasconi. 

“Welcome to Beirut, Jonathan Bradley. I believe you have had your first taste of what the normal life is like in this unpredictable city,” Richard said to him lightly, watching Bradley with keen interest, as they shook hands. 

The Station Chief, Jonathan observed, was in his early fifties, of medium built, gray-black thinning hair, and sharp light blue eyes – his trained body language showing the outward signs of a man of ease, behind his hard interior.  

Darwin was the longest-serving Station Chief in this strife-torn city and had seen it all.  He was held in esteem for his interrogation skills. 

“Yes, Sir.  But not unlike what we have been instructed about and told to expect.” 

“You will experience a lot worse once on the job, Jonathan.” 

Then turning to Brasconi, the station chief said, “Ignatius has been with me for a while longer than the other Agents. He will introduce you to the other Staff and brief you about your immediate assignment.  You are taking over from the outgoing Case Officer, Robert Armstrong.  You already know that?”

“I have been so briefed, Mr. Darwin.” Bradley answered.  He glanced at the brown folder with his name written on it, containing his dossier, lying atop his superior’s desk.

“Good.  We meet every morning at 8.30 AM in the conference room, unless you are involved in a covert field operation, which would keep you away from reporting personally.  In that case, I would need you to submit the daily reports at the earliest you are able to.  Meantime, you will stay in touch on the phone with Brasconi here and keep him informed,” he paused to continue, “In the event of any emergency, you will have direct phone-line access to me and Ignatius, and next to the PRO and our Secretaries.

“As for your duties, you will be briefed and instructed by the outgoing Case Officer & PRO, Robert Armstrong.  You will relieve him after he has brought you up-to-date and you have had the turnover meetings with his contact-agents and possibly the cold-meetings to re-connect with past agents.” 

“I understand that, Sir”.

“I am sure, you do. Once again, welcome aboard, Jonathan.”  He extended his hand to Bradley, which the latter took, and later left the Station Chief’s office. 

Following the afternoon work break, he was introduced to the Embassy staff consisting of several Cover Officers like himself, the Secretaries, Cryptographers and Clerks, all the individuals he would be interacting with. 

Later, Bradley was shown to his living quarters in the Embassy housing compound where the rest of the American staff also lived, some with their wives and children.

Next morning, Bradley went to Robert Armstrong’s office room on the fifth floor of the Embassy building to begin his first day as the CIA operative in Beirut. 

The outgoing agent, aged about 47 years, with regular and distinct features, looking tanned and displaying an amicable nature, was temporarily assigned to PRO duties as he was being rotated out until his next posting.  

During the first week, Jonathan went through the files – personal dossiers, case documents, intelligence records and contact--reports, photos, pictures and notes concerning the relevant case-studies and the individuals he would be handling or trying to establish contact with.  

One of the cases meant interacting with the MI6, the British Intelligence Agency. 

He used some of his free time in making the acquaintance of the local staff recruited by the Embassy such as, the consular secretaries, clerks and others handling the U.S.A. travel and visa requirements of the Lebanese people. 

In a few months, Jon Bradley would be befriending the beautiful young Christian Lebanese Secretary, Brigitte Fawzi, working in the consular section, a twenty-five year old single woman, fluent in French and English. 

Their intense relationship would last until the end of his second tour in Beirut, ending under unexpected and tragic circumstances.

As a Case Officer, Bradley’s most difficult task was to recruit a local person as his agent and afterwards to control him or her.  Some came in willingly, including the frequent walk-ins, while most had to be worked over or coerced or seduced.  But, in every case, he had to make sure that the source had a genuine reason for coming over.  Both the case officer and the agent knew each other by their code names or aliases only, to safeguard their personal safety and the disclosure of the intelligence operation. 

To familiarize Bradley with his outdoor routine, Armstrong started taking him to the usual haunts in downtown Beirut, the Hamra Street in Ras Beirut, the Gemmayze street, the Corniche and other places, visiting the popular hotels, restaurants, cafes, bars, art galleries, sports and  beach clubs. 

These locations were frequented by all levels of diplomats, journalists, reporters, spies, informants, undercover terrorists and the like for their morsel of stories, information, disinformation, gossip and self-indulgence. 

Finally, it was time for Armstrong to make his first turnover of an important agent to Jonathan.  

The three of them met over dinner at the Bedford Hotel situated close to American University of Beirut, Pigeon Rocks.


To be continued...


Next:  CHAPTER FOUR  (continuation) -
 
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PREVIEW OF CHAPTER THREE

INFLIGHT 
Book #2  

Terror Bloodline Series

Book #2
Terror Bloodline Series



INFLIGHT  Book #2 


Terror Bloodline Series


Featuring Ex-CIA Agent, Jon Bradley



International fast-paced Action #Thriller 

# Suspense #Adventure 

#Crime  #Mystery


Books #2 INFLIGHT continues with the action oriented plot of dangerous and intriguing, multi-dimensional  characters revolving around a family sharing a terrorist bloodline, including their agenda of personal vendetta. 


Read here the Preview of CHAPTER THREE of the Thriller INFLIGHT

CHAPTER THREE

Greenwich Village, Manhattan 
Investigating Eugene Lewek’s Homicide
Monday Morning - Earlier

As instructed by Jonathan Bradley, the junior FBI officer, Brian Smith, was revisiting the crime scene area at the Greenwich Village residence area of the murdered, retired CIA secret agent, Eugene Lewek.

The latter had been Jon’s friend and mentor. Bradley now suspected that his brutal beheading, carried out execution-style, was linked to the Islamic-Jihadist terror-cell, recently raided by the Mossad Kidon in an illegal operation on the American soil.

Brian had taken with him from the pool of FBI’s contract workers a middle-age metal fabricator and tools specialist, Peabody, who took apart the steel filing cabinet, panel-by-panel and drawer-by-drawer.

Meantime, Brian occupied himself in checking minutely each of the seven files found in the bottom drawer, which had been left behind by the unknown gang of assassins.

He was done with the fifth file when he was suddenly interrupted by Peabody’s elated cry, “what have we here…?”

Brian saw him unscrewing a secret panel in the last drawer, attached to the single vertical steel-sheet forming the back panel for all the drawers.     

They hadn’t to wait long.  Out toppled a manuscript along with additional pages of handwritten, scribbled notes and a few photographs from inside it.

Both of them had hand gloves on, but it was Brian who picked up the manuscript and the spilled contents from the bottom drawer. He immediately put them into the official brown Kraft envelope meant for storing evidence found at the crime scene.      
The young FBI officer noted down the contents, and the place, date and time on the outside of the envelope.  He and Peabody signed on it to authenticate as witnesses to the discovery of the evidence.     

They continued with their relevant tasks, later spending time at other places in the house, including the garage where the killing had taken place.  No trace of any further clues or evidence was found.

Eugene’s place had already been subjected to forensic examination by the NYPD Manhattan Crime Squad.  However, the forensic reports, including latent fingerprints and the autopsy findings were yet to be made known.     

When Brian and Peabody had finished with the house, they came outside and surveyed the landscape grounds.  Eugene Lewek’s house was the last one in line with other houses, separated by a small row of tall shrubs and a solitary mid-size elm tree.      

Standing under the elm-tree, Brian was able to get the full view of the garage and the front of the house.  The tree foliage was thick with the branches spreading out. He had difficulty in seeing clearly through the varying patterns of the leaves and the branches.

“Peabody, will you bring the folding ladder, which we saw in the garage?”

Peabody nodded and left to fetch the aluminum ladder.  He returned shortly, unfolding and setting it ladder against the trunk of the elm.     

Brian, a slim, gym enthusiast, climbed up the rungs, his eyes searching, and finally reaching the top of the four-meters-length of the ladder.  He had to climb through some tight space, brushing aside some of the low-hanging branches.     

As he surveyed into the interior of the foliage, and changed his position on the ladder to look behind, his eye caught sight of an unnatural movement atop a branch.  Then he saw the glint reflecting from a box-shape enclosure clamped into the branch of the elm tree. He immediately realized that it came from the exposed, moving eye-lens of a hidden camera.

The wayward twigs in front of the lens had been clipped to provide a clear view.

Brian had to climb farther up two branches to get within reach of the concealed, apparently battery-operated, surveillance camera.  It was secured onto the branch and the exterior given a coat of green paint to camouflage its presence among the foliage.     

He shouted at the contract worker standing down below, “Peabody, I am coming down.  There’s a surveillance camera set up here that you will have to uninstall and bring down.”     

A few moments later, he was back on his feet on the ground.

“Take your tool-kit with you.  You will need it to undo the clamps.  Keep your hand gloves on.  We would not want to smudge the fingerprints, if any.”     

“I will be careful, Sir. I will let down the camera to you, placed inside the canvas bag tied to the nylon rope, which I have in here,” Peabody said, tapping the tool kit.     
“Switch off the battery power first; there’s a black button outside the camera enclosure.”    

Peabody’s medium stature and slightly heavier built did not deter him from quickly going up the ladder, but he had some difficulty in reaching the particular branch, four feet above the top rung.  He struggled awhile to secure a safe foothold on the two branches above him and finally was straddling the branch he sought.     

Using liquid spray to loosen the clamps and screws, Peabody began to unscrew the enclosure from the sturdy limb of the elm tree.  The rust-bitten screws in the last leg of the enclosure’s clamp resisted his attempts to loosen them, but he soon overcame that, perhaps the motion spurred by the intermittent flow of his expletives.     

Five minutes later, Peabody had lowered down the canvas bag and himself come down.     

Brian was happy with the turn of events. He had completed his mission successfully and knew that Jonathan Bradley and the investigation team, as a whole, would be elated with the results.     

As Brian and Peabody left the premises of the late Eugene Lewek, a pair of eyes watched them through field-glasses from the far-off side of the street.   

***

To be continued...


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