The Holiday: SERPENT, #1

By Andrew Hubbert

With the war in Syria heating up and western interests in the region at stake would people really go as far as helping one side?

With an agent in trouble when she finds out the answer, Adam Harriott is tasked with helping her escape all whilst he is on holiday. Oh and this just happens to be his first holiday with his girlfriend... 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Andrew Hubbert
• Release date: Feb 10, 2017
• ISBN: 9781386071730

Andrew Hubbert

Andrew is 22 and lives in Liverpool, UK. He graduated from University of Leicester in 2016 with a degree in Physiotherapy. He works full-time as a Physiotherapist for Liverpool Community Health NHS Trust and also does sports worm in his part time. Reading was always a massive part of Andrew's childhood and adult life and he loves nothing more than immersing himself in a book especially when on holiday. He only writes books that he would read and he hopes that you'll enjoy them as much as he enjoys writing them!

Book preview

I dedicate my first fiction novel to Hannah. She needs no introduction and she’s been inspirational in making this work a reality. She’s my rock. I also dedicate this work to you – my readers! Without you this book wouldn’t even have been thought about. I enjoy seeing each one of you download my book and I will continue to do so!

Enjoy!

Prologue

It was the middle of the day and the sun was bouncing off every surface it stuck. Dancing off the beads of sweat that kept appearing on the olive-skinned man’s forehead. Even though it was approaching 37 Celsius the man wore a full business suit: pinstripe navy trousers and jacket, a crisp white shirt and an aqua blue tie. The outfit was completed with black Italian-leather loafers and black, mirrored sunglasses. The suit was clearly tailored and fitted the average frame of the man perfectly. He wasn’t wiry like the man who approached from across the square, but he also wasn’t too stocky and imposing like the huge wall of a man who stood behind him.

Being the CEO of ChemTech had to have some perks, the man smiled to himself, after all his father had always told him that there was only one certain thing in life – humans were always killing each other. His father had been foolish though staying in the gun business far too late. There were too many players and the laws were too strict. Pedro himself, though had done well, building ChemTech up from nothing to be a world player in the manufacture of chemical agents, literally they made everything from household bleach to military grade aircraft polish and even now had branched into fertilizers and pesticides. Some even had suggested they were expanding quicker than McDonalds. Pedro laughed to himself thinking of how rich the firm had made him and this man that he was meeting was about to make him ever richer.

So what can I do for the lovely government today then? Pedro asked sarcastically as the man approached him. He had been to school with Alberto Martinez and they had only parted ways when they both got jobs. He had always been the ambitious one whilst Alberto had always settled for what he had been easily able to achieve. Not this time. They had both been working on a secret project for a while now. It had all started with the so-called ‘Arab Spring’ after Libya had been taken over by rebels, everyone had thought good for them, standing up for themselves. Pedro even remembered applauding at the TV, but then even the people themselves forgot they were united and started infighting. It was now a very dangerous place to be with no certain future. This created problems for companies like ChemTech who mined for precious, rare earth metals in the area. It created problems for governments too, as they had used the company as a cheap source of oil. There was no time frame as to when both of these things would be back to how they were. So, when the same started to happen in Syria, the Spanish government had decided to make sure the rebels could never win.

There had been problems though, and that’s why ChemTech had been brought in. For starters, the government had never thought that the UN would act so quickly and basically declare that the world was on the side of the rebels. Then they knew they needed a discrete but effective plan. Chemical weapons. Initially Pedro had almost walked out of the room, but he was a business man and the money was so much better than he would get for any other project. Besides, how could he be implicated? The government wanted him to disguise the weapons as pesticide and the only people who knew what they truly were the scientist that created the nerve gas and packaged it, him, Alberto and some high up in the CNI (the Spanish version of MI6 or the CIA) who was charged with getting the stuff to Assad’s men in Syria.

The latest shipment has gone ahead with no problems Alberto said in a matter of fact tone like he was talking about shipping toys However we have a problem.

Well... Pedro said

Our man in the CNI has reason to believe that intelligence on the operation has been taken Alberto worried how his friend would react to this news, after all Pedro had never been known to be a reasonable or fair man. After all, that was why he was the CEO of ChemTech and why he had been picked for this operation – no morals and ruthless.

WHAT? How could that happen? Pedro was fuming, his face going red I thought you said we could trust this guy?

Alberto was expecting this and simply said he’s handling it, something to do with a spy in his house, a girl, I’ll send you the full briefing I got from him when I get back

Pedro knew that suddenly this had suddenly escalated far beyond his control you mean at any moment I could have a foreign government, heck even our government, trying to kill me? After letting the rhetorical question sink in for a moment he added: I’ll also handle this, after all it’s my ass on the line the most!

He stormed off towards the furthest corner of the square with his bodyguard who had already called for the limousine to be brought around. This instantly drew up in front of Pedro, who had now reached the cobble stone T-junction which made up this corner of the square. The bodyguard opened the door and his employer stepped into the cool air conditioned luxury interior. The driver moved away towards the ChemTech offices.

All Pedro thought about was what had been said in that very short, but extremely important meeting. No wonder they had had to meet face to face he thought. He would’ve definitely called Alberto a joker if he had told him that over the phone. There was only one person he knew he could rely on to sort this mess out. After all you needed a little more than good luck to start from nothing and become a worldwide leading chemical firm. He was talking about ‘the ghost’. The man sent shivers down his spine after the brutal way some of his competitors had died. Yes, the ghost was perfect for this. He vowed to contact him later and visibly relaxed back. He had a plan.

Chapter 1

Adam Harriott woke up at 11:00am on the dot this Sunday morning. It was too hot in his room and too bright for his eyes as he squinted, only able to make out the vague shapes that made up his room, the wardrobe and bedside table came into view first. These light wooden structures made his room look quite studenty, like many of his mates’ rooms at University Adam had always thought. He yawned. Too tired to be getting up at this time he thought and rolled back over in the double bed pulling the blue duvet cover up over his head to the matching pillows. This worked for all of five seconds until MAGIC! – Rude woke him up. It took him a little while to realise that this was his new alarm tone before finally rolling back the covers, switching off the alarm on his iPhone and quite literally rolling out of bed. This was a bad move he realised too late as because he had been feeling lazy last night so there was a pile of stuff including his laptop by his bed. Painful to roll onto Adam thought rubbing his back as he headed to the bathroom for a shower.

Dammit Adam shouted and ran back into his bedroom, more awake now he looked at the time. 11:15 meant he only had an hour until he had to pick Helen up. Then he realised. An hour, plenty of time. He visibly relaxed, his muscled shoulders sinking back down as he headed back into the bathroom to have his shower. Man, he was tense this morning! It all had to do with Helen visiting.

Adam had started going out with Helen a year earlier. They had met on a night out; Adam had been visiting a mate who went to Leicester University and Helen actually went to the Uni. She had been the girl that was clearly attracting a lot of attention and this had put Adam off at first, never one to make moves, but after she came over and started chatting the pair had hit it off really well.

Adam smiled to himself at the thought of that night out, it had been really perfect, even if he would never admit that to anyone, and even now the pair were still as great together as ever. He quickly opened his wardrobe and wondered why he bothered. Looking over at his office style blue chair tucked under his desk he could see the clothes he needed were on the back of there. No need to select something new. He pulled on some black socks and grey boxers before grabbing a red Bench t-shirt and some crosshatch jeans. He wasn’t a person that stuck to brands but he had to admit that the branded stuff was nicer. He realised that most of his hoodie collection had been put in the wash by his mum. She was really on top of the washing he thought as he went back to the wardrobe and pulled out the sole remaining light grey hoodie. Peeling logo and all, it would have to do.

He realised that most of his good stuff was packed anyway, seeing the black wheeled suitcase on his floor he was filled with a rush of excitement. He was going on holiday tomorrow with his parents and Helen. This was quite exciting as it was the first holiday Adam had been on without just being stuck with his parents, he was excited that I was his first holiday with Helen too but the freedom of them doing whatever they wanted whenever they wanted was the best part. Plus, he hadn’t seen Helen in about a month. He never wanted to admit it, made him look weak, but he did miss her blonde hair and the fact that they always found something to laugh about. They just worked, he smiled to himself.

Picking up the Vauxhall branded keys, his keys, he headed out of the house shouting a hurried goodbye to his Mum and Dad as after having loads of time he was suddenly cutting it fine.

***

Helen had had a terrible morning. Firstly, she had to get up early in order to make her train. She hated getting up early and the fact that she hadn’t been able to sleep last night had made things even worse. She had tried to sleep in but at 7am her own personal foghorn blared HELEN you need to get up. Her mum. After a few more of these shouts she couldn’t stand it and had got up, hair everywhere and yesterday’s make-up still all over her face. Why hadn’t she taken it off? She thought to herself as she had to quickly get ready.

After a wash and a make-up wipe to her face she was ready to start getting ready to go out in public. She never plastered herself with make-up or took forever to get ready but she did like to look nice and make at least a little bit of effort for her boyfriend. She chucked on the first things she found that weren’t packed, some short denim shorts