Custos: The Fin

By Jake Aaron

On his last day of work, the Nation’s top covert operator has an overwhelming sense of doom. As he flies home from Heathrow Airport, the unexpected occurs. His beautiful seat mate asks his help at the last minute. He must summon everything he has ever learned to try to save the 333 people aboard the flight as everything goes wrong.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jake Aaron
• Release date: Jun 18, 2018
• ISBN: 9780463082409

Jake Aaron

The author is an award-winning essayist in competitions at college, the Freedoms Foundation, and a major command of the United States Air Force. He is a distinguished graduate of a United States service academy and was first in his MBA and MS classes. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross as an aircraft commander in combat. Later, he was the first pilot to land his series jet on McMurdo Sound’s ice runway in Antarctica. He served as an instructor pilot, flight examiner, acquisitions program manager, engineer, senior command-and-control director, and squadron commander. In a subsequent career, he was a top territory manager for several leading international medical companies.

Book preview

Copyright © 2015 Jake Aaron. Except as provided by the Copyright Act of 1998, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher.

A Custos Prequel

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

" Custos : The Fin, ’’a prequel, occurs before Custos: Enemies Domestic.

Dedicated to those who are professional to the end.

Custos: The Fin

Stan had an overwhelming sense of doom on what he was told, should be the happiest day of his life.

Stanley Bricker boarded a large turbojet at Heathrow Airport. The flight would be eight hours and thirty minutes, non-stop to Dulles Airport. At the last minute, he had personally paid for the upgrade to first class. He normally wasn’t a moody person, and he didn’t really care much about personal comfort. However, he knew most people got an emotional lift when they upgraded to first class. He had doubts about whether this would work for him, but it was worth a try. Maybe the last day of his career left him feeling depressed. That was totally possible, since his work had been his life. To be precise, his down feeling seemed more of a foreshadowing of bad events than anything. He really couldn’t pin it down.

He had a roomy window seat that let him stretch out his five-foot-eleven athletic frame. Coming aboard, he had scanned the interior of the aircraft for nearby exits — ingrained situational awareness. As he quickly scanned the plastic safety and egress cards, his seat mate arrived — a stunning, black-haired, sapphire-eyed female who seemed to be an airhead. She went on and on about baggage, airport hassles, and rude flight attendants — as if anyone cared.

"I’m Sharon, and you’re … ?

Stan hoped his slow response would diminish whatever emotional connection she was trying to make. Sharon, I’m … John. Pleased. He turned his head to the right — away from her to look out the aircraft window. Most men would have been captivated by her beauty. Stan just wasn’t most men.

Sharon would not have been surprised to learn that his peers called him "The