Caught Fire: John Seal Novel

By Michael D. Wright

Who is John Seal?
He's a rookie CIA agent. 
His job is to protect America against cyber attacks from enemy organizations and terrorists whose tactic is to disrupt lives as a means to leverage their agenda.
John finds himself in the middle of Barcelona during the Saint Joan Festival where he meets his handler for the first time. During his high stakes first mission, he is faced with hard decisions and is forced to go against his moral compass to complete his assignment leaving him to wonder if he is the right man for the job.
Does John have what it takes to be a covert operative, or will he fail and possibly lose his life?

***Caught Fire is a novella and the prequel for the John Seal Series, and by no means the end of the story.***

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sweetwater Creek Publishing
• Release date: Jun 30, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386933014

Book preview

1

John Seal focused on a square of yellow light in the third-floor window of a compound a block away. A crescent moon cast jagged shadows of the blown-out buildings across the street. Even in the pale light, this section of Mosul was a hell-hole, unlike nothing John had ever seen. The few paved streets were littered with hills of trash. Walls of businesses and homes had been obliterated — reduced to pieces of stone, bricks, and mortar. Dust covered the area like sifted flour. The buildings left standing had become a labyrinth for terrorists infested with booby traps, and surveillance equipment. Armed gorillas were stationed at every turn.

Inside that upstairs room, Abu Mohammad Faheem, code name LEVIATHAN, was a local warlord meeting with his henchmen. The band of insurgents had stolen a missile armed with a nuclear warhead and were planning a horrific attack. It was SEAL Team 2's mission to eliminate LEVIATHAN, and recover the missile's warhead. John was tasked with hacking the guidance system and rendering it useless.

Two minutes, Stone, the SEAL team's leader, alerted.

To John's left, two EOD specialists trained in explosive ordnance disposal operations crouched behind a pile of bricks fingering the trigger on their automatic weapons. Twenty feet in front of him, two SEALs tucked themselves inside the shadows and waited — night goggles in place. The remaining six members of the squad cleared the area ahead, one foot at a time. Under John's body armor sweat oozed from his back as he shifted his pack containing his laptop, and positioned the butt of his weapon under his arm.

Advance! Stone announced.

It was 01:30 hrs. According to their intel, the target building was L-shaped. A flat roof covered the three stories at the rear, and a courtyard with high stone walls surrounded the compound. The missile was located on the bottom floor in a room under the window where the meeting was in progress. Taking out a target like this was SEAL Team 2's specialty — speed and surprise were critical. John's respect for them grew when he stepped over a gorilla's body who had been noiselessly eliminated and lay bleeding in the dust.

To his left, Gazda and Norton, emerged into the moonlight and rushed toward the house, followed by the EOD guys, Voggle and McNeal. Running, John followed the team through a wooden courtyard gate, forced open just enough for them to squeeze inside. Stone's voice crackled in his earpiece, First story clear... target in main room.

Ducking low, John hustled to the side door of the house followed by Voggle and McNeal. When the first grenade exploded, they stopped short and pressed their backs against the warm blocks waiting for Stone to announce it was clear. All of a sudden, more explosions jarred the earth, and flashes of light came from the third-floor windows.

John figured those upstairs still alive would try to escape by any means possible. Within a few seconds, he was proven correct when McNeal encountered a bearded man limping around the corner. His effort to escape unnoticed had failed. With one 'pop' from McNeal's automatic weapon, the guerrilla fell in a clump of cacti, dead. Seconds later, several rounds came in rapid succession inside the house before Stone announced, All clear. LEVIATHAN, eliminated.

The rest is up to the EODs and me, John thought.

Taking a deep breath, he stepped through the door into an anteroom. Shouldering his weapon, he peered through the night goggles to scan the space. Seeing no one, John spoke into his mic, Go! Go! Go!

The two EOD men rushed past him deeper into the house. Then came the rustling of feet outside, and another burst of fire from one of the SEALs patrolling the perimeter. The guerrilla sneaking up on them groaned and slumped with a thud onto the steps.

Lifting his night goggles to his forehead, John pulled his mag light from his vest. Switching it on, he quickly found Voggle and McNeal had done the same and had located the twenty-foot missile on a rolling sled. The entire downstairs had been gutted, and a part of the second story floor removed to accommodate the weapon of mass destruction.

Getting this beauty in here was no easy task… And where did it come from?

Descending the make-shift metal staircase along the wall, Stone and his team paused to survey the missile before initiating phase two of their plan. The fuckers stole this from a arms dealer, Stone