The Whisperer: Anderson Files, #1

By Loren J Graham

 The Whisperer -  A gripping tale of Lt. Jack Anderson an ex-US Army Special Forces who returns home to his loving family to settle down and attempt to return to a normal life after serving several tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, his life seems to be on the healing side until he recieves a phone call that will change Jack's life forever.  In this faith based drama Jack's faith is deeply challenged and tested.  He is soon recruited by the CIA and stationed in the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. While assigned in the Pittsburgh CIA Office, he recieves special orders from the Vice President of the United States for assitance in secretly apprehending a sinister character who goes by the code name of "The Whisperer wishes to destroy global power and authority as as we know it .  How will Jack defeat an enemy that can't be seen with the naked eye but his?  How will Jack react the the threat of those he loves? 

 

Will Jack face and conquer his own deep seated demons that dwell within himself?  Will his blind trust in his Christian faith lead him in his conquest and survival of the mission at hand?

"The Anderson Files" is a new suspense series written by Loren J. Graham. His writing will keep you on the edge of your seat from the first chapter to the last. Plus it will test your faith in whom you put your trust in. This is a must read.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Loren Graham
• Release date: Apr 1, 2019
• ISBN: 9781386829157

Book preview

Chapter 1- Just the Beginning

THE YEAR WAS 2016. The country had newly elected a U.S. President in hopes that he would fix this broken nation’s economy and bring order back into America.  Little did anyone know what they were getting themselves into. 

The 2016 presidential campaign of Donald Trump was formally launched on June 16, 2015, at Trump Tower in New York City. Mr. Trump was the Republican nominee for President of the United States in the 2016 election, having won the most state primaries, caucuses, and delegates at the 2016 Republican National Convention.  The world as we knew it was broken and in need of severe help to restore safety and security once again.

You’re probably wondering who I am?  The name is Jack Anderson.  I was born and raised in the beautiful country side in the North West Region of Pennsylvania.  I was an active veteran of the U.S. military for over 10 years and I was good at my job.  Maybe sometimes too good; plus there is a lot of the past I would love to forget and start that part of my life all over again.  However though that is not possible or at least in this life time, because once you have seen and experienced what I and many of my colleagues have; for the safety of our country and the horrors of war, you never want to go back; EVER!  But I’m getting a little ahead of myself, so why don’t we start at the beginning, shall we?

I remember it was a cool but kind of brisk August morning, like any other day filled with sounds of hustle and bustling noises around the home.  Donna (my wife) was out in the kitchen preparing morning breakfast for the children as they prepare for school.  She had instructed the children to wake up and get showered, dressed, and ready to eat a hot breakfast before leaving the house for the bus that morning.  Why even the Duchess our cat gets into the morning action as well.  She just loves to curl herself at the bottom of our bed and prance up onto my chest and look me scare in the face and with her cold nose nudges me until I wake up.  "Ok Duchess I’m up, I’m up... good grief!"

I took a shower, got dressed and reached into the bottom drawer of the night stand in a locked case for my firearm, a 9mm Ruger and its holster, attached it to my belt and then reached under the bed for my briefcase. As I started to walk out the bedroom door I took a second and looked in the mirror.  There stood this ordinary man just staring at me.  I took a deep breath and whispered to myself "you’ve got this".

At 6:50 a.m. the school bus arrived to pick the children up for school.   They can be seen waving at their mother and blowing kisses through the cool safety glass windows on the bus. You can feel the warm sun rays erect its shiny head over the illustrious hills of the North Western part of Pennsylvania.

The sweet smell of fresh instant coffee was lingering through the whole house and you can smell the crisp juicy bacon sizzling along with fresh pancakes just sweating on the grill. Hum- hum-hum!

I walked down stairs and at the bottom entered the hallway and then proceeded into the kitchen where Donna was hovering over the hot stove.  I walked over to her, kissed her oh so gently on the right side of her neck as I always did before.

"Morning I said as she was turning around with a hot skillet. It sure smells good in here".

"Watch yourself or you’ll get burned" she replied, "Morning to you too".

"So did you tell the girls yet?" Donna asked me as she placed my hot cup of coffee on the right side of my plate as she normally did.  I picked up the paper and as I peered over the morning newspaper I gave her a not so pleasant but sheepish grin.

"Well, not exactly in so many words" as I made an attempt to stumble through the words so not to reveal anything I should or shouldn’t say knowing what was coming next.

As Donna sat down at the kitchen table to the left of me, I could already see the look of disappointment in me through her expression on her face.  "Well, don’t you think you had better tell them before they find out from outside sources?" Donna responded. She continued "Look Jack, you have to tell them before it gets too late and then they’re going to be even more disappointed".

She said it like as if I haven’t disappointed my children in the past.  Just like last year when I was to go to the girls’ soccer playoff with the Pittsburgh Croozers 8th year championship game.  I would have been present to have attended the game but unfortunately duty called; and when Uncle Sam calls, you respond!  You see my job takes me away from my family sometimes; ok, well maybe a lot more than I want to admit!  I didn’t have your ordinary 9 to 5 job, not when you work for Uncle Sam that’s for sure. I was what you call a Counter-intelligence Analyst for the C.I.A. Mostly a desk jokey, but there were times when I would be called for field duty; and today was one of those days!

I remember cowardly sinking down in my chair "I’ll tell them tonight, I’ve got to get to the office now but I promise I will tell them tonight".

"Alright" Donna replied with her convicting voice and her sheepish grin on her soft skinned face.

"I love you and don’t like to see my girls get hurt again."

"I love you too sweetheart I said as I Donna from my chair and reached over, grabbed her by the waist. It’ll be alright, I promise you, you’ll see. We’ll talk more about it tomorrow".  I tried to assure and comfort her the best way I knew how. I don’t know, maybe it might be my way of coping with the fact that I would be gone the next morning.  With that I kissed her on the cheek and walked out the front door to my garage where my car was parked.

After a while I finally found a parking spot, parked my car and headed toward the CIA building near Pittsburgh.  The sun was beating down on my face. I could feel the heated rays of the sun caressing the back of my neck as I enter the front entrance of the CIA building.  As I approached the revolving door I took off my sunglasses and headed to the security entrance.  The marbled floor just glistened off the top of the C.I.A. emblem in the farrier.  It was filled with people coming and going through the morning rush hour; plus the shift changing as well.

As I approached the metal detector I was greeted by the desk Sargent.  "Good morning Mr. Anderson, you’re looking rather fine this morning!"

"Well thank you Frank. And how are the wife and kids?"

Frank replied with a grin "Just fine sir. Tony is in high school and Jenny is graduating college this summer!  They sure do grow up fast.  How was your trip?"

"Well Frank a trip to Cancun Mexico can make you really appreciate the good old U.S. of A." as we chucked together.

"So Mr. Anderson Frank said. Are you going to take that trip you were telling me about last week, or did he ... postpone it?" he asked with that sheepish grin of his as if he knew the answer before he even asked it.

Kind of like when I was attending a luncheon in Vegas with my wife but had to cut it short and postpone that because of the line of work I’m in. What kind of work do I do you ask? Well, let’s just say I clean up where someone else has left a mess and don’t know what to do about it.

"Oh by the way, he wants to see you in his office as soon as you arrived" Frank expounded as he pressed the button letting me into the secret corridor entranceway.

I turned my head towards Frank and asked him "How did he sound to you?"

Frank eye brows raised and both eyes turned slightly to the left as he replied "Oh, I would probably say he seems pretty well pleasant this morning. Why do you ask?" he retorted.

"I’m not sure if pleasant is what I’m hoping for or not".  .  We both just chuckled and then parted our ways.  When I finally gathered up the courage and straightened my tie and suit and started walking in a confident manner towards his office; but not knowing what I was about to encounter as I entered his office door.

Chapter 2 - The Meeting of the Minds

DENNIS BENTON WAS THE Director of the Central Intelligence Agency and most importantly; my boss.  He was a former Captain of a U.S. Army Special Forces who had been on 22 special ops missions throughout the globe.  He served in such campaigns as Vietnam, Paraguay, Italy, Spain, parts of Europe, Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan and other top secret missions that I’m sworn to secrecy due to the sensitivity and nature of the security of our nation.

You see, I meet Cpt. Benton in a couple of those SPEC OP missions, and especially one in particular; Cairo, Egypt.  We had just completed a mission; quite brutal one at that. We were exhausted, tired and hungry. It was around 0945 hours and we had just started to return to camp when all of a sudden out of nowhere we were ambushed by the Turks who had flanked us when we were pretty well hungry and tired from the day’s activities. 

Rob was our look out man, Tony was small arms expert, Shante was our demolitions expert and Mike, and well he was our heavy artillery expert.  And then there was Randy!  We nick named him Rabbit because he could run as quick as a bunny as the old saying goes.  Oh and almost forgot Phil our radio man, Randolph our Telecommunication specialist and I was the squad leader and of course don’t forgot our fearless leader... Cpt. Dennis Benton.

Anyway we were under heavy fire that day and we didn’t have a chance. Our unit was pinned down and the Calvary was about 25 minutes from our location.   I was hit on the right should from a round and was pinned down with no means of suppressive fire to support my men.  As the flare of bullets and RPG’s flew all around our perimeter; all of them had sustained enemy fire and were hit and fell to the ground but two men that day, myself and Cpt. Benton.  Without hesitation he jumped out of the fox hole and ran to the right behind a bunker wall.  He then ran to where his men were laying; mostly wounded, but Cpt. Benton, in spite of his personal injuries stood his ground and stood up, took a deep breath and ran to recover each of his men, picked them up and flung them over his shoulders and carried them to safety.  Unfortunately he was hit in the left leg and right lower quadrant of his back while trying to get his men to safety and under cover until the support team arrived. 

He had gathered all of our men to