To Russia & Back

By Shirley J. Miller

Author Maxine Hart decides she wants to see Russia. She has no story line in place for her next fiction. She’d just seen a documentary on the county and was anxious to visit there. She flies with her CIA boyfriend, Riley Perkins first to Moscow and then to St. Petersburg.

A year earlier, Riley and his partner Paul, took out a Russian arms dealer who was selling weapons to terrorists with plans to attack Washington, D.C. They destroy the weapons and get away clean. But as they hop on a train, several Mafia members are robbing the terminal. Riley locks eyes with one of them briefly and proceeds with his planned escape.

While traveling in Moscow, Maxine and Riley witness a murder by the Russian Mafia and are asked to view CCTV tapes at the police station as possible witnesses to the crime. Riley denies ever seeing any of the men, although he did recognize one from the train station as he was escaping and arms dealer attack in Russia a year earlier.

The Mafia man he recognized was not part of the arms explosion, but he does recognize Riley as CIA. It causes a few problems for Riley as he quietly attempts to eliminate his Mafia enemies. Riley catches one of the Russian hit men and turns him over to the CIA at the American Embassy They are able to get him to talk and they learn of two others that are a threat to Riley. His partner, Paul, works with the CIA agents already in Russia to handle the problem.

All through the trip, Maxine is not aware of Riley’s dangerous situation. To her, it was just a very pleasant vacation.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Shirley J. Miller
• Release date: Nov 20, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463637388

Shirley J. Miller

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~About Shirley J MillerAs a child, aptitude tests always suggested that Shirley Miller should go into writing. In actuality, she spent her career years in advertising and marketing for Fortune 500 companies, where most of her writing revolved around describing product attributes and persuading sales.She always dreamed of writing fiction books but never had the time. Upon early retirement, she decided to follow her dreams. You will love her simple and direct style while maintaining the mystique and action among characters from start to finish.Her work is mostly fiction, so be sure you check out The Chicago Series and the Maxine Hart Series. Ring of Deception is a book Shirley and her sister Betty dreamed up - while hiking, no less - follow-ups being considered.Shirley has also written how-to books on some of her favorite hobbies. Be sure to check out Beginning Golf for Ladies, Golf Tips Up & Over - For Intermediate Players, Freelance Writing, Owning a Silky Terrier which resulted from her love for the breed. Having owned eight Silky Terriers over her lifetime, she even hired a special dog trainer to come to her home twice a week to teach her how to train the dogs.Though she never wrote about it, she wants to Thank You for reading her books and following her writing adventures. Without you, none of this would be possible, So Thank You very much. And keep on reading. Find some of her other books on Amazon or Smashwords by checking the links below.Any reviews will certainly be appreciated. It always helps to understand more of what readers want to see, so she can speak more directly to you. To follow Shirley Miller, and be the first to learn of new releases, please check the ‘Follow Me’ Button on Amazon. For a full list of all her current works, check out these links:https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/LastFlightOut1

Book preview

Prologue

The six men were hidden out in an old cabin within the wooded area beyond Gorohovets, a small town attractively settled on the high banks of the Klyazma River about 100 miles from Moscow. At this time of night, all was quiet except for the sound of the pouring rain which did not make the guard out front at all comfortable as he got pelted with the cold and wind that came with the storm.

Higher up on the hill, the two CIA agents who were watching the isolated cabin were not fairing much better. As they lie among the trees covered in leaves and branches, they felt the cold blow right through them. Lying on their stomachs, they’d been hidden in the darkness for almost an hour before the aged black van finally pulled up to the rustic brick cabin to unload their cargo. Four of the six men left the comfortable fireplace from within and reluctantly made their way outside to help their comrades unload the van.

The wind had died down a little, but the rain kept falling as they started to unload the crates of semi-automatic assault rifles. Paul thought he saw what he recognized as a couple of grenade launchers among the stash.

That’s a lot of firepower they got there, CIA Agent Paul remarked.

Yeah. And it’s all heading for the terrorists who are planning to attack D.C. next week, Riley replied. Let’s wait until they’re all inside before we light the stuff up.

Waiting patiently for the men to return to the comforts of their cabin, Riley aimed his rocket launcher at the small building. The loud explosion caused the building to immediately burst into large flames with sporadic popping noises as the guns inside - along with their extra ammunition - exploded. Paul was watching carefully, his sniper rifle ready, for anyone who might make it out of the inferno. Two men came running out, one of them already on fire, when Paul carefully aimed for the first runner. The wind suddenly turned direction so he very quickly had to recalibrate his shot. Carefully pulling back the trigger, he took aim. One down. He then quickly reloaded another round, took careful aim, and shot the second burning man just seconds later. If you did not count the waiting time in the wet rainy forest, the whole event was over in less than 3 minutes.

They watched the cabin for another few minutes to make sure that there were no other survivors and then they quickly headed for the jeep they had hidden just down the dirt road. Removing the tree branches that hid the vehicle, they quickly hopped in and headed for the train station.

At this time of night, the terminal was almost empty. But as luck would have it, they stumbled upon a few members of the Russian Mafia in the midst of a heist at one of the ticket counters. They locked eyes quickly and then with tickets already in hand, they ran off to the boarding area to board their train.

Just 20 minutes later, they jumped off the moving train at their pick-up zone just before the train reached Baka. In no time, the helicopter had them up in the air and headed toward neutral territory. One Russian arms dealer now out of business, Riley thought.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Chapter 1

It was a bright April morning in Chicago. Once again Maxine Hart and her two Silkies had made it through another cold Chicago winter and were enjoying their first Spring walk along Lake Michigan’s board walk. Other than a quick one-week trip to Los Angeles in January to check on Seth Goldstein and his recently recovered sisters from North Korea, Maxine had not done any of her usual travel excursions. She would normally be traveling to Hawaii or to the Caribbean in the winter just to escape the Chicago snow and cold. But she’d spent this past winter finishing up her latest book which incorporated her rather unpleasant trip to Istanbul, Turkey.

Now that Spring was here and the book finished, it was time to start another adventure. What do you think guys? Where should we go next? Maxine directed her questions to her dogs. They looked up at her for a treat – but no hint of a suggestion. She laughed at their excitement as they jumped for the treats. You guys are no help, she then laughed at herself as she talked to the dogs as if she really expected an answer.

When she got back to her townhome on Superior Street, Maxine fixed herself some coffee and decided to call her publisher, Bob Olson, to make a lunch date. Well it just so happens, I’m free today. But I do have a few things I have to finish. Can you make it an early dinner? Bob prompted her.

That sounds great, Maxine replied. Morton’s at 5:00 pm sound okay to you?

Perfect. I’ll meet you there, Bob assured her.

Maxine went back to sipping her coffee and reading the reviews just out for her last book. She normally could expect only good to excellent reviews on her work. But the reviews on her Istanbul adventure had mixed critiques. While the fiction storyline itself was well accepted, she couldn’t help but throw in a few paragraphs about the jails and the suppositions Turkey had about the American one-dollar bill. There seemed to be some prejudiced comments about her insinuations. Too bad for them – because they were not insulations. She had lived the experience.

But since her books were fiction after all, she must have offended some people in the wrong way at the thought of a one-dollar bill being used to identify a specific terrorist’s rank. She could only imagine that someone in the Turkish government didn’t at all appreciate the negative comments. It had been a more difficult story line for her to write, as she usually used a lot of her own sightseeing venues as story background. But unfortunately, she’d only had one free day in Istanbul. The rest of the time she had spent in a prison cell. She had to rely on her Turkish Tourist Guide for location descriptions, because her own normal sightseeing adventures would never make it into that book. Maybe she should have humored Bob and taken his Africa suggestion more seriously.

When 5:00 pm came, she was walking into Morton’s Steakhouse where Bob, always punctual, was already waiting for her. They were led to a nice quiet corner table where they proceeded to enlighten each other on what they’d been up to.

So, Maxine, any ideas on the new book yet? Bob asked.

Well – yes and no, Maxine responded.

Have you given any more thought to utilizing Africa as a backdrop? Bob questioned her.

To tell you the truth, Bob, Africa just doesn’t seem to be calling out to me – not yet anyway. But I was thinking last night about places I’ve never been and all of a sudden, Russia popped into my head, Maxine stunned him with her answer.

Russia! Now that surprises me. You usually go for the exotic romantic locations. Why Russia?

"That’s the thing, Bob. I really don’t know. I don’t even have a theme in mind yet. But I was thinking of places I’ve never been, and Russia just popped into my head. I saw some pictures of the beautiful architecture and colorful buildings they have there, and it just struck me as an interesting