Ptarmigan Lane: Aydin Trammell, #1

By R C Ducantlin

From the author of Cold Star comes a new suspenseful thriller, Ptarmigan Lane.

 

Aydin and his sidekick Phil survive another attempt on their lives. Now they must uncover who, and why, someone wants Aydin dead.

 

Espionage, counterespionage, the opium trade, and high technologies are the reality. A family history of deceit adds to the nitty-gritties in Aydin's search for the threat.

 

A long-con deal goes wrong, leading to his insight. Aydin and his estranged wife, Allison, are unwilling participants in a decade's-long experiment.

 

Assassins hired to ensure Aydin and Allison's past stays hidden never end. But, to stop the attempts on his life, is he willing to kill whoever they lure into the light?

 

Can Aydin keep his family's secret safe?

 

Aydin knows he can't keep everyone alive.

 

Pops, Allison's father, is happy to: "Let them all die."

 

Phil is sure this is not the last mission: "Two weeks. We couldn't make it two weeks without someone trying to kill us."

 

P.S. Reviews are always appreciated.

• Language: English
• Publisher: R C Ducantlin, Ltd.
• Release date: Aug 18, 2020
• ISBN: 9781949211344

R C Ducantlin

Fortunately, in secondary school, my interest in reading was sparked. A close friend and an instructor, who took interest in a boy he later called ‘The rebel without a clue.,’ were instrumental in my learning the value of a good book. Both piqued my interest in reading. My lifelong friend inspired me to read J.R.R. Tolkien and I became addicted to the fantasy genre. The instructor required I read interesting historical novels for academic credit. Frank Norris, Leon Uris, and Ken Follett are inspirations and fuel my love of history. Born to a military family, it was logical that I follow the military tradition. However, after four years of “yes sirs” and scraping the wax off floors I decided there must be more fun in a corporate career. Thirty plus years of work experiences across the globe, the corporate career landed me in Colorado, where I live with my wife and I can be close to my children and grandchildren.

Book preview

Ptarmigan Lane

The

Aydin Trammell

Chronicles

Part One of Shiny Lies

By

R. C. Ducantlin

Copyright

© 2020-2023 by Ruairí Cinéad Ducantlin, Ltd.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication is available to be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, by any means, without the author’s prior written permission.

The author does not grant privilege to reproduce and/or otherwise use this publication in any manner for training artificial intelligence technologies to generate text, including, without limitation, technologies that can generate works in the publication’s style, unless the author provides specific and express permission.

Disclaimer

This story is a work of fiction and is provided exclusively for entertainment. This means everything written came from the author’s imagination, hoping to entertain you, the reader. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are the author’s imagination or fictitious products. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is entirely coincidental.

eBook ISBN: 978-1949211-34-4

Table of Contents

Ptarmigan Lane

Dark and Stormy…

No More Family BBQs

Family Time

Riding the Stupid

All In or All Dead

Clarity Takes Planning

Winning Feels Like Losing

Not Dead is Good

Never a Good Idea

Mandarin Pith

Part two of Shiny Lies

Thank you!

About R. C.

Works by R. C.

Ptarmigan Lane

Dark and Stormy…

And he’d hated himself, and hated her, too, for the ruin they’d made of each other. — Dennis Lehane

Denver, Late Night, Sidewalk, Hard Rain

Damn, it stinks. Trash and dog shit.

Mental note: Never run and hide on a trash day.

Phil never shuts up. The rain and the stench are making him worse. What the fuck is wrong with people who let their dog shit on the sidewalk?

At least the rain will wash it into the gutter.

Stopping here was a bad idea, but we needed to get out of that place. Hanging around with dead people is never a good idea. Phil won’t say anything, but he is blaming me.

Phil, don’t put this on me.

"It is on you, Aydin. You and Allison.

Do you think it will stop raining soon?

I hope it never stops raining.

Are you planning to stand under this awning forever?

I might.

Like a moth drawn to a flame, Phil is staring at a neon beer sign. High up, out of reach, the sign is three letters ringed in a red oval: OLY. The Y is intermittently flickering, and the faded ellipse has dimmed considerably.

That neon light buzzing is annoying me. My dad used to drink that beer because it was the cheapest by a penny. Do they even make that beer anymore? The Gray Dog Café is open. Up on Colfax, it is about three blocks from here.

Okay, Phil, I’ll walk in the rain, but you have to promise not to talk about what happened.

Not talking about shooting people is good. Quiet is good unless the police ask about the dead people. You know what you did. You know what Allison did. Aydin, I think we need to talk about it.

Fuck it, let’s go. Phil, please, try to shut up.

Aydin and Phil pull their hoods, hunch over, and step into the downpour. Aydin is not small. At six-foot-three, his two hundred and fifteen pounds towers over Phil’s five-foot-ten, one-eighty-five frame. Phil maneuvered to put Aydin’s enormous frame between himself and the driving rain. Outwardly, Aydin is composed, intelligent, and an all-around good guy. His thoughts, however, are never far from the truth, and his anger perpetually simmers just under boiling over.

Fuck her.

I know what I did, and I know what she did. Phil was there, standing around. He’d get three-to-five. I’d get ten-to-twenty. Ten-to-twenty without. The Service will fix it. I hope the Service will fix it.

She will skate. Snakes always slither out of trouble. This mess is just like the deal on the island when she fucked over the seller. Pops warned me about her. Pops knows trouble follows her because she invites the demons.

She missed shooting that prick and will slide right on by. She missed the meathead because she knew I wouldn’t miss.

Phil and me, we never miss.

I had to clean up her mess.

Fuck her.

What’s that Phil?

Are you listening to me? Aydin, you never listen to me. You should listen to me, and maybe next time, this won’t happen.

"I don’t listen because you never