The Tanner Project: Tracie Tanner Thrillers, #1

By Allan Leverone

Tracie Tanner works in the world's most dangerous hotspots.
On the most high-stakes assignments.
And she works alone.

But before she did any of those things, she was a normal college girl, living a normal college life in Providence, Rhode Island.

A chance encounter with a pair of armed muggers leaves her with no choice but to take drastic action, and once that happens, dominoes begin to fall.

And Tracie Tanner is drawn into a life she never imagined or expected.

Whether you're a longtime reader who has enjoyed the action, thrills and plot twists of the Tracie Tanner spy novels for years, or this is your introduction to the beautiful and dedicated - but obstinate and sometimes reckless - CIA covert ops specialist, you're sure to love this prequel novella. Taking place years before the action in the novels, THE TANNER PROJECT answers the question: how does a beautiful young college student end up as one of the most badass women on the planet?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Rock Bottom Books
• Release date: Jul 4, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201561697

Book preview

Prologue

September 7, 1979

11:45 p.m.

Providence, Rhode Island

Tracie Tanner glanced at her watch, trying to be discreet, just as she’d tried to be discreet the roughly two dozen other times she’d done exactly the same thing in the past couple of hours.

Across the table from her, Mick Nelson droned on, too absorbed in his story to notice his date surreptitiously checking the time. The current subject of their conversation—if it could be called conversation when one party was doing virtually all of the talking and the other was choking back yawns while trying to appear interested—was Mick’s high school football career.

Apparently it had been stellar.

That seemed to be the gist of Mick’s words, although deciphering them over the din of the live band was a second challenge for Tracie. As near as she could tell, Mick had been a star defensive back, sorting through multiple scholarship offers from college football powerhouses like Penn State and Notre Dame before a knee injury during his final high school game ended his career.

At that moment, football had become a part of Mick Nelson’s past, although based on the past four hours, Tracie thought her date might be having more than a little difficulty moving on. The fact that post-football, Mick had ended up at an Ivy League school like Brown University meant that he’d managed to earn excellent grades in high school.

Or his parents were rich and had donated lots of money to the science department.

In any event, Tracie had suspected this evening would be a challenging one, and in fact had turned Mick down when he asked her out last semester. But her roommates had hounded her relentlessly when they found out:

Tracie, you never go out and have fun!

Jeez, Tracie, all you ever do is study, you need to live a little!

You have the rest of your life to be responsible, college is a time to cut loose!

So when she’d bumped into Mick at a Welcome Back to Campus barbecue last week and he asked her out for a second time, she ignored the little voice in her head telling her to turn him down again. She hoped she’d shown a little enthusiasm with her acceptance but suspected the opposite may have been the case.

Mick hadn’t seemed to notice.

Dinner at a little Italian restaurant had been followed by a stroll down the street to a college bar frequented by Providence College kids as well as Brown students. The food at the restaurant was delicious, almost enough to make up for Mick Nelson’s self-absorption.

By the time they walked out of Alphonso’s, Tracie had known there would be no second date. She’d already begun counting the minutes until she could make a graceful escape. Despite Mick’s annoying focus on nothing but himself, he seemed otherwise harmless, and she couldn’t bring herself to hurt him by ditching him right after dinner.

The walk to the college bar took less than fifteen minutes. It was still early when they arrived, and they were able to score a small round table just off the dance floor. Mick ordered a pitcher of beer for them without asking Tracie whether she wanted something different, or perhaps nothing at all.

Within an hour, she’d begun questioning her decision to prolong the date. Tracie sipped on one glass of beer, while Mick downed several. The alcohol loosened her date’s tongue considerably, but did nothing to expand his range of focus in any significant way beyond Mick Nelson.

She checked her watch again. 11:50.

He caught her looking.

The first time all night.

He stopped his story in mid-sentence, just as he was intercepting a pass during a Thanksgiving Day game in his junior year of high school. He grinned and said, Wassa matter, you got someplace to be?

It’s now or never; I can’t take this anymore.

Actually, she answered, I really think I should be getting back to my apartment. It’s been a long week and I’m pretty tired.

But it’s only... he took a long swallow of beer and peered at his watch like an archaeologist trying to decipher some mysterious ancient text...midnight. Hell, it’s not even midnight. It’s still early, the party’s just getting started!

Not for me, she said, trying to take some of the sting out of the comment by accompanying it with a wide smile. This party is just about over. I need to get some sleep.

He sat and stared as if trying to absorb the meaning of her words. Apparently in Mick Nelson’s world, Friday nights didn’t end until the sun was coming up on Saturday morning.

Eventually he lowered his glass to the table and said, Uhhhh, okay. I’ll walk you home, I guess.

Tracie felt her eyebrows rise in surprise. You guess?

She recovered quickly, realizing she would much prefer to return home alone than be accompanied—at least by Mick Nelson. That’s not necessary. It’s only a twenty-minute walk from here. I’ll be fine. I know you’re enjoying the band.

No, no, I insist! I’m not letting you walk home alone at this time on a Friday night. You wouldn’t be safe by yourself.

He stood up, pushing his seat back with his calves and swaying just a little. Tracie sighed and stood as well, smiling a little less enthusiastically this time.

Mick dropped a twenty on the table and they threaded their way across the crowded bar to the front door. He grabbed her hand and she let him, not wanting to cause a scene.

The air as they exited into the early-September night was cool, a pleasant reprieve from the hot, humid, sweaty conditions inside The Thirsty Friar. Tracie took a deep breath and released it slowly as they turned right and began walking toward the apartment she shared with three other Brown students.

The sidewalk was mostly empty, as the vast majority of kids out and about on this weekend night had taken up positions inside their favorite bars or clubs. It would get crowded again in another couple of hours, following last call.

In short order the pair left the streetlights behind, with maybe a ten-minute walk left before they would arrive at Tracie’s apartment. Mick’s monologue continued, his surprise at Tracie’s abrupt termination of their evening apparently forgotten.

They passed a darkened alley to a flurry of motion maybe ten feet inside its mouth. Tracie sensed the activity more than saw it. She flinched slightly while Mick continued talking, unaware of anything amiss.

He became aware a moment later.

Two men, dressed head-to-toe in black, darted onto the sidewalk. Both were holding knives. They blocked Tracie and Mick’s path and the