The HBS Author's Spotlight SHOWCASES James Moushon's Short Story: Operation Listen Close.
Author James Moushon is a self-published Mystery Author of the Jonathon Stone Mysteries. Also, he is a Short Story writer and an Author Advocate. James is the creator of the industry blogs: The eBook Author's Corner, the HBS Author's Spotlight and the HBS Mystery Reader's Circle.
Operation Listen Close
A Jonathon Stone Mystery Short Story
Author: James Moushon
AVAILABLE
Amazon
A man is found dead in the trunk of a cab in downtown LA and a FBI investigation reveals that Jonathon Stone is connected to the murder. The Victim: A Chinese Special Agent on assignment in the US. The Suspect: A Russian cabbie who is wanted for terrorism in Hong Kong. Stone and Chuck Chun go into the CIA bag of tricks to solve the murder.
Excerpt from Operation Listen Close
Young skaters rolling by the restaurant windows. Lean bodies flashing down the boardwalk. Blond ponytails bobbing in the sea breeze. God, I love the beach.
I run several times a week. Not to lose weight because I’m not overweight but to clear my head from the night before at the casino. Blackjack. Jack and Coke. Great combination.
My morning routine, since the CIA had changed my status to agent-on-call, was simple. Go for a run. Get coffee and a bagel at my favorite restaurant, Essie’s. Read the paper. Listen to the local’s scuttlebutt. And then trot back home and wait for a call from my boss, Russ Evans. Some days he calls, most of the time he doesn’t.
This morning started off the same as usual until I got to the part about the paper. An article on the second page caught my eye.
TRAFFIC STOP YIELDS DEAD MAN IN TRUNK
Last night two LA traffic patrolmen stopped a cab in the downtown area after it was seen driving in the wrong lane against traffic. The driver, Val Bachek, a Russian born immigrant, was stopped after a brief chase.
After asking for his driver’s license and registration, one of the officers observed a snub-nosed revolver partially hidden under the front seat. After securing the gun it was determined that it had been recently fired.
Then things got more bizarre. After questioning Bachek, they searched the vehicle and found Jimmy Lee, 55, a Chinese National, dead in the trunk of the cab from a gunshot wound to the chest. Bachek was taken into custody pending charges. Police are still investigating the crime scene.
I sat there staring at the paper. I think I know this guy Lee. I’ll have to check this out when I get home.
The more I ran, the more I knew this was a Chinese Agent I had worked with several years ago in Hong Kong. Back home, I threw my paper on the couch, picked up a towel, grabbed my cellphone, and headed for the backyard patio. A speed dial later I had my tech guy, Wiley, on the line.
“How’s San Francisco coming along?” I asked him.
“Jon, I miss Long Beach. It’s always so cloudy and dreary here.”
“I need you to check something out for me. A Chinese National by the name of Jimmy Lee was murdered in LA yesterday. Could you check that out for me? I worked with a Chinese guy by that name a couple years ago.”
“That’s a real common name. I will check with LAPD and find out what’s going on. I’ll go back door so we don’t get involved in the investigation.”
“Thanks, Wiley. Is Russ back from vacation?”
“Oh, yeah.”
I smiled. I sat there drinking a bottle of water and watching the seagulls flying back and forth overhead. My neighbor next door keeps feeding the damn things and I am in their flight path to the ocean, several blocks away. I swear they intentionally drop a load on my patio furniture on the way by.
My hostility for the birds was interrupted by my cellphone singing away.
“Wiley, what you got?”
“You’re good. This Jimmy Lee is a Chinese Federal Agent working on assignment in the US. Los Angeles police didn’t know much more than that. I checked our database and got a hit on Lee. He worked on an op with you five years ago. Let’s see. Operation Rising Son.”
“That’s it. Hong Kong. I worked that op for a while and then got transferred here. I lost track of it after that.”
“I tried to dig down more on the op but I am not having any luck.”
“Keep trying. I have a feeling it has something to do with his murder,” I concluded.
“Oh, I almost forgot. The FBI has taken over the case.”
“Now that means something. Keep digging on this. Something is not right here.”
I sat there staring at the gulls overhead. At least, they know what was going on. Sometimes I would like to pull my Beretta and start shooting.
My bad thoughts changed as my cellphone came to life again. It can’t be Wiley this quick. My caller ID brought a smile to my face.
AGENT SHANNON, FBI. She was the lead agent at the LA office.
“Jodi, nice to hear from you. Are you in the area?”
“No, I’m in my office in LA. I need for you to come downtown as soon as you can.”
“Is this about Jimmy Lee?”
“How did you know?” she asked. She sounded surprised.
I laughed. “I’m in the intel business, remember.”
“You’re amazing. I’m in charge of the murder investigation and you’re connected.”
“No way,” I said. I know she couldn’t know about the Rising Son op this soon.
“How am I connected? I just read about it in the paper this morning.”
“Then you know he was found in the trunk of a cab. Well, when we got him out of there he had scrolled a note in blood on a towel. It said two words, ‘STONE CIA’.”
She waited for my response and I didn’t have one. Finally, I had to come up with something.
“I’m not working with him or anything. He and I worked together on an op in Hong Kong five years ago. But I haven’t seen or heard from him since.” Now it was her turn to go silent.
“Jodi, I know he was one of the top Chinese Law Enforcement agents. The op had to do with a Russian arms dealer who kept evading everyone. I don’t even remember his name.”
“It wasn’t Val Bachek, was it?”
“I don’t believe so. I saw that in the paper but it didn’t ring a bell. He could have changed his name or something like that. I know I would.”
“That goes along with what we have. Nothing. He has been driving a cab in the LA area for five years. Before that we have nothing. We are checking with Interpol for foreign data because he is Russian. Now that I’ve talked to you, I’ll try the Far-East for information.”
“I’m walking out the front door. I’ll see you in an hour or so,” I said. “I’ll be on the first floor in Interrogation. The guard will have a parking pass for you.”
Author Genre: Historical Fiction, Mystery & Thrillers
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E-Mail: james.moushon@gmail.com
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Author Description: James Moushon is a Mystery writer and an Author Advocate.
Starting over 15 years ago, he helped lead the startup of the electronic forms industry in the creation, conversion and usage of electronic forms by supplying that industry with a continuing source of published literature, software products and training seminars.
In 2003, Moushon changed his focus to ebooks and their development.
He is the author of the Jonathon Stone Mystery Novels. He has published three books: Black Mountain Secrets, Game of Fire and The Cajun Ghost plus several short stories including Operation No Sanctuary (June 2017), Operation Camp Navajo (July 2017), and Operation Asian Tiger (August 2017). All featuring CIA Agent Jonathon Stone.
A Jonathon Stone Mystery Short Story Winter 2017 is being released currently: Operation Sundown (November 2017), Operation Little Havana (December 2017), and Operation Listen Close (January 2018). All featuring CIA Agent Jonathon Stone.
James is currently wearing two Hats. He is a Mystery Writer and a Book Publishing Blogger. You can find his blogs at:
HBS Author's Spotlight http://bit.ly/QVEMix
The blog's purpose is to help authors get exposure in the book publishing industry. He has interviewed and showcased over 600 authors to date.
HBS Mystery Reader's Circle http://bit.ly/19Nfrx8
The HBS Mystery Reader's Circle provides information about the latest novels and what is coming next from a collection of Bestselling and Outstanding Authors in the Mystery, Thrillers, Historical Fiction and Crime genre.
eBook Author's Corner http://bit.ly/TauYkJ
The Corner is a collection of Author advice and studies including Marketing, Social Media and other major topics created to help writers in today's ever changing world of book publishing.
He has spent the majority of his adult life developing computer systems and thinking about writing mysteries.
His website is: www.jamesmoushon.com
To contact him, e-mail: james.moushon@gmail.com
Author's Book List
Operation Little Havana
Jonathon Stone teams up with FBI Agent Maria Sanchez in Miami to try to solve the murder attempt of an exiled Cuban baseball player. As news stories continue to fuel the growing tension between the US and the Cuban people over a government change in policy, Jonathon is thrust into the middle of an international crisis.
After another murder attempt of a ballplayer, the op takes a sudden shift from the Little Havana area of Miami to the Everglades. While Stone and Sanchez struggle to find out who is at the bottom of this, their focus abruptly changes to a freelance reporter and a mystery man.
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Operation Sundowner
A bomb explodes at a country club in Southern California and Jonathon Stone is right in the middle of things. Jonathon and fellow CIA agent Chuck Chun are assigned to protect Russ Evans, their boss from San Francisco, at a retirement party and things go terribly wrong. Several guests are killed and Russ is hurt. As the two CIA agents try to find the perpetrators, they end up with an op filled with out of the way places and superstition.
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Amazon
Operation Asian Tiger
- A Jonathon Stone Mystery Short StoryChuck Chun joins Jonathon Stone in a mundane assignment in Singapore. The dull surveillance op quickly turns from boring to the search for terrorists and the solution of an international tragedy. The Royal Malaysian Police are going in the wrong direction as Jonathon uses the vast resources of the CIA to zero in on the truth.
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Amazon
Operation Camp Navajo
- A Jonathon Stone Mystery Short StoryCamp Navajo Weapon Station near Flagstaff, Arizona is robbed and Jonathon Stone and fellow agent Dale Oak are dispatched to the area to insure that CIA weapons stored at the site are intact. Upon arrival he finds the FBI has taken charge and has quickly caught the thieves.
Case closed. After a drive through the area and listening to the details of the crime from the FBI, things just didn’t add up. A complete search of the facilities finds explosives are missing and Jonathon is tasked with finding them before they are used.
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Amazon
Operation No Sanctuary
- A Jonathon Stone Mystery Short StoryA gang war erupts in East LA between neighborhood gangs and the notorious MS-13 gang from San Salvador and a Mexican cartel from Tijuana is right in the middle of the conflict. Drug trafficking, gang shootings and politics all play a role as Jonathon Stone battles the sanctuary city LA which seems to protect the innocent and the guilty.
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Amazon
The Cajun Ghost
- A Jonathon Stone MysteryARIZONA SENATOR AND U.S. SENATORIAL CANADATE, TAD CLOSEN SHOT DOWNTOWN PHOENIX DURING PARADE
CIA Agent Jonathon Stone’s purchase of an old rifle from a gun dealer leads him on a search for the owner of the gun. When he finds the owner, a Cajun gun for hire, he discovers that he was one of the shooters in downtown Phoenix the day Senator Ted Closen was assassinated.
The rifle purchase leads to a chain of events that threaten Stone’s CIA cover, his life and puts the CIA Long Beach undercover operation in jeopardy.
As the search accelerates, fellow agent Carol Haney joins Stone on a journey that goes from California to the French quarter in New Orleans to Phoenix to the mountains in Northern Arizona.
Jonathon follows the trail through murderers, land barons, politicians and the mob to find the truth about the Cajun Ghost and the murder of Senator Closen.
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Amazon
Game of Fire
- A Jonathon Stone MysteryAn explosion and fire rocks a Southern California mall and it is quickly determined it is arson. The timing of the incident is special because it interrupts the Tet New Year’s Festival and Parade in Little Saigon, an area just east of Long Beach.
Had the old wounds of Vietnam been opened again or was there a different game being played?
Enter veteran CIA Agent Jonathon Stone. Already in pursuit of the gun-running Minh family, he connects with a special FBI task force to assist in the investigation of the explosion and Minh quickly becomes their number one suspect.
Stone teams up with FBI Agent Jodi Shannon to pursue the people behind the arson fire. Jodi is a serious, no nonsense agent who leads the FBI Arson Task Force. While she fights to solve the mystery, she also fights Stone’s advances. As always, he tries to mix business with pleasure.
As the game takes its twists and turns, Stone’s assignment leads to a shootout in Las Vegas and a car chase down the coast of Southern California.
Jonathon Stone battles his love for gambling and drinking and the ladies to help solve the Mystery of the Game of Fire.
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Amazon
CIA Agent Jonathon Stone goes undercover to help in an FBI investigation after a fellow agent is murdered on the Colorado River.
Stone continues the agent’s investigation of suspects who are stealing top-secret documents from a secret Army base in the middle of the Mohave Desert. The trail leads him from the rugged Black Mountains of Nevada to Laughlin, a gambling oasis on the Colorado.
As things heat up in this desert paradise, Stone dodges bullets and attempts on his life until he reaches the ultimate showdown. Jonathon Stone truly needs lady luck on his side to catch the spies and get through this ordeal alive.
Mystery Writer James Moushon brings to life Jonathon Stone, an undercover CIA agent assigned to the off the books CIA division – DOT.
He throws Stone right into the middle of action. As the mystery unfolds, Stone uses his wealth of knowledge and keen analytical mind to complete his dangerous assignments, while at the same time battling his love for gambling and drinking and the ladies.
Book Trailer: Black Mountain Secrets
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Amazon
Author Recommended by: HBSystems Publications
Publisher of ebooks, writing industry blogger and the sponsor of the following blogs:
eBook Author’s Corner
Mystery Reader’s Circle
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