Description
Horn of Africa – Martha Jane Hovater
MacKenzie Hollingsworth and her sister, McKenna, have spent the past year adjusting to a new normal after James Vick’s organization, Agma, almost ended their lives.
Several law enforcement and national security agencies investigated in the aftermath of Agma’s deadly operation, which ultimately came to a violent end. Although the agencies involved initially believed Agma was a small organization built on one man’s prejudice and desire for revenge, they soon learned that it was a vast, homegrown terrorist organization with connections throughout the world.
Agma’s new leader, JoAnn Vick, worked hard to rebuild the organization after her husband’s death, and JoAnn was as cold, calculating, and focused on revenge as her late husband had been. She developed new financial and personnel resources, including a resource for a new bioweapon created in a small lab in the horn of Africa. Because she blamed MacKenzie Hollingsworth for her husband’s death, she decided that infecting MacKenzie and McKenna would be the perfect way of deploying the weapon and exacting her revenge.
However, JoAnn is unaware of the growing dissension in Agma’s ranks—and she underestimates the resilience of the Hollingsworth sisters.
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EXCERPT:
McKenna woke up on Saturday morning with a headache. She slowly climbed out of bed, pulled back the shades on her bedroom window, and groaned. The sky was gray and growing darker in patches. She heard the distant sound of thunder. That explains it, she thought. She always got a headache when the barometric pressure dropped below thirty. She felt a sudden chill move through her body, accompanied by a strange sense of foreboding. It’s just the coming storm, she thought as she climbed back into bed. She and Nadia planned to go hiking that afternoon, so she decided she should check the weather report. She propped up on a few extra pillows and had just turned on the TV when her phone rang. She smiled when she saw that the caller was Nadia.
“Good morning! Is this another plan for a lazy morning of bagels and coffee?”
“Or course!” Nadia laughed. “You read my mind!”
“And you read mine!” McKenna laughed. “You bring the bagels, and I’ll make the coffee.”
“I’ll be there shortly, but I don’t think we’ll be hiking today. Have you looked outside?”
“Yeah, but I felt it first. I woke up with a headache.”
“I’m sorry, Kenna. Do you still want me to come over?”
“Of course! A little caffeine, Tylenol, and good company, and I’ll feel much better.”
Nadia laughed. “Okay. I’m on my way.”
McKenna got out of bed and went to the kitchen to fill the coffeemaker’s water reservoir. She took two matching cups from the cabinet. They were a gift from Nadia, and McKenna liked using them when Nadia came over to visit. She was contemplating whether or not to get dressed or stay in her pajamas when there was a knock on her door.
That was quick, she thought, and strange. She had recently given Nadia a key to her home and wondered why she wasn’t using it today.
She walked to the front door, opened it, and asked, “Did you forget that you have a key?”
But the figure before her was not Nadia. It was a man in tactical gear pointing a gun at her. She tried to quickly shut the door and lock it, but the man was faster and stronger. He was also joined by another person in tactical gear who came up behind her.
“You’re coming with us, Ms. Hollingsworth. Now.” He said it firmly but almost casually, which she found confusing.
For a moment, she thought they might be with the NSA because of the way they were dressed and the events she had experienced a year ago, but she couldn’t think of any reason the NSA agents would confront her at gunpoint.
“Who are you?” she asked, trying to keep her voice calm while her heart was pounding.
“We can make this easy, or we can make it hard,” said the person behind her. It was the voice of a woman, though, not another man.
“Can I at least get dressed?”
“No. We’ll have something you can put on later. We need to leave before your friend gets here.”
Oh, my God, she thought. They were listening to our phone call!
“Can I at least put on a pair of shoes?”
“You have one minute, and I’ll be watching you.”
McKenna went to her bedroom with the woman behind her. She watched as McKenna put on her Skechers® Slip-ins™, and McKenna was suddenly grateful that it took less than a minute.
The woman motioned toward the door with her gun. “Go.”
McKenna complied, but her whole body was shaking. They took her to a white van with a colorful vehicle wrap that advertised it belonged to ‘Your Plumber’ and included a phone number, but when they opened the back of the van, it was empty.
“Sit,” the woman said.
As she sat down on the edge of the van, the man secured her hands and ankles in zip-tie handcuffs and put a gag on her mouth.
Barbara White –
Excellent