Scoundrel
Chapter One
August 1, 1990 was my fortieth birthday. Sophie, my
lover for the past three years, left me for a younger man,
the cat fell sick, and the next morning Saddam Hussein invaded
Kuwait.
Welcome to the best years of my life.
Three weeks later Shafiq asked if I could deliver a boat from
the Mediterranean to America. Hannah, my part-time secretary,
had taken Shafiq's telephone call and late that afternoon
she came to the fishing harbor to give me the day's news.
"Who called?" At first I thought I must have misheard her. I
was working in a trawler's engine room with the motor going.
"Who called?" I shouted up through the open hatch again.
"Shafiq." Hannah shrugged. "No other name, just Shafiq.
He said you know him."
I knew him all right, knew him well enough to wonder
just what the hell was coming next. Shafiq! For God's sake!
"He wanted what?"
"He wants a boat delivered."
"When?"
"He doesn't know."
"From where in the Mediterranean? France? Spain? Italy?
Cyprus? Greece?"
"Just the Mediterranean. He said he couldn't be more
specific."
"And I'm to deliver it where?"
Hannah smiled. "Just America."
I shut off the engine. I had been ... read full excerpt from: Scoundrel ebook
