66 Metres: A chilling thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat!. J.F. Kirwan

she was headed… It fits… All right. Listen, I have to call in… Right, next call in twenty-four.’

      He pulled out the other phone, called the office at Langley, to give an update. The Joint Chiefs were seriously pissed that the Brits had developed the Rose without sharing. Hence his mission, to keep an eye on the Rose from a distance. Sweet. But now the office knew it was missing, and it was just a matter of time before they put more patent leather soles on foreign soil. He spoke to the boss’s aide, said he was following a new lead, needed seventy-two hours. Told her he was headed to London. Nothing doing in Frankfurt. He hung up. Closing his eyes, he rubbed the bridge of his nose with forefinger and thumb. Danton had rattled him as usual. But now, more than ever, he needed to stay focused. He headed towards a Thai massage parlour, one of several he knew in the district. The door jangled as he entered. A forty-something Thai woman appeared and beamed, recognising him.

      ‘Full body massage. One hour. Pretty girl,’ he said in fluent German.

      A young girl in a short white skirt and purple tie-dyed tee shirt arrived and led him to the back of the parlour into a small room with a cushioned massage table, a padded oval hole at one end for his face. He inhaled the comforting smell of lavender body oil. Soft Chinese music tinkled from a cheap CD player. She left him while he stripped naked and lay face down. She returned and began massaging his back, commenting only once on the scars, picking up that he wasn’t in the mood for conversation. Sammy’s screams still echoed inside his brain. Sammy had been in the wrong team at the wrong time; crappy luck. For the girl too, when he found her.

      The masseuse asked him to turn over, and he lay on his back. She massaged his thighs, her fingers occasionally nudging his balls. He hardened. She massaged him some more, her deft fingers ‘accidentally’ touching his penis, making his breathing deepen. She paused, leaned closer to his closed eyes.

      ‘You want happy ending?’

      He nodded.

      ‘Fifty?’ she said, testing the water.

      He nodded again. Today she could have asked five hundred. She went to work on him. When he was about to come, she placed her left hand firmly over his mouth, quietening his groans of ecstasy.

      Adamson lay panting while she fetched hot water and towels. He relaxed. The screams were gone. He wouldn’t have to see Danton again – ever – if all went to plan. His mind drifted to his wife Sandy back in DC, and to Arnie, not doing so well in school. Attention Deficit Disorder. Adamson knew his being away so often didn’t help Arnie. He’d call later. They’d be waking up and having breakfast in a few hours.