Thy Kingdom Come: Book One in the Sam Thorpe series (40 page)

“Oliver might have been the brains of the operation, but Aly’s company was the supplier. Do we have enough to go after him?”

“The attorney general thinks we have a case. The corporation will claim that Kassim acted on his own. You know, they’ll say they didn’t know anything about what he was doing. That sort of thing.”

“Right.”

“A lot is going to be determined by whether or not we can turn the professor. He knows the stakes. I believe we’ll be able to gain his support in exchange for a lighter sentence. He’s got personal information about Kassim’s involvement. I think the testimony of the two of you could hang them high.”

“What about Dubois?”

General Gerber shook his head. “He’s slipped under our screen. We’ve alerted the Canadian government. They’re watching the restaurant and his wife. We’ll find him.”

Sam wondered if the Canadian government would find him. Dubois had shown himself to be a slippery character … someone who could carry a grudge for a long time. Something about his getting away ate at Sam and made him uncomfortable. “And Elizabeth Henley? What’s going on with her?”

Gerber looked down at a paper. “Apparently she’s disappeared, too.”

“I heard from Bob O’Brien they have a lead on Sergeant Bacher. He’s a dedicated soldier gone bad.”

“I’m afraid the Army has a number of Bacher’s in the system. With all the problems we’ve got in retaining soldiers, recruiting command has dropped a number of enlistment requirements. Now we’re receiving reports of groups of neo-Nazis in the military. We’re a victim of our own high quality training programs.”

“And the public’s frustration with the war in Iraq isn’t helping with recruitment and retention in the Guard.”

“All true, I’m afraid.” The general stood. “Sam, I’d like to personally thank you for taking on this assignment. I know that you had reservations about it. A tough job. You did it well. Your country thanks you.”

Sam stood and shook the general’s hand. “I’m glad about the way it turned out. It could have been so much worse. I’d better get moving, sir. I’ve got some shopping to do before I catch my plane.”

“And I’ll bet a stop to see Alex.”

Sam flushed, then grinned. He couldn’t help himself. “Well, I guess that too.”

“Chernobyl Murders is a page-turner of the highest order: from the compelling characterization to the vividly described landscape of a devastated Ukraine to the stunning cover art, Beres has penned himself a winner.”

—Paul Goat Allen,
Chicago Tribune
(September 13, 2008)

MICHAEL BERES CHERNOBYL MURDERS

1985, a year before the Chernobyl disaster. Hidden away in a wine cellar in the western Ukraine, Chernobyl engineer Mihaly Horvath, brother of a Kiev Militia detective Lazlo Horvath, reveals details of unnecessary risks being taken at the Chernobyl plant. Concerned for his brother and family, Lazlo investigates—irritating superiors, drawing the attention of a CIA operative, raising the hackles of an old school KGB major, and discovering his brother’s secret affair with Juli Popovics, a Chernobyl technician.

When the Chernobyl plant explodes scores of lives are changed forever. As Lazlo questions his brother’s death in the blast, Juli arrives in Kiev to tell the detective she carries his brother’s child. If their lives aren’t complicated enough, KGB major Grigor Komarov enters the fray, reawakening a hard-line past to manipulate deadly resources.

Now the Ukraine is not only blanketed with deadly radiation, but becomes a killing ground involving pre-perestroika factions in disarray, a Soviet government on its last legs, and madmen hungry for power as they eye Gorbachev’s changes.

With a poisoned environment at their backs and a killer snapping at their heels, Lazlo and Juli flee for their lives—and their love—toward the Western frontier.

ISBN# 9781933836294
Hardcover/International Thriller
US $25.95/CDN $28.95
Available Now
www.michaelberes.com

Chastised for not cooperating with the oil company giant New World Petroleum, zoologist Cassidy Lowell is reassigned from the jungles of the Niger Delta to Yellowstone National Park, where wolves are disappearing. Jake Anderson, Special Forces operative, is working within the shadows of Cassidy’s organization, Zoological Environmental Bio Research Agency. His mission? To determine the threatening connection between ZEBRA and NWP.

An alarming genetic mutation of the parvovirus is discovered: CPV-19: human parvovirus merged with canine. And the virus is loose in Yellowstone. Murder, execution, and deadly helicopter rides lead Jake and Cassidy down a road rife with double-crossing and an underlying plot that forces them back to the Niger Delta and into the heart of NWP.

This is the twenty-first-century gold rush—welcome to the dark side!

ISBN# 9781934755556
Hardcover/Fiction
US $25.95/CDN $28.95
Available Now
www.juliekorzenko.com