The hybrid enemy, p.1
The Hybrid Enemy, page 1
Richard D Ross
The Hybrid Enemy
A James Macrae Thriller - Book 1
First published by RDR Publishing, Toronto, Canada 2021
Copyright © 2021 by Richard D Ross
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
Richard D Ross has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party Internet Websites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such Websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.
Real world characters are used only in a purely fictional context.
All rights reserved
Second edition
ISBN: 978-1-7778601-1-0
This book was professionally typeset on Reedsy
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‘Hybrid methods of warfare, such as propaganda, deception, sabotage and other non-military tactics have long been used to destabilise adversaries. What is new about attacks seen in recent years is their speed, scale and intensity, facilitated by rapid technological change and global interconnectivity.’
Jens Stoltenberg, NATO Secretary General
Contents
Preface
Acknowledgement
I. PART ONE
1. Chapter 1
2. Chapter 2
3. Chapter 3
4. Chapter 4
5. Chapter 5
6. Chapter 6
7. Chapter 7
8. Chapter 8
9. Chapter 9
10. Chapter 10
11. Chapter 11
12. Chapter 12
13. Chapter 13
14. Chapter 14
15. Chapter 15
16. Chapter 16
17. Chapter 17
18. Chapter 18
19. Chapter 19
20. Chapter 20
21. Chapter 21
22. Chapter 22
23. Chapter 23
24. Chapter 24
25. Chapter 25
26. Chapter 26
27. Chapter 27
28. Chapter 28
29. Chapter 29
30. Chapter 30
31. Chapter 31
32. Chapter 32
33. Chapter 33
34. Chapter 34
35. Chapter 35
36. Chapter 36
37. Chapter 37
38. Chapter 38
39. Chapter 39
40. Chapter 40
41. Chapter 41
42. Chapter 42
43. Chapter 43
44. Chapter 44
45. Chapter 45
About the Author
Also by Richard D Ross
Preface
Characters
Macrae Shipping Company
Richard Macrae – Chairman.
Mary Macrae- Richard’s wife
James Macrae – President.
Sarah Macrae – James’s wife
Hal Spencer– Chief Financial Officer (CFO)
Rob Bisset – Director Operations
Lynda Ferreira – Director Human Resources
Jason Ferreira – Director Safety/Training
Chad Greening – Director of Sales and Marketing
Janet Rushton – Director IT
Martin Farley – Director Legal Affairs
Mateo Ariti – General Manager, Piraeus Terminal, Greece
Flavio Romano – General Manager, Genoa Terminal, Italy
Jusuf Kahya – General Manager, Istanbul Terminal, Turkey
Laura Wesley – Manager, Accounts
Euro-Asian Freight Services
Hugh Stanfield – Owner
Edmond Andreas – CFO
Dan Nash – Hydraulics Engineer
Blue Water Maritime Bureau of Shipping
Ben Mitchell – Chief Inspector
Sterling-Judge Marine Insurance
David Morris – Claims Assessor
Peter Owens – General Manager
Claybourne Cartage
Chris Claybourne – President
MI6
Jack Fox - Director MI6
Jeremy Hirons – MI6 Special Agent
Other characters
Sultan Dastagir – Indian deckhand
Jack Carter – Friend of Hugh Stanfield
Nabil Quraishi – Bedouin truck owner
General Shen – Chinese general
Acknowledgement
Times of India: Article: ‘Mumbai Sewage’ May 15,2017
‘Back-to-Back’ museum Birmingham
www.livescience.com/32087
Viking history
www.birmingham.gov.uk/info/50050
Birmingham canal system
Archive and library of Lloyd’s Register Foundation.
LR Ships in Class – Lloyd’s Register
Reader’s Digest Article ‘Scandal of the Rotting Tankers’
by Tom Mangold
‘Fraud and sinking ships in marine insurance’
by Hugo Tiberg, professor Maritime Law .
Pacific Islands Legal Institute - Maritime Law
Fort Myers News Press, Tuesday March 22, 1994
Article ‘Tanker explodes’ News Press wire services.
www.npr.org/series/650482198/
Chinese Firms Hold Stakes In a Dozen European Ports
October 9, 2018 Joanna Kakkissis.
www.joc.com/maritime-news/container-lines/
Information on Chinese shipping companies
www.glassdoor.ca/Reviews/COSCO-Shipping
Information on Chinese shipping companies
www.futurelearn.com/courses/politics-of-economics
Nottingham University/China Capitalist or Communist Country?
www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-14546763
Iraq profile – timeline – BBC News
www.kitimat.ca/en/index.aspx
Information on Kitimat
www.britannica.com
Marinetraffic.com
Satellite tracking of vessels worldwide.
www.justia.com/criminal/procedure/
Legal procedures multiple defendants involved
Epoch Times 10/11 Edition 2020 -China’s Silent War
Bowen Xiao & Omid Ghoreishi (Intro Dana Cheng)
www.museumoflondon.org.uk › museum-london
Roman London History
https://www.britannica.com/topic/waterboarding
I
Part One
1
Chapter 1
September 1980
She had first seen him from a distance, striding up the valley following a rough track that the sheep had worn for themselves through the heather and moor-grass between the rocky outcrops on the hillside. As he got closer, she could see that he looked tall, extremely fit, tanned and quite handsome. It was a cool day with a slight breeze. The low early morning sun shining down the vale gave him a radiant glow. As he approached her at the peak, he was over six feet tall with a well-built muscular frame and close-cropped light brown hair. He looked a little intimidating, until he gave her a huge disarming smile. She still greeted him a little apprehensively.
‘Good morning. You’re way off the trails. Are you lost?’
‘No, actually I’m not. Just following the Ordnance Survey map and compass and the route I’ve set for myself. I try to do about fifteen miles a day. I love this entire region of Wales. How about you?’
She smiled back. ‘No. I’m not lost either. I’m a local and prefer to hike way off the well-beaten paths. Less people, better scenery and more challenging.’ She studied him more closely and thought for a moment, rubbing her chin with her hand. ‘You know, you look familiar.’
He looked directly back at her face, tilting his head slightly to one side. ‘That’s funny because I just had the same sort of feeling about you. I come this way on the odd weekend and camp behind the Vaynol Arms pub in the Llanberis pass. I do a lot of climbing around here as well.’
She thought for a moment. ‘Perhaps that’s it. Are you a member of the Beddgelert Climbing Club?’
‘That’s it,’ he replied. ‘That’s where I’ve seen you. Yes, I think I met you and your partner once when Joe Brown gave a presentation at the town hall on his Himalayan conquests. In fact, I believe I sat next to you! He held out his hand and smiled warmly. ‘James Macrae, great to see you again!’
As they shook hands, she laughed and said, ‘Holy smoke! I remember that now as well. I’m Sarah. Good to see you again too! You haven’t come to the club for a while, though?’
‘I only come up here when I can get away. I work in my family’s business back in Birmingham and there just seems to be less time to escape up here.’
‘I live in Llanberis and work in Caernarfon, so I’m spoiled with the countryside here.’
‘You can say that again! Do you want to walk together for a while?’
‘Why not? I like to push myself as well. So, you camp in the field behind the Vaynol Arms?’
‘Yes, I do. It’s great to have dinner and drinks straight afterwards and t
They walked on together admiring the magnificent views in the Snowdonia National Park arriving back at the Vaynol Arms later that Saturday afternoon.
‘Would you like to join me for drinks and dinner later?’ James asked.
‘Yes, I would like that, but first I need go back home to shower and change. My house is fairly close by.’
‘Great!. Shall we say in about an hour?’
‘Yes, that would be good. See you later.’
James washed himself using the old cast-iron hand water pump at the back of the pub and changed into fresh clothes. Being late autumn, there were fewer patrons in the pub. James waited for Sarah in the lounge and sat close to the log fire roaring away in the stone fireplace. Not long afterwards, the front door opened and in walked Sarah. James was taken aback. She wore a smart pair of black pants, white silk blouse and a loose short black coat draped around her shoulders. Her shoulder-length auburn hair, olive skin and attractive looks completed the picture in front of him. Sarah joined him in front of the fire. They were both relaxed and rejuvenated, their faces glowing warmly after pushing themselves to the limit that day.
Over dinner, Sarah asked, ‘Can I ask you a question James?’
‘Sure, go ahead.’
‘You mentioned this afternoon that getting away was getting harder for you. I sensed that you would prefer to live here rather than Birmingham.’
James smiled back at her. ‘You’re very astute. Does it show that much?’
‘Well, to me it does. I don’t know about anyone else.’
James looked down for a few moments, seemingly to wrestle with his emotions. Looking back at her he said, ‘You’re right. I would prefer this way of life, but I feel obligated to my family. You see, I’m fourth generation in an established international shipping business and unless I take responsibility for the business, it will simply disappear. My father is getting older now and is starting to have some health problems.’
‘Do you have any brothers or sisters who could help out?’
‘Unfortunately, I don’t. I did have an older sister, however she passed away five years ago with leukaemia.’
‘I’m so sorry, James. It must be very hard on your parents and yourself.’
‘It is. There’s a void that can never be filled. I guess that’s one of the reasons I come here when I can, to get away sometimes. So, let’s talk about you.’
‘Not much to tell, really. I was brought up in this part of Wales. My parents still live in Caernarfon. As a historical architect, I’m asked to consult on restoration projects around the country involving listed buildings. In fact, I restored my own cottage.’
‘Seems to me that is a great career to have! Each job must be very different from the other?’
‘Yes, it is. For me it’s a labour of love but also a financial necessity as a single person.’
‘I’m fascinated over how old historic buildings are in the UK. It’s incredible that some of these structures are up to one thousand years old.’
‘Tell you what. Why don’t we go back to my place for coffee, and you can see some of the work I have done.’
‘I’d love to!’
As they left the pub, Sarah walked over to a Land Rover in the car park.
James stood back. ‘You know, I would have thought you were a sportscar girl!’
‘Me! Not really. I’m more of a practical person and I need a four-wheel drive sometimes on the building sites.’
‘Um, that makes sense.’
They went back to her stone cottage a couple of miles down the road, in Llanberis village. They sat down in her lounge in front of a cosy woodstove, each with a glass of single malt scotch and coffee. It seemed the perfect thing to do after a good meal. ‘So, tell me some more about your job, Sarah. You said you travel. Does that include overseas travel as well?’
‘Sometimes, yes. Since Britain has a heritage of stone masonry, I’m often asked to visit different old buildings in Europe to ensure the historical authenticity of the renovations. I’ve worked in both France and Italy to oversee some of the projects that my company was involved in.’
‘Sounds really interesting,’ James replied as he stretched his legs out straight and relaxed back into the settee cushions.
‘Well you must have done your fair share of visiting Europe with your job?’
‘Actually, I have. My father sent me to work at every terminal in Europe, doing a six-month stint in each. My apprenticeship was doing every job there was in our business, including all the dirty jobs. He wanted me to know every aspect of the industry from the bottom end up and just how hard they are.’
Sarah thought for a moment. ‘Wow, that must have been tough. Being the boss’s son and having to do all that.’
James laughed, reminiscing. ‘Oh, it sure was. I wasn’t cut any slack! You can imagine what it was like working alongside stevedores as the boss’s son. I got bullied a few times.’
‘Bullied? But you were the boss’s son!’
‘Yes, that’s right. A lot resented it, always throwing the silver spoon in your mouth comments at you. So yes, I was bullied badly in a couple of places. Still, I had two choices. Either I could go back to my father and complain about the guys, in other words hide behind him, or I could stand up to them. I stood my ground and won. You can push me only so far and that’s when I fight back.’ He paused and then added, almost as an afterthought, ‘hard.’
‘Remind me never to cross you, James Macrae!’ Sarah laughed and lay back next to him. James leaned over and kissed her gently. Sarah responded and then took his hand and led him to her bedroom.
***
He lay there listening to what sounded like a mortally wounded lion. The sound was heavy and uneven, with intermittent bursts of air being exhausted, rather like a whale puncturing the surface of a placid sea and exhaling loudly through the blowhole at the top of its head. His mouth felt like the bottom of a birdcage that hadn’t been cleaned for months. He tried to open his eyes, but the shock of light was just too much to bear, the eyelids feeling as though they had been glued together. Lying flat on his back, he tried to lift his head up. The pain increased exponentially, like a metal clamp tightening around his head.
‘Oh god. What have I done?’ he murmured to himself. He managed to turn his head slightly to the left and tried to open his eyes for a second time to focus on where he was. There was a mass of auburn hair and the bare back of someone. Sarah, yes, Sarah. Yes, that was it. He’d met her hiking that day, way off the beaten track in Snowdonia National Park in Wales. James peered over the bed sheets and checked the room around him. He appeared to be in an older stone house with a low ceiling and small paned windows.
James gingerly lowered his right leg onto the bedroom floor, padded to the bathroom and then scouted out the kitchen downstairs. He made a pot of coffee and found some aspirin in the cabinet. Half an hour later, or so, he felt human again. He took Sarah a coffee and went back to bed.
‘Good morning Sarah! Welcome to the world,’ and handed her a coffee.
‘Oh, do I ever need that!’ she muttered, yawning at the same time.
‘How are you feeling?’
She stretched her arms up in the air, yawning. ‘Never felt better! Did we get hit by a train last night?’
‘It sure felt like it!’
Shortly afterwards, they ventured into the kitchen. Sarah barefoot, wore a short dressing gown. She looked more fantastic the morning after, with sparkling hazel eyes, long legs and hair strewn wild over her shoulders. James hugged her and they sat down together at the table.
‘So, what’s your plan for today?’ James asked.
‘Well, I was supposed to drive to Shrewsbury tomorrow and start a new restoration project on the cathedral, however it has been put back two weeks. I’ll probably take a day off instead and reorganise my studio. How about you?’
‘I thought I would go climbing on Llanberis pass crag, but I hadn’t planned on last night. So, I’ll just go back home sometime today. I have a busy week in front of me at work. I really enjoyed yesterday and last night, being with you.’
