Payback A Friend in need…. Mark David Abbott Copyright © 2020 by Mark David Abbott All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. For all the faceless victims of Man’s greed Contents GET A FREE NOVELLA FEATURING DETECTIVE RAJIV SAMPATH! Prologue Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Chapter 30 Chapter 31 Chapter 32 Chapter 33 Chapter 34 Chapter 35 Chapter 36 Chapter 37 Chapter 38 Chapter 39 Chapter 40 Chapter 41 Chapter 42 Chapter 43 Chapter 44 Chapter 45 Chapter 46 Chapter 47 Chapter 48 Chapter 49 Chapter 50 Chapter 51 Chapter 52 Chapter 53 Chapter 54 Chapter 55 Chapter 56 Chapter 57 Chapter 58 Chapter 59 Chapter 60 Chapter 61 Chapter 62 Chapter 63 Chapter 64 Chapter 65 Chapter 66 Chapter 67 Chapter 68 Chapter 69 Chapter 70 Chapter 71 Chapter 72 Chapter 73 Chapter 74 Chapter 75 Chapter 76 Chapter 77 Chapter 78 Chapter 79 Chapter 80 Chapter 81 Chapter 82 Chapter 83 Chapter 84 Chapter 85 Chapter 86 Chapter 87 Chapter 88 Chapter 89 Chapter 90 Chapter 91 Chapter 92 Chapter 93 Chapter 94 Chapter 95 Chapter 96 Epilogue Also by Mark David Abbott GET A FREE NOVELLA FEATURING DETECTIVE RAJIV SAMPATH! Enjoyed this book? You can make a big difference. Acknowledgments About the Author GET A FREE NOVELLA FEATURING DETECTIVE RAJIV SAMPATH! The next book is currently being written, but if you sign up for my VIP newsletter I will let you know as soon as it is released. And when you sign up for my newsletter, I’ll send you a FREE copy of IMPACT, a Detective Sampath Novella. Your email will be kept 100% private and you can unsubscribe at any time. JOIN MY NEWSLETTER (No Spam. Ever.) Prologue Hatay Province, Turkey, 2015 The girl thrust her hands deeper into her pockets in an effort to keep warm and hugged her arms closer to her body. She looked up at the vast expanse of stars above her. It was a beautiful clear night, not a cloud in the sky, and the light from the moon bathed everything in a silvery glow. It could have been magical, but for what lay ahead. She tuned back into the murmured conversations around her—a mixture of languages, German, French, and English—but the volume was too low for her to make out anything, and besides, English was the only language in which she was fluent. The man who called himself Abu Bakr came around the front of the SUV and stood in front of them. He was fat with a long straggly beard and a severely receding hairline. He spoke English with a thick accent she couldn’t place. He pointed down the dirt track that ran along the fence line. “Walk down that way for about five-hundred meters. There will be someone there. He will show you how to get through.” He turned back to face them, looking at each of their faces one by one, his eyes resting on her for a moment longer than necessary. “Do you all understand?” A low chorus of agreement and nods went through the group. “Don’t touch the fence except for where he tells you. It’s electrified.” He looked at them again to make sure they all understood before continuing. “Once you get through, run. Run as far as you can.” One of the men, a French speaker, spoke up, “Ow do we know where to go.” Abu Bakr grinned, his mouth opening to display a row of crooked teeth. “Don’t worry. You will know. Someone will meet you. It’s all arranged.” The girl gave a nervous smile to her companion and shifted her weight. She thought again about what she was doing. Was it the right thing? She had never been away from home like this before. She was scared, but... also excited. Another world was out there, waiting for her. A new promised land, a land where people could live as they were supposed to as it was written in the great book. And who better to go there with but the young man she loved, the man who had swept her off her feet back in the courtyards of the university, what seemed like just a short time ago. It had been a whirlwind, but everything she had imagined romance to be. He smiled back at her and laid a reassuring hand on her arm. She nodded and looked back at Abu Bakr, who was watching them with narrowed eyes. He looked away, his lip curling in a sneer, and addressed the group again. “Ma salaam. Good journey. Allahu Akbar!” “Allahu akbar,” the group repeated, a couple of men slapping each other on the back. Abu Bakr gestured toward the track, “Now go.” The five men and one girl started walking in the direction he had shown. A high, chain-link fence lined the track on their left while to their right, fields of olive trees stretched off into the darkness. The group walked in nervous silence, the only sound from scuffed feet and pebbles rolling away. The girl looked back over her shoulder, but Abu Bakr and his vehicle had already gone. There was no-one around. They were alone... at least that’s what they thought. A figure materialized out of the darkness, gesturing for them to hurry, and pointed toward the fence. As they neared, they saw someone had cut the fence, and the two sides were peeled back to make a hole just big enough for a body to pass through. “Through there,” the man hissed. “Hurry.” “The power?” asked one of the men in the group. The man grinned. “Don’t worry. It’s cut. Now go.” One by one, the group eased themselves through the fence and waited for the others. The girl was last. She could feel her heart pounding in her chest. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes—it was now or never. She opened them and saw her companion kneeling on the other side of the fence, his hand reaching through the hole in the fence. She nodded, crouched down, took his hand, and scrambled through the hole. “Yalla, yalla. Run!” “Which way?” The man pointed into the darkness. “That way. Allahu akbar!” “Allahu Akbar!” 1 John screwed up his
