Operation Arrow Drone

 A Jonathon Stone Mystery Short Story BY James Moushon

Operation Arrow Drone

A Jonathon Stone Mystery Short Story

Author: James Moushon




Jonathon Stone and FBI Agent Jodi Shannon team up to investigate the murder of an FBI agent who was auditing a classified project that had gone astray. The agent had gotten caught in the middle of a mass shooting at a Naval Air Station. The violence accelerates as Jonathon tires to catch a group of terrorists and avoid a disaster in Southern California.

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Excerpt from Operation Arrow Drone

A noise woke me from a sound sleep. I fumbled with the objects on my nightstand. Then I realized that it was my work phone going off and it was on my dresser across the room. I stumbled out of bed and over my clothes on the floor. It had been a late-night or you might say early morning.

I had had a great night at the Ocean Queen Casino. When you get on a winning streak you can’t let it go plus the drinks just kept coming. I looked at the caller ID and then at the time. It was seven in the morning and it was Sunday. The caller was FBI Agent Jodi Shannon. I would take this call.

“Jodi, you are up awfully early.”

I turned around and leaned back against the dresser. I had had four hours of sleep max.

“Do you have anything planned for this morning?” she asked.

That sounded like an open invitation. I had a thing for her but she always put business before pleasure except for a couple of great weekends. I had a feeling this was not about a weekender.

“No, I am free. What do you have in mind?”

“You heard last week about the mass shooting at the Los Al Naval Air Base?”

“Yes. In fact, I was waiting for a call from my CIA office in San Francisco. The shooter was Iraqi, correct?”

“We are involved because one of the persons killed was an FBI agent, Jeff Novak.”

“I didn’t hear that. I’m sorry.”

“Jon, there were three killed and three wounded. The shooter was a part of an Iraqi Air Force training group. There are fifteen airmen in all. The shooter’s name was Hasan Kanan. He was one of the support staff. He just went into the warehouse and started shooting. Jeff just happened to be there. It would have been much worse if the MPs hadn’t reacted as quickly as they did.”

“What was your agent doing there?” I asked.

“He was working on a classified case, directed toward the drone program that is centered at Los Al. When we started the shooting investigation, a strange thing happened. Jeff’s car was not at the base. Finally, we found it down in your neck of the woods. I thought I would stop by and pick you up on the way to his car.”

I thought a second. His car was found over twenty miles from the base.

“There must be more people involved,” I said.

“That’s the theory I’m working on. We have the Iraqi airmen in custody. That’s all except two of their support staff who were not on base when the shooting occurred.”

“Are they suspects?” I asked.

“The Air Force had vetted all of them and said they passed their security check. So not our guys.”

I know the way this started; it wasn’t going to be my lucky day. And why did she pick me, I asked myself?

“Can you give me more detail?” I asked.

“Jeff was part of our terrorist task force. He had been investigating a Syrian by the name of Abdul Hanif.”

I thought a second then I asked, “How am I connected?”

“His cousin, Fahad Hanif’s record had a CIA watch on it and you were the contact agent. Novak though they are working together.”

Well, that was a new one. That was very rare. It had been a long time since I had been active enough to have my name as a contact.

I tried to concentrate. “It doesn’t ring a bell. I’ll have to look it up.”

“I’ll be there in an hour. I hope I didn’t interrupt anything?”

I smiled. “No, I’m alone. See you in a few.”

Jodi knew I liked my freestyle of living and that’s probably why we weren’t regulars.

I took a quick shower, drank a cup of hot coffee and finished a small bottle of aspirins. Fahad Hanif? That must have been a while ago for my name to be attached. I turned on my computer and hooked into the CIA mainframe in San Francisco. After a couple of tries at the password, I was in the profile section.

Fahad Hanif. There he is. I read the first paragraph of his bio. It had not been part of my Dearborn activities. This guy dated back five years before I became an Agent-at-large.

Oh yeah. Manila. He was involved in a raid and shootout there. He had got away and dropped off the map completely. One agent had a note attached to the file.

Fahad Hanif is unaccounted for. Possible he didn’t survive the encounter in Manila.

A Note from Jonathon

My name is Jonathon Stone. Like a lot of single, All-American men I enjoy gambling, drinking, and the ladies.

I am a writer for Real Sportsman Magazine.

Being a writer is a realistic, workable cover but, in reality, I am a Special Agent for the CIA. I am assigned to the West Coast-based – Far East Operation Center located in San Francisco.

At one time our offices were in downtown Long Beach, CA. On the main floor was a complete magazine group with secretaries and a writing staff that produced a monthly hunting magazine.

In the basement of that office building was a full-blown CIA operation with security set up and computer center.

Eventually, our cover was blown, and the staff was scattered to the wind. My boss, Russ Evans, changed my status to At-Large and kept me in the Long Beach area. I live in Belmont Shore, if you want to be more specific.

I am what my fellow agents call an Asset-On-Call. I may just show up anywhere in the world.

As a footnote, we also handle the Domestic Operation - Terrorism (DOT) division. It was formed to handle terrorist threats inside the U.S. after DHS took control of intelligence.

This group is not on the Company’s organization chart.

Jonathon Stone

Author: James Moushon

Author Genre: Mystery & Thrillers, Satire

Website: James Moushon - Mystery Writer / Author Advocate
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Author Description: 

James Moushon is a Mystery writer and an Author Advocate.

Starting over 15 years ago, he helped lead the startup of the electronic forms industry in the creation, conversion and usage of electronic forms by supplying that industry with a continuing source of published literature, software products and training seminars.

In 2003, Moushon changed his focus to ebooks and their development.

James is currently wearing two Hats. He is a Mystery Writer and a Book Publishing Blogger. You can find his blogs at:

HBS Author’s Spotlight
The blog's purpose is to help authors get exposure in the book publishing industry. He has interviewed and showcased over 600 authors to date.

Indie Author's Corner
The Corner is a collection of Author advice and studies including Marketing, Social Media and other major topics created to help writers in today's ever changing world of book publishing.

He has spent the majority of his adult life developing computer systems and thinking about writing mysteries.

His website is: JAMES MOUSHON - MYSTERY WRITER / BOOK INDUSTRY BLOGGER

To contact him, e-mail: james.moushon@gmail.com

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