Sea of Lies: An Espionage Thriller

SEA OF LIES

AN ESPIONAGE THRILLER

BRADLEY WEST

“Crisp dialog drives non-stop realistic action across Burma, Singapore, Sri Lanka, China and Australia.”

James Hawes

SEAL TEAM-2,
Author of Congo Covert Waters: First Navy SEAL in Africa

“MH370s fate remains a mystery. This compelling and well-researched novel raises questions that require answers.”

Dr. Dan Crosswell

Distinguished University Chair in Military History, Columbus State University

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

1.
    
Road to Nowhere

2.
    
Let’s Make a Deal

3.
    
Help is on the Way

4.
    
Club Avatar

5.
    
The Sting

6.
    
Back and Black

7.
    
The Fourth Policy

8.
    
Pitch Perfect

9.
    
Rangoon Heat

10.
 
Toad Hall

11.
  
Aloha

12.
  
All Fours

13.
  
Triangulated

14.
  
Shanghai Surprise

15.
  
Question Time

16.
  
On Target

17.
  
Dangerous Liaison

18.
  
Failure to Communicate

19.
  
Misdirection

20.
 
Real Deals

21.
  
Berserk

22.
 
Glowing Portrayals

23.
 
Contagion

24.
 
Turnabout

25.
 
Spinning Wheels

26.
 
Cratered

27.
 
Secrets

28.
 
Zero Hour

29.
 
Up in the Air

30.
 
On the Run

31.
  
Tracking Errors

32.
 
Ride Sharing

33.
 
You Gotta Believe

34.
 
The Taking of MH370

35.
 
Flights of Fancy

36.
 
Double Dealing

37.
 
Bait and Switch

38.
 
Changes in Attitudes

39.
 
Collateral Damage

40.
 
Last Rites

41.
  
Maneuvering for Position

42.
 
Tails, I Win

43.
 
Colombo Shuffleboard

44.
 
Bedtime Stories

45.
 
Countdown

46.
 
Party Planning

47.
 
Mind Your Manners

48.
 
Train in Vain

49.
 
Death Race Ratmalana

50.
 
Freedom

51.
  
Suspended Animation

52.
 
Diplomatic Impunity

53.
 
Primed for Launch

54.
 
Big Bang

55.
 
Playing the Fool

56.
 
Hanging Fire

57.
 
Blitzkrieg

58.
 
Mac Attack

59.
 
Beach Wear

60.
 
Oklahoma Hold’em

61.
  
The Lizard Cage

62.
 
Self-Help

63.
 
Sanguine Shores

64.
 
Slippery Bob

65.
 
Rose-Tinted

Notes on Nomenclature: City, Country and Measurement Guidelines

Abbreviations and Jargon

Cast of Characters in Order of Appearance

Acknowledgements

About the Author

A Favor to Ask: Please Leave a Review

CHAPTER ONE

ROAD TO NOWHERE

SATURDAY AFTERNOON, MARCH 8, EINME, BURMA

Bob Nolan’s head throbbed as the embassy Hyundai Sonata headed west from the Rangoon city limits. Fighting nausea, he revisited last night’s scotch-fueled conversation with the DEA’s Sam Hecker. Nolan had told Hecker that, as of the end of March, he and the CIA were parting ways after almost thirty-three years. Brothers in arms suffering at the hands of the politicians, careerists and incompetents in their respective agencies, Hecker and Nolan accounted for half a bottle each of the blended brown nectar now eating at Nolan’s stomach lining and reminding him he was famished.

Hecker confirmed that Rangoon Chief of Station Lloyd Matthews was a manipulator of unlimited ambition. Singapore-based CIA cryptanalyst Nolan wasn’t in a position to aid Matthews in his career aspirations, so Matthews treated Nolan like the handyman at his family’s Martha’s Vineyard compound. Nolan was happy to put a helpful boot in and told a couple Agency stories that had Hecker roaring.

Nolan nodded in and out of wakefulness. Endlessly looping beneath his conscious mind was the question, “What in the hell are you doing?” Ostensibly on a preretirement weekend vacation visiting an old college classmate now teaching at an international high school, earlier on Saturday Nolan had answered the CIA’s emergency summons. A quick shower, shave and an overheard story on the news about a missing Malaysia airliner, and then a taxi to the embassy annex. There he’d received a twenty-minute briefing before being packed off to tick the lowest-priority box on Langley’s “Could MH370 be here?” checklist. Basically, a waste of a Saturday.

Post-hangover fatigue and the narcoleptic effects of stop-and-go driving overwhelmed the momentary bouts of terror triggered by screeching halts, full-on horn play and evasive action. After almost two hours of slow torture, his lolling neck hurt too much to pretend to sleep any longer. He moved the passenger seat upright and looked around. His driver Kyaw handed him the GPS; they were only twelve miles from Einme, the last speck before they went off the map. The rural traffic was sparse but multimodal: tractors, bullock carts, commercial vehicles, bicycles, mopeds, motorcycles and the odd passenger car. It was a Third World video game with real blood, although surprisingly little of it actually spilt.

Each country had its own driving culture that worked for its inhabitants, but not visitors. Sri Lankans were terrified when driving on India’s roads and Indians couldn’t handle driving in Bangladesh. Nolan experienced the pucker factor nearly everywhere, including supposedly disciplined Singapore. Visiting Burma wasn’t much different. While he hadn’t given it much thought until now, Buddhist countries were particularly dangerous. The prospect of reincarnation surely added to the recklessness among drivers in Burma and Sri Lanka. But Hindu India took first prize. The lower-caste drivers looking for a rebirth upgrade were positively incentivized to steer their vehicles off cliffs and into a better tomorrow.

Einme featured a modern gas station and a few tin-roofed restaurants and shophouses selling everything from lumber to dresses to rice cookers. The tallest building was a four-story shophouse with the top floor only half built. They drove through and headed west by southwest. The GPS unit showed they were only nine miles away from the center of the toll road that abutted Rangoon research librarian Millie Mukherjee’s maybe-building under a camouflaged net. It was hard to tell very much from the low-resolution satellite photo, but Nolan grudgingly admitted that it
could
be a landing strip in the middle of nowhere with a secret building nearby.

The GPS reading didn’t change much for the next forty minutes as Kyaw tried roads and lanes that might take them closer to Millie’s mark on a grainy satellite photograph. No route leading from their initial northern approach came close. Without four-wheel drive, becoming mired anytime they hit low ground was a threat.