CO-VID 2020 by Mike Scantlebury

CO-VID 2020

Part 1 by Mike Scantlebury.

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Melia is facing yet another change of boss. Somehow the governments doesn’t seem happy unless they’re shaking up British Security Services and making the agents uncomfortable and insecure. Captain Gibson isn’t around. Some say he has been sent for ‘re-education’. Meanwhile, a jumped-up little toerag from London has been sent up north to Salford to show the natives how to do stuff. So far, according to all reports, he has been a miserable failure.

Meanwhile, an older woman from Melia’s past, Jan Branch, re-appears after many years away. Jan’s mother has died and she is there to clear her old house and tidy up loose ends. Unfortunately, she is not the same person she was when she left town. Where she lives now, in the East Indies, they call her the ‘Gun-running Granny’, for that is her new profession. She hadn’t planned on staying long, but two things delay her departure. One, there is an Arms Fair in the city and she sees an opportunity to do some deals and make some money. Second, she hears that a successful property developer, Jimmy Batter, has amassed a fortune which he intends to divide amongst his ungrateful family. Unluckily for them, the ‘Treasure’ is hidden, and although various relatives are falling over themselves to find the money, Jan thinks she has a much better chance than most. After all, she used to be a film-maker, and captured Old Jim on video, back in the day. Those films, made by the group known as ‘Co-operative Videographers’, maybe provide all the clues necessary to unearth the fortune.

Melia might care, but she has other things to do. After the trauma of the last few months, a holiday in Spain led to a liaison with a young man who wants to save an unfairly imprisoned journalist. Melia is eager to help, and for one reason only – she is in love. She doesn’t want anyone to know, but John Lewis has stolen her heart. She would do anything for him, and before long, we find out exactly what that is.

A Word from the Author

What would you do if somebody told you that the biggest treasure in the land was buried in your neighbourhood? Would you join the Treasure Hunt?

Jan Branch is tempted, even though she is only on a flying visit to her home town of Salford, in North West England. She doesn’t want to stay. Still, the money would be useful, in her line of work. Jan is deceptive. On the surface she looks like a loveable little old lady. Back in her new home in Indonesia they call her The Gun-Running Granny, and know that she’s dangerous.

Jan Branch is an old friend of Secret Agent Amelia Hartliss, despite the fact that Melia killed Jan’s second husband. Maybe that’s why Jan is not keen to meet up. But she doesn’t hold a grudge. She hears that Melia is currently distracted in her work, from having a new Boss in the Salford office and a new love, discovered on a recent trip to Spain. It looks like Melia’s on-off romance with colleague Mickey may be finally over.

If only Melia wasn’t so suspicious. John is a wonderful man, she tells herself, but he is a little secretive, and what is this Quest he has for her? He wants her to find an asylum seeker, being held, he says, by British Security. Melia is employed by a parallel agency. She isn’t afraid of Border Force, but she did expect them to be honest with her. Why are they saying there is no ‘Prisoner X’? John says there is. Who should she believe?

It’s almost a relief to hear that arms dealers in Britain are trying to kill her at the same time. She can cope with that. That’s almost ‘Business as Usual’.

Author Mike Scantlebury says: This book was inspired by the tension created in the land by the on-going pandemic and was written in 2020 when the public was assaulted by infections and possible death. It makes the work of the Security Services even more dangerous!

Bearing that in mind, please don’t be misled by the book’s cover. ‘Co-Vid2020’ is new and it’s nothing like the virus of 2019.

(Mike Scantlebury, 2021)