Thank you to all of you who downloaded a free copy of “Beyond the Black Stump.”
Be sure to read “The Bridge” and “Oo-roo” to enjoy and understand why they are subtitled “Life in the Shadows.”
Mick, Jack, Walking Bear, and Mahaney use their cover positions to act as the point of the spear when traditional means are not adequate to combat threats to society. Their connections to the Australian Intelligence Service. Mi6 and Irish Intelligence are only shared with those who need to know.
In “The Bridge” ( London – Helsinki – Tashkent 1978 ) Michael Garrett is asked by Natalie, his lover and member of French Intelligence, to travel to Tashkent to meet the Colonel she had been running for years. Her abrupt departure from Moscow and relocation to Paris has strained the management of the most strategically placed agent the French had ever developed. Neither she nor her backup can make the trip that she feels will provide vital information to the west. She reluctantly asks Michael to make the meeting. Before he departs for Tashkent and that meeting, share his journey as he joins the Australian Secret Intelligence Service in 1972, years before the world knew the Australians had an Intelligence Service. Follow his exploits across Russia with Jack, ASIS Station Chief, and other remarkable people along the way. Living in Moscow, travelling to Kyiv, Leningrad, Volgograd, and other cities share what life was like in the CCCP under constant watchful eyes.
“Oo-roo” is an Aboriginal word meaning ” See you.” The specter of restored passport control checkpoints and customs at the border with Northern Ireland is contemplated with horror by people here who remember the delays and inefficiencies that the border used to cause in the old days…” From a speech delivered by a Member of the Dáil. Brexit is rapidly changing traditional European relationships. In the middle of these swirling seas, Jack and Mick are tasked with investigating the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom’s security, as opportunists look to gain citizenship and set up illegal ventures anywhere they can find a crack in the shield.
“Beyond the Black Stump” Jack, Mick, Mahaney, and Walking Bear are all enjoying a respite from their career pressures when they are alerted to a possible strike on the Royal Family. Mahaney’s recent trip to Northern Ireland to investigate a string of brutal bank robberies has left him suspicious of the SAS and the robberies’ motivations. Possible action against the Royals by the military has everyone running scared. The horrors created by those trying to break the Easter Peace Accords are factored into decisions on how to deal with this splinter group within the SAS.
We All Deserve Better 