Timeout!

 A Jonathon Stone Mystery Novel BY James Moushon

TIMEOUT!

Author: James Moushon

Available at Amazon and on Kindle Unlimited   https://bit.ly/3IYzqUV

The wind was blowing briskly off the ocean with a slight mist in the air.

Jonathon was dispatched to San Diego with Chuck Chun, another CIA special agent. The CIA had received an alert. A notorious arms dealer was arriving in San Diego with a large number of guns and explosives on a freighter from the Far East. This dealer had been very elusive for a long time.

At the same time, FBI Agent Jodi Shannon and Agent Brian Baker from LA join the San Diego FBI field office team in a joint investigation. Their assignment: Get to the bottom of a white-collar crime, sports fixing.”

At the center of things was Willy Payne, a veteran basketball player for the San Diego Bays. He quickly becomes the focus of both investigations.

Eventually, Payne runs out of time.

Excerpt from TIMEOUT!

The wind was blowing briskly off the ocean with a slight mist in the air.

I sat there eating breakfast staring out the restaurant window. This was the start of summertime in Southern California. I could see the flags on the Belmont Pier blowing briskly toward Long Beach. These were the dog days. Overcast in the morning, burning off briefly in the afternoon and then back to the dull sky.

Each of my mornings had started this way for a while now. Being on call for the Agency allowed me to pursue my passion for gambling but the downside of drinking every night and then trying to recover by taking a brisk run through the morning mist was taking its toll.

I sat there drinking my first cup of coffee. Essie’s Restaurant was the same old thing every day. The usual gang of locals were sitting at the corner table, drinking coffee, talking about the latest scuttlebutt, and watching the joggers running by the large windows which faced the ocean.

One thing that was out of place was my favorite waitress in the world, Roxie. She was flitting round the room with a coffee pot in her hand, talking as loud as I had ever heard her. Roxie was a large Mexican lady, so dodging through the tables was no small feat. This morning Roxie had her Laker’s jersey on. They must have won. I took a seat at the counter as Essie, the owner, who was standing at the cashier’s counter, looked at me with a smile and held up one finger as a signal of patience. I had been coming here since I had been assigned to the Long Beach area several years ago.

Essie finally made her way to me with a streaming pot of coffee. “Hi, Jon. Do you want your usual bagel?” she asked.

“That sounds great. What’s got Roxie all riled up?”

“The Lakers won the championship, and she went to the parade yesterday. She has been this way for over a week now after the game. That’s why I’m helping her on the floor. She will be flying around here for another week until she realizes her Dodgers are off to a slow start.”

I loved sports but my ventures every night to the Casino Queen had got in the way of me keeping up with what was going on. Only my brief encounters with Roxie helped me keep pace with Laker’s basketball and soon to be the center of attention, the Dodgers.

I liked to tease Roxie on her down days, but this was not going to be one of them. She saw me across the room and waved. She wasn’t going to miss this opportunity, I bet.

She wheeled around the corner, exchanged a pot of coffee from the back burners, and headed my way. I should have passed on the bagel.

“Jon, we won the championship,” she shouted, announcing the fact to me and everyone else in the restaurant.”

I got a closer look at her jersey. It read in big white letters ‘LAKERS CHAMPS’.

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
Author's Blog: Indie Author’s Corner
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Twitter: @jimhbs
E-Mail: james.moushon@gmail.com
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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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