Sleeper Agent: Cold War Prologue Part 2.

Hey, y'all, Sleeper Agent: Cold War is on the very cusp on being published and I wanted to share a few short previews to all you wonderful Minds peeps. So without further ado, here's the second part of the prologue. If you like it, check out my first Sleeper Agent novella linked at the bottom and share! Thanks all and God bless!

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I was safe. Everything was fine. I was safe.

I put a hand to my forehead. It was soaking. My whole body dripped with sweat.

Why was I recalling this now? I thought I’d been healed. I thought that I’d seen the last of these terrorizing nightmares that have haunted me since I’d been abducted and subjected to tortures no man should ever have to face.

I thought that I was getting better.

I guess I wasn’t.

I might never be fully healed.

This had to be the new normal for me.

I reached for my phone. I checked the time. Three forty-five.

My heart was racing still. I was terrified. I tried to calm myself down. I tried and failed.

I pressed the contacts button and went to my favorites. I hesitated as my thumb hovered a name.

Sasha.

Should I call her?

She’d told me that she’d be there for me. She’d told me to call her any time.

She’d already been with me through many weary nights when the visions of torture ate at my sleep deprived mind. I’d seen the dark rings under her eyes when we’d met at work. She’d paid the price for her words but she had been true to them.

She wasn’t a liar. She’d truly been there for me whenever I’d needed her.

I reached to press the button, but my hand still hesitated.

It was partly her fault that I was experiencing these nightmares. If she’d just told me from the beginning that she and the other researchers at the Fredrickson Sleep Research Center hadn’t cared a thing for the lucid dreaming they told me they were studying, but rather had been grooming me into the perfect spy; a literal sleeper agent —someone who would watch and report without ever knowing what he was doing— I wouldn’t have been there.

But we’d made up.

I’d forgiven her.

Sasha had paid more than enough for withholding the truth from me. She’d lost friends at X’s hands too. She’d nearly lost me.

I pressed the button.

She answered on the fifth ring.

“Hello,” she said, her voice husky with sleep. “Stephen?”

My response was no more than a tired mumble, so I coughed to clear my throat.

“Another nightmare?” Sasha asked, no longer sounding even a little tired.

How she was able to make herself immediately aware was beyond me. Even though my job was essentially just sleeping and giving reports on my dreams, I still had a hard time shaking off the weariness that sleep brought me. I often woke more tired than when I’d gone to sleep.

Sasha was amazing.

“Do you need me to do anything?” she asked. My throat caught at the concern in her voice. I knew that she still blamed herself for the pain that I’d experienced at the hands of Clayton and X’s men.

“No. I’m good. I just needed to hear your voice. I just needed a reminder that it wasn’t real. That it’s all just memories.”

“Mhm,” she responded. “I’m here. I’ll always be here.”

Her words were warming like a cozy blanket.

We chatted for a while and I listened to her voice until it ushered me into the world of dreams.”

Excerpt From: M. Anthony Harris. “Cold War: A Sleeper Agent Novella.”

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I hope y'all enjoyed it. Make sure to be on the lookout for the first chapter soon! And if you liked this and dig action thrillers and anti-terrorism books, make sure to check out the first Sleeper Agent book here!

https://www.amazon.com/Sleeper-Agent-M-Anthony-Harris-ebook/dp/B077SSY2ZY

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/762261