Fatal Mistake

FATAL MISTAKE A SIMON FLETCHER ADVENTURE JEREMY WALDRON All rights reserved. Copyright © 2023 Jeremy Waldron No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author and/or publisher. No part of this publication may be sold or hired, without written permission from the author. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are a product of the writer’s imagination and/or have been used fictitiously in such a fashion it is not meant to serve the reader as actual fact and should not be considered as actual fact. Any resemblance to actual events, or persons, living or dead, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication / use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners. [email protected] ALSO BY JEREMY WALDRON Secret Assassin Action Thrillers Secret Assassin Justice Served On the Run Single Shot Jackson Payne Thrillers Field of Fire Short Crime Stories Confessed to Murder Hostage Saturday Night Special The Deadly Affair The Samantha Bell Mystery Series Dead and Gone to Bell Bell Hath No Fury Bloody Bell Bell to Pay Burn in Bell Mad as Bell All Bell Breaks Loose To Bell and Back Escape from Bell Never miss a new release. Sign up for Jeremy Waldron’s New Releases Newsletter at JeremyWaldron.com CONTENTS Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Chapter 30 Chapter 31 Chapter 32 Chapter 33 Chapter 34 Chapter 35 Chapter 36 Also by Jeremy Waldron About the Author CHAPTER ONE Minutes away from warmth, I shook off the cold and focused on my deep breath work. It was something I had learned in Afghanistan. A steady trigger finger from a warm core, I liked to remind myself. Though it wasn’t an official mantra, I considered it just as important as keeping my powder dry. I’d waited for what felt like an eternity for the bright orange orb to breech the eastern horizon. As soon as the sun shone over the cold landscape, I heard the earth release a sigh of relief. I had been lying all night on a barren, rocky hillside, one mile southwest of an underground Iranian uranium enrichment facility waiting for my chance to kill one of Iran’s preeminent nuclear scientists—the person whom I was told was directly responsible for deliberately breaking an international treaty between world powers. The target’s name was Iraj Khadem, and not only was he an officer in Iran’s CHAPTER TWO About two miles out, the convoy suddenly stopped. There was no oncoming traffic, and nothing was approaching them from behind. It was just the three black SUVs parked bumper to bumper in a straight line, as if waiting for confirmation it was safe to proceed. I kept the front vehicle between the crosshairs, thinking maybe my position had been exposed. After retracing my steps and replaying the last twenty-four hours inside my head, I concluded I wasn’t the reason they had stopped. It was something else. Camouflaged, I might as well have been an offspring of the rock surrounding me. There was no chance of anyone seeing me. I waited, and when seconds turned to minutes, I doubted I’d get my chance to kill Iraj. Feathering the trigger, I thought about the intelligence report and how it stated Iraj preferred to travel in the first vehicle and liked to sit on the right side, directly behind