The culminating scenes of 'Achilles Wept' take place in the catacombs beneath Odessa, Ukraine. This photo pretty much reflects the image I have of that dark place. It is a fitting place for William McVane's showdown with the Cult of Achilles. This project is my first effort to write a book outside my usual genre, although I do stay within my comfort zone. It is one explosive, action-packed adventure.
Achilles Wept - A Brief Synopsis
William McVane gave it all up when Angelina was found dead in their apartment in Paris, only months after they were married. They said it was an accident. He had given up his career as a spook for her and, after she died, he pretty much gave up living. He drank and smoked too much. He didn’t need to work but he took on a case a year to keep the barrel of his 45 out of his mouth.
Seven years after Angelina’s death, Red Baines finds McVane at the bar, slaps the crap out of him for sending her husband to prison, and then tries to hire him. Her husband was murdered the same day he got to the prison. Jim Baines told her to hire McVane if anything happened to him. He also told her to give McVane his written notes. McVane told her no, it was “too much baggage for both of them.” That changed when Red told him that Angelina had been murdered - by the same people who killed her husband.
The notes indicate that something’s up. The huge bald-headed, track suit-wearing simian, with the tattoo of a Greek letter A on his calf that McVane finds in his house proves it. The guy tosses him around like a toy, rips a Michener hardback in half with his bare hands, and gets one of McVane’s bullets through his skull for his efforts.
Someone is killing people all over the world, mostly in Eastern Europe, where McVane spent most of his career as an assassin for the CIA. They’re killing with their hands, in brutal fashion, like ripping the arms off of people and beating them to death with their own limbs. McVane’s ex-partner, John Brooks, helps him investigate and sees a pattern. It appears the killing are being perpetrated to maintain the purity of a race or bloodline. In most cases, the partner of a recently engaged or married couple is murdered. It means that the survivors are part of the race, whether they know it or not - whether they want to be or not. It means that Red is part of the race. McVane too. Made sense. Both were orphaned and never knew their parents.
McVane goes back to his old stomping grounds in Europe, starting in Athens. Dimitri, an old friend - a mafioso - tells him it’s the Cult of Achilles. The next day Dimitri is found strangled with his own intestines. The mafia boys think McVane did it, so he escapes with Red to his sea-side estate in Bulgaria. He bought it for Angelina and had not been back since her death, leaving it to Lazlo and his wife to keep it in shape. The Russian couple were assassins in the old KGB days and McVane let them use the estate to hide from their ex-employers who frowned on defectors.
Brooks’s digging comes up with White Island, a small guano-covered rock in the Black Sea, where legend has it Achilles was buried. McVane and Lazlo climb aboard the Nautilus, a 65 foot Hatteras that McVane was gifted by a grateful client. He and Lazlo take out two more Achilles goons on guard on the island. McVane finds a hidden entrance, goes through it and finds an underground cathedral - a replica of the Hagia Sophia. It was then that McVane truly understood the sinister scope of the Cult of Achilles. They would stop at nothing to carry out their plans. The ball is rolling. After centuries of inaction, the Cult is playing out their end game. And the only thing standing in their way is McVane.
Seven years after Angelina’s death, Red Baines finds McVane at the bar, slaps the crap out of him for sending her husband to prison, and then tries to hire him. Her husband was murdered the same day he got to the prison. Jim Baines told her to hire McVane if anything happened to him. He also told her to give McVane his written notes. McVane told her no, it was “too much baggage for both of them.” That changed when Red told him that Angelina had been murdered - by the same people who killed her husband.
The notes indicate that something’s up. The huge bald-headed, track suit-wearing simian, with the tattoo of a Greek letter A on his calf that McVane finds in his house proves it. The guy tosses him around like a toy, rips a Michener hardback in half with his bare hands, and gets one of McVane’s bullets through his skull for his efforts.
Someone is killing people all over the world, mostly in Eastern Europe, where McVane spent most of his career as an assassin for the CIA. They’re killing with their hands, in brutal fashion, like ripping the arms off of people and beating them to death with their own limbs. McVane’s ex-partner, John Brooks, helps him investigate and sees a pattern. It appears the killing are being perpetrated to maintain the purity of a race or bloodline. In most cases, the partner of a recently engaged or married couple is murdered. It means that the survivors are part of the race, whether they know it or not - whether they want to be or not. It means that Red is part of the race. McVane too. Made sense. Both were orphaned and never knew their parents.
McVane goes back to his old stomping grounds in Europe, starting in Athens. Dimitri, an old friend - a mafioso - tells him it’s the Cult of Achilles. The next day Dimitri is found strangled with his own intestines. The mafia boys think McVane did it, so he escapes with Red to his sea-side estate in Bulgaria. He bought it for Angelina and had not been back since her death, leaving it to Lazlo and his wife to keep it in shape. The Russian couple were assassins in the old KGB days and McVane let them use the estate to hide from their ex-employers who frowned on defectors.
Brooks’s digging comes up with White Island, a small guano-covered rock in the Black Sea, where legend has it Achilles was buried. McVane and Lazlo climb aboard the Nautilus, a 65 foot Hatteras that McVane was gifted by a grateful client. He and Lazlo take out two more Achilles goons on guard on the island. McVane finds a hidden entrance, goes through it and finds an underground cathedral - a replica of the Hagia Sophia. It was then that McVane truly understood the sinister scope of the Cult of Achilles. They would stop at nothing to carry out their plans. The ball is rolling. After centuries of inaction, the Cult is playing out their end game. And the only thing standing in their way is McVane.
