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Hello readers of The Da Vinci Code!Soon on Kindle, now read it for FREE on my blog.
As promised, today I posted the Prologue of THE MEDICAL CODE.
ANTWERP, September 2020, Sunday 06:00 am
Doctor Alexis Gibson flew through the gloomy, empty, narrow streets of Antwerp, slipping on the wet cobblestones. Her breath was heavy and jerky as she turned her head to look at her pursuer. She couldn’t see him, but heard his feet slapping on the wet pavement.
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I'm so excited! THE MEDICAL CODE by Sophy Smythe launches March, 22, on Amazon.In the meantime have a sneak peek:
THE MEDICAL CODE - CHAPTER 2
Sophy Smythe
ANTWERP
A few kilometres away, Mo Adali walked through the narrow streets of Seefhoek. The Antwerp people pronounce this as ‘safe hook’, meaning safe corner. Despite the name, the Seefhoek had never been a safe place. Antwerp’s dockers and factory workers used to live here, and brawls and fights were commonplace, but that was a long time ago. Now the neighbourhood is more criminal than ever. An eyesore for the old Antwerpians. Foreign shop owners collaborate to chase away the drug dealers and junkies as the police don’t show up or come too late. Nowadays you can’t imagine that you are in Antwerp at all. You could be anywhere in Marrakesh, Istanbul or Tripoli. Populated by people like Mo. Here he could dissolve in the mass.
It was still early, and the night covered the Seefhoek like a blanket.
In a porch across the street an old man warmed his hands around a cup of coffee. The smell tickled Mo’s nose and a sudden craving for coffee overwhelmed him.
Mo shook it off and opened the flaked door of the grim house in the Lange Scholiersstraat and took off his face mask. He grinned. It was so much easier to disappear now face masks were mandatory. He light-footed climbed the mouldy stairs and greeted his friend Aswad.
‘As-sala mu Alay kum,’
‘Alay kum s-salam.’
Mo couldn’t think of anywhere safer. Aswad made a great living of falsifying passports for members of the ISIS and had a mole inside the police force. They would be long gone before the police would arrive.
Taking off his hoodie, Mo went to his bedroom. He swung his hoodie on the bed and kneeled on the wooden floor. He peeled away the thick, colourful carpet and checked if the hair was still in place. Then he loosened the floorboard beneath, took out his encrypted phone and dialled the number by heart.
‘Yes?’ a distorted voice answered.
Mo still didn’t catch if it was a man or a woman talking. ‘She’s neutralised’.
‘Do you have the info?’
‘No. Something went wrong.’
‘You, moron! What happened?’
‘They discovered me before she could tell where she had hid it.’ Mo told the voice what had happened that early morning. How he had followed Gibson from the parking garage where she had arrived, as the Grandmaster had told him, and how she had escaped him the first time, alarmed by a barking dog. How he had chased her and how he had miscalculated that she wouldn’t scream.
‘Did you kill her?’
‘Yes. I didn’t have a choice. She could identify me.’
‘You blockhead! I explicitly said no killings.’ The voice was ice cold.
Mo sensed electricity flowing through his veins. It took all his effort to contain himself.
‘Had she any papers on her? Phone? USB?’
‘I hadn’t the chance to search for it. Someone saw me. I had to flee.’
The voice fell silent, as if pondering over the next step to take. Finally, the voice spoke. ‘Go back. The information mustn’t fall into the wrong hands. There is too much at stake’.
‘I can’t go back,’ Mo protested. ‘I have to lie low for a while.’
The voice overruled him, and with the authoritative tone of someone who is used to being obeyed, he told Mo what to do.
For more sneak peeks: https://sophysmythe.com/blog
If you loved reading Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code, you'll probably love my new mystery-thriller THE MEDICAL CODE.
Every week I post a new chapter on my blog for FREE.
Enjoy!
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