Weathering the Storm

Jim King, Macy Lewis

Description

When two strangers are asked to investigate unexplained weather that is terrorizing the world, they must overcome the trauma and wounds in their past, to move forward with their mission and unexpected romance. Will they be able to weather the emotional storms that come their way, or will they sink in their own despair?

Unexplained weather has been terrorizing the world for a few months. When MI6 agent Nicholas Wellington and some colleagues are killed in a ship wreck, Nicholas’s girlfriend Charmaine Dorbandt, a fellow MI6 employee decides to investigate and prove her theory of unexplained weather, but will the world governments listen to her?

French Air Force Medic, Pierre Marceline is recovering from a helicopter accident that nearly cost him his life. Pierre receives a call from DGSE where he is asked to help a blind MI6 agent on a classified mission. Pierre decides to help and his adventure begins.

When Charmaine and Pierre meet, they start to work with a group of scientists to see if they can stop the worsening weather. During their investigation, Charmaine decides to investigate each person, but along the way, Charmaine and Pierre must learn to work together with physical obstacles from Charmaine’s blindness and Pierre’s healing body, and the emotional scars that Charmaine has from Nicholas’s untimely death and the trauma from Pierre’s accident.

Will they be able to weather the physical and emotional storms that keep coming up, while they are trying to save the world from disaster?

Sujets

• Thrillers
• Suspense
• Fiction

Informations

• Publié par: Archway Publishing
• Date de parution: 02 mars 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781665739382
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

WEATHERING THE STORM
MACY LEWIS JIM KING


Copyright © 2023 Macy Lewis Jim King.
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
 
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
 
 
Archway Publishing
1663 Liberty Drive
Bloomington, IN 47403
www.archwaypublishing.com
844-669-3957
 
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
ISBN: 978-1-6657-3939-9 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-6657-3938-2 (e)
 
Library of Congress Control Number: 2023903315
 
 
 
Archway Publishing rev. date: 02/24/2023
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
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
 
Epilogue
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to thank the following people for their help with this book.
Jim King, thank you for creating the theme of the book, reading outlines and manuscripts, being the best coauthor, and always believing in me!
Madeleine Kmetzsch, thank you for the book cover; it is beautiful!
Julia Allen, thank you for doing a final edit on the manuscript, catching everything I missed, and adding more depth. You made this book even better than I could have imagined! Whitney, thank you for being my liaison to Julia. You were the link that made her help happen.
Dr. S. Yoshi Maezumi, thank you for ensuring my weather descriptions were correct, making geography come alive during your lectures, and believing in me.
Dr. Ann Engar, thank you for teaching me how to be a good researcher and always believing in me.
Angela Palmer, thank you for tutoring me during two years of French courses at the University of Utah. Your expertise with French was invaluable!
Essie and Michel, thank you for making my trip to France so memorable and encouraging me to keep speaking French. Essie, you were the first acquaintance I met when I was ready to leave the train, and I loved conversing with you on the way to get a taxi. Michel, our brief conversations in the lobby of Hotel Floride Etoile brightened my days.
Debbie and Rob, thank you for your help with this book and for always believing in me; I love you!
Charmaine, McCall, Kallie, Lindsey, Kelly, Jill, Traci, Kara, Marilyn, Lisa, Jon and Cidny, Crayton, Adam, Derrick, Benjamin, and Scott, thank you for the help and encouragement.
Archway Publishing, thank you for the help publishing this book.
In memory of Traci, who taught us the importance of smiling while we persevere and endure through our various challenges in life. You will always remain in our hearts.
CHAPTER 1

T he melodic robotic voice of my screen reader came through the headphone stuck in my left ear. My jaw hit the floor when I heard the voice read the email, ‘BREAKING NEWS! A severe snowstorm has been forecast for tomorrow in the United Kingdom. This storm is expected to bring a foot or more of snow across the country. Residents are advised to immediately take precautions and stay indoors.’
“Char, are you reading the snow report?” Katrina, one of my MI6 colleagues, asked.
I looked in her direction. “Yes, this is insane.” I heard the room echo with a murmured agreement. The typing of keyboards and clicks of computer mice echoed throughout the room all around me from my MI6 colleagues. My job was working in internal affairs and relaying meteorological intelligence to the courageous women and men working in the field.
“It looks like a storm is heading toward Wellington’s ship. Charmaine, call him up and check on him,” my boss, George Story, said from my left.
“What’s happening with the weather lately? It seems like bizarre weather is happening all over the globe,” Sophie’s voice came from behind me. I smiled in her direction and nodded, her figure only a colorful blob of something in my left eye.
I was born seventeen weeks early, weighing in at one pound two ounces. In my first year of life, I had eleven surgeries, ten of which were on my eyes. The eye surgeries were attempts to reattach my retinas. Unfortunately, they didn’t work as well as they’d hoped. I was totally blind in my right eye, and my left only had ten percent central vision. But I quickly learned to navigate life by using braille and a cane and managed to graduate from university with a degree in meteorology. Upon graduation, I found work at the United Kingdom’s Secret Intelligence Service.
“Let me know if you want me to ask him any other questions,” I said, touching the right side of my laptop. I slid my fingers along the smooth tabletop until I found my phone. Picking it up, I unlocked the phone with my thumbprint, slid my finger along the screen, and listened to the robotic voice relay which apps I was touching until I found my contacts. I swiped up until I found Nick’s name in my contact list. Tapping on his name brought up his contact card. I slid my finger along the screen until I found the call button; after a double tap, the phone said, “Nick Wellington.” I put the phone to my ear and waited.
Two years earlier, I had met Nicholas, another one of MI6’s field agents, at a Christmas party. Katrina and Sophie were being my eyes that night and led me straight into Nick’s path. Little did I know that Katrina, Sophie, and Nick were in on the plot the entire time. Nick had been smiling at me the whole night, but of course, I had had no idea and ignored him. He and the girls started gesturing to each other and I didn’t see Nick until I ran right into him. Literally.
To this day, I still blushed when I thought about that night. I was terrified Nick would be afraid of someone blind, but he wasn’t. In fact, with every passing date, we got to know each other better and Nick said he had no problem with my blindness, and every fear I had was slowly vanquished. Nick was there to lend a hand or an eye if I needed either of them to complete a task, and we had been together ever since.
“Hey, sugar,” Nick said enthusiastically.
“There’s another storm coming your way, Nick. Do you see it?” I asked, feeling a smile crawl across my lips. I never got tired of hearing his deep voice.
“Yeah, we’re doing our best to steer out of it. There’s another ship out here doing the same research because there was another rainstorm in the Sahara Desert. That’s the fourth one this week and during the dry season, no less. We’re also looking into the ice blocks floating down the Amazon River. It makes no sense, babe.” Nick sounded incredulous.
“What? When did this happen?” I exclaimed. I hadn’t heard the report on that one yet.
“I just received an email from Katrina about it,” Nick replied.
Just then, my inbox chimed, reading out a notification of an email. “Oh, so did I. Something weird is going on.” Lowering my voice, I added, “I’m going to figure out what’s happening.”
Nick’s chuckle on the other end of the line made me smile.“Oh boy, here you go again. Not everything has to do with your interest in cloud seeding.”
“Excuse me, who is the meteorologist here?” I teased. “It’s the only logical explanation for the chaos going on.”
“Char, I think you need to relax and read a book tonight after going to the gym.”
“That’s exactly what I plan on doing. But before that, I will enter that information into my spreadsheet.” I ran my fingers along my laptop keyboard until I found the tab key. Setting the phone down, I said, “Say hi to everyone; you’re on speaker,” I added while feeling around for the alt key.
“Hi everyone,” Nick yelled. The room erupted with greetings on all sides of me.
The male voice of my screen reader said into my headphone, “alt-tab,” which took me through the list of documents that were open on the taskbar at the bottom of my screen. I scrolled through the options with the arrow keys until I found my spreadsheet of chaotic weather. Using the arrow keys and other keyboard commands, I entered the information Nick told me about the latest rainstorm in the Sahara Desert. Hearing my screen reader say “Control S,” I picked up my phone and put it to my ear.
“I’m back,” I said, running a hand through my shoulder-length hair.
“Good, I’ve missed hearing your voice and seeing your smile. I love your smile.”
I giggled, feeling my face heat up. I wonder how many people saw that.
“I miss hearing your voice too. Sorry I can’t see the rest of you,” I teased. Nick chuckled. A nagging fear prickled in my mind. “Hey, Ni