Title: The Death of the Kremlin Czar
Author: Jörg H. Trauboth
Publisher: Gedankenkunst-Verlog
Publication Date: August 26, 2024
Pages: 443
Genre: Thriller
Russian President and new Czar Ivan Pavlenko
suddenly shows his true colors during the war in Ukraine. He wants the
old Soviet Union back. The world is on the brink. The influential
oligarch Alexei Sokolov wants to prevent Ivan’s megalomaniacal plans and
is planning a fundamental new beginning for Russia. To achieve this,
the Russian president must die. How will the US President react to the
CIA’s proposal to support the oligarch, who has a romantic relationship
with the Russian President’s partner, Yulia?
The
poison attack is perfectly prepared, but the Boeing with the oligarch
Alexei Sokolow, his lover and over 100 passengers on board is hijacked
by a Ukrainian terrorist and is supposed to crash over Berlin after
knocking out the crew by shooting. Former elite soldier Marc Anderson is
on board with his family and takes over with Alexei. The two flight
amateurs try to get control. Will the landing and the assassination
succeed or will the Kremlin Czar strike back brutally after realizing
the role of Yulia?
The Death of the Kremlin Czar is available at Amazon (U.S. edition) and Amazon (German edition).
CHAPTER 1
“Watch out! High-voltage line at three hundred meters!“, shouted the co-pilot.
“In
sight!“ the commander replied calmly, pulling up just before the
obstacle and immediately pushing the helicopter down again.
The two pilots of the Ukrainian armed forces
guided the old Russian Mi-8 helicopter with their night vision devices
on a zigzag course away from populated areas and Russian defense walls
to the target. The destination was Luhansk. The mission: to free their
own soldiers from Russian captivity. They had volunteered for the
Ascension mission and trained for the flight intensively in the
simulator supplied by the USA, including simulated enemy fire and
evasive maneuvers. The simulator‘s current aerial photographs proved to
be extremely helpful in the dimly lit night. A lot had changed in
Donbass since the region was forcibly annexed by Russian President Ivan
Pavlenko. Destroyed cities, abandoned villages, mined escape routes,
deportations, rapes, mass graves, poverty, hunger, thirst and despair.
Ivan Pavlenko was called “Czar Ivan II“ by the
co-pilot, a former history teacher. But not only by him. The Ukrainian
people hated this man who had brought so much suffering to their
families with his megalomania and wanted to steal their country. Even
those people whose thinking was shaped by Russian culture had turned
their backs on this madman in Moscow.
The co-pilot turned to Iris, the commander of the special forces, and signaled “30 minutes.“
Iris had been given his nickname because –
like the German anti-aircraft missile of the same name – he was known
for always hitting the bull‘s eye. Everything Iris tackled led to
success. On a street in Kiev, the child-pushing, medium-sized, friendly
man at his wife‘s side would not have been noticed. No one could have
guessed that the man flirting with his young daughter was a rare mixture
of analyst, combat soldier and leader with a stellar military career
ahead of him.
Iris looked at his men. The two teams sat
opposite each other and remained completely relaxed despite the loud
engine noise in the old transport helicopter with its fake Russian
registration.
Perhaps it was a kind of meditative calm
before the dangerous mission. Or perhaps it was the awareness that they
could be hit by a Russian missile at any time during this night-time
low-level flight into the Luhansk Oblast without being able to do
anything about it. There weren‘t even any parachutes on board, because
every kilogram counted for the return flight, during which the aged and
rattling Mi-8 would be fully occupied.
The commander of the special forces fixed his
gaze on the German opposite, who returned the look and nodded. Iris had
received authorization for this rescue mission with a foreign team
member from the highest authority. He had only agreed to it because the
German Marc Anderson was considered a legend in the West despite being
only thirty-five years old. Together with the US Navy SEALs, he had
evacuated an American aircrew from the depths of Afghanistan and later
served as a private security officer.
The US president‘s family was rescued from the
hands of Iranian terrorists on a luxury yacht by the security agent and
his team. He and his team were personally honored by the US President.
The Iranian terrorists took revenge and brutally murdered Marc‘s wife in
front of their house in Hamburg.
He had not been heard from since. Now, years
later, he had resurfaced and was fighting for the life of his long-time
friend and companion Thomas Heinrich in Ukraine. Six months ago, “Tom“
had applied to the International Legion of Territorial Defense of
Ukraine in Kiev.
Iris remembered. Tom had appeared in his
German army combat gear. A giant, not grim, but with the face of a
loving father who had no children. The interview and the practical tests
amazed the entire check-out team. They were not faced with one of the
many applicants who had an identity crisis at home and thought they
could save the invaded Ukraine without any specific prior knowledge. No,
he was a former sergeant major of the German Special Forces Command
with war experience – accurate, fast, stress- resistant, team-oriented,
and immediately ready for action. Not a dreamer, not someone who was
looking for a hero‘s death. The 2,000-dollar weekly salary was not as
important to him as it was to many other applicants to the 1,000-strong
International Legion. His strong will to professionally defend the
attacked Ukraine on the front line and thus contribute his small part to
world peace was his convincing motivation. After just two months on the
front line in southern Ukraine, he became a platoon leader and deputy
commander in an international company in which Danes, Poles, Croats,
Dutch, Israelis, Latvians, British and Canadians fought.
His luck was short-lived in the hail of
bullets. During the battle at Bachmut, he was so badly wounded by a shot
in the thigh that he could no longer stand on his feet. His comrades,
who were being chased by the Russians, reported that he had refused to
be taken out with the other wounded. But in the open firefight had saved
the team, with his return fire. They returned with reinforcements, came
under fire again, fought their way back to where Tom had been lying on
the road, but he had disappeared.
Where was Tom? Abducted or buried in a mass
grave? Weeks later, Russian state television presented Thomas Heinrich
as a Western mercenary and announced the court verdict from Luhansk:
“Sentenced to death for attempting to overthrow the constitutional order.“
Seven other prisoners of the International Legion suffered the same fate.
Iris
had studied the recording again and again. Tom‘s right leg was covered
with a dirty bandage. He was supporting himself with a stick and his
face showed injuries, possibly the result of torture. But his loving
expression was unaffected. Tom smiled into the camera as if to encourage
his comrades not to give up. The tortured faces of the other soldiers
showed signs of emptiness, despair and also fear.
While the world press was reporting and
Russian state television was announcing further proof of the West‘s war
against Russia, the top military leadership was meeting in Kiev. Iris
attended as commander of the special forces and remembered every word in
the bunker.
The tension in the room was palpable, because
the president himself, as commander-in-chief, expected a quick and
appropriate military decision.
“Why are our men being held in Luhansk
and not somewhere near Moscow or even in Siberia?“ the beefy,
bald-headed Chief of the General Staff had asked the intelligence chief.
With his nickel glasses and cold gray eyes, he looked strikingly like
the current head of the CIA on the other side of the Atlantic. Iris had
wondered whether these features were a prerequisite for the job.
“We are very sure – for two reasons,“ the intelligence officer replied.
“Firstly,
the court rulings were deliberately made in the pro- Russian separatist
region of Luhansk. In doing so, Moscow is once again demonstrating the
legal independence of the region. Secondly, the separatists are using
our fighters as a shield against our attacks to recapture Luhansk. They
accept the proximity to the front line, as they have barricaded
themselves well on the ground and are protected by S-300 anti-aircraft
missiles. So, they feel quite safe and don‘t seriously expect a
liberation operation.“
“And why should our operation be successful in
this Russian hell?“ asked the Chief of Staff, looking at Iris, the man
in charge of the operation.
“We have taken extensive precautionary
measures on the ground and in the air and are planning to land
helicopters in the prison yard.“
“Helicopters landing directly at the target
location? Like when Bin Laden was captured? Do you really think, Iris,
that that would work here too?“
“We are aware, Sir, that our
situation is more difficult. The US operation was about capturing one
person in a residential building in a neutral country that was also
informed. In our case, however, the aim is to free eight of our
international fighters from enemy captivity, who are being held in a
well- guarded prison wing. And unlike the operation in Pakistan, we have
a much riskier route of approach.“
“Indeed, you‘re right, Iris. It‘s very risky,
perhaps even distracting. In the end, we‘ll not only have dead
prisoners, but also dead liberators.“
“To minimize the risk of
detection, we will arrive in a low- altitude night flight operation. We
have three ground teams that will disable or turn off the air defense
systems for at least twenty-four hours while we cross the border. Twelve
of our spies are working in Luhansk, loyal Ukrainians with Russian
passports. One of them, a woman doctor, has access to the prison and
reports that all the prisoners are wounded but transportable. During the
assault on the building, a night- vision-capable-drone from a friendly
country will hover over the target and provide the team and our
operations center here with up-to-date images. But the best is yet to
come.“ He pointed to the head of the secret service, who, aware of his
important statement, took off his glasses and looked around the room.
“Nika is also in prison!“
Surprised, incredulous silence.
“Nika Petrov, our commander of the 72nd Mechanized Brigade from Wuhledar?“ the Chief of Staff asked, as if he had misheard.
“But Nika was declared dead!“, he said.
“That‘s what we all thought,“ Iris replied. “But that‘s not the case.“
Everyone
in the room was aware of the great tank battle. The clever Nika had
blocked the suspected deployment route with destroyed tanks, forcing the
approaching Russian soldiers into the mined side fields. There they
were met and destroyed by his anti-tank teams. The destroyed tanks
hindered the others.
When everything came to a standstill and the
soldiers fled from the tanks, the defenders struck. With no
alternatives, the Russians sent new waves of tanks for days, which were
shot down again by Nika‘s troops. 5,000 dead Russian soldiers, 130 lost
war machines, including over forty tanks and troop carriers.
The famous 155th Marine Brigade of the Russian Pacific Fleet was almost completely wiped out.
After that, Nika‘s trail was lost in days of long urban fighting. He could no longer be found.
The Chief of the General Staff was visibly moved, “My goodness, … our hero is alive! How long have we known that?“
“Exactly one hour ago, straight from prison,“ replied the secret service agent.
“How is he?“
“He‘s been shot through the
shoulder near the spine and is in a solitary cell. Two by two meters
without light, a bucket as a toilet, special Russian VIP treatment.“
The Chief of the General Staff pinched his
mouth tightly shut and said, “I realize that. Czar Ivan will never
forgive him for that. The loss of the elite unit was almost as painful
for him as the destruction of his Crimean bridge.”
Her turned to intelligence chief, “Which nations are the other men from?“
“Besides
the German, a US citizen, a Canadian, two Czechs, a Pole, a Belarusian
and a Georgian. We have already received inquiries from all the
countries concerned about how we want to deal with the problem.
“I can understand their concerns. They are
mainly worried about not being suspected of having their own soldiers in
our war,“ the chief of the general staff commented, flipping through
the profiles of the captured legionnaires.
“What I am reading here is clear. All but the
Polish man have a military background, these two even have a background
as elite soldiers. The German is from the Special Forces Command and the
American from the US Navy SEALs. But that only interests me marginally.
These guys are fighting with a Ukrainian insignia, and for that reason
alone we cannot abandon them.“
He dialed the number of Ukrainian President Bohdan Sapronoff and informed him of the situation.
“What
do you recommend?“ asked the president, a former actor who surprisingly
won the election but had no idea that he would soon become wartime
President of Ukraine.
“A rescue operation, Mr. President.“
“How do you propose to do that and what are the chances?“ The Chief of the General Staff explained the plan,
“Iris will be the commander. The chances are over 50 percent. There is only this one window of opportunity.“
A moment of silence on the phone.
“Okay,“
said Bohdan Sapronoff. “Green light for the operation. Get the men out!
All the necessary weapons and resources are authorized. The affected
relatives will be informed after the rescue, not before. Nothing must
leak to the public. Good luck to all of you!“
“Thank you, Mr. President!“
The operational precision work began immediately. A second helicopter would fly in parallel as a backup.
Marc
Anderson received an intelligence briefing on the prison wing in the
barracks and the security, studied the photos of the prisoners and
discussed the plan for the rescue of the eight soldiers with Iris.
His operational skills quickly became evident quickly. Iris then appointed him as his deputy for the operation.
After being outfitted and hair cut short, Marc
looked like one of them. Little Iris looked up at his 6‘5“ tall new
friend. “Wow! How should I address you? Teuton? Blitzkrieg? … No, your
name is Gladiator, Marc the Gladiator! Welcome to your new arena!“
“Stop the nonsense, Iris! I don‘t want this! I am Marc and nothing else, understood?“
Iris had drunk the vodka in one go and laughed when he saw Marc just sipping from the glass.
****
“Twenty minutes!“ signaled the co-pilot. The helicopter turned hard at the edge of a forest and descended into a clearing.
Marc
closed his eyes. He always felt the same tension before a mission.
Although, as always, everything was well thought out. Everything had
been carefully planned. The ground intelligence was good. As a
precaution, the female doctor was not informed about the pending rescue
of the prisoners. The entire operation was based on strict secrecy,
surprise, and speed. The helicopters had to be back in the air in a
maximum of five minutes, after which the barracked soldiers were
expected to attack.
A lot could go wrong here and despite all the
combat experience of these Ukrainian elite soldiers, the Soviet
command-oriented training in the system was unmistakable. Too little
independent action, too much focus on the superior, too little dynamic
behavior adapted to the situation.
Thank God Iris knew what Marc was talking
about and had assembled a team of English-speaking men with experience
in Western countries. They had rehearsed the storming of the building
for three nights under all possible scenarios.
“Ten minutes!“ the first pilot now signaled.
Marc thought of Jelke in Hamburg. After their
marriage, he had promised her that he would finally stop playing “war
games“, as she called them.
Now he was sitting here in an old Russian
helicopter over enemy territory, in a camouflage uniform with no
insignia, acting as a hybrid combat soldier. Worse than his days in the
German Special Forces Command.
He wondered whether the drug of one for all, all for one had taken hold of him again.
No,
that wasn‘t it. That time had definitely ended with the murder of his
first wife, Karina Marie. His military service was history, he was done
with it. Neither a tricky security assignment from the business world
nor requests from SEAL friends could change this attitude. The last
mission was to get Tom out today, who was always more to him than a
friend or comrade in military operations. He was his brother.
Iris had told him that Tom was one of the most
capable soldiers in the International Legion, popular for his restraint
and empathy. Marc had expected nothing less. If everything went well,
he would have him in the helicopter in half an hour and he himself would
be back in Hamburg with Jelke and his daughter Pia in three days.
At that moment, the helicopter was pulled to one side. “Missile attack!“ shouted the commander.
****
Since his departure, Marc hadn‘t made contact.
Although it had been agreed that he would be offline during his
mission, Jelke had a hard time dealing with it. She knew it was about
Tom, who was in captivity and sentenced to death. It was a shock for her
too, as she had a long-standing friendship with Tom.
Tom and the men from his Maritime Security
Services had rescued Marc from certain death in a tunnel in Syria. His
wife Karina Marie, also her best friend, had been murdered and their
child Pia had been kidnapped. Marc had been on a desperate search for
his daughter.
What a time it had been.
Afterwards, Marc had shown clear signs of
post-traumatic stress disorder. His appointment of blame, the dramatic
rescue of Pia, the gradually growing love between Jelke and Marc, their
wedding and Marc‘s cautious return to his company – all that was behind
them.
Jelke wondered whether the current mission had reopened old wounds in him.
“What happened to Tom in Ukraine could happen to you now, Marc,“ she thought, trying to suppress the thought.
In vain.
She was afraid.
To distract
herself, she played Solitaire on her computer. But her restlessness
remained and even grew stronger. Her fear fantasies increased, she
dreamed of terrible scenarios in which she saw him badly wounded in a
Russian prison.
Jelke paced back and forth in the living room.
She switched on the ntv news – app on her smartphone and opened the
“The latest“ section. She did that constantly.
There was nothing to
indicate her husband‘s involvement. She needed to talk to someone and
thought of calling Marc‘s sister, Edith.
She dialed her number but then aborted the call. Marc had asked her not to talk to anyone about his mission.
She felt like she was in a cage. Knowing nothing but condemned to silence.
A slight anger rose up inside her. That would
never happen to her again! This man had to be protected from himself. He
magically attracted disasters and then set off on a rescue mission.
This combination was obviously a part of his gene.
At the same moment, she felt sorry for her
thoughts. It was Marc‘s job in the company to prevent security crises
and resolve them with his former elite soldiers when they occurred. And
the tragedy with his wife had not been foreseeable. Who could have known
that Karina Marie, as a hotel manager on the ship of US President
George F. Summerhill, would suddenly fall into the hands of brutal
kidnappers? Who could have guessed that the Iranian ringleader of the
Revolutionary Guards had survived and would seek revenge on Marc‘s
family?
This series of disasters had to stop! On the other hand, she couldn‘t chain Marc down. Her husband lived for crisis management.
The mental movie started again, “Sentenced to death … in captivity … Russians … Massacre …“
She couldn‘t stand it any longer and dialed his number. Her heart faced wildly when she heard the ringtone.
“Pick up, please, pick up!“ Answering machine.
She hung up in despair.
****
“Yes, we are unharmed, machine okay. But fuck! We‘ve been discovered! Shall we abort the mission?”
“You can continue flying. Our ground team has just reported that this last S-300 on your way has been disabled.“
A few minutes later, they were back in the
air. Marc tried to spot the second escort helicopter in the diffuse
moonlight, but it remained invisible. They were now flying in a wild
zigzag course while the teams clung tightly to their seats. The lights
of the city of Luhansk passed by.
Iris gave the signal to get ready.
Marc
breathed in deeply for four seconds using the SEALs‘ breathing
technique. He let the air flow into his stomach with his mouth closed,
held his breath there for another four seconds and then exhaled slowly
through his mouth while counting to four again.
Just as he was
holding his breath to hold it for another four seconds, a sound like a
chainsaw shook the helicopter. Marc could see through the window that
they had obviously crashed into the barracks. The helicopter tipped over
on its side, the engines howling as if in a last death cry, while the
disoriented men hung in their harnesses.
In the rear of the helicopter, where four men were sitting a jet of flame shot up.
****
“For heaven‘s sake, what‘s happening?“ shouted the Chief of Staff. The people in the operations center had jumped to their feet.
“The rotor blades touched the barracks wall,“ the intelligence chief responded, stunned.
The helicopter was standing in a clearing in
the forest with its rotor running. “Sorry, guys for that hasty landing!
They discovered us and launched an S-300 missile at us! That was damn
close!“ shouted the commander to the rear.
The teams breathed a sigh of relief and sank back into their seats.
Iris contacted the officer in the command center.
“Are you all right?“ he asked with concern.
Through Iris‘s helmet camera, they saw the men scrambled out through the overhead door.
“Get out of here, the thing is about to blow!“ they heard him shout.
“One, two, three …“
The intelligence chief counted to ten.
“They‘re
all outside, including the crew!“ he commented. The explosion of the
helicopter threw the men to the ground and illuminated the monitors.
“That‘s it then!“ whispered an operator at the monitors to his colleague.
The
Chief of the General Staff considered for a moment whether he should
order a retreat, especially as the second helicopter had just reached
the ground, which was brightly lit by the fire, unscathed.
As if the
intelligence chief had guessed the general‘s thoughts, he shook his head
in the negative. It was agreed that Iris and Marc would retain full
responsibility, regardless of the situation. But one thing was certain,
the crash had not only woken up the barracks, but half the city.
Iris pulled himself up and got an overview. The target building was brightly lit. He saw armed men and heard orders.
Iris looked down the main barracks street, the lights were coming on there too.
Shouts, first shots!
“We can‘t do this alone, Iris!“ Marc called out to him. “Plan B!“
Iris nodded and called into the microphone,
“Terminator – Terminator – Terminator!“
“Terminator confirmed!“ came the reply immediately.
The two teams approached the two-story
building while the helicopter pilots provided fire cover. Iris signaled
to Marc that his group should take the right entrance, while he himself
took the left. The first attacking enemy soldiers ran straight into
their fire. The eight men of the commando were leaning against the wall
of the house.
Show of hands.
First team in!
“One – Two – Three – Four – Secure!”
Situation overview.
Fire on approaching soldiers, explosives, screams.
Slowly both teams moved towards the cells on the upper floor, covering each other.
“Come
up here!“ a woman‘s voice called out. Iris immediately recognized the
doctor, his informant, by her shoulder-length blonde hair. She threw him
a key, and cried, when she was hit by a shot at the same moment and
collapsed.
Iris was about to rush to her when he heard the voice of the threat operator in his headset,
“Over a hundred soldiers approaching, ten armored personnel carriers as well!“
Iris‘s Alpha team was first at the doors. The doctor‘s key made blasting unnecessary.
In
a few minutes, all the doors were open. The freed prisoners rushed
towards their rescuers. Marc and Tom looked at each other for a moment.
Marc tossed him the submachine gun of a killed soldier and immediately
pushed him to the ground as new attackers took aim at them.
Iris and Marc signaled to each other that all the cells were empty, but one of the eight prisoners was missing.
They
were way behind schedule. An armada was approaching from outside. They
had to get to their intact helicopter immediately, whose rotors they
could hear. But they were trapped. Leaving now would be suicide. The
first grenades hit.
Marc saw that Iris was bleeding heavily on his
right arm. Iris waved him off, not important. Tom crawled over to him.
No time to take off his jacket, but the wound looked worse than Iris had
indicated. Tom tore a piece from his upper thigh bandage and tied
Iris‘s arm. Iris nodded gratefully.
The two teams squatted with the freed men in the building in front of the doors.
“Hopefully,“ thought Marc. “Hopefully the replacement helicopter stays intact, otherwise that‘s it.“
The
sound of chains and engines of the approaching tanks could now be heard
clearly. Just a few salvos and the building would be in ruins.
They exchanged glances. The situation was
clear to everyone, including the seven liberated men who had just felt
the breath of freedom and were lying between their rescuers with
captured weapons.
Marc suddenly had a sense of déjà vu.
Iraq, failed hostage rescue, Tom at his
side, masses of soldiers running towards them, two against hundreds, a
hopeless situation, waiting for a miracle …
Marc pulled
himself out of his thoughts. He looks around. There was no going
forward, no going back. Both teams were trapped, waiting for the
attackers, who were now breaking through the doors.
“Fire!“ Iris shouted.
The first attackers collapsed, were overrun by others, and stormed up to the liberators.
Aim, shoot, take cover, change position.
The next waves of enemies stormed into the building. The unequal battle was hopeless.
Marc
suddenly felt horrified that he might not survive this, his last fight.
A cold wave crept over the back of his neck and into his head. Was this
really going to be it?
Iris and Marc looked at each other briefly. Shooting everything empty, close combat, that was all they could do.
Marc held his body protectively over the wounded Tom.
“Marc, I believe in miracles, like in Iraq,“ he shouted into the noise.
He would be proven right.
A
roar in the air. The thunderous noise of the two MiG- 29 fighter jets
flying over the barracks, followed by the explosions of the bombs,
changed everything. “Terminator“ had worked at the very last moment.
The terminal attack controller at the
operations center in Kiev directed the Ukrainian pilots using live
images from the drone. The approaching unit stopped during the very
first attack and vehicles were hurled through the air. Soldiers fled in
panic.
The teams watched through the broken doors and windows as the fighter planes swept past.
Marc,
a pilot himself, thought how difficult it must be for the pilots to
find this small barracks in the city and to fight precisely with the
outdated MiGs. He knew that the resourceful Ukrainians were doing their
job with purchased portable navigation devices and had mounted Western
missiles under their MiGs.
The attackers sought cover. A second and third air raid on the barracks followed. Then it became quiet.
Area clear!“, reported the MiG 29-formation leader.
The
Chief of the General Staff watched with relief as the two teams rushed
out to the intact helicopter. A soldier from the Alpha team was
supporting Iris, whose face was now pale. Marc had Tom slung over his
shoulder, who could barely walk. The helicopter pilots threw up their
arms.
“In with you!“
A few hundred meters further on, tanks broke through the damaged wall and searched for targets.
Marc was about to be the last to jump into the
helicopter when he saw a person with long blond hair lying on the
ground in the entrance to the prison building, her arm raised
powerlessly. But she was waving.
The doctor!
He assessed the situation with a
view of the tanks, ran back, grabbed the doctor under the fire of his
comrades and reached the helicopter, which was already hovering in the
air. Six men‘s arms pulled them both in as the tanks fired their first
volleys.
The helicopter descended behind the wall and disappeared into the darkness of the night.
The pilots flew the shortest possible route
back in the hope that rising Russian fighters and missiles would be
detected by their own Iris -T SLM and Patriot anti-aircraft weapons. The
wounded Commander Iris looked at the faces of those who had been freed.
He looked and counted again. Then he looked at Marc, who had also
registered every single person on board.
Both knew at this moment that a significant part of the operation had failed.
Iris
spoke in his phone, “Command Center from Leader!“ “Leader, go ahead! “,
answered the Chief of the General. Iris reported to Kiev, “Operation
completed, a total of four people slightly injured, also our agent, the
doctor is with us.” “Excellent, Iris! Welldone!“
“Thanks Sir. The bad news – one prisoner is missing.“ “Who‘s missing?“ asked the Chief of Staff.
“Nika, he wasn‘t in the building.“
The intelligence officer looked at the visibly depressed general.
“Why so upset? At least we got everyone else back alive. It‘s a historic embarrassment for the Russians!“
“Certainly,“ said the general. “But my gut also tells me that the Nika Petrov chapter has only just begun.”
About Jörg H. Trauboth:
Jörg H. Trauboth, born in 1943 near Berlin,
logged over two thousand flight hours as a Weapon Systems Officer
Instructor in the Luftwaffe, flying PHANTOM F-4F / RF-4E and TORNADO
fighter jets, and over 3000 hours in light aircraft. At the age of
fifty, he left the service with the rank of Colonel in the General
Staff. He received training as a Special Risk Consultant from the
English Control Risk Group and served as Managing Director Germany,
dealing with extortion and kidnapping cases in South America and Eastern
Europe. Shortly thereafter, he founded his own consulting firm, quickly
establishing an outstanding international reputation. Trauboth
protected his clients with a 24-hour task force during product
extortions, product recalls, kidnappings, and image crises. He was the
first President of the European Crisis Management Academy in Vienna and
President of the American Yankee Association.
He is known as a respected expert in the media
on security-related topics. He volunteers as an emergency counselor and
is a member of the Crisis Intervention Team (KIT Bonn) of the German
Foreign Office. He is a private pilot, married, with two sons and three
grandchildren.
In 2002, Trauboth wrote the now out of print standard work “Crisis Management for Company Threats”.
In 2016 the follow-up work was published with
Jörg H. Trauboth as editor in collaboration with five authors: “Crisis
Management in Companies and Public Institutions”.
Terror expert J. H. Trauboth presented his
debut novel in 2015 with the Germany thriller “Three Brothers”.
(Available in English). In 2019 “Operation Jerusalem” followed and in
2020 “Omega”. The trilogy is about the former elite soldier Marc
Anderson and his team. With these three self-contained thrillers,
Trauboth is rated by many readers as the “German Tom Clancy.” The
trilogy is available as a printed edition, eBook and audio book.
His first detective novel, “Jakobs Weg”
(German), followed in 2021. The highly explosive topic of “sexual abuse
of children” is processed sensitively in a scenario on the Way of Saint
James and at the end offers contact options for those seeking help.
In 2022, the novella “Bonjour Saint-Ex” was
published (German) in which the passionate pilot Jörg H. Trauboth turns
the last flight of the legend Antoine de Saint Exupéry into an exciting
literary event.
Readers wanted a sequel to the Marc Anderson
series. In 2023, ZarenTod – Das Ende der Präsidenten was published, a
highly topical political thriller. The Russian president and new tsar,
Ivan Pavlenko, suddenly shows his true face during the war in Ukraine.
He wants the old Soviet Union back. The world is on the brink. The
influential oligarch, Alexei Sokolov, wants to prevent Ivan’s
megalomaniac plans and is planning a fundamental new beginning for
Russia. To achieve this, the Russian president must be removed. But the
plan goes awry. Ex-elite soldier Marc Anderson intervenes. Will Czar
Ivan die? What will become of Europe? The book 8/ 2024 in English „The
Death of the Kremlin Czar” is the fourth political thriller in the Marc
Anderson series.
Website & Social Media:
Website ➜ https://trauboth-autor.de/english/
Twitter ➜ https://twitter.com/JorgTrauboth
