The Crooked Mile

A revolutionary energy discovery. A missing scientist. Two intelligence services. And a conspiracy designed to make them go to war. When Dr. Margaret Bellamy and her team at the Helios Research Facility produce an unexpected breakthrough in energy technology, they believe they have witnessed a scientific miracle. Within hours, the implications of their discovery become a matter of national security. Then one of the scientists disappears. Colonel Nathaniel Holt of Commonwealth Intelligence is assigned to find him. The evidence seems straightforward: Bharatiyan intelligence appears to be trying to steal the Helios technology. But every clue Holt follows seems almost too convenient, and each answer leads to another question. Across the border, senior Bharatiyan intelligence officer Arvind Rao is conducting an investigation of his own. Someone inside his government is carrying out unauthorized operations designed to provoke the Commonwealth. Neither Holt nor Rao knows whom to trust, and both governments are being fed evidence that points toward the enemy. Behind the confusion is the Swarajya Directorate, a clandestine movement determined to exploit the Helios breakthrough. Its plan is audacious: steal the technology, provoke a war, blame the resulting catastrophe on a foreign enemy, and use the crisis to overthrow the Bharatiyan leadership. As Holt and Rao slowly realize that they are being manipulated by the same hidden enemy, the conspiracy moves toward its final operation. The Helios prototype is about to be transferred. Military forces are being mobilized. False orders are circulating. And someone is preparing to turn espionage into open war. The trail is crooked by design. The Crooked Mile is a classic espionage thriller about intelligence, deception, political ambition, and a technological revolution powerful enough to make the old world obsolete.