Announce/Brag/Showoff discussion

Hello you guys,

I'm new in this group and would like to give you a sneak peek of of new book THE MEDICAL CODE.
Why I wrote this book?

I was triggered by a judicial settlement of a pharmaceutical company for hundreds of millions of dollars for the illegal promotion of Celexa for the use in treating children and adolescents suffering from depression. There were a lot of suicides among the children. And, mind you, Celexa is still on the market. At the same time I read a non-fiction book called ‘Deadly Medicines and Organized Crime’ by Peter Gøtzsche. This combination gave birth to my debut book, The Medical Code.

I was sucked into a world of conspiracy, fraud, hacking, and drugs I knew nothing about. The journey was exhilarating. During long hikes with my dog Pepper, I mixed the ingredients to a suspenseful story.

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Sophy Smythe

THE MEDICAL CODE - PROLOGUE

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. As an avid marathon runner, she knew she could outrun him. She lengthened her stride.

Faster.

As soon as she had reached the exit of the parking garage, Alexis felt something was wrong. A shepherd dog was barking at something on her right, his hairs straight up, his fangs bare. Alexis twisted around and stared into the face of a dark-skinned man, with a stick his raised left hand, ready to strike. For a moment she was frozen in space, too flabbergasted to register what happened. Then she ducked and twisted and started to run. Her head spun as she felt a heavy blow on her head, and for a moment the Grote Markt faded into a mist.

She felt and smelled more than saw the dog lunging at her attacker, and through the drumming in her head a scream pierced into her clouded brain, followed by a sickening thwack and a howl. Adrenaline alone surged her forwards. She dropped her head, lifted her knees and drew the clammy air deep into her lungs. She blazed over the Grote Markt past the statue of Brabo and Antigone, towards the Cathedral, and swung suddenly to the left into the narrow streets.

I must get away from the open space.

As the road narrowed and the houses kissed each other, Alexis heard her pursuer gaining on her. She leaped over a low wall like a champion hurdler and tore across the square into the maze of twisting narrow streets that formed the historic quarter of Antwerp. She grabbed hold of a lamppost and used her momentum to swing around and hard right.

Her attacker glued to her like a elongated shadow, and Alexis could hear his rasping breath coming closer.

Where can I hide?

Rain dribbled over her curly, long, red hair and neck mingled with blood and seeped into her coat. She didn’t notice. As she turned the corner, she got stuck into a slit in the slippery cobblestones, lost her balance and she crashed hard on her knees. A burning pain shot through her right ankle and she could feel it swell. Her heart throbbing in her ears, she tried to get up, looking frantically around where she could hide, but instantly her foot gave way.

Oh, no! Twisted!

She heard her attacker coming closer. She smelled garlic, mingled with coriander. Clamming her teeth on another, she willed herself to get up and staggered onwards towards the Hendrik Consciencepleintje, struggling against the pain.

There is light. Maybe people for the early mass.

She climbed the shallow steps of the Saint Carolus Borromeus Church and pushed the door.

Locked.

Pounding on the door, she neither noticed the seeping wound on her head, nor the bleeding of her knees and the pain in her ankle. She threw her weight against the door, but it didn’t budge. Desperately she tried to call out, but a panic strangled her throat. No sound came out.

Where can I hide?

A voice sounded close, gruesomely close. ‘You can’t get away’.

Alexis stiffened and turned her head slowly.

Only three meters from her, at the bottom of the shallow steps, the dark attacker transfixed her with his intense eyes from under his hoodie.

Alexis didn’t see the eyes. Her gaze was drawn to the massive iron bar with dark bloodstains her attacker held in his left hand. In the street's yellow lantern lights, blood spots glimmered darkly with every tiny movement the stick made. Bitter bile rushed up to her throat and mingled with the strong garlic smell irradiating from the attacker. Fog clouded her ears. Through a mist she could hear a human voice, but she didn’t grasp where it came from. The iron bar pointed at her and the voice came through.

‘Tell me where it is,’ the attacker panted.

Alexis flinched as she saw her nightmare come alive. A monster revealing himself to her. Disjointed scraps of images engulfed her. A year ago she thought herself courageous, but slowly fear took possession over her. She didn’t dare to sleep. As soon as her eyes couldn’t stay open anymore, the stalker appeared in her nightmares, looking silently from across the street. Doing nothing. Just looking. She shrank when the doorbell rang, afraid it might be the pharma lawyer, threatening to drag her through the mire. She didn’t dare to answer the landline after someone called her, and at her ‘Hello?’ she heard breathing and then click- click like someone was loading a gun. And then last week when someone had entered her house. The door was locked as usual, and nothing was stolen, but she knew someone had been there. Her meticulously ordered papers were not the way she had left them.

Slowly Alexis’ eyes zoomed out.

The dim lantern showed a medium-sized man with an athletic build and Mediterranean brown skin. His chest heaved up and down and in his outstretched left hand glimmered the thick iron bar. ‘Tell me where it is,’ he repeated.

Alexis opened her mouth, but no sound came out.

‘Don’t! Don’t even try,’ the man hissed.

Alexis sensed a flash of panic and moved her foot. A sharp pain shot through her right swollen ankle, and she collapsed in a heap. Sobbing, she lay on the ground; her hands clasped around her ankle.

Why the hell did I want to meet at such an hour? I thought it was secure. No people around.

‘Where is it?’, the man repeated. His accent was strange, French-like. He saw the blatant fear in her eyes and smiled.

Alexis finally found her voice. It sounded hoarse and husky. Like it was someone else’s.

‘My money is in my bag. Take it.’ She untangled her bag and shove it to the attacker.

‘I’m not after your money, putain.’ He took one step forward and looked contemptuously down. ‘You have something more valuable. Give it to me.’

‘I don’t… I don’t know what you are talking about,’, she stammered.

‘Don’t give me that shit. You shouldn’t have pried around. Your investigation. Where is it?’ The attacker looked at her with icy eyes. It was as if he seeing right into her soul.

Alexis felt naked and exposed, and a chill of desperation flowed through her veins.

How could he know?

‘I know you have it. Give it to me and I let you live.’ The man slithered up the stairs.

Alexis couldn’t breathe.

I won’t live. I saw him. I’ll die, like the others..

The man stuck his stick under her chin, so she had to face his menacing eyes.

Alexis held up her hands. ‘Wait a minute’, she said haltingly, ‘I’ll tell you what you need to know.’

The man smiled smugly. ‘That’s better’.

‘Let me show you’, said Alexis. Her face mirrored her desperation as she tentatively and trembling, lowered one arm and reached into her pocket.

I’ve got only one chance.

And Alexis screamed. And screamed.

Someone switched on a light above the restaurant on her right. A face peered through the curtains.

‘You bitch!’ The man lashed out.

A red lightning pain soared through her head.

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You can read the first chapters of THE MEDICAL CODE for FREE on https://sophysmythe.com/blog?blog=y

or buy THE MEDICAL CODE on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/MEDICAL-CODE-S...