Free Chapter from Silence Called Me. A High Stakes Espionage Thriller
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All Dogs Off the Leash
Last year’s season of silence
Aamari Resort, Phuket, Thailand
Book: Silence Called Me
Series: Sigil of Silence — Volume I
Author: Zyphar Animas
Editor: Nimo Verin
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Nature’s “breathtaking beauty” was wasted on Jovan.
Aamari, Tamari—call it whatever. He wasn’t here for the Instaram sunrise or to wax poetic about Patong’s glass-blue water.
Jovan was here to break in a brand-new unit—the team he’d built from scratch.
And now, thanks to HQ, he was benched.
“Crippled in an accident”—that was the line.
Along with him came Dr. Eli—an experienced agent, officially there as his personal physician.
Truth? The only “medicine” Eli prescribes is hard-edged fieldwork and a synthetic ass so perfect it deserved its own passport stamp.
She’d spent a fortune dialing back the clock—came out with a bump that could stop traffic in six languages.
Jovan knew the science behind it. Didn’t matter much.
Sure, Eli had a real medical license—she’s the type who could stitch someone up or cut them open, depending on the day.
But Jovan’s limp? That was theater.
Straight from Management’s sick playbook:
Keep the field boss hobbled so the locals don’t get too twitchy.
First run in South Asia—sure.
But Jovan’s no tourist.
He’s got a kill list longer than a Bangkok traffic jam and a Mossad record that keeps HR sweating.
These days, though, the Agency doesn’t get its hands dirty.
And like everything else in this evolving world, Mossad’s playbook had evolved too.
Blood’s bad for headlines. Bad for politics.
Now, Mossad does influence, policy, money, public opinion.
They move governments with a spreadsheet and burn enemies with fake news, not flashbangs.
The dirty jobs? Outsourced.
They pass black budgets to high performers like Jovan and say, “Build a cell. Keep it off the books.”
You want something done?
Hire the most broken, dangerous bastards you can find, cut their chains, and point them at the problem.
If one gets caught—who cares?
If one dies—not even a line in the quarterly report.
Jovan’s unit was one of those freshly minted, off-books cells.
None of them fully understood whose interests they served—or why.
All of them were running from a worse life:
Ex-soldiers drowning in gambling debt.
Dealers who rolled on their own syndicates.
A few sex offenders nobody would miss—plus hackers so slippery they could steal your pension while you were still on the line with IT.
Mossad scrubbed them clean, slapped on a new name, fitted them out like gentlemen, and dropped a fat stack into their accounts.
The group was built to operate across ASEAN states—field-level work: surgical, silent. Jovan’s only rule:
No excuse. Full throttle.
Of course, Jovan knew these loyal dogs could flip the moment the wind shifted.
Management had given Jovan and Eli strict orders:
“Stay out of direct field engagement. Let’s see if your new freak show survives first contact.”
Jovan’s job was to hover close enough to supervise, but not close enough to catch a bullet or—get his suit dirty.
Tonight, inside this five-star resort, a bottom-feeder jihadi crew was raising funds—for their Ummah and their ammo.
Jovan’s mission is to identify anyone worth extracting alive.
Neutralize the rest.
He’d already been handed the guest list.
None stood out as valuable—which meant full neutralization protocol was on.
The idiots even had the balls to rent the resort’s conference room.
Easiest play would’ve been a parting gift—a moderate TATP charge, medium-rare—let it pop, mid-sermon and pin it on their brothers-in-boom.
But Phuket isn’t Malaysia.
Bombs here draw more heat than a porn shoot.
Thailand’s a touchy “strategic partner”—break a few tourists, buy a few headlines, and the whole grid fries. Not worth the paperwork.
Jovan switched to plan B.
Split the team, hunt the targets one at a time.
It’s slower, riskier, but hell, what’s the point of a test run if nobody gets their boots wet?
Besides, New hires needed to taste real fire—no better way to separate wolves from lapdogs. One by one, the team slips into position—each with a new passport, new face, new “backstory” written by Mossad’s best failed novelists.
Meanwhile, Jovan and Dr. Eli sit back to back, playing God with the assignment list. He flicks targets her way, they swap notes, argue over the best trigger-puller for each job.
Once the roles are carved up, he’ll drop the hammer—send the crew out to earn their new paychecks.
For now, it’s one less headache.
And if things get loud?
Well, that’s why you hire talent with nothing left to lose.
If this chapter pulled you into its shadow world, you can Buy the Book:
Silence Called Me — Volume I of the Sigil of Silence series by Zyphar Animas.
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Story Summary
In this chapter of Silence Called Me, the quiet luxury of Phuket hides the machinery of a dangerous intelligence operation.
Jovan operates from the shadows of Aamari Resort, officially a man recovering from a catastrophic accident. In reality, the injury is a cover—one that allows him to run a newly assembled covert unit without attracting suspicion.
The team is unlike traditional intelligence officers. Instead, Jovan has built a task force from criminals, hackers, and hardened survivors—individuals who exist outside the formal structure of any agency. They are useful precisely because they are expendable.
Across the resort, a gathering of extremist financiers begins to form. The mission is simple in theory: identify targets worth extracting alive and quietly remove the rest.
But operations like this are never simple.
Every decision carries the risk of exposure. Every movement inside the resort could ignite an international incident. In a place where tourists expect paradise, Jovan’s network prepares to conduct the kind of high stakes espionage mission that governments deny ever happened.
As the operation begins, the question is no longer whether violence will erupt—but whether anyone will notice when it does.
Beta Reader Reactions
“This chapter captures the tension of high stakes espionage perfectly. The quiet planning and hidden networks make the mission feel frighteningly real.”
Lucas Bennett — Toronto
“I loved the focus on the intelligence handler rather than just the field agents. It gives this high stakes espionage story a deeper strategic layer.”
Marta Kovács — Budapest
“The idea of assembling a covert team from criminals and outsiders adds a dangerous unpredictability to the high stakes espionage world of the book.”
Omar Rahman — Doha
“You can feel the tension building inside the resort as the operation unfolds. It’s classic high stakes espionage storytelling.”
Julian Fischer — Vienna
“This chapter expands the world of the series and shows how intelligence agencies operate in the shadows. A strong piece of high stakes espionage fiction.”
Rachel O’Connor — Dublin
Critical Review
This chapter deepens the strategic dimension of Silence Called Me by shifting attention from field execution to operational control.
Through Jovan’s perspective, the narrative explores how modern intelligence agencies increasingly rely on unofficial networks to conduct dangerous missions. Rather than deploying formal operatives, handlers assemble temporary teams of specialists whose skills exist outside legal structures.
This approach reflects the reality of high stakes espionage, where political consequences often matter more than the violence itself. The choice to stage the operation within a luxury resort intensifies the tension, placing covert warfare in a setting that outwardly appears peaceful.
Structurally, the chapter serves as both a character study and a tactical setup for the unfolding mission. It reveals the motivations and methods behind the operation while preparing readers for the chaos that will follow once the newly formed task force is unleashed.
Within the broader landscape of espionage fiction, the chapter stands out for its attention to strategic realism and its portrayal of intelligence work as a calculated and morally ambiguous profession.
About the book
This chapter reveals only a small piece of the dangerous network operating behind the scenes of Silence Called Me.
Across the series, intelligence brokers, covert operatives, and hidden alliances shape events across cities like Kuala Lumpur, Phuket, and Prague—each mission revealing another layer of the global conspiracy at the heart of this high stakes espionage saga.