From Brit Writers Award Shortlisted Author James R Bowman comes a brand new story, a short novella that satellites the SERAPHIM COLLECTIVE CHRONICLES Opening Salvo THE SHARD’

Before General Ted Yorkbeard became the man he is today, Ted was just a Colonel, demobbed after the 2nd World War and trying desperately to juggle a fledgling business in Private Security and a neophytic private life. But his business was a paying front for Ted had worked for the SERAPHIM COLLECTIVE for many years and his business covered their activities. This day they called upon him to retrieve an ancient artefact from a burgeoning heart of darkness.

An insidiously cold, clammy and needy fog cast its grey and damp blanket across the entire land, steadily soaking everything it came into contact with; it was already bone achingly cold. Icy enough without the freezing fog to paint the landscape a deathly hue where pale, glistening frost tainted every plant, man, rock and object foolish enough to stay still too long within its chill embrace. To do so was tantamount to suicide for anything living that wanted to remain doing so. Scotland was inhospitable this time of year to the unprepared traveller, but the men who traversed its beaten paths this day were used to hardship, if not such miserably damp and cold conditions, yet they marched with little complaint. Well, none any of the commanding officers heard. F