Wicked Game (Hex 1)

Hired to assassinate a microbiologist suspected of trading secrets, Hex finds that someone has beaten him to it, in the first in a series of action thrillers in the Bourne Trilogy mold

 

Joshua Thane, aka Hex, is a freelance assassin. His next target is Dr. Mary Wilding, a British microbiologist suspected of trading secrets. Breaking into her house, he discovers someone has beaten him to it—she’s already dead, and the hard drive he was ordered to steal is also missing. About to flee the scene, Hex comes face-to-face with Wilding's teenage son. According to normal rules of engagement, Hex should kill the boy to protect his own identity and professional reputation, but turbulent memories from his past trigger a crisis of conscience. Bewildered by his actions, Hex allows the boy to live and flees; yet his nightmare has barely begun. With his own life under threat for apparently botching the job, Hex embarks on an international quest to find the real killer and redeem his soul. Using his old contacts, including crime boss Billy Squeeze, he unravels a criminal conspiracy to develop and detonate an ethnically specific biological weapon. Rogue state, terrorist, or organized crime, whoever has the information, holds the power to deal to the highest bidder—and the British security services want it back.

Adam Chase is a pseudonym. He is a freelance editor for several editorial consultancies.