title: The Second Time Around
author: Anthony, Philip
description: Mandy Welch was a young teenage girl when she accompanied her family to Iran for her father’s business as a curator for the British Museum. Just as her father finished the business part of the trip and they were on their way to the shore of the Caspian Sea for the rest of their vacation, Mandy’s father was arrested, the family detained, and Mandy and her mother abused. Even more tragedy struck them all leaving Mandy alone and injured physically and emotionally. Fred Underwood was less than one year into a career in foreign intelligence, hoping to eventually get into the field as an agent. Having been in Iran for three years with his father some time ago, he was fluent in Persian and knew the country and customs well. He was selected among all his other fellow MI6 agents to go fetch Mandy Welch and bring her home in one piece, despite his youth and inexperience. It took time, effort, cunning and killing, but he brought her back, safe and sound, their growing feelings for one another unspoken. Apart for sixteen years, living their lives, Fred all over the world fighting terrorism, Mandy in the United States becoming a world-famous musician and singer, never forgetting about each other, they were reunited by chance during a terrorist attack in Las Vegas. Just before recognition set in, each saved the life of the other. Together after years of dreaming of one another, wishing for one another, they survived the massacre, but both knew that wasn’t the end. The massacre was only a diabolical plot to cover Mandy’s abduction, or murder, if that failed. The man who originally took her, finally found her after all the years, and he either wanted her back or he wanted her dead. Eventually, the attacks became assassination only as taking her wasn’t going to happen. Tired of the attempts on her life, Mandy and Fred decided it was time to turn the tables on their sworn enemy. The second time around, Mandy holds all the cards.