I’ve always loved to write stories. In many ways, certain characters I created became vessels for my various emotions. In the case of Sid Tanner, he became my vessel for my disillusionment. I had grown up watching movies about James Bond and Dick Tracy; reading the old Ian Fleming novels and Chester Gould comic strips these films were respectively based on; and of course, my generation was the PlayStation generation. Every other video game was filled with high-octane vehicular violence, explosive gun fights, and stealthy infiltrations into enemy strongholds. It was always cops and robbers, government spies versus terrorists. But as much as I enjoyed these works of fiction, the real world proved very different. As an avid researcher I was very familiar with atrocities committed by Western governments that blurred the line between good and evil. For the longest time, despite always being glorified as heroes in pop culture, everybody I knew personally thought ‘CIA’ stood for ‘Criminal Intelligence Agency.’
I had read history books and watched documentaries about the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the excessive killings in Vietnam, and the original Gulf War. Later (after I had written my first three manuscripts) came 9/11 and the US-led wars in the Middle East that followed. For the longest time after that, all I saw on TV was the genocide of Iraqi and Afghan civilians by the so-called Coalition of the Willing. Not to mention the horrors of Abu Ghraib. But I am getting ahead of myself.
Beginning in April 2000, strongly influenced by real world events and the works of fiction mentioned above, I borrowed my grandmother’s typewriter and began writing a story about my own super spy protagonist, Australian secret agent Sid Tanner, a man haunted by war crimes that his former bosses tried to involve him in. My style of writing took key inspiration from that of Ian Fleming and Michael Crichton. I typed a few chapters and showed them to friends and relatives. Of all the people I showed it to, it was my step-grandfather, Gordon Mitchell, who showed the most interest and encouraged me to continue the story. Every day I wrote another chapter or two and read them to Gordon at his bedside. By August 1st, 2000, I had a finished first draft.
Gordon enjoyed Sid Tanner’s escapades so much that I started work on a sequel. Then another, and another. Between 2000 and 2004, I wrote six Sid Tanner manuscripts to entertain my step-grandfather. Each thriller packed with action and espionage. I began work on a seventh manuscript, but Gordon died shortly after. Since then, it became a personal mission of mine to get these stories published. To share them with the world and let everybody live the joy I had writing them and reading them to Gordon. But looking back at those original drafts, they needed some polishing up first. I made a start on second drafts and rewrites. Then alas, life got in the way. I did my degrees in Screen at TAFE and later Astrophysics and Geology at Macquarie University, which proved extraordinarily time consuming.
Years soon turned to decades. On and off I had tried to get more work done on the stories. Given the significant passage of time since I first wrote my series, it felt prudent to update them for a more contemporary setting. When I first wrote the stories, they were all set in the late-90s and early-2000s pre-9/11, with Tanner’s backstory strongly rooted in the Gulf War. In rewriting these stories for this contemporary period, I changed Tanner’s backstory to be set during the War on Terror in the early 2000s. Quite a rare opportunity for a novelist, to be able to move the timeline up by ten years and not have to change the setting! In addition to giving my old stories a new draft, around 2018 I decided to introduce Sid Tanner to the world by writing a historical epic chronicling his origin story, rather than just alluding to it in the stories already written. That epic I started penning under the working title of No Heroes in Espionage.
Still, life got in the way of me making much progress. Then the COVID-19 pandemic came along, forced all of us to remain indoors, and study or work from home. Suddenly, I had more time to write! It was during my time in self-isolation that the January 6 insurrection happened. I will never forget waking up on the morning January 7 (Sydney time) to find my inbox filled with news bulletins with such headlines as “Pro-Trump protestors storm US Capitol.”
Then I turned on the television to find newscasts broadcasting videos of the president’s supporters smashing down windows and violently clashing with police. Attacking the police officers with hockey sticks, baseball bats, even pitchforks. Some used bear spray and electric cattle prods against the police. They erected gallows and chanted ‘Hang Mike Pence’. Five people died, including one police officer. And spearheading this attack was on the Capitol was none other than the outgoing President Donald Trump himself.
He had spent both his 2016 and 2020 election campaigns planting seeds of doubts in his followers’ minds that the election would be rigged against him. His reasoning was like something out of Totally Full Frontal. If he won the election, it was ‘free and fair’. If he lost the election, it was ‘rigged.’ If the news coverage praised and stroked his ego, it was ‘legitimate news.’ If it rightly called him out on his lies and wrongdoings, it was ‘fake news.’ This is not the behaviour of the supposed leader of the free world, it is the temper tantruming of a spoiled child who can’t have his way.
I had paid close attention to the ongoing catastrophe that was Trump presidency. If George W. Bush declared war on the rest of the world and tarnished the Republican party with a reputation of genocide in Afghanistan and Iraq; Donald Trump had effectively declared war on the American people themselves and made the GOP the party of racial
discrimination, science denial, authoritarianism, and domestic terrorism. It was obvious he would lose the election after his disastrous mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic. The only thing that is scarier is the fact that in the face of all this dysfunction, Donald Trump still has supporters willing to vote for him.
The Capitol riot was still very much underway when I tuned in to see it breaking news. Even after the president released his infamous “Go home, we love you” video and the National Guard had moved in to make arrests, the insurrection still dominated much of what we saw in the media. It was September 11th all over again.
Over the next few days, the news was abuzz with all sorts of comment as to how so much worse the insurrection could have been. What if the riot had turned into a mass shooting spree? What if terrorists had used the riot as a diversion for an even greater attack? Almost immediately, parallels were drawn to what happened on January 6 and various past attacks on the building. Specifically, the successful detonation of bombs within the Capitol in 1971 and 1983, both of which were planted by antiwar activists.1,2 While nobody was killed in those past bombings, fears that the insurrection could have granted the opportunity for a similar attack were very real.
As Republican Senator for South Carolina and staunch Trump supporter, Lindsay Graham told the press on January 7, 2021:
“Yesterday they could have blown the building up. They could have killed us all. They could have destroyed the government. People coming through the windows had backpacks as big as my desk on the Senate. They should have been challenged, warning shots should have been fired, and lethal force should have been used once they penetrated the seat of government. Those backpacks could have had bombs, chemical agents, weapons. We dodged a major bullet yesterday.”3
Soon after, as more and more details started to trickle out. I learned that pipe bombs had been planted outside the DNC and RNC headquarters a few blocks away from the Capitol the night before the riot.4 News reports varied as to whether the bombs were viable or if they were planted as a mere distraction intended to lure police away from the riot. As of my writing, the masked bomber responsible is still at large and unidentified.5
Then emerged all the talk of lethal force that the rioters themselves brought into the Capitol or intended to.6,7,8,9 Insurrection deniers like to bring up Ashli Babbitt, who was shot and killed by Capitol police whilst trying to break into the Speakers Lobby. Such propagandists often ignore the fact that Babbitt was armed with a switchblade10,11 and probably intended to use it to assassinate the Vice President and House Speaker.
As it turned out, Abbitt brought a knife to a gunfight – and I’m not talking about the guns that killed her. Despite the GOP’s attempts to rewrite history and paint January 6 as a ‘peaceful protest’, the evidence tells a very different picture. Many of the rioters carried guns – lots and lots of guns. And many have subsequently been arrested on various gun-related offenses they committed during the insurrection. These ranged from firing a handgun into the air outside the Capitol12; carrying loaded firearms onto Capitol grounds13,14; bringing them inside the building15; or otherwise attempting to.16 One would-be assailant was found to have a parked his pickup truck parked near the Capitol, its tray loaded with handguns, assault rifles, even Molotov cocktails containing homemade napalm.17
This goes far beyond just a bunch of lone gunmen in the crowd acting on their own accord. Police investigations established that the Oath Keepers, Proud Boys and Third Percenters militia groups respectively all planned to take the Capitol by force. Many members of these militia members were armed with guns, a significant number skipped President Trump’s speech and headed straight to the Capitol to avoid being screened for guns (that was until the president ordered the magnetometers to be taken away).18,19
In addition, the Three Percenters assembled a splinter group calling themselves ‘the B Squad’, named in reference to their Plan B should they ‘not get the desired electoral outcome.’ This B Squad stormed the Capitol grounds in tactical vests and gasmasks and clashed with police officers in the tunnel on the Western side of the Capitol.20 Although no gunshots were exchanged, it could have easily escalated. One of the B Squad terrorists had posted a video of himself carrying an AR-15 assault rifle outside the Capitol.21 Five of the B Squad terrorists have been identified by the FBI, including their leader: future Republican congressional hopeful Jeremy Liggett.22 Not only did he lead the B Squad’s attack, the night before the insurrection he booked hotel rooms close to the Capitol for forty of his terrorist mercenaries.
Similarly, the Oath Keepers also assembled their own team of terrorist mercenaries, known as the Quick Reaction Force (QRF). They had booked rooms in a Comfort Inn across the river from the Capitol where they stockpiled a $20,000 arsenal of shotguns and assault rifles, which were to be rushed across the river to a QRF awaiting standby.23,24 Thankfully, the QRF’s so-called ‘call of duty’ never came, and those rifles never delivered. But don’t think they would have hesitated to use them. After the insurrection, Oath Keeper founder Stewart Rhodes stated: “My only regret is they should have brought rifles. We should have brought rifles. We could have fixed it right then and there. I’d hang fucking Pelosi from the lamppost.” 25
Security footage from inside the Pentagon showed that around the same time police officer Eugene Goodman bravely lured insurrectionists away from the Senate chamber, Vice President Mike Pence and his entourage of aides and family members were being led downstairs out of harm’s way. In the video, Pence’s military aide could be seen following close behind carrying the backup Presidential Emergency Satchel – the so-called Nuclear Football – which contained the codes necessary to authorise a nuclear missile strike. The terrorists got within twenty yards of not only assassinating the Vice President, but potentially also stealing the nuclear football.26
And then there was the fears about leaving President Trump alone with the nuclear codes. There were genuine concerns that Trump, in his temper tantrums, might abuse his presidential powers to launch an unprovoked nuclear attack on his perceived enemies. The day after January 6, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi telephoned Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Milley to bluntly ask him: “What precautions are available to prevent an unstable president from initiating military hostilities or from accessing the launch codes and ordering a nuclear strike? This situation of this unhinged president could not be more dangerous. We must do everything that we can to protect the American people from his unbalanced assault on our country and our democracy.”27
Later, whilst reading Woodward & Costa’s Peril, I learned that on the night of January 5th 2021, the FBI and Pentagon had received word of a potential terrorist plot to fly a plane into the Capitol during the Joint Session.28
From all this talk of how much worse January 6 could have been, I got an idea of my own. An idea for a new Sid Tanner story centred around that very question: What if there was something far more sinister planned for January 6? My changes made to the timeline required very little embellishment on my part. What happens in Sid Tanner’s alternate history is almost entirely based on the facts. This idea took inspirations, not only from all these very real fears of what could have happened, but something else now synonymous with Trump’s administration. As he calls it, “Russia! Russia! Russia!”
Donald Trump’s presidency was constantly haunted by Russia’s interference into the 2016 election. Although Trump tried to get as much mileage as he could out of the Mueller investigation’s failure to confirm that his campaign colluded or conspired with Russia during this interference, the report clearly states that the investigation ‘uncovered evidence of numerous links between Trump Campaign officials and individuals having or claiming to have ties to the Russian government.’29 Even when asked point blank if he would condemn Russia’s actions, President Trump disputed the findings of his own intelligence apparat in favour of Vladimir Putin’s denial of Russian interference.30
On April 17th 2022, I put on hold Sid Tanner’s historical epic origin story and began work on Trojan SMERSH. Originally, it was supposed to be a short story, but my vision could not be constrained to the wordcount limit of literary magazines. I decided on June 15th 2022 to make it a standalone novel. I wrote 2,000 words a day, all the while paying close attention to the then ongoing January 6 investigation hearings. These hearings, together with the books ‘Peril’ by Woodward and Costa and ‘Betrayal’ by Jonathon Karl as well as the excellent report ‘Lost, not Stolen’, provided great insight into what was going on in the days up to and during the January 6 insurrection. By September 1st 2022, I completed my first draft. On Melbourne Cup Day the following year, it was accepted for publication by Aurora House.
Chronologically, it is set between my unfinished No Heroes in Espionage and those six original manuscripts I wrote for my step-grandfather. I swear it was never my intention to do a George Lucas! But fear not, you can easily pick up and read Trojan SMERSH without being left in the dark.
The title comes from the name of the agency behind the Russian antagonists. SMERSH was the name of a Soviet intelligence agency established in 1943. SMERSH is a portmantua of the Russian words Smertʹ shpionam, which translates to “Death to spies!” Its mission was to snuff out Soviet defectors and Nazi spies. In real life, SMERSH was shutdown in 1946 after the end of WWII. But it since gained popularity in many works of spy fiction, most notably Ian Fleming’s first seven James Bond novels. Though Fleming’s portrayal of the agency was embellished in scope and jurisdiction that more resembled the KGB.
The premise of Trojan SMERSH is a straightforward game of cat and mouse. Sid Tanner is a rogue ASIS agent and former RAAF exchange officer to the US Space Force who knows too much. He lives his life on the run from assassins sent by the CIA, ASIS and SMERSH. But he always manages to stay one step ahead of the hitmen. After one such attempt on his life, Tanner learns of a conspiracy between the Trump administration and SMERSH. He knows that January 6 will be Trump’s last resort to stay in power, and just as they had helped him in 2016, SMERSH will ensure that last resort pulls through. Adding to the stakes, the hunter is also the hunted. Sid Tanner, clad in his trusty suit of armour, must infiltrate the Capitol riot and hunt down the agents of SMERSH before they can fulfill their heinous plan and before his past comes back to assassinate him.
1 Becky Little (2021) “A History of Attacks at the US Capitol”, History, https://www.history.com/news/us-capitol-building-violence-fires
2 Amanda Holpuch (2021) “US Capitol’s last breach was more than 200 years ago”, The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/06/us-capitol-building-washington-history-breach
3 Reuters (2021) “LIVE: Republican Senator Lindsey Graham speaks a day after Trump supporters stormed the Capitol” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVQKQ4C3qFo
4 FBI (2021) “FBI Washington Field Office Releases Video and Additional Information Regarding the Pipe Bomb Investigation”, https://www.fbi.gov/contact-us/field-offices/washingtondc/news/press-releases/fbi-washington-field-office-releases-video-and-additional-information-regarding-the-pipe-bomb-investigation-090821
5 FBI (2024) “$500,000 Reward Remains in Effect for Information About Capitol Hill Pipe Bomber”, https://www.fbi.gov/contact-us/field-offices/washingtondc/news/500000-reward-remains-in-effect-for-information-about-capitol-hill-pipe-bomber
6 Dinah Voyles Pulver, Doug Caruso, Rachel Axon, Katie Wedell, Erin Mansfield, Zshekinah Collier, Tyreye Morris (January 15, 2021, updated March 23, 2024) “Capitol riot arrests: See who’s been charged across the U.S.”, USA Today, https://www.usatoday.com/storytelling/capitol-riot-mob-arrests/
7 Mark Follman, Dan Friedman, Ryan Little, and Sam Van Pykeren (September 30, 2021) “Trump Extremists Brought Numerous Guns on January 6, Evidence Shows”, Mother Jones, https://www.motherjones.com/criminal-justice/2021/09/trump-extremists-guns-january-6-insurrection-congress-domestic-terrorism/
8 Mark Follman (January 6, 2023) “Yes, January 6 Was a Heavily Armed Insurrection”, Mother Jones, https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2023/01/january-6-armed-insurrection-congress-guns-trump-lie/
9 Tom Jackman, Rachel Weiner, Spencer S. Hsu (2022) “Evidence of firearms in Jan. 6 crowd grows as arrests and trials mount” https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/07/08/jan6-defendants-guns/
10 Tom Fitton (2021) “BREAKING: Ashli Babbitt Shooting Documents UNCOVERED”, Judicial Watch, https://www.judicialwatch.org/babbitt-shooting-documents-uncovered/
11 Judicial Watch (2021) “Knife (Ashley Babbitt)”, https://www.judicialwatch.org/documents/ashley-babbitts-knife/knife-ashley-babbitt/
12 Chuck Goudie and Barb Markoff, Christine Tressel, Tom Jones (2024) “Southwest suburban man charged with firing gun during January 6 US Capitol insurrection”, ABC 7 Eyewitness News, https://abc7chicago.com/john-banueos-gun-fired-at-january-6-us-capitol-riot-insurrection-arrest-summit-il/14505102/
13 United States Attorney’s Office District of Columbia (2023) “Maryland Man Sentenced for Assaulting Law Enforcement Officers and Carrying a Firearm During Jan. 6 Capitol Breach”, https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/pr/maryland-man-sentenced-assaulting-law-enforcement-officers-and-carrying-firearm-during
14 United States Attorney’s Office Dustrict of Columbia (2022) “Texas Man Sentenced to 87 Months in Prison For Actions Related to Capitol Breach”, https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/pr/texas-man-sentenced-prison-actions-related-capitol-breach
15 Holmes Lybrand (2022) “Jan. 6 rioter who brought guns onto US Capitol grounds sentenced to 5 years in jail”, CNN, https://edition.cnn.com/2022/10/21/politics/january-6-capitol-rioter-guns-sentenced/index.html
16 Chris Joyner (2021) “Georgia man among those facing federal charges following Capitol riot”, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, https://www.ajc.com/news/georgia-man-among-those-facing-federal-charges-from-capitol-riot/SD3JK6B2FBGVFLFJ273RNB5IOE/
17 Melissa Brown, Brian Lyman (2021) “Alabama man with ‘particularly lethal’ Molotov cocktails at US Capitol riot left alarming notes in truck, records show”, USA Today, https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/01/12/lonnie-coffman-alabama-man-molotov-cocktails-17-federal-charges/6647101002/
18 Mark Follman (January 6, 2023) “Yes, January 6 Was a Heavily Armed Insurrection”, Mother Jones, https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2023/01/january-6-armed-insurrection-congress-guns-trump-lie/
19 Martin Pengully (2022) “Trump knew crowd at rally was armed yet demanded they be allowed to march”, The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jun/28/trump-jan-6-rally-guns-capitol-attack
20 Marisa Sarnoff (2022) “FBI Arrests Members of Right-Wing Militia ‘B Squad’ Who Allegedly Faced Off Against Police in Violent Capitol Tunnel Confrontation on Jan. 6”, Law & Crime, https://lawandcrime.com/u-s-capitol-breach/fbi-arrests-members-of-right-wing-militia-b-squad-who-allegedly-faced-off-against-police-in-violent-capitol-tunnel-confrontation-on-jan-6/
21 Adam Goldman, Alan Feuer (2022) “Republicans Step Up Attacks on F.B.I. as It Investigates Trump”, The New York Times, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/28/us/politics/fbi-gop-attacks.html
22 Ryan J. Reilly (2022) “Feds arrest five members of ‘B Squad’ militia allegedly run by former GOP House candidate in Jan. 6 case”, NBC News, https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/feds-charge-members-b-squad-militia-allegedly-run-former-gop-house-can-rcna44621
23 Alexander Mallin, Will Steakin (April 14, 2021) “Oath Keepers stashed weapons at hotel for potential Jan. 6 violence, prosecutors indicate”, ABC News, https://abcnews.go.com/US/oath-keepers-stashed-weapons-hotel-potential-jan-violence/story?id=77048420
24 Sergio Olmos (January 15, 2022) “Guns, ammo … even a boat: how Oath Keepers plotted an armed coup”, The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jan/14/oath-keepers-leader-charges-armed-plot-us-capitol-attack
25 John Woolley (November 2, 2022) “In FBI recording from Jan. 10, 2021, Oath Keepers’ Stewart Rhodes talked about hanging Pelosi “from the lamppost””, CBS News, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/oath-keepers-trial-pelosi-trump/
26 Jonathon Karl (2021) “Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show”, Dutton, p286
27 Bob Woodward, Robert Costa (2021) “Peril: Trump, Biden and a nation on the brink,” Simon & Schuster, pp xix
28 Bob Woodward, Robert Costa (2021) “Peril: Trump, Biden and a Nation on the Brink”, Simon & Schuster, pp235-236
29 Robert S. Mueller, III (2019) “Report On The Investigation Into Russian Interference In The 2016 Presidential Election,” US Department of Justice, Vol. I, https://www.justice.gov/archives/sco/file/1373816/dl
30 I24News English (2018) “FULL: Trump-Putin Helsinki Summit Press Conference”, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slldr1eFUJ4&t=2310s