The Athens Solution: A Short Story

AFTERWORD

Years ago, Vince Flynn and had a conversation about “going back.” As in, Would you ever go back and revisit one of your earlier novels?

“No way,” Vince had said. “Absolutely not.”

His rationale had been that as a writer, you would drive yourself crazy with everything you might want to change. It was an opinion I shared. Once my novels are released out into the world, they have to survive on their own. It’s kind of like how some people view children. Once they hit adulthood, shove them out the door and change the locks. If you have raised them right, they’ll do well. If you haven’t, your mistakes will haunt you forever.

Obviously, there is a big difference between releasing a novel and preparing a child for a successful, productive life. As a writer and a father, I feel pretty safe saying that. But you do need to be prepared in both instances to step back. With The Athens Solution, though, I thought I would jump back in — and it has been a blast.

The Athens Solution is the first, and only, short story I have ever published. It was published on June 1, 2006, as part of the highly successful Thriller anthology, benefiting the International Thriller Writers Association. I had published my very first novel, The Lions of Lucerne, just four short years before in January 2002. Almost a decade later, I still love this story — particularly its setting.

I had fallen in love with Greece — if you can believe it — through two advertising campaigns. One was a television commercial for American Express, shot on the island of Santorini and featuring the song “Rescue Me” by Fontella Bass (which I have playing right now by the way). The other was Claudia Schiffer’s iconic, black-and-white magazine photo spread for Guess, shot on the island of Mykonos.

I was studying abroad in Paris, and spring break was quickly approaching. French friends encouraged me to visit Greece. It was very affordable and nicely fit my student budget. I spent two weeks there traveling — a couple of days in Athens and then the rest in the islands.

On the island of Paros, where I would return that summer and two summers later to work in a great little bar, I had the seed of the idea for the Athens Solution story. It was about an assassin who had traveled to Greece to carry out an assignment, only to be stymied by a terrible change in the weather.

I had envisioned the assassin scaling the outside of the hotel, where I was living at the time, in the pouring rain. One bad turn would lead to another, and another, ultimately defeating an otherwise brilliantly conceived plan. In the end, much like Scot Harvath, the assassin was unsuccessful in achieving his ultimate goal.

Not until revisiting The Athens Solution did I realize that it was the culmination of that idea born on a rainy day more than two decades ago on that little Greek island.

I tried to keep as true to the original story as possible. Some things, though, I had to change. I hope those few changes made the story even more enjoyable for you.

Going forward, I have a lot of short-story ideas, so expect to see many more from me. If they are even half as much fun to work on as this one was, we’re all in for a very good time!