The Negative Man:
Twilight Days
by Jeremy Croston
Bolt Publishing, LLC
478 East Altamonte Drive Ste 108-782
Altamonte Springs, FL 32701
Copyright 2018 by Jeremy Croston
All rights reserved. No part of this book can be reproduced scanned, or sold in print or electronic form without permission. We encourage you, the readers, not to engage in any form of piracy.
ISBN Number:
Printed in the United States via Createspace
1 9 2 8 3 7 4 6 5
Publisher Note:
This book is a work of fiction.
All of the names, places,
and events that occur are from
the author’s imagination.
Any resemblance to an actual
person, alive or dead, place,
historical event, or business establishment
is purely coincidental.
Contributions:
Elissa Causey – Content Editor
Katie Douglas - Proofreader
Ryan Latterell – Social Media/Marketing
Galuh Obodi – Cover Artist
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Issue #1 – The Job
Issue #2 – The Informant
Issue #3 – The Arrival
Issue #4 – The Experiment
Issue #5 – The Lead
Issue #6 – The Dead Drop
Issue #7 – The Grab
Issue #8 – The Return
Issue #1 – The Lynx Returns
Issue #2 - Fate
Issue #3 – Victory’s Final Legacy
Issue #4 – Kurt Volkan
Issue #5 – The Long Game
Issue #6 - Volkkenkrüger
Issue #7 – The Return
Issue #8 – Twilight Sets In
The Negative Man (A Poem)
Chapter 1 –
Chapter 2-
Chapter 3 –
Chapter 4 –
Chapter 5-
Chapter 6 –
Chapter 7 –
Chapter 8 –
Chapter 9 –
Chapter 10 –
Chapter 11 –
Chapter 12 –
Chapter 13 –
Chapter 14 –
Chapter 15 –
Chapter 16 –
Chapter 17 –
Chapter 18 –
Chapter 19 –
Chapter 20 –
Chapter 21 –
Chapter 22 –
Chapter 23 –
Chapter 24 –
Chapter 25 –
Chapter 26 –
Chapter 27 –
Chapter 28 –
Chapter 29 –
Epilogue –
The Cast
What If…
Epilogue –
About Us
More Reading
From the Author
This book is for everyone who has big dreams
and isn’t afraid to chase them.
Issue #1 – The Job
**’Old’ Rich Shock**
“Wade, this doesn’t sound legit,” I told him.
The man known as Clickbait didn’t even look up from the computer he’d been working on. “Rich, this email came from one of the highest security clearances out there.”
That didn’t really mean shit to me, but it meant a lot to Wade. “Can you tell me who wants us to break into some secret underwater facility?”
Before Wade could properly answer, Andy and Erin walked into the room. Each had a beer in their hand and it wasn’t even eleven o’clock in the morning yet. “I’m telling ya, Erin. English football is much more exciting than this American nonsense.”
“No way, bro,” he responded. “You can’t even properly tackle and there’s no legit scoring.”
“Guys,” I interrupted. Both of them stopped their discussion and gave me their attention. “A job came in. We need a group vote on this.”
Wade wheeled his chair around with a printout of the email he’d received from the secure, yet secret account. “Someone, and by that I mean a very powerful person, has reached out to us to check out a place called The Dungeon Bay Research Facility. If we accept the job, they’ll send a USB drive that we need to attach to the server. The pay is outstanding.”
Something was wrong. I looked over at Erin’s face and it was stark white. “What’s wrong with you?” I asked.
“Dude, I’m never going back to that place.”
Well then, so the place did exist. “Hold that thought, Erin.” I grabbed the email from Wade’s hand and shook it in his face. “You need to find out who sent this to us. Whoever it is, they must know something about our little group—this ain’t no coincidence.”
Wade rolled his chair right back around began doing his thing on the keyboard. I rounded back on Erin, who still looked like he saw a ghost. “Deep breaths, big guy,” I tried to reason with him.
I was looking to see if that monster inside him was about to come out. Erin generally had control over the Titan part of himself, but there was a foul energy in the room. “You don’t understand, man.” He slapped himself across the face, which was quite a scene to witness. “I was dead when Victory dragged me into that place. The stuff that happened after… no way. No way am I going back.”
None of us knew a whole lot about Erin’s past. He joined up with us about a year ago, after what the media called Victory’s Defeat—The Assassination of Ronald Victory. With nowhere left to go with Jericho’s death, we kept him with us. Since then, we’d done some odd jobs for a few of my old contacts. Nothing serious, just enough to keep us floating above the poverty line.
So when he told me that he’d died and that Victory dragged his corpse into a secret facility, well yeah, that caught me off-guard. “Damn. We didn’t know.”
He was calming down, thank God. “It’s okay. No one really knows.”
When he didn’t offer any more information, Andy’s glance to me told me not to push it. “If there’s anything we can do, yeah, just ask.”
Everyone knew there wasn’t a damn thing anyone could do. The guy just admitted to us he’d been dead for crying out loud. Hell, with that revelation, I went to the kitchen and grabbed a beer myself. I was halfway through when it truly dawned on me just how much a victim of everything Erin had been.
The only sounds you heard in the common room of our safe house were the clicks from Wade’s keyboard. Erin’s backstory sobered the mood, which was ironic as we were all trying to get drunk. Then, he stopped abruptly. “None of you will believe this.”
“Considering we just found out Erin had been dead and brought back to life in an underwater black site, try me,” I said sarcastically.
Wade looked at me like I was crazy. “What do you mean Erin had been dead?” Apparently, he missed that one. “Never mind actually. It took just about every trick I know, but I traced the IP address of the email. It comes from the freaking White House.”
“Holy shiitake mushrooms,” our British comrade dropped on us. Leave it to Andy to use weird phrases.
“Not just the White House, guys—the Oval Office. This email came from President Whisnant himself.”
That’s when Erin’s eyes got really big. “Don’t reply to that email. I’ll handle this myself.” That’s when he grabbed his coat and left, leaving the rest of us in shock.
First, he was dead, and now he was going to handle something with the president? Just what the hell was going on here?
&nbs
p; Issue #2 – The Informant
**Erin Cieslik**
I knew it wouldn’t take long to get my old friend Davy’s attention. No one, and I mean no one, had been down into Dungeon Bay since Victory’s death. The place was in shambles, the back-up generator was barely keeping the lights on. Using my power from my Titan form, I was able to give them some more juice, enough to get all the computers back up and running.
I sent a decrypted email from one of the computers Jeremiah Presley once used. It was a simple one sent to my old friend that just read, ‘Come to where endings meet beginnings.’
Not even two days later did a submersible dock outside the facility. The president himself was on it and he walked it, alone. “Erin, how the hell are you?”
“Davy, bro, it’s been too long.”
He reached out and we shook hands like it’d been yesterday that we last grabbed a beer or something. “I’m not surprised to be back here, yet you’re not the one I was expecting to see,” he let on.
“No, but Clickbait, Old Rich, and Andy weren’t coming down here until I vetted this myself.” His eyes got really wide. “Yep, I’m part of their group.”
Davy began to walk forward, waving for me to follow him. “You will need their help if this is to be successful, Erin.”
I wasn’t sure what the hell he was talking about. What was to be successful? “Dude, care to let me in on the big secret?” I asked.
He didn’t say another word; not as we passed Presley’s old lab, Victory’s communications room, or even the old holding cells that they kept the test subjects in. Davy finally stopped at the elevator that led to the lower levels of Dungeon Bay, the one place none of us were ever allowed to travel to.
The place where Victory had brought me back to life.
With the power to the generator’s being sufficient, he pressed the bottom and the doors slid open. “What you’re about to see may be a complete shock to you.”
“Something tells me I’m going to regret this.”
I got in and he pressed the last button on the panel—B4. The doors closed ominously and we took the slow ride down into the depths of the bay in which the research facility was built in. We passed B2 where I’d been brought back to life and sunk even further. When we reached our destination, Davy led the way off the elevator into the dark, cold, and damp laboratory.
He took out his cellphone and used the flashlight feature. “Welcome to Hell, Erin. This is where Victory conducted one of his worst experiments,” he told me. “This is also the place I need your team to venture to. I need the information off that computer.” He pointed to the far wall; the damn thing took up the entire section!
There was a noise that broke up the silence. “What the hell was that?”
Davy waved his hand off. “An old remnant of Victory’s deranged mind. He shouldn’t give you any troubles.”
I sure didn’t like the sound of that. Changing the subject, more for my own sanity, “What’s on the computer that’s worth all the trouble?”
“There’s a file—Twilight Days—that’s on it.” That sounded easy enough. “The file is massive, but located in it our coordinates to another of Victory’s black sites.”
Man, this was the last thing I wanted to be a part of. “Victory is dead. Who cares about locations to other secret locations?”
Davy avoided the question. “With those coordinates, I need a team with the knowledge to break in and steal a piece of tech he was working on, a suit based on Jericho Staley’s unique powers.”
“What did you say?”
Davy grabbed me by the shoulders. “I know Jericho was your friend, Erin. The people who still work for Victory would use that tech for some very bad things. Do you want that on your conscience? I don’t.”
I turned away from Davy and looked at the computer that held the information he wanted. “I’m in.”
**President Davy Whisnant**
I was back on the submersible with my team. Presley was standing beside my new head of security, Christopher Bain. Both were eager to hear if I was successful. “Erin will recruit his team to handle the job.”
Smiles were all around. “I told you he was gullible enough to do what we needed,” Presley said.
“Not gullible, Jeremiah, loyal,” I corrected him. “You don’t understand the depths people will go for you when you save their life a time or two.”
Presley was, and rightfully so, irritated that we needed the help of a gang of common criminals. Victory must not have trusted us fully, not like we thought. This was the last piece of the puzzle that we needed and only the skills of a man known as Clickbait would suffice. “Don’t worry, Jeremiah. Once the prototype is in your possession, you will be known as the man who brought about the biggest change of them all.”
The mad scientist smiled at that proclamation. “It will be my finest hour.”
“Project Twilight Days is almost complete, then,” Bain observed.
He was right; everything was within grasp. “Once we get the suit Victory almost finished developing, our country’s super problem will soon become just a memory.”
Presley surprised me with a concerned look. “What about Vol—”
“As a doctor, I’m surprised you put any stock in urban legends,” I chastised him.
“Victory believed,” he countered.
“And Victory is dead.” I didn’t have time for foolish concerns. “Now, if we are done talking about men that do not exist, we have a project to complete.”
Issue #3 – The Arrival
**’Old’ Rich Shock**
Life was a hell of a lot simpler when I was dumb to the fact there were secret government facilities that committed crimes against humanity. No, after hearing Erin’s story and his follow up with President Whisnant, I was convinced we were living in some sort of sci-fi novel. “That might be the craziest shit I’ve ever heard.”
Andy, on the other hand, was rubbing his hands together like a kid in the candy store. “We’re so taking this job, gents!” he exclaimed. “There’s no way in Hell I’m missing an opportunity like this.”
Wade seemed to agree, too. “The chance to gain access to a supercomputer like that, that’s a game-changer.”
Still, the decision fell back to me. If I said no, the group would respect my wishes. After all, I’d kept us relatively well off since our stint at Black Lagoon with the odd jobs we’d take here and there. In my mind, this was a high risk, low reward type of job. These were the kinds of jobs that got your ass tossed back into lock up.
That’s why I couldn’t believe I uttered this answer. “We’re in.”
With the acceptance of the job came the preparation phase. The first part would be a lot of Wade, breaking into a computer and everything. We’d be there for tactical support and to guard against whatever in God’s name was lurking in that place. Erin would have to handle the heavy lifting with that, as his Titan form would be our best line of defense.
Andy was crucial at this point. He was the one with the contacts in various lines of police work and even some old paramilitary groups. I reluctantly gave him the team’s check book while he made the rounds to see what weapons and body armor he could round up for us. He said he’d be back within a day or two with the best he could get.
Wade bundled up his lap top, a ton of flash drives, and various lines of cable. The night we were loading all of it up into the van, Andy returned with the goods. “I’m quite pleased with the bundle I was able to get us.”
I walked over to the car and he popped the trunk. “Shit, we’re not going to war, you knucklehead.”
He was smiling from ear to ear though. “Maybe not in the underwater house of horrors, but you heard Erin. Once we get the coordinates, we’re going to the former Secretary of Defense’s black site. We’ll need all the guns and ammo we can get.”
Ugh, I hated it when he made a good point. Looking down at the cache of weaponry, it just reminded me how bad an idea this was. “Erin, can you tell me again why th
e President of the United States can’t tackle this project on his own? Why does he need us again?”
Something about his answer told me he was either making shit up or not being completely honest with me. Knowing Erin the way I did, I got the feeling it was the making shit up choice. “C’mon dude, he’s the president. He can’t be slumming around, doing shady stuff.”
Even if it was a BS answer, it was still a pretty rationalized one. “All I got to say is, if we get into any sort of trouble, he better be pardoning us a.s.a.p.”
The four of us piled into the van and we drove off into the night for Dungeon Bay. The roads were clear and the moon was high. It wasn’t long at all before we were pulling up to the dark, blue waters where the first part of our job would begin.
“Question,” Wade called out. “How does one get into an underwater facility?”
“Like this,” Erin said. He walked over to a rocky alcove and pulled back a portion of the rock wall. The smell of salty air hit my nose right away. “C’mon dudes, it’s not as bad as it looks.”
The moment my foot touched the damp metal stairs, I didn’t think this was bad—I thought it was terrible.
Issue #4 – The Experiment
**’Clickbait’ Wade Williams**
The level we were on was creepy. Like out of a horror film, creepy. Between the broken chairs, the dried blood and the possible decayed body parts lying around, I didn’t want to be here longer than necessary. I hooked up the data line between my laptop and the supercomputer while the others were slowly staking out the rest of the lab. The mountains of encryption codes I’d have to go through to gain access was daunting. We were going to be down here for a while.
“This side is clear,” I heard Rich shout out.
“Nothing over here, either.” That was Erin.
A loud crash of glass and metal hitting the floor made me jump as I was getting ready to boot everything up. My nerves were on edge to begin with, and the noise sent them over. My heart rate spiked. “Sorry,” Andy called out. “I wanted to see something.”
The Negative Man: Twilight Days (Pacific Station Vigilante Book 4) Page 1