She took a deep breath and ran to the front window, seeing a man on his knees holding his wrist, and two bodies a little further back lying on the floor, bleeding from their chests. She snatched a tablecloth, stepped on the wooden chair closest to the broken window, spread the tablecloth over the bottom of the frame, and climbed out. She heard sirens coming from the right, but she decided to go left instead, running as fast as her feet could take her.
TO BE CONTINUED in Chapter 2 of SHADOW GAMES
AMAZON BESTSELLING SERIES
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Shadow Games
Shadow Prey
Shadow Justice
LINKAGE
The Narrows of Time Series
Book #1
By Jay J. Falconer
www.JayFalconer.com
ISBN-13: 978-0-9840011-8-7
ISBN-10: 0-9840011-8-2
Friday, December 21
Tucson, Arizona
“Reckless. Undisciplined. Arrogant,” were the words Dr. Green posted to describe Lucas Ramsay’s thesis in the online science magazine called Astrophysics Today.
Lucas couldn’t help but stare at those twenty-nine letters filling the screen space on his aging laptop. The display was covered in lingering dust, with scratches spreading across its surface. Every time he opened the unit, it seemed like they were multiplying in the dark.
The screen looked like he felt—tired and worn out from years of abuse. But regardless, the marred surface didn’t obscure the words making his stomach ache and churn. He wanted to close the laptop and forget he ever saw the article, but he couldn’t. His career was now circling the black hole of ruin and he knew there’d be no escape.
He sat on the edge of his bed in the apartment he shared with his foster brother Drew, wondering if life could get any worse. He ran his bare feet across the tile floor, letting the coldness penetrate the skin. The drab green Army surplus blanket scratched at his thighs, so he tossed it aside, making a clear path for the chilly Tucson air to surround him. The burn of his senses was welcomed; he figured it would help etch this moment in his mind for all of eternity.
Life was about to take a wicked turn south now that his public disgrace was official. He needed to remember how he got here and why—the exact moment when history changed and swallowed him alive.
He looked down at the laptop, seeing Dr. Green’s summary staring back at him with vicious intent. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, hoping the words would magically disappear when he brought his attention back to the screen.
Lucas counted to ten, then opened his eyes.
They were still there—bold and harsh, not like any words he’d read before. Sure, he’d enjoyed plenty of scathing reviews of scientific papers before, but never one aimed squarely at him.
Dr. Green had a knack for tearing theories apart with a few choice phrases. The man’s reputation as a self-righteous prima donna was legendary. So was his literary temper. The retired eighty-year-old physicist was revered as a god in the realm of theoretical physics. His words alone could spark endless research grants and guarantee immortality in the annals of science. Or they could be used to kill a career.
Like mine, Lucas thought, knowing his humiliation had gone global, coursing through cyberspace like a malevolent force hell-bent on global annihilation.
Until a minute ago, Lucas had been proud of his thesis titled “The Laws of Physics Are Merely a Suggestion.” He thought it was a brilliant take on inter-dimensional connectivity theory. True, his paper on quantum linkage stretched the envelope a bit, challenging mainstream science at every turn, but the work was sound and he could prove it. All he wanted was a chance to be part of the conversation.
Of course, now that the senior editor had shit all over it, no respected scientist on the planet would consider it, not without reaping the whirlwind that was Dr. Green.
Lucas’ heart sank. The glimmer of respect he’d worked painstakingly to build during his first two years as a physicist was now being swallowed by an ever-expanding digital black hole. A gnawing sensation was building in the pit of his stomach, somewhere between nausea and hunger.
There was simply no way to recover from a debacle of this magnitude. Not after the world’s most famous physicist called your theories “pure speculation founded on nothing more than adolescent fantasy,” and then blasted it across the Internet for all to see.
He closed his eyes again for another ten count, trying to untangle the knot swelling in his gut. It was useless. The knot grew unchecked. The only way to change things would be to travel back in time and stop himself from pressing that damned SEND button on the keyboard. All it took was one snap decision made in the wee hours of a brisk December morning to ruin everything. What the hell had he been thinking? He wasn’t ready. Neither were his theories. He should’ve known this would happen.
He groaned, chastising himself for being impulsive and undisciplined. His foolish arrogance would now harm not only him, but his family, too.
He let out a slow exhale, then shut the laptop quietly, trying not to wake his foster brother sleeping in the bed across from him. It seemed to work. There was no sign of movement from under the pile of covers. Just the usual rumble of disjointed snoring.
Drew was a noisy sleeper but Lucas had gotten used to it over the years. Others might complain or walk away, but he didn’t. He had no choice, really—you never give up on family. Or maybe it was that he didn’t want to have a choice, since Drew was one of the few good things in his life. Lucas would never walk away from the one person he trusted above all others. The one person who always had his back, no matter what came gunning for them.
Sometimes in the middle of the night, he’d lie in bed and just listen. The rhythm of Drew’s night sounds was comforting, finding its way across the room and landing softly on the petals of his heart. The snoring had become a soothing reassurance in an otherwise chaotic world. Knowing his brother was nestled safely in the bed across the room was a constant reminder that all would be right again in the morning, as long as the two of them stuck together.
Lucas unplugged the laptop from the wall socket and put the thin-profile device on the floor next to the bed. He slid his body under the edge of the covers, hoping to catch another ten minutes of shuteye. Maybe his stomach pain would subside if he lay still enough and let the thoughts of disgrace melt away against the backdrop of Drew’s breathing.
A split second later, he felt something crawl across his shin and down the inside of his right calf. “Holy shit!” he screamed, tossing off the covers.
A brown scorpion the size of a hockey puck sat on the sheet, with its venomous stinger arched high above its back. It had crawled into his bed, searching for prey.
Lucas grabbed one of the sneakers from the nightstand between the twin double beds and smashed the creature with such force that he jammed his right wrist, but the four-inch beast was still alive and coming his way.
“Die, you bastard!” he shouted, whacking the invader three more times, until its front claws, stinger, and eight legs stopped moving. He hated the stealthy night crawlers almost as much as his adoptive father did, and would’ve gladly used a bazooka to kill it.
“Geeze, Lucas. Did he owe you money or something?” Drew asked, sitting up in his bed. He used the tip of his index finger to pry the sleeper crust from the corners of his watery Italian eyes. His curly hair was flat on one side after pressing against the pillow all night. Some of it had fallen forward, covering his forehead and one eye. His olive skin was usually perfectly smooth, but right now it was covered in temporary wrinkles, matching the creases in the pillowcase.
“Sorry, bro. I didn’t mean to wake you up.”
“You didn’t. I was awake already,” Drew said, yawning and stretching, which showed off his stout chest and thickly muscled arms. If it weren’t for the car accident that crushed his legs, he could’ve easily passed for a collegiate athlete, or maybe even a p
ro.
“Anyway, sorry about that. Not like I had much of a choice. Look at the size of this thing,” Lucas said, using the cardboard backing from one of his notebooks to scoop the carcass into a plastic cup. “You’d think we’d be safe on the third floor.”
“Not with the way those things can climb. They’re relentless.”
“I’d give anything to have a few of Dad’s sonic pads to spread around. Those things worked perfectly,” Lucas said, thinking about his father and the device he’d designed specifically to deal with scorpions. “If it wasn’t for the damn EPA, every house in Arizona would have them by now. And we’d probably be rich.”
“Yeah, all he needed was another chance.”
Lucas carried the remains to the bathroom and dumped the creature into the bottom of the toilet and gave it a middle-finger salute. He saw a two-inch black cockroach lying on its back next to the tub, with one set of legs still kicking. It crunched louder than he expected when he stepped on it with the heel of his left foot. He used a Kleenex to pick it up and toss it into the toilet and used the same sheet of tissue to wipe the creature’s runny blood and guts from his foot.
“And we wouldn’t be living in this dump either. We’d have a big house with plenty of room for Mom,” he said loud enough for Drew to hear in the next room.
“Still, you can’t beat the price.”
“Maybe so, but that’s beside the point. We wouldn’t need free rent if they hadn’t killed his invention,” Lucas yelled, flushing the john to send the pair of mangled carcasses swirling around the bowl and into the sewer. He emptied the toilet a second time for good measure before returning to the bedroom.
He took a seat on his bed across from Drew and continued, “He could’ve solved the problem with the dogs. But no . . . all it took was one scathing report from the EPA and the investors go running for the hills. Don’t they know science is all about trial and error? Bunch of wimps. All Dad needed was a little more time. He would’ve worked out the bugs. No pun intended.”
Drew nodded. “Sometimes, all someone needs is a second chance.”
“You got that right, brother,” Lucas said, moving Drew’s wheelchair closer to the bed. He waited for him to slide his frail legs over the edge and onto the floor. “Need any help?” he asked, already knowing the answer.
“No, I got it. Just give me a minute.”
Drew used a handlebar hanging from the ceiling to prop himself up against the side of the raised bed. He was able to stand for short periods, but couldn’t walk, at least not without assistance. He turned around and sat in the wheelchair, then looked at the floor. “What were you doing with the laptop?”
Lucas paused, taking a moment to think. “Nothing. I woke up early and couldn’t sleep, so I was just reading Dr. Green’s blog. Checking out the new submissions and his reviews, You know, to kill some time.”
“Anything interesting today?” Drew asked, bending down to get the computer.
Lucas grabbed it, holding it out of reach. “Just the usual half-baked theories submitted by wannabe scientists. Nothing nearly as cool as what we’re working on in our lab.”
Drew sat upright in his chair. “Maybe someday we’ll publish one of our theories on that website. Then we’ll be as famous as Dr. Green.”
“No thanks. It’s better to stay off the grid. Remain anonymous. Prehistoric dinosaurs like Green steal people’s ideas all the time and cash in. The shitty thing is, people like us can’t do a thing about it. After all, it would be his word against ours, and who are we? Right now, we’re nobodies. You don’t even have your doctorate yet, and I’m just starting my career.”
“I never thought of it that way,” Drew said with a perplexed look on his unshaven face.
Lucas tossed the laptop to the farthest corner of his bed, making sure Drew couldn’t reach it easily. “Trust me. You don’t want to be famous. It’s not all it’s cracked up to be. If you ask me, it’s best to be the brains behind the scenes, and not the person out front in the limelight.”
A shiver ran down Lucas’ spine and he wrapped his arms around his rail-thin, nude body—a stark contrast to his foster brother’s handsome Mediterranean looks and muscular upper body. Lucas hated his red hair and freckles, but at least he had blue eyes. One redeeming feature at least. Well, that and his prominent dimples, something his adoptive mother cherished. However, they didn’t do much for his confidence, not with the prominent cheek scars nearby.
He shivered again, inwardly cursing the ancient heating system in their apartment. Most people didn’t realize that even in the desert, the nights turned chilly. He walked four steps to the end of the room, where the in-wall HVAC system was installed, and rubbed his hands over the rattling output vents. “Hardly anything coming out of this piece of crap.”
“What’d you expect? That thing’s probably older than Sputnik.”
“Even so, you’d think Kleezebee’s Super could find a way to keep this thing working. We could hang meat in here.”
Lucas returned and slipped on a pair of navy blue boxers and a long-sleeved faded red t-shirt with ARIZONA printed on the front of it.
Drew pulled out a neatly rolled pair of socks from a custom-built dresser compartment under the bed and tossed it to Lucas. They had raised their mattresses four feet off the ground, using 4x4 redwood posts and birch plywood from their dad’s workshop. Storage space was at a premium in their five-hundred-square-foot apartment.
Lucas walked to the study desk to see what yesterday’s mail had brought them. Three envelopes were sitting on top of the last pile, face up, with fresh postmarks and no doubt, a swatch of Drew’s fingerprints. All three were from someone in the medical field.
“More bills for Mom? Are you kidding me?”
“They keep multiplying,” Drew answered, his brow furrowed.
Lucas opened the first envelope and almost puked when his eyes locked onto the invoice’s grand total. “Twenty-two grand for three days in urgent care?”
Drew rolled next to Lucas in his wheelchair. “Good thing you had them send the bills here. If Mom finds out, she’ll have another heart attack. I doubt she’d survive another one.”
Lucas opened a second bill—it was even more. He slammed it onto the pile, face down.
Drew snatched the invoice and looked at it with eyes wide. He gasped. “Fifty-two thousand?”
Lucas gritted his teeth and shook his head. “This day just keeps on getting better. It just never ends.”
“You can bet if Mom knew the insurance company was going to deny her claims, she would’ve just told the attending physician to pull the plug. End it right then and there. How are we gonna pay for all this?”
Lucas sighed as he put his elbows on the desk, resting his face in his hands. He didn’t know how much they owed in total, but the figure had to be staggering. He wished he’d told his family the truth—that he’d forgotten to mail the check for his mother’s insurance premium, which was why the claims department denied the coverage. But at this point, he was too embarrassed to come clean. He already felt bad enough, and it wouldn’t change anything, anyway. It was his problem and he needed to solve it.
His original plan was to pay off the medical bills after he proved one of his revolutionary theories and sold the rights to a defense contractor or to NASA. He hoped submitting his paper to Green would’ve been the first step toward funding a project of his own. But after Dr. Green’s harsh public criticism, he knew nothing short of a miracle could help them now.
“I don’t know. We’ll think of something.”
“We could ask Professor Kleezebee.”
“Borrow money from my boss?”
“Why not? He’s loaded. Besides, he might just give us the money.”
“No. We’re not gonna take handouts. Not if I have anything to say about it. We’ll figure it out on our own.”
Just then, his mind played a vision of him walking into a crowded grocery store with a black ski mask, gun, and brown paper sack, only to be shot
dead before he reached the cash register by some Weight Watcher flunky in a wrinkled security guard uniform.
A minute later, Lucas looked at the clock. “Damn, it’s almost nine. We’ll have to bust nuts if we’re going to make breakfast with Trevor.”
“Uh, yeah, it’s Friday. Knowing Trevor, he’s probably already in the cafeteria, waiting for us.”
“Which means we’re late—again.”
“He’ll understand. He always does.”
“That man has more patience than me,” Lucas said.
“Yeah, there’s a shock.”
Lucas ignored the dig. “I hope he fixed the computer glitch in his code. I want to run a few more system checks tonight in the lab, while we still can. I’m guessing you’re not going to do your workout today?”
“No, I’ll do my push-ups tomorrow. Besides, I’m pretty sure I’m at DEFCON 1 already. Right Guard only covers up so much.”
Lucas’ sour mood made it easy to hold back a chuckle, now standing in front of his brother’s side of the closet. “What shirt do you want?”
“Come on, that was funny,” Drew said, giving Lucas a playful shove.
“Yeah, it was. I’m laughing on the inside; can’t you tell?”
“Everything ok, bro?”
Lucas wanted to tell Drew what had happened with Green and the insurance premium check, but he couldn’t find the courage to come clean. His brother counted on him to handle everything, and he didn’t want to shatter his confidence. “Yeah, I’m fine. Didn’t sleep well last night. So, I ask again, what shirt do you want?”
“It doesn’t matter. You know, something with long sleeves, as long as it’s—”
“Blue. Yep, it’s Friday. I should’ve known,” Lucas said, retrieving a pullover shirt from a hanger. He removed it from the red hanger and gave it to his brother. He was careful to put the hanger back in the closet precisely where it had been, exactly two fingers away from the hangers on either side of it.
Bunker (A Post-Apocalyptic Techno Thriller Book 1) Page 17