by S L Shelton
“Okay, but if any fall off, you have to pick them up.”
“Whatevs,” Johnson said sliding the cart over.
After helping his friend load the frozen corpses on the transport, he closed and latched the steel doors, then returned to his novel, flinging his feet back on the desk. He got no further than the last sentence he had read before when an irksome thought crossed his mind. He swiveled his chair around slowly and looked at the drawer Blondie had been in.
He squinted at the magnetic CBRN sticker on the drawer front and tipped his head sideways.
“Where did you go, sweetheart?”
He rolled over to the drawer and, grasped the edge, pulling on the door face without pulling the latch—it swung open. He bent as far as the sitting position would allow and looked at the latch. The retaining pin had sheared off.
Rolling slowly along the edge of the drawers while remaining seated in his chair, he scanned the floor, looking for the missing part. After backing away, he spotted it—just a lonesome steel pin, sitting on the floor. He bent and picked it up, examining the ends closely.
No reasonable explanation as to why it had sheared off came to mind. So, he opened a desk drawer, retrieved an envelope, and dropped the broken item in before sealing it. In rushed and sloppy handwriting, he scribbled; “Cold drawer B24. Door busted”, then tossed it in the half full in-box on the desk.
After one more backward glance at the drawer, he threw his feet up on the desk and opened his book.
“Let the day shift figure it out.”
As he began to read, a shiver passed up his spine. He looked up, squinting at the line of drawers across the room. Another shiver shook him.
“I’m gonna read now!” he yelled at the room, his voice echoing off the metal fronts of the drawers. With no response, he lifted his book and began to turn the pages again.
“Creepy stuff.”
The End…? Yeah, right.
Acknowledgments
I wish to thank David Hazard of ASCENT for stepping in for the formative and developmental editing. Your insights and keen eye helped to sharpen this story as the series came rushing to an end.
Many thanks to my principal editor, Melissa Manes with Scriptionis, for her continued efforts on my behalf. Her insights and hard work have brought out a shining prize. Additionally, I’d like to thank Cordell Falk and J.C. Wing, who helped polish this work to a shiny gloss.
I'd also like to thank all of my beta and ARC readers and those who have given me feedback on the series. This novel had the largest beta group of any of my novels, so, unlike in the past, I’m not able to list all the names. But a special thanks to J.C. Wing who is almost always the first set of eyes on my books.
Thanks to Geoff, Bodo, Hülya, and my beautiful Gretel for the help with the Deutschsprachigen. Like Scott, I know more than I let on, but only enough to get me in trouble. I’d be lost without my German-speaking friends. A special thanks to Russian femme fatale, Galina G. for the Russian lesson and help with the Spetznaz slang. :)) I promise I won’t blow your cover, as long as you do that thing we talked about, at the place with the…you know.
As always, I'd like to thank our children…grown adults, all of you, with your own opinions and interpretation—thank you, Megan, Lauren, and Alex. I love you.
A special thank you to my wife, Diane—my Gretel—who remains my greatest supporter. As we entered the world of cancer treatments, I essentially abandoned writing, promotion, and social media. It was Diane who urged me to return to my writing desk to keep my fingers (and brain) nimble by blogging. Perhaps it was having me hovering over her like a worried mother hen, or just her desire to see the series-conclusion that Scott Wolfe deserved, but this novel is a reality almost solely due to her soft, persistent reminders that Scott waited for me after her first year of treatments were over. Thank you for being my muse, my friend, my Gretel, and the holder of my heart. Without you, there would be no me.
Look for Mark Gaines’s Return in
Panama Rift
Books by S.L. Shelton:
Hedged
The Scott Wolfe Series:
Waking Wolfe
Unexpected Gaines
Danger Close
Wolfe Trap
Harbinger
Predator’s Game
Splinter Self
Back story: Lt. Marsh
Follow S.L. Shelton at:
wolfeauthor.wordpress.com
www.goodreads.com/WolfeWriter
facebook.com/SLShelton.Author
SLShelton.com
I hope you enjoyed reading Splinter Self. If you did, I’d like to encourage you to post a review on the site you purchased it from and on www.goodreads.com. Your reviews are the best way to keep an author churning out the work and I’m grateful for every one I get (yes, I read them all). Feel free to contact me on Twitter and Facebook if you have any questions or thoughts about the stories. I love hearing from you…you make this process a joy for me.
Very best regards,
S.L. Shelton
Twitter: @SLSheltonAuthor