by Jon Land
Denton looked down. Steam continued to lift off the searing-hot pistol, its finish peeling off atop the Lucite.
Max took another step forward. “Guess I’m not as easy to kill as my father was. You did it. I know you did.”
Denton shook his head. “That’s crazy, fucking nuts. He was my best friend. We built this company together. He jumped out that window over there, because he was sick. I don’t know, maybe the cancer was eating away at his brain.”
Max started around Denton’s desk, looming over him “It wasn’t cancer.”
With that, Max laid a hand on Denton’s shoulder and closed his eyes.
EIGHTY-THREE
New York City, 2008
“I’ll have him arrested!” Dale Denton raged, in his first meeting with Ben Younger since the Adirondacks. “I’ll make sure he never sees the outside of a prison. Hell, do they have the death penalty in New York?”
“He’s gone, Dale. You’ll never find him, neither will the police.”
“Don’t test me, Ben.”
“I don’t have to, because you’ve already failed. You want to go after my son, ruin me, go ahead. But do that, and the board will learn how you’ve spent millions off the books on a series of fool’s errands. I believe in New York that’s called embezzlement.”
“I built this goddamn company!”
Ben shook his head, calmly. “We built it, in spite of you.”
Denton came out from behind the desk. “But there’s not going to be a ‘we’ much longer, is there? You think I don’t know how sick you are, that you’re dying? And here’s some breaking news. I also know your kid’s a genetic mess. You want the rest of the world to learn he’s a murderer, a psycho, a circus freak, then keep talking. I won’t even need the police to find him—his picture will be splashed across airwaves and newspapers from one side of the world to the other. The Internet will have a field day with the story. But go ahead, keep threatening me.”
Ben lurched around the desk and jerked Denton out of his chair. “You leave my son alone! This is between you and me!”
Denton barely resisted him. “But he’s a part of us now, partner. And he’s a monster. You didn’t see what he did in that cabin. The world would be better off with him locked away and so would you.”
Ben tried to tighten his hold on Denton’s shirt, but couldn’t find the strength. Felt it draining out of him like a leaky faucet, knew he couldn’t hold the grasp much longer.
“Always looking out for my best interests, aren’t you, Dale.”
Denton brushed him off and away. Effortlessly. “I’m sorry, partner, I truly am. This never would’ve happened if you hadn’t gone down in that cave. It could just as easily have been me.”
“Except you didn’t have the balls then, and you don’t now.”
Denton smirked, the bravado-full braggart as always. “But I was always stronger, Ben. Even more so now.”
And then Denton grasped him by the lapels, mimicking Ben Younger’s own earlier action as he drove him backward, toward the office’s biggest window.
The mounts of which he’d loosened, in expectation of this moment, the inevitable upshot of all that had transpired.
Denton gave a final, brutal shove at the last. Ben Younger slammed backward into the window, his weight enough to tear the frame from its loosened mounts and project him out into the air. He’d hit the sidewalk by the time Denton gazed down, nothing of him left recognizable from sixty stories up.
“Nice knowing you, partner.”
EIGHTY-FOUR
New York City
By then, Denton was shaking so violently he looked to be in the throes of some kind of seizure. Beads of sweat pooled on his face, dripped down into his lap, his clothes already soaked through. His eyes snapped open, regarding Max with a terror that turned his features milk white.
“Care to comment?” Max said calmly, taking his hand from Denton’s shoulder and backing away.
Denton’s mouth gaped, but only a gurgling sound emerged.
“But the story doesn’t end there, does it, Dale? I saw the rest of it too. How even killing my father wasn’t enough for you. How you cooked the books so the crooked numbers, your embezzlement, got blamed on my father. You bankrupted my family and sentenced my mother to life in that psychiatric hospital, because she could no longer afford proper care.”
Denton tried to speak, this time managing only a guttural gasp.
“You should have left well enough alone, but you couldn’t, could you? So you came after me at Creedmoor, and then again in Canada. Would you like me to tell you exactly what I did to your goons up there?”
Denton wheezed.
“You destroyed my family,” Max continued, “and now you’re going to pay for your sins.”
“Did I, did I really?” Denton managed to rasp, the words oozing, leaking, out of his mouth. “Or was it you? Apple of your father’s eyes.” Denton shook his head, Max seeming to be moving away from him. “Know something? You’re just like…”
“What’s the matter, Dale, cat got your tongue? Hey, where you going?”
* * *
At first, Denton thought it was Max Younger who was moving, realizing quickly it was actually him, as if yanked along by an invisible force, its tether too tight to fight.
Toward the window. The same window he’d pushed Ben Younger through a decade before.
As his legs continued to take him toward the window, picking up speed, Denton gathered all the air he could and screamed at the top of his lungs.
“Help me! HELLLLLLLLLLP ME!”
“Your guards can’t hear you, Dale, they can’t hear anything. Scream all you want, if it makes you feel better.”
Denton fought with all his strength to resist the invisible force tugging him. He tried to dig his feet into the priceless Persian carpet, but the force dragged him on across it, his heels buckling, until he finally smacked hard into the window.
“You’re the real monster, Dale, and you murdered my father.”
“He was already dead,” Denton said, shaking horribly as the force pressed him tight against the glass, his words barely intelligible.
“But you destroyed his legacy, his reputation, sentenced my mother to live out her life in the same place you’re going now.”
Denton screamed again, but the pressure against the window swallowed his cry, even as the glass cracked along neat fracture lines.
“Hell, Dale. Fitting, don’t you think?”
The cracks crisscrossed, deepened. And then Denton felt the force yank him one last time, the glass giving way and the swirling winds beyond greeting him. And then he crashed through the window, following Ben Younger into oblivion.
EPILOGUE
The Tropics, three weeks later
They were making love on the beach under the spill of a sky full of twinkling stars that shimmered off the placid sea, and made the grains of white sand look like miniature pearls. Their bodies were cushioned by the soft breeze blowing over the currents that lapped over their feet. Vicky never wanted to leave Max’s arms, wanted to feel him inside her, feel his breath upon her. She wanted this night to last forever, and it would because they would be together forever, the stars forever shining over them.
The pleasure, the ecstasy, felt eternal, like nothing she’d ever experienced before, just as her love for Max was. There was him, the sand, the stars, and nothing else. That was all she needed, all she wanted. Ever. For time immemorial. If there was more to her life, she didn’t know it now and didn’t want to.
“I love you, Max. Promise me you’ll never leave me again, promise!” Vicky said, feeling sand in her hair and her feet still wet from the gentle currents lapping over them in the last minute before …
She woke up, bolting upright in the dark of her bedroom, to the realization it had all been a dream.
And yet, and yet … it was so real.…
“I love you, Max,” she repeated, fully awake this time. “And I miss you so much.”
Paraguay
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I miss you too, Vicky, Max thought playfully, as he lay on the roll mattress, shielded by the canopy of the jungle that swayed softly overhead. “And I love you too.”
Vicky’s thoughts were as real as words, sounding in his mind instead of his ears. It had been hard for him to leave her this time; it was getting harder every time. But this was all they had for now, and it would have to suffice.
He lay back again and cupped his hands behind his head, staring up at the bright stars and wondering if real sleep would come to him tonight. Sleep without visions or nightmares, pictures of things yet to be or that had already come; it was difficult to tell, and Max wasn’t sure he wanted to. Wasn’t sure he wanted anything in his life to tempt him back to the world he had abandoned.
Being alone here, in the middle of nowhere, made him feel safe, made him feel … normal. Alone, but connected to Vicky, which meant he wasn’t alone, not really. Here, in the middle of nowhere, he was safe from the world and the world was safe from him.
The wind rustled through the trees, the chirp of night birds and the clacking of insects forming his lullaby.
Max closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.
The Mariana Trench
The specially designed, robotic submersible had just passed the point of the deepest depth ever recorded, when its aft-mounted camera caught something on the bottom of the sea, more than five miles beneath the surface.
“Is that a … light?” wondered oceanographer Frank Tull, of the research vessel Mariner, as he huddled with other personnel behind the submersible’s pilot.
“Let’s take a closer look,” the pilot said, maneuvering the submersible, affectionately known as Mariana, after the trench that represented the deepest depth of any in the sea, around and lowering it toward the strange glow that had emerged from the darkness.
“What is that?” Tull asked, a shape growing before the tight cluster of marine scientists watching the screen.
“If I didn’t know better…”
“Go on,” Tull prodded the submersible pilot.
The pilot started to extend the submersible’s robotic arm, manipulating the joystick to ease it toward the light that, closer up, seemed to emanate from a core of jet-black darkness. That effect created a strange hue that could best be described as neither light, nor darkness.
More like, a dark light.
“Where’s that light originating from at such a depth?” Tull asked.
“Beats me,” the pilot told him, clearly mystified.
Tull moved closer to the screen, hoping to get a better look at the object. “If I didn’t know better…”
“It looks like, well, a rock of some kind,” the pilot finished for him, working the joystick to capture the object in the robotic arm’s pincer-like extension.
“Careful.”
The pilot snared the rock between the pincers. “Got it!”
Tull patted him on the shoulder. “Good work. Now, let’s bring it up and take a closer look.”
Mariana had barely begun her ascent back to the surface, when Tull heard the captain’s voice over the loudspeaker from the bridge. “Attention all personnel, attention all personnel! Radar shows a big storm coming in fast. Damn thing sprang up out of nowhere! Prepare for heavy weather. Repeat, prepare for heavy weather.”
Tull grabbed a handhold to steady himself, continuing to follow Mariana’s view of the black depths, as the submersible rose toward the surface. “Looks like we’re in for a rocky ride.”
OTHER BOOKS BY JON LAND
The Alpha Deception
*Betrayal (nonfiction)
*Black Scorpion: The Tyrant Reborn
*Blood Diamonds
*The Blue Widows
The Council of Ten
*Day of the Delphi
*Dead Simple
*Dolphin Key
The Doomsday Spiral
The Eighth Trumpet
*The Fires of Midnight
The Gamma Option
*Hope Mountain
*Keepers of the Gate
*Kingdom of the Seven
Labyrinth
*The Last Prophecy
The Lucifer Directive
The Ninth Dominion
The Omega Command
The Omicron Legion
Pandora’s Temple
*The Pillars of Solomon
*The Seven Sins: The Tyrant Ascending
*Strong at the Break
Strong Cold Dead
*Strong Darkness
*Strong Enough to Die
*Strong Justice
*Strong Light of Day
*Strong Rain Falling
*Strong Vengeance
*Takedown (nonfiction)
The Tenth Circle
The Valhalla Testament
The Vengeance of the Tau
Vortex
*A Walk in the Darkness
*The Walls of Jericho
*Published by Forge Books
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
JON LAND is the USA Today bestselling author of more than forty novels, including Strong Enough to Die, Strong Justice, Strong at the Break, Strong Vengeance, Strong Rain Falling (winner of the 2014 International Book Award and 2013 USA Best Book Award for Mystery-Suspense), Strong Darkness (winner of the 2014 USA Best Book Award and the 2015 International Book Award for Thriller), and Strong Light of Day (winner of the 2015 BooksandAuthor.com Award for Best Mystery Thriller and the 2016 Beverly Hills Book Award for Best Mystery). Land is a graduate of Brown University. He lives in Providence, Rhode Island, and can be found at www.jonlandbooks.com or on Twitter at @jondland, or sign up for email updates here.
FABRIZIO BOCCARDI is an Italian-American entrepreneur, investor, and producer. Boccardi is the owner and creator of the multimedia brand and media franchise of Michael Tiranno the Tyrant. In addition, he controls several investments, including media, technology, and gaming in the United States and abroad. You can sign up for email updates here.
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CONTENTS
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication and Acknowledgments
Epigraph
Prologue
Part 1: Before
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Part 2: The Dead Zone
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Part 3: Before
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Part 4: Patient Zero
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Chapter Forty
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Chapter Forty-One
Chapter Forty-Two
Chapter Forty-Three
Chapter Forty-Four
Chapter Forty-Five
Chapter Forty-Six
Chapter Forty-Seven
Chapter Forty-Eight
Chapter Forty-Nine
Chapter Fifty
Chapter Fifty-One
Part 5: Origins
Chapter Fifty-Two
Chapter Fifty-Three
Chapter Fifty-Four
Chapter Fifty-Five
Chapter Fifty-Six
Chapter Fifty-Seven
Chapter Fifty-Eight
Chapter Fifty-Nine
Part 6: Blood of the Lamb
Chapter Sixty
Chapter Sixty-One
Chapter Sixty-Two
Chapter Sixty-Three
Chapter Sixty-Four
Chapter Sixty-Five
Chapter Sixty-Six
Chapter Sixty-Seven
Chapter Sixty-Eight
Chapter Sixty-Nine
Chapter Seventy
Chapter Seventy-One
Chapter Seventy-Two
Chapter Seventy-Three
Chapter Seventy-Four
Chapter Seventy-Five
Chapter Seventy-Six
Chapter Seventy-Seven
Part 7: After
Chapter Seventy-Eight
Chapter Seventy-Nine
Chapter Eighty
Chapter Eighty-One
Chapter Eighty-Two
Chapter Eighty-Three
Chapter Eighty-Four
Epilogue
Other Books by Jon Land
About the Authors
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
DARK LIGHT: DAWN
Copyright © 2017 by King Midas World Entertainment, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Cover design by Michael Graziolo
Cover art elements © 2017 Shutterstock.com
A Forge Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates
175 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10010
www.tor-forge.com