“Cavanaugh, what are you doing?”
A lieutenant popped to attention and saluted. “Sorry, sir. We were just trying to lure them out again.”
Instinctively, McGraw pulled his M9 9mm Beretta pistol.
“There’s no hostile contact, sir. They’re monkeys.”
And then he saw them—several chimpanzees, mothers with their white tail-tufted babies clinging to their backs. They grabbed the treats and darted back into the jungle. McGraw knew that the Pan troglodyte species of chimpanzee was native to eastern Africa. They were also rare and endangered. Feeding them would do no harm.
“All right, carry on.” And McGraw turned to leave.
“You’ve got to see this one, sir.”
The lieutenant retrieved one of his RLW (ration, lightweight) meals. Unlike MREs, these were precooked, dehydrated, and hermetically sealed packages. Unless the food was mixed with water, it tasted like and had the consistency of wood chips. And it took some doing to open them, as well. He tossed the RLW like a hand grenade into the woods. A moment later, a larger animal came out, a male, at least six feet tall. McGraw watched, entranced as were his men, as the chimp advanced to retrieve the packaged food. Chimps had arms longer than their legs, and stooped over, they traditionally “knuckle-walked.” This one did not. It stood more upright, and when it did “knuckle-walk,” it never let its right hand drag the ground. And then the animal did something even more remarkable; it picked up the RLW, tore open the package, and began spitting inside to “water” the contents. The chimp then mashed up the moistened contents and squeezed the contents into its mouth.
McGraw knew that chimps were smart. They often copied favorable behaviors. Was this something the animal had been taught? McGraw surprised his men when he began walking toward the animal.
“Sir,” the lieutenant called after him. “Be careful. They might be dangerous.”
“Don’t worry, Lieutenant,” McGraw replied facetiously. “I know my monkeys.”
The general holstered his weapon and walked steadily forward, the animal eyeing him every step of the way. He stopped when he was but a chimp arm’s length away. Was this one of his troops? No, this one was too young, maybe six or seven years old. The two creatures—man and ape—stared at each for a long moment. The chimp then turned and walked away. McGraw was about to depart as well when he had one more thought. He retrieved a candy bar from his pocket and threw it at the chimp. Although the animal had its back to him, it turned quickly, caught the treat in midair, and simply walked on. Was it just good timing, McGraw wondered, or was it synesthesia? No matter, he thought, that was a past life and he had to be back at his base camp before dusk. His covering choppers overhead nearly drowned out the call, but he was sure he had heard it and he turned again to peer into the jungle overgrowth.
“Semp fah,” he heard the voice say again.
Hidden in the woods, behind myriad of shades of green, he glimpsed patches of gray. And then, for the briefest moment, he saw the eyes—an older chimpanzee was looking back at him.
“Semp fah,” the general said and he raised his right hand slowly to his brow—a salute, a hello, and a farewell.
After her miscarriage, Fala and Joshua settled in Cyprus. America, they both felt, was, well, too American—too arrogant, insular, and full of materialism. They also wanted to separate themselves from the turmoil of politics in the Middle East but yet be near to the heart of their interests, Mediterranean culture and archaeology. Cyprus was perfectly located for their work—an island cradled between the ancient cultures of Rome, Greece, Egypt, Israel, and the Islamic empires of the Middle East. They had a small home in the hills overlooking Nicosia, the capital. With the exception perhaps of Jerusalem, Nicosia was the only divided capital city in the world, the north controlled by Turkish Cypriots and the south by the Greeks, with the United Nations holding a demilitarized green zone between them.
Being neither Greek nor Turkish, they found themselves welcome in both worlds. Krantz also found himself welcome back into the world of Israeli intelligence and often flew home to consult. Although there were no more antique weapons that required his expertise, Aman found his ability to think “out of the box” useful.
“What do you think?” General Echod asked, handing him a document with lots of blacked-out redactions, but whose language and source were clear. What he was reading came from American intelligence.
“Refugees fleeing small communities in the lower Juba region of southeastern Somalia are reporting the area as under the control of a new warlord. Contacts have been minimal… atrocities… casualties… their leader… a heavily bearded black man… stutters… wearing a camouflage garb… known as Colonel Maimun.”
SPECIES CHROMOSOME NUMBER
Fruit Fly 8
Dove 16
Snail 24
Earthworm 36
Cat 38
Human 46
Chimpanzee 48
Elephant 56
Cow 60
Horse 64
Chicken 78
Butterfly 380
IN THE UNDERGROUND OF contemporary Eastern Europe lies a treacherous world contaminated by more than Chernobyl radiation and industrial hazard waste. As communism collapsed, the foothold of the social order gave way to a lurking subculture of child pornography and human trafficking in prostitution. Traffyck, as they say.
A former runaway and nightclub stripper, Mariya Nemeth was a discontented only child raised by her Hungarian mother in an Orthodox background. She pulled herself from the dredges of wretchedness to attend business school and marry Viktor Patolichev, a man she believed had abandoned his shady past. One day Mariya learned his past was present. Viktor had been murdered, a consequence of his sex trade operations.
When private investigator Janos Nagy, ex-militiaman, enters her life to probe the case in Kiev’s Podil District, Mariya knows she has met the real passion of her life, a lover immersed in the romance of Gypsy culture. From Chicago’s Humboldt Park to the Romanian Carpathian Mountains to the bleak abandonment of Ukraine, a frightening chain of events threatens to end Mariya’s life as the truth unfolds. Together they must combat perversion and pleasure deemed unacceptable by educated society.
Savvy and perceptive, only Janos can protect her… if it isn’t already too late.
ISBN# 978-160542105-6
Hardcover
US $24.95 / CDN $27.95
Thriller
Available Now
www.michaelberes.com
No maps. No checkpoints. No support crews.
Darwin’s Race is the most ambitious adventure race ever attempted, pitting twelve hardened racers against each other and the daunting elements of the world’s deepest and unexplored gorge. The first to reach the top of the 22,000-foot Kuk Sur will claim a $2 million prize and the first summit of one of the last remaining unclimbed Himalayan peaks.
Conner Michaels, haunted by his brother’s mysterious death on Kuk Sur six years earlier, decided to come out of seclusion to lead one of the teams and to once and for all determine what happened to his brother. On his team, Preston Child, the millionaire financier of the race, and his beautiful daughter, Malika, harbor their own dark reasons for descending into the gorge. And hotshot television producer Terrance Carlton, bent on a ratings bonanza, outfits each racer with a shoulder-mounted camera for live broadcasts around the world.
But as the racers plunge deeper into the legendary gorge, death follows. And as the carnage mounts in the treacherously remote mountains, the racers—and millions watching the tragedy unfold on television—realize the mist-shrouded gorge is not as uninhabited as they believed.
ISBN# 978-193475507-5
Mass Market Paperback
US $7.95 / CDN $8.95
Thriller
Available Now
www.myspace.com/BrianUllmann
Jake Helman, an elite member of the New York Special Homicide Task Force, faces what every cop dreads—an elusive serial killer. While investigating a
series of bloodletting sacrifice rituals executed by an ominous perpetrator known as The Cipher, Jake refuses to submit to a drug test and resigns from the police department. Tower International, a controversial genetic engineering company, employs him as their director of security.
While battling an addiction to cocaine, Jake enters his new high-pressure position in the private sector. What he encounters behind the closed doors of this sinister operation is beyond the realm of human imagination. Too horrible to contemplate, the experimentation is pure madness, the outcome a hell where only pain and terror reside. Nicholas Tower is not the hero flaunted on the cover of Time magazine. Beneath the polished exterior of this frontiersman on the cutting edge of science is a corporate executive surrounded by the creations of his deranged mind.
As Jake delves deeper into the hidden sphere of this frightening laboratory, his discoveries elicit more than stereotypical condemnation for unethical practices performed for the good of mankind. Sequestered in rooms veiled in secrecy is the worst crime the world will ever see—the theft of the human soul.
ISBN# 978-160542072-1
Mass Market Paperback
US $7.95 / CDN $8.95
Horror
Available Now
www.slimeguy.com
In a test to the human race, highly advanced aliens decide to offer free secrets that will enable universal space travel without time or distance constraints. Earth snaps at the challenge and collectively musters resources to develop the most advanced starship ever built on Earth, which is appropriately named, Leapfrog, for the technological jump over existing science. Unfortunately, corrupt secret services, greedy politicians, and overly wary generals condemn this mission from the start.
While in deep cryogenic sleep, the crew of Leapfrog encounters a disastrous meteor shower that destroys the main engines. Thousands of years pass while the stricken ship slowly meanders its way back to earth with two hundred and seventy five humans solidly frozen in deep suspended animation.
As the crew finally awakens, they find Earth is no longer the same. Seeking clues as to what has happened; the survivors attempt to re-colonize, only to discover that a new ultra-evolved creature now predominates and ruthlessly rules the top of the food chain. The explorers are forced to abandon their derelict starship and face a horrifying battle among cannibal Neanderthals and the ultra-evolved creatures, barely escaping with their lives.
ISBN# 978-193383650-8
Trade Paperback / Science Fiction
US $15.95 / CDN $17.95
Available Now
www.stevehendry.com
A dozen years from now the world is at the tipping point of environmental catastrophe. Supercomputers have determined that much of what made the world wonderful is beyond saving, and life is only sustainable in logically administered communities where every resource is rationed, every action monitored to ensure it is in accordance with The Common Good. There are no more butterflies, no coral reefs, no rainbows. Only The Common Good.
Supercomputers have also formed a new global government, the EcoSystem, to cope with a new problem—division between Names (naturally born people) and Numbers (those who have been genetically engineered due to falling fertility rates).
The Eco System has become corrupted, however, a potentially fatal corruption which comes to light during the seemingly insignificant death of a plant prospector. The inquiry brings two detectives into conflict: Ben Travis, who can’t match the intelligence of his Numbered partner, and “Perfect Paula,” who can scarcely comprehend Ben’s intuition and imagination. Then Ben discovers the randomly generated emotional flaw in Paula to make her seem more human: a belief in love.
Eventually, on the run in the ruins of a world in which people haven’t been able to live for sixty years, Ben and Paula—and a handful of dazed survivors—must rediscover the lost reverence for nature, life, and love.
ISBN# 978-193383646-1
Trade Paperback
US $15.95 /CDN $17.95
Science Fiction
Available Now
www.daviehenderson.bravehost.com
CHASTISED FOR NOT COOPERATING WITH the oil company giant New World Petroleum, zoologist Cassidy Lowell is reassigned from the jungles of the Niger Delta to Yellowstone National Park, where wolves are disappearing. Jake Anderson, Special Forces operative, is working within the shadows of Cassidy’s organization, Zoological Environmental Bio Research Agency. His mission? To determine the threatening connection between ZEBRA and NWP.
An alarming genetic mutation of the parvovirus is discovered: CPV-19: human parvovirus merged with canine. And the virus is loose in Yellowstone. Murder, execution, and deadly helicopter rides lead Jake and Cassidy down a road rife with double-crossing and an underlying plot that forces them back to the Niger Delta and into the heart of NWP.
This is the twenty-first-century gold rush—welcome to the dark side!
ISBN# 978-193475555-6
Hardcover
US $25.95 / CDN $28.95
Thriller
Available Now
www.juliekorzenko.com
Be in the know on the latest
Medallion Press news by becoming a
Medallion Press Insider!
As an Insider you’ll receive:
• Our FREE expanded monthly newsletter, giving you more insight into Medallion Press
• Advanced press releases and breaking news
• Greater access to all your favorite Medallion authors
Joining is easy. Just visit our Web site at
www.medallionpress.com and click on the
Medallion Press Insider tab.
medallionpress.com
Want to know what’s going on with
your favorite author or what new releases
are coming from Medallion Press?
Now you can receive breaking news,
updates, and more from Medallion Press
straight to your cell phone, e-mail, instant
messenger, or Facebook!
Sign up now at www.twitter.com/MedallionPress
to stay on top of all the happenings in and
around Medallion Press.
For more information
about other great titles from
Medallion Press, visit
medallionpress.com
Forty-Eight X Page 27