by JA Huss
I guess Molly and I have something in common now. We both live in fear that whatever the Blue Boar did to us can happen again.
ToyBox Corporate has been moved to SkyEye until we can figure out what to do.
Rebuild? Jesus Christ. I don’t know if I can rebuild that place. I liked it a lot when I came up with the whole glass cube design. But we still don’t know how the SmartGlass program mutated and took over. We’re pretty sure it’s dead. Gone, whatever you call it when a computer program goes sentient and then gets destroyed.
Thomas is still very pissed off. I can’t blame him. I did shoot that fucker in the chest. Couple times, I think. And if there’s one good thing that came out of this, it’s that the whole inhibitor thing has disappeared with the computer program.
Lincoln says that makes no sense because the gene therapy we were using to keep it going still had a few months left before it needed to be renewed. But I don’t care. We’re not doing that anymore. I think we’ve been through enough bullshit to trust each other from now on. We don’t need it. We’re a team. We’ve always been a team. And no drug can bond us together. No. That’s not where trust comes from.
“Hey,” Lulu says, snuggling up next to me in our bed. I moved in with her since my house is a fixer-upper now. “Let’s not go in to work today.”
I smile at that. “I’m all for hookey. But I’m pretty sure Randy Shits would have something to say about it.”
“Shultz.” Lulu laughs.
“Same thing,” I say.
Randy—everyone actually—woke up from the SmartGlass mind control not remembering one thing. Days were missing in everyone’s memory. In fact, no one even remembered that the banks were robbed. Or the problem with power and the water.
They were covered in bruises and yeah, some people did die. But it’s like… there was some kind of mind control still in effect. Because people just went about cleaning things up for about a week and then morphed right back into good little robo-people who go about their days and nights on autopilot.
It’s a good thing Sheila is around to take care of shit. Because she’s the one who ran diagnostics and figured out the money was never taken from the bank accounts. It was just hidden inside the systems. That’s what happens when you make currency digital like that, I guess.
The power plant, Sheila figured out, was on some automatic natural disaster shut-down protocol. And the water treatment plant was the only thing that actually played a role in what happened that week.
It was tampered with. Sheila discovered that the city water supply was laced with powerful psychoactive drugs. Kinda like the ones Thomas uses to keep himself turned off.
Well, used to use. I shot that fucker with an inhibitor too. No wonder he’s still pissed at me. He tried taking his pills again, but they make him deathly sick now. Almost like the inhibitor that prevented us from attacking each other.
Yeah, he’s still pretty mad about that.
Steve has been in quarantine. Sheila loaded a copy of his program into a closed system to try to see if he had any info in there. But it was clean. We think. Hence the quarantine. Maybe we’ll let him out again someday, but it’s not looking good. That day is a long way off.
I think one super-sentient computer is enough for one world. At least for now. We have too much technology at our fingertips and not nearly enough sane, ethical people to keep it all in check.
It took a few weeks to sort out everything the city was doing. Like the new coffeehouses. City Coffee. Should’ve known. It was laced with psychoactive drugs too. Lulu and Molly were sorta disappointed about that. They really liked cinnamon coffee, I guess.
But it was the forensic trace that Sheila ran on the coffeehouses that was probably the most disturbing thing about the whole experience.
It’s insane that a computer program could start up a chain of businesses. And it did. It absolutely did. It syphoned money out of every account in every bank in Cathedral City. Pennies at a time over a period of two years.
Two years that thing was living in my house. Watching me through the windows.
I shiver under Lulu’s soft touch just thinking about it.
The city hired a general manager for the coffeehouses online. Everything was done online. The rental contracts for the store space. The contractors. The deliveries. Equipment rental. Employees. All of it. And this is the part that freaks Thomas out.
He is desperate to trace every move the city made in that respect. Every single one until he’s back in charge.
That’s all he thinks about. The long-term plan. We’ve had some setbacks, but he’s still going for it.
And I’m still in.
People don’t know that the SpyGlass tablets were corrupted. They have no idea. So we’re just… moving ahead with that little plot. Full fucking steam.
“I really do have to go into work,” Lulu says, dragging herself up from bed. “There is too much work to do, you know. I have to get caught up on all the problems. Get a plan of action going. Clean this place up.”
“You do that, Lady Liberty.”
She throws a pillow at my face and I bat it aside and stare at her ass as she walks across the room to the bathroom. “Get up, Deep Cut. We’ve got patterns to draw.”
We do that every morning and every night to keep the heat and pain at bay. Some of them have become scars. The heart she draws every time. And a few spirals.
I try to ignore the anarchy symbol, but that scar has never faded. It’s still there. Reminding me this isn’t over yet.
“Up!” Lulu yells.
I drag myself out of bed thinking I’m forgetting something. It’s weird. I’ve had this thought ever since we came back here to her house when Sheila was finally done with her tests.
I stretch my arms out and wander over to the window to stare down at the city.
Still my city.
I watch all the people down there. Just a normal start to a normal new day. I smile at the thought—and then that smile falls when I read some new graffiti that has been sprayed on the building across the street.
“What are you looking at?” Lulu asks, coming over to wrap her hands around my arm. “Are you pouting because—Holy shit. What the fuck is that?”
We stare at it in silence for several long seconds.
And then I grab my phone from the bedside table and press the contact for Thomas.
“Yeah?” he says, irritable as always when he answers my calls these days. “What do ya want?”
“We have a fucking problem. Get over here. Now.” I end the call and throw the phone down on the bed as I stare out the window.
The graffiti says… Red Robber Lives.
I guess there are more predators just waiting for their chance.
But they’re about to figure out that they picked the wrong fucking city to mess with.
This one isn’t run by the people, or the politicians, and never by the predators.
Cathedral City belongs to us.
The Alphas. Superheroes or supervillains. It doesn’t matter.
It belongs to us now and we’re about to make that very, very fucking clear.
Belongs to Us
END OF BOOK SHIT
Welcome to the End of Book Shit or just EOBS for short. This is just my version of the author’s note at the end of a book, except I cuss a lot. Mostly I just say whatever I’m thinking just before I need to upload the book. I’m usually kinda stressed and pressed for time. Oddly, this week I’m almost ahead of schedule.
It has now been almost three years since I came up with this idea to write a series about supervillains/heroes falling in love. I put the first book, Anarchy Missing, out in December 2015 after planning it for over a year. And I knew then that I probably would not complete the series in order like I usually do, just because it’s kind a different. I really wanted to write more science fiction but I don’t have time to fit it in the schedule. So all last year I was busy doing other things. I put out Rock first. Which is a standalone. And
then I wanted to start another long series, so I spent the rest of 2016 working on The Mister Series. That was complete in December. So I was so happy that I had time in 2017 to pick this series back up and go back to Cathedral City.
God, I missed that place. :) It took me a while to get back into the world and I did have to re-read Anarchy Found before I could start. I had been in the Mister world and the Turning Series world for a long time. But it’s funny – when I reread Found I had forgotten so many things. Some of the story for sure. But mostly I forgot how fucking fun it was. Just so different than what I typically write these days. And I had forgotten that whole scene where Molly finds the “Batcave”. I was like – “This is some good shit!”
From the time I started plotting Anarchy Found to the time I started writing Anarchy Missing two cool things happened in the real world. One – Mr. Robot came out on TV. If you’re into this kind of story, you REALLY need to check out Mr. Robot. Lots of parallel themes going on in that series. My son and I are addicted to it and we’re anxiously waiting for Season Three. The other cool that happened was that Deadpool was made into a movie. Fucking Deadpool. The BEST superhero movie ever made. I kinda think the Anarchy Series is a twisted romance-y version of Mr. Robot meets Deadpool! :)
Maybe not what every romance reader is in to, I get it. But I’m into it. And really, that’s all that matters with this series. I’m writing this stuff for me. So if you notice more science fiction elements in this story than the last (and I don’t really know if that’s true or not, but it feels kinda true) then this is why. Somewhere along the line of writing Anarchy Missing I said Fuck It. I went to school to be a goddamned scientist and I’m gonna write about it. And a few times I came upon a passage where I got the feeling I had written something similar before… and then I remembered JUNCO!
Case is an inventor, so I figured – hey, what if Case was the guy who originally came up with a sentient house (like HOUSE in the Junco series)? And then I was writing that scene where Steve was making spaghetti and I realized I had already invented a cooking machine in Junco too! Plus there is mention of a certain over-the-top action hero film that occurs in the Junco series. I distinctly remember Junco and Ashur throwing darts at his face in the book Fledge. :)
I had a lot more fun writing this book than I thought I would. I had been out of the world for so long I forgot why I started it. FOR ME. But I’m back now, bitches. And I’m releasing the rest of the Anarchy Series in 2017. There might more after book four comes out, but I’m not in a rush. I think I will keep this little series open forever and pull it out whenever I get an itch to write something with psychotic AI’s, sentient houses, and servo robots with pincer claws.
So yeah, not a series for everyone. But it’s fun. It’s just fun. And even though I didn’t know this ending when I started the book – I really did work this plot out as I was writing—it’s perfect. It came out even better than I could’ve hoped after so much time away. Thomas is up next and his book will release May/June and then the last book with be about Atticus and will release in August. After that—who knows? But I’m pretty sure there might be dozens of characters who still have a story in this little world I’m building.
This book starts the Wolf Valley storyline. It was mentioned in Found, but just in passing. Lulu Lightly actually lived in corrupt Wolf Valley so I will definitely be visiting that place soon. (And if you read the Junco series, it might remind you of a certain place where the shit hit the fan in book three, Flight. Might there be crazy clones up there in that Valley? One can only hope.) lol
The really cool thing about this series is how it might actually end up being a Junco prequel. I did not plan this at all but so many things are coming together. And while I don’t get a LOT of messages about the missing Junco book (which was promised years ago, and I never wrote), I do get enough to think… this might be the spark I was waiting for. You see I had another Junco book planned and I have actually tried to write that thing more than a dozen times. I swear, I have at least a dozen half-finished version of that Gideon/Sync/Twine book. But none of them ever felt right.
This feels right. Maybe it will all connect at some point. Maybe it won’t. But whatever happens I’m having fun writing this stuff.
Another fun thing about this series is the artwork I’ve commissioned for it. The cover art and the sketches inside all come from the genius mind/hand of my amazing Spanish artist, Ambro Jordi. I can’t stress enough how much I love his work and feel so privileged that he accepted my offer to work on this project with me. Found has a new cover, which is absolutely fantastic. So if you haven’t checked that out yet, you really need to.
Anyway, that’s about all for now. I’m writing the second book in The Turning Series next—so back to that for a few weeks. And then I’ll be back in Cathedral City so we can see exactly what Thomas and his gang are up to.
I mentioned in the last EOBS for Found that I’m not a comic/superhero fan/reader. I like the movies if they are well made (like Deadpool). But really, this whole series was just a flash idea that came to me a while back and I ran with it. But even though I’m not a real-world fan of the genre I did plan the series with the real comic/superhero fans in mind. Even if they never read it because it’s got romance and sex. I tried to stay true to the origin story for each character and I tried to make sure there was a proper superhero ending with lots of action. And every one of my sexy supervillains has a super name. Bike Boy. Bike Girl. Deep Cut and Lady Liberty. I don’t have names picked out for Thomas and his partner in crime yet, but I’ll think of something and make sure it’s cool enough for the #fans.
Thanks for taking a chance on this series and I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. If you have a moment, please consider leaving me a review where you purchased your copy. I’d really appreciate that.
Thanks for reading. Thanks for reviewing. And I’ll see you in the next book.
Julie
About the Author
SEE ALL HER BOOKS HERE
JA Huss is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of more than thirty romances. She likes stories about family, loyalty, and extraordinary characters who struggle with basic human emotions while dealing with bigger than life problems. JA loves writing heroes who make you swoon, heroines who makes you jealous, and the perfect Happily Ever After ending.
You can read her writing craft and marketing articles at her website and chat with her on Facebook, Twitter, and her kick-ass romance blog, New Adult Addiction. If you're interested in getting your hands on an advanced release copy of her upcoming books, sneak peek teasers, or information on her upcoming personal appearances, you can join her newsletter list and get those details delivered right to your inbox.
JA Huss lives on a dirt road in Colorado thirty minutes from the nearest post office. So if she owes you a package from a giveaway, expect it to take forever. She has a small farm with two donkeys named Paris & Nicole, a ringneck parakeet named Bird, and a pack of dogs. She also has two grown children who have never read any of her books and do not plan on ever doing so. They do, however, plan on using her credit cards forever.
JA collects guns and likes to read science fiction and books that make her think. JA Huss used to write homeschool science textbooks under the name Simple Schooling and after publishing more than 200 of those, she ran out of shit to say. She started writing the I Am Just Junco science fiction series in 2012, but has since found the meaning of life writing erotic stories about antihero men that readers love to love.
JA has an undergraduate degree in equine science and fully planned on becoming a veterinarian until she heard what kind of hours they keep, so she decided to go to grad school and got a master’s degree in Forensic Toxicology. Before she was a full-time writer she was smelling hog farms for the state of Colorado.
Even though JA is known to be testy and somewhat of a bitch, she loves her #fans dearly and if you want to talk to her, join her Facebook fan group where she posts daily
bullshit about bullshit.
If you think she’s kidding about this crazy autobiography, you don’t know her very well.