I leave Jonny in the car and hobble over to my mom, who opens the door.
“Peter’s taking us out for a celebratory lunch,” she says. “Go get changed.”
“Sure, Mom, sounds great.” And it does. The realization that I’d gained a lot out of this strikes me hard. I have my mom back and I even like her nearly worm-food boyfriend. I draw her close to me and deliver a great hug. “I just have one thing I want to do.”
The stairs down to Shadownet are the same as they always have been, but they seem foreign to me now. It’s darker down here. The air that slips up past my thighs seems cooler as I use the rail to hop from step to step on my good leg. No hum soothes the concern from my brow. I crutch to Gumps’s console. He’s still here, blinking green as ever. Dependable.
Beside it is my backpack, and I see Peter’s hard drive sticking out. I pull the hard drive and flip it a few times in the air. I’d forgotten about it. I should really spagettify the thing. Peter saved my life. But then I also remember him slamming Fenwick into the wall and delivering an uppercut. It had looked … practiced. I bite my lip and shove his hard drive deep inside the pack. Later. I’ll shred it later. Instead I turn to Gumps and type.
8-ball question: Should I recreate Shadownet?
Answer: She who overcomes others is strong; she who overcomes herself is mighty.
I have a suspicion that whatever question I asked, I would have got the same answer. I turn to Paradise57’s terminal. It’s dark too, and I leave it that way, opening up the tower housing and unscrewing the hard drive. I nod to myself as I climb the stairs back to the store and punch the big green button that sits like a beauty mark beside Chop-chop’s lips. The shredder roars to life and I toss the hard drive into its mouth, turning Paradise57 into strings of metal. My ankle is throbbing with all the activity. As I turn off Chop-chop, a baby blue Mercedes pulls to the front of the store.
“Lock the door as you leave,” my mom says with a proud grin.
It’s Saturday afternoon and Assured Destruction is closed for a family day.
I take a final look at the dark interior before crutching into the light. Almost immediately my phone rings and I give Mom and Peter an apologetic smile.
“Go on,” my mom says.
It’s the Ottawa Police Department.
“Hello, constable,” I say and my voice squeaks.
“We need you, Janus. As soon as you can get here. There’s been a terrible crime.”
I hope you enjoyed Book 1 of the Assured Destruction Series. If you did, please be sure to let others know on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or wherever you purchase or review books. To learn more about the series or to connect with other readers and the author, join us on Facebook!
About the Author
After crewing ships in the Antarctic and the Baltic Sea and some fun in venture capital, Michael anchored himself (happily) to a marriage and a boatload of kids. Now he injects his adventurous spirit into his writing with brief respites for research into the jungles of Sumatra and Guatemala, the ruins of Egypt and Tik’al, paddling the Zambezi and diving whatever cave or ocean reef will have him. He is a member of the International Thriller Writers and SF Canada, and the author of the Assured Destruction series, 24 Bones, The Sand Dragon, Hurakan, Ruination and several award winning graphic novels for young adults. Find out more about him on his website.
Acknowledgments
Where to start? This project is huge, spilling far beyond the edges of these pages. With the blogging, the art, the cover, the tweets and Facebooking, the editing, and all of the incredible support, I’m bound to miss someone.
So I’ll bend a knee in no particular order. To my wife and family for the freedom to do what I do. Thank you. To Kendra Brown, Alexandra Williams and the Writer’s Workshop for your beta reads. To Catherine Adams of Inkslinger Editing, please, keep on slinging. You’re amazing. To Michele Mortimer for your editing, agenting and for believing in this project. To Don Dimanlig for your art, artistry and inspiring graphics. To Janak Alford of PrototypeD for everything technical and for making the Assured Destruction storyworld come to life. And to Julie Giles of Green Hat Digital for getting the word out. Thank you all.
And back to my wife, Andrea. I dedicate this book to you.
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