Michael Kerrigan waited for the world to come back into focus. The minutes ticked by as the night rooted its way in from the distance. He checked his watch for the hour, but time itself had become a sinister thing. The macabre images of his youth played out before him in an endless reel, spinning […]

Chapter Three On the top row of the splintered bleachers at Booker T. Washington High School, David Tilson, one of the city’s brightest students and, thanks to his parents’ role in business, politics and social life, one of Shelby County’s most well-known sons, clenched  his fists. David was only sixteen and already in the twelfth […]

Chapter 1 What could it be? Shreya asked herself as she stared fixedly at a folder on her husband’s laptop. The folder was password protected and bore the name “13579”. She glanced nervously at the bed. Aditya was still asleep with his face turned away from her. Could it be that Aditya has been watching […]

MIDNIGHT RAMBLE Brooklyn drove east on Sunset Boulevard in a new, gleaming white Tesla Model S, a replacement for the red Range Rover Sport she totaled going a little too fast while a little too drunk. This earned Brooklyn a DUI, but since her blood alcohol level was below 1.5%, her license suspension only lasted a month. […]

Chapter 1 Oakland, California February 2006 Traffic was light in the Oakland foothills, Nicholas La Cour thought as he drove his car up Skyline Boulevard. He checked his watch. It was a little past midnight. He glanced ahead, and his eyes caught the vibrant lights of the City of Oakland looming out before him. The […]

Chapter One “EVERYONE SHUT UP AND GET DOWN! DOWN ON THE GROUND NOW!” It was Tuesday, March 12th, 2018, and the entire building of En Passant Bank was filled with the sounds of screaming. No one could have suspected when they woke up and headed to the bank in the heart of Cleveland, Ohio, that […]

Prologue FIRST ORDERS We are all the walking wounded. Some scars are just more visible than others. Mine are the inside kind: unhealed, pink, festering. Outwardly, I’m still a perfect specimen. That’s why I was chosen for Missions. “Cadet Davenport . . . it’s time.” The voice came from the generically pretty assistant, standing in […]

CHAPTER ONE It was late in the evening at Cy’s Green Coffee Pot Restaurant and Bar on Nantucket. The tavern clock’s gold numbers glowed against its black finish. KW had swiped the bar one last time with his rag and then polished a few beer steins before climbing the rickety wooden ladder to clean and […]

Chapter 1: The Wreckage A closed, clenched fist drove hard and fast into the steel of his van door.  He did not feel it.  There was no pain, no agony involved, as the transmitters of all such feeling had long stopped functioning.  Only the popping sound of sheet metal denting and flexing could be heard, […]