Authors: Jack Soren

The Monarch (40 page)

“What's that?” he asked.

“No idea. Jonathan handed it to me as we were leaving. He said to give it to you in the morning,” Emily said.

“Like hell,” Lew said as he grabbed it. He tore it open and found a folder inside marked “September.” He opened the folder and couldn't believe his eyes. It was filled with pictures of a villa in Spain, vault schematics, security timetables, and finally a photo of a Renoir. Across the photo Jonathan had written “Stolen in '98.”

“I'll be a son of a bitch,” Lew said, knowing exactly what it meant.

“What is it?” Emily asked.

“Nothing,” Lew said, closing the folder and putting it back in the envelope. “Legal papers and stuff to do with my release.” He kissed the back of her hand as they drove into the night.

The Monarch might be dead, thanks to the book Emily was finishing, but Jonathan and Lew still had work to do.

But not tonight.

Acknowledgments

T
HANKS TO MY
editor at HarperÂCollins, Chelsey Emmelhainz, for her incredible support, advice, and patience. Without you I never would have found the book within the book and I'll forever be grateful.

Thanks to Barb Einarsen, Julia Borgini, Brian Gallucci, and many other unnamed victims for the early reads and feedback. You guys have no idea how much you helped.

Thanks to Robert J. Sawyer and Dan Perez for their support and nurturing of my writing when it was well and truly terrible. You're braver than me, boys.

A special thanks to the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) annual event. Much of the early part of this book was written during a NaNoWriMo event and it's doubtful there would be a novel without the community and support I found there. You guys are fantastic and a light in the dark where it's most needed.

Thanks to my daughter for drawing the Kring sisters when even I wasn't sure what they looked like.

Thanks to my parents for buying me a typewriter for Christmas all those years ago when all the other kids were asking for bikes and train sets.

And finally, thanks to the love of my life, Tasha DiZazzo, without whom this book couldn't have made it down the home stretch. Thanks for the multiple reads, for listening and for the “curtain of solitude.” Thanks for being the first person to preorder it online and being more excited about that than me. You believed in me and this book when even I didn't. You rescued me, Tash. I'll love you forever.

Ready for more action-Âpacked suspense?

Keep reading for a sneak peek from Jack Soren's next thriller

Dead Lights

Coming Summer 2015 from Witness Impulse

June 15, 0230 hours

Cry-ÂStasis Foundation

Houston, Texas

I
T WAS THE
strangest kidnap and recovery mission Hoyt Randall ever had.

He peered through the binoculars down at the cookie-Âcutter industrial plaza that looked like it had been designed by an architect with a LEGO obsession. Five businesses were held within the repetitive tan stucco frontages, accented with a burgundy sawtooth pattern, identical bushes in front of the smoked glass doors set into each entrance. The light stands in the empty parking lot provided just enough illumination to discourage amateur thieves, but not enough to dissuade a professional. Nothing moved. All was still.

Hired by Arlo Perez and his wife, Hoyt was here to retrieve their daughter, Linda.

Hoyt fingered some notes into his forearm-Âmounted computing device before he put the binoculars away, pulled a black balaclava down over his face, and stood up. Dressed all in black and wearing latex gloves, he double-Âtimed it down the hill, coming to rest behind the sign that said “Cry-ÂStasis Foundation.” He checked the area one last time, then he jogged across the parking lot. When he was halfway, he slowed to a walk and stopped looking around.

This is ridiculous
, he thought.
You could break-Âdance across this parking lot in fluorescent yellow and it wouldn't matter.

Hoyt went around the back of the plaza, counted units, and took out his lockpick kit. After selecting the right tools, he inserted the picks into the lock one at a time, rotated them, and popped the lock in less than thirty seconds. He put the picks away, withdrew his automatic pistol, and entered the building.

Linda Perez had been gone for almost six months, now. She'd gone willingly, but that wasn't unusual in Hoyt's experience. Her parents wanted Linda back. They had plans for her.

Inside, Hoyt let his eyes adjust to the minimal lighting before checking the floor plan on his forearm device. Then he noticed that the security camera up in the corner wasn't even connected, network wiring hanging down from its base. He moved to the next area and saw the same thing again. Cooking inside his mask, he pulled it off and wiped his eyes before stuffing it into his waistband. A few corridor turns later and he was at his target, two large metal doors that gleamed even in the low light.

Hoyt pushed through the doors and felt like he'd walked into a science fiction movie. The room, about the size of a high school basketball court, had a Âcouple dozen shiny chrome tanks around its perimeter. A weird hiss and hum throbbed from the ten-Âfoot-Âtall cylinders.

“Jee-Âzus.” Hoyt holstered his gun and slowly walked halfway into the room.

He hadn't really known what to expect, but this wasn't even close to what he'd imagined. The Perezes had said Cry-ÂStasis had their daughter's body. Hoyt had assumed it was some sort of cult that was blackmailing them after their daughter died. It never even occurred to him she was a Popsicle waiting for the future.

And the size of the canister was going to be a problem. He approached one and rapped on it. A solid
thud-Âthud-Âthud
sounded. He perused the pressure gauges on the outside of the tank, along with cabling and tubing. The temperature gauge read â320 F.

This was not going to beâÂ

Hoyt's chest tightened as he finally noticed an extra device on almost all the canisters. Unlike the cryonic hardware, these he recognized. They were magnetic, timed charges. And with the Semtex each of them had packed inside, someone was trying to put this place on the moon.

“
No!
” Hoyt yelled as he turned and ran toward the doors. The red digits on the charges were all synchronized and counting downâÂ
finishing
counting down.

8 .Â .Â . 7 .Â .Â . 6 .Â .Â . 5 .Â .Â . 4 .Â .Â . 3 .Â .Â . 2.Â .Â .

He was still ten feet from the doors when the rockets launched. The blast wave slammed him through the doors, metal shards from the destroyed canisters slicing him to ribbons before what was left of his body slapped into the far cinder-Âblock wall with a wet crunch.

Hoyt was dead long before he came to rest. Just as dead as the frozen body parts that peppered him on the wall.

T
HE WOMAN WHO
had watched Hoyt enter the building had not stopped him from going to his death. Death was a necessary part of life. Stopping someone from dying would be the greatest irony for her. She stepped from the shadows once the explosions had stopped, dressed not unlike the late Hoyt, save for the bright red hair that peeked out from the sides of her black hoodie.

She ran to the front of the building, pulling a can from her pack as she did and shaking it. It sounded like a rattlesnake in a tin can. She then wrote on the wall with orange spray paint. When she was doneâÂsirens just starting to sound in the distanceâÂshe tossed the can aside, took out her phone, and dialed.

“It's done,” she said in Japanese.

She put her phone away as she ran back to the bushes. She wheeled her black Ducati motorcycle out of its hiding place. Straddling it, she lowered her hood and shook her flaming hair back from her Asian features before pulling on her gleaming black helmet. She revved the motorcycle's engine a few times and then sped off into the night. Behind her the flames illuminated what she had written on the front of the building:

DEAD LIGHTS.

About the Author

JACK SOREN was born and raised in Toronto, Canada. Before becoming a thriller novelist, Soren wrote software manuals, waited tables, drove a cab, and spent six months as a really terrible private investigator. He lives in the Toronto area.

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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Excerpt from
Dead Lights
copyright Â© 2015 by Martin R. Soderstrom.

THE MONARCH.
Copyright Â© 2014 by Martin R. Soderstrom. All rights reserved under International and Pan-ÂAmerican Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-Âbook on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-Âengineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperÂCollins e-Âbooks.

EPub Edition DECEMBER 2014 ISBN: 9780062365187

Print Edition ISBN: 9780062365194

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