Longman peered at the map as if consulting a crystal ball. Onto his hand, he fitted a glove with metal fingertips hooked to a ruggedized leader that he plugged into the tablet as signals, the divine skein uploaded by the National Imagery and Mapping Agency, were received from a satellite (using Lacrosse and Onyx systems) that was still orbiting overhead.
With the aid of the glove, Longman was able to manipulate sections of the map, to zoom down and pan out and essentially fly across streets and parcels of real property. With the aid of his technicians, he’d worked feverishly to download the information found inside Caleb’s safe-room. Maps were laid over maps; information sorted, juxtaposed, and cross-referenced. There were a handful of areas ringed in yellow with X’s over them, and then one area blinking in red that he focused on. This was it, he thought; clear proofs. This was the location where a red, double-locked clanker box was hidden that contained numbers and signals and cryptonyms marked SIOP ESI for a weapon he would rely on if things went bad. He knew of the box (one of several) from the time he served back on base, but had spent years trying to track it down.
The box was the key to a device constructed by higher minds in the times before. There were once thousands of these devices in the possession of certain select countries. Some of the devices were placed inside railcars, others gently fitted inside long-distance planes, and more threaded into bunkers built deep into the bedrock, primarily in the Midwest. If events dictated, Longman would most definitely bend a knee before this device, this god of war and deity of mutually assured destruction. A thing that would help "put flies on eyeballs," as his boss back at the base was fond of saying.
He was familiar with it and knew that it was fickle, and like all the other gods of old (including those in his holy book), sometimes demanded blood sacrifice. He switched off the tablet and leaned back in his chair and smoked a heavy pipe laden with The White as he waited to hear word of the boy and girl. The two little Crows. Though he was unaware of the digital map Elias possessed, he wondered how the two knew about the tunnel and what other secrets Caleb had unearthed.
He took a long pull from his pipe and slid a very special handgun out of a drawer. It was called a LeMat, a combination pistol and twenty-gauge shotgun that weighed four pounds, carried nine rounds, and was designed for a war hundreds of years before. He’d looted it from a weapons museum years ago and had not yet had an opportunity to use it. He knew that the day that he would fire the pistol was coming. He would stay awake until it did and fight the urge to sleep. There was too much to do, too many loose ends. He tugged on his pipe and stroked the gun and inserted a cartridge into it, secure in the knowledge that no matter what happened, this was not the end, but merely the beginning. An excuse to extend his reach beyond the wall. A possible pretext for war.
END OF BOOK I
Thanks for reading Blood Runners: Absolution. If you enjoyed it, please leave a review on Amazon for it and the next two books in the series when they are published.
Acknowledgements
Thanks to Christine, Heston, Mom, the family, the guys at APA, New Wave, and all the visionaries like Peckinpah and Kubrick and Amis and Sallis, who inspired by making seemingly simple stories anything but.
About the Author
George S. Mahaffey Jr. is a practicing lawyer and screenwriter. His script HEATSEEKERS was bought by Paramount with Michael Bay producing and Timur Bekmambetov directing. In addition, he’s sold or written scripts for Arnold Kopelson, Jason Blum, Benderspink, director Louis Leterrier, and is the creator of IN THE DUST, an action-horror graphic novel in the vein of 30 DAYS OF NIGHT to be published by Top Cow with art by Christian Duce.
About the Series
In the vein of WOOL, THE REMAINING, and THE HUNGER GAMES, BLOOD RUNNERS is set in a post-apocalyptic Middle America that's arisen from the chaos and bloodshed of the old century. The story takes place initially in New Chicago, a city encircled by a massive wall that separates it from the "Q Zone," a forbidden area inhabited by mutated quasi-humans called "Thresher."
In an effort to eradicate crime, a new system of law and order developed in New Chicago. Efficient, yet incredibly brutal, this new system, called "Absolution," revolves around young men and women who are trained in the city as human "sin-eaters" and paid bounties, blood money, to become suspects in crimes committed by those of means. "Runners" bear the burden of individual crimes and are forced to run timed gauntlets, tracked by government assassins who function as judge, jury, and executioner.
The story centers on a young "Runner" who teams up with a female assassin hired to hunt him down after they uncover a conspiracy concerning the brutal head of the all-powerful Guild that controls the underworld in New Chicago.
There are three books in the series. Book 1 details the rise of New Chicago's dictator, the development of "Absolution," the background of our heroes (the young Runner and the female assassin hired to kill him), and how the heroes are forced to join up and work to escape from New Chicago after they uncover a conspiracy that threatens the power structure. Book 2 explores their escape from New Chicago and efforts to hide in the Quarantine Zone, eventual rescue by a band of scavengers from a settlement beyond the Great Lakes, and how the groups join forces when some of their members are kidnapped and taken back into New Chicago by the city's dictator. Book 3 centers on the how the young Runner and assassin are forced to lead a team back into New Chicago, rescue their kidnapped friends, and confront the city's dictator and prevent him from utilizing an ancient weapon that could destroy the world once again.
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