Table of Contents
Primary Termination
Prologue
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
About the Author
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“Zandri does a fantastic job with this story. Not only does he scare the reader, but the horror
Show he presents also scares the man who is the definition of the word “tough.”
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—William Landay, New York Times bestselling author of Defending Jacob
PRIMARY
TERMINATION
The Tanya Teal Corporate War Chronicles
Book One
Vincent Zandri
“Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night,
and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt."
—Sun Tzu, The Art of War
“Oh, God said to Abraham, ‘Kill me a son.’
Abe said, ‘Man, you must be puttin' me on.’
God said, ‘No Abe.’ Abe say, ‘What?’
God say, ‘You can do what you want, Abe, but
The next time you see me comin', you better run.’"
—Bob Dylan, Highway 61
You’re drowning in your own air. Your lungs are burning, heart’s pounding not in your chest, but in your throat. Your temples beat like double bass drums and the blood speeds through your veins so fast, you feel like you’re on fire. You’re lightheaded enough you could pass out at any moment. The air on the high-rise rooftop is cool, if not downright cold, even in late August, but you are burning up inside and out, the sweat coating your body and soaking your brown dress.
Coming from above, the chop-chop-chop of helicopter rotors. Two, maybe three of them circling the rooftop. Black beasts with dark, tinted windshields that obscure the militant, jack-booted corporate men and women who are coming for you. Joining the helicopters are two, maybe three, drones. The drones record your every move.
Some police chase you on foot, others on 4X4 quads. They are twenty-five floors down in the street, but they are coming for you.
Despite your elevated pulse pounding inside your head, you’re able to make out shouted orders. The police carry weapons. Automatic rifles, high-powered pistols, knives, and stun guns. They are the best equipped military police force in the world. They are the police force of the mighty Everest Corporation, and you are their prime target. And sooner rather than later, they will catch up to you. It’s just a matter of time.
Still you run, managing to jump from rooftop to rooftop.
You run and jump with every ounce of energy you have in your veins, every fiber of strength you have left in your muscles, ever bit of spirit remaining in your heart and soul.
When you were a little girl, your father would tell you to never quit, no matter how much you were hurting. No matter the tears falling from swelled eyes. You recall one of the many times he wouldn’t let you quit. You were playing sixth grade soccer on a Saturday morning in the fields behind your grammar school. It was the red team versus the blue. You were on the blue team and you were getting beat. One of the red team girls tripped you and you fell flat on your face. The other kids laughed at you. You broke out in tears and ran off the field into the arms of your mother. The embarrassment was too much. But your dad took a knee before you. He wiped the tears from your eyes with the tips of his fingers.
“I know it hurts, Scout,” he said, using the nickname you and he loved so much from your favorite movie and book, To Kill a Mockingbird. “Speaking of Scout? What would she do?”
You sniffled, tried your hardest to hold back the tears.
“She would keep on playing,” you said under your breath and through your tears.
“Exactly, kiddo,” your dad said with a proud smile. “Now, you get right back out there and kick some serious butt.”
Your dad never expected you to take him literally, but when you tripped the girl who’d tripped you, and then went on to score the winning goal, he couldn’t have been prouder. All the way home, the former Gulf War vet spoke about the girl who picked herself up, dusted herself off, and took no prisoners.
Now, as the Everest Police close in on you from all sides, you can’t help but think of your father. You can’t help but see the face of the much younger man he used to be, before the Everest Corp., or what’s also known as Everest.com, took over everything. Before they declared Primary Termination on your parents. Before the police stole them from their own home. Before the Everest Corporation made them slaves.
You come to the final building. Correction, there is one more building—the brand-new Everest Corp. Upstate Headquarters—but it’s much too far away. At least three-hundred feet away, to be precise. There’s nowhere to go but down.
The choppers circle and begin to descend. You know that soon, the police will descend on rope ladders from out of the cargo bays. Or worse, they will shoot you with a tranquilizer like they would a wild animal on the planes of Africa. If you can’t escape them, the hordes of riot gear clad Everest police will close in around you. There’s nowhere to turn, nowhere to run.
You stand on the edge of the parapet, looking down at the solid ground twenty-five floors below. You look over your shoulder. You spot the police. They’re coming for you. They leap the narrow distance between the buildings as if it’s child’s play. Overhead, the choppers swarm. Directly before you, nothing but open air and solid ground. Sure death.
“Stop right where you are!” bellows a booming voice over one of the helicopter loudspeakers. “Don’t move, or you will be shot!”
The police shout orders as they approach your rooftop position.
“Down on your
stomach!” a policewoman screams. “Primary Termination is initiated! Do you understand me?! This is Primary Termination!”
Gazing up, you see the doors on the first helicopter open and the rope ladders release. The doors on the second helicopter open and a gun barrel emerges. Drones circle you like oversized insects.
“Stop where you are, or we’ll shoot,” blares the loudspeaker voice.
Your heart is beating rapidly, your brain swimming in so much adrenaline you’re convinced you will black out at any moment.
“Get down now!” the same policewoman screams from no more than twenty yards away. “This is Primary Termination!”
“No one comes back from Primary Termination,” you whisper to yourself.
A shot rings out and fragments of rubber roof explode at your feet. They’re not using tranquilizer darts. They’re using real bullets. Bullets, no doubt, purchased from Everest.com with Everest credits. You scream, but no one is around to hear you. No one human, that is. No one who cares or dares to care.
Staring into the distance, you see nothing but blue sky.
“Down on your face!” the policewoman screams again as she closes in on you. “Primary Termination has been initiated!”
“There’s got to be some place to go,” you whisper. “Some place free of the corporation.” Then, you feel yourself smiling. “What would Scout do?”
You know what she would do, Tanya. You know exactly what she would do, even if it costs you your life . . .
You swallow something bitter and dry. You shift your feet forward. Closing your eyes, you inch your toes over the edge of the parapet.
You jump.
21 hours earlier
Nobody likes asking their parents for money. I’m the first to admit it. Especially when you’re over forty and you were once considered one of the hottest up-and-coming acquisitions editors in all of New York City. You know, the one with all the street creds: Stanford English grad, Columbia MFA in Writing, one of the first under twenty-five-year-olds to be selected for The Best American Short Stories anthology, the high-powered editorial job at Penguin Publishing, the corner office on the 23rd floor of the Bertelsmann building, the long legs, the tight Donna Karan skirts, the long dark hair, the big green eyes, and the brains to match. Did I mention I have a Black Belt in Budokai Karate and can shoot out the bullseye with my 9mm semi-automatic at thirty yards?
So, having to admit to my folks I had no choice but to give up my Park Avenue apartment for my old bedroom up in Albany because I’m not only broke, but severely in Everest credit card debt, is more humiliating than farting on a first date. Actually, I take that back. I would most definitely take passing gas on a first date over having to ask the folks for money and a place to crash while I put all the broken Humpty Dumpty pieces of my life back together.
The reason? Money and credits means freedom, and most guys are assholes anyway.
So, now I sit on the edge of my bed with my head in my hands—the very bed I slept in while in high school (Class of 2006, Go Lions!!!!), the very bed I had my first sexual experience in with Tony Smart, the very bed where I cried my eyes out when Tony dumped me—knowing that I have no choice but to head back downstairs and, like the teenager I once was, face the music from both my overly concerned ‘rents.
God help me. Or should I say, Everest.com help me?
Forgive me for blaspheming, but then, I’m not sure equating the Everest Corporation with God is seen as blaspheming anymore. In most circles, it’s seen as the new reality.
My apologies. Where are my manners? My name is Tanya. Tanya Teal. I’m not good with names, unless you’re one of my authors (correction, were one of my authors), so half the time I don’t even offer mine up. Ever since smartphones and micro body cams came up with face recognition apps, who needs to memorize names, anyway? I’m normally a go getter type of girl who lives for her work. But the work has become a relic of the past now that authors don’t need publishers anymore.
I’m not old yet, not by any stretch of the imagination (or so I keep telling myself), but I can still remember the days before I graduated from writing school (remember, MFA in Writing programs?), when there was still four big publishers in New York City, and all the fiction writers who were hoping to be the next James Patterson, Lee Child, or Stephen King wanted a book deal so badly they would gladly sell their and their mother’s souls to get one. I read so many great manuscripts as a college intern one summer at one of those big four publishing houses, but sadly, 99.9% of them had to be rejected. Getting a book deal back then was like winning the lottery.
But when I was in grad school, the invention of the Everest Corporation’s Cradle electronic reading device came into being (eBooks), and along with it, Cradle Direct Publishing. Quite suddenly, writers—both big and small, talented or untalented—no longer required the services of a traditional publisher to see their book in digital print. Allow me to repeat that precisely because it’s of vital importance. With the introduction of the Cradle and Everest’s Direct Publishing program, publishers were no longer needed. Although it took a few years to actually happen, we all knew back then that our careers were doomed.
Oh, Lord, now I’m info dumping . . . something I always warn my authors against. In any case, here I am, exactly twenty years after the eBook device first hit the markets, forty-something years old, broke, in debt, and back to living with my parents. I mean, what am I supposed to do? Put up a billboard on the street that reads, “New York City Acquisitions Editor for Hire! Slightly Used!”
Standing, I take a quick look at myself in my old dresser mirror. It’s weird because I feel like I’m not looking at me, but just someone who resembles me. Someone dressed like me in snug fitting, faded Levis, brown cowboy boots, loose gabardine button down, silver angel pendant resting against my cleavage and matching silver bracelets on my left wrist. Finger combing my dark shoulder-length hair with both hands, I say aloud, “Freelance editor for hire.”
Just the sound of those words coming from my mouth offers a spark of hope. Now that anyone can publish a book, there’s something like ten times the number of published authors that existed even a decade ago. That’s a hell of a lot of writers.
“Jacquie,” I say aloud, “what are the chances of me starting my own freelance editing business for fiction authors?”
“You mean, Cradle Direct Publishing authors, I assume, Tanya?”
“Is there anything else?” I respond to the Everest Corp. Artificial Intelligence service.
For those of you who have been living under a rock (or still somehow off grid up in the mountains), Jacquie has become like the universal digital Big Sister of us all. Years ago, she started out as a cute little, blue-light illuminated, high-tech box you could install in your living room maybe next to your Bluetooth device. You might ask her to choose a song for you on the Pandora music app. But since those ancient times, she’s blossomed into cloud AI tech capable of doing everything from reminding you to buy shampoo to reciting your Everest.com credit balance, to giving you advice on relationships, or to just be a sort of an electronic pal and advisor.
She also rules the roost.
By that I mean, she knows when to lock your house down, or turn up the heat or turn it down. She can sniff out fire or a carbon dioxide leak, or even call the police on your behalf should she suspect a prowler approaching. Fact is, there isn’t a whole lot Jacquie doesn’t know about anyone living not just in the U.S., but the world over.
“There were some eBook publishers who were trying to compete with Everest dot com,” Jacquie says. “But like your publisher, they are all gone now. Everest and Cradle Direct Publishing is all that remains. But then, why would a writer wish to go anywhere else to publish his or her books? It’s quite easy. Does that satisfactorily answer your query?”
For some reason, I’m still staring at myself in my dresser mirror. I guess I do this because Jacquie is just a voice that resonates in whichever room you happen to be in, and not an actual physical p
resence, even if, at times, she feels like one.
“So then, it makes sense that all of those writers out there are going to require an editor, am I right, Jacquie?”
“Yes, you are, Tanya,” she says. “But of the approximately nine million published authors currently utilizing CDP, almost all of them already utilize the services of a professional editor who has already had the good fortune of working at a traditional publishing house. In other words, Tanya, the market is flooded with professionals of your skill set. A second overriding problem is that human editors are no longer required while computer-based programming provides for a more creative developmental edit, and a more accurate line edit. I hope this is a satisfactory answer.”
My ego, hopes, and dreams suddenly deflate.
“So, what you’re telling me, Jacquie, is that human beings are being phased out and I am just plain shit out of luck.”
For some stupid reason, I’m waiting for a giggle. Something I might get from one of my girlfriends like Kate who used to live in the apartment above me down in the city, and who used to work publicity for our publishing house, but who was laid off months ago (she’s already landed on her feet at Everest Corp. in their ever expanding PR division).
“In recognition of that rather barnyard term, Tanya,” Jacquie says, “my suggestion to you is to think of setting your sights on a new line of work. Something perhaps related to your skills as an editor and former writer. Have you thought about applying to Everest dot com’s Public Relations division? It pays two-hundred thousand dollars per year or the equivalent in Everest dot com credits. It’s always expanding. Plus, as you are already aware, the U.S. dollar and the European Euro are slowly being phased out while the Everest Credit block chain replaces them. Employment with Everest only makes sense. I hope this answers your question satisfactorily.”
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