© Copyright 2017
Amazon Edition, License Notes
This book is protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America. Any reproduction or other unauthorized use of the material or artwork herein is prohibited.
Disclaimer:
The persons, places, things, and otherwise animate or inanimate objects mentioned in this novel are figments of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to anything or anyone living (or dead) is unintentional. The author humbly begs your pardon. This is fiction, people.
"Rather than love, than money,
than fame, give me truth."
Henry David Thoreau
THE KILLING SCRIPTURE
AN ALICIA STONE NOVEL
Table of Content
PROLOGUE
1. On the Fence
2. A Case of Missing Books
3. The Robinsons
4. First Murder
5. New Development
6. The White Horse
7. Second Murder
8. Handcuffs and Keys
9. Under the Red Maple
10. Double Date
11. Strikes Midnight
12. A Plea for Help
13. Concerning A Bullet
14. Hornet’s Nest
15. The Warsaw Connection
16. Answers
17. Final Resolution
18. A Dangerous Disposition
19. The Rabbit Hole
20. A Family Man
EXCERPT FROM BOOK 2:
THE SINFUL SYMPHONY
PROLOGUE
April 6th, 2016 - Warsaw, Poland
A guy, in his late twenties, was waiting in a café near the Siekierkowski Bridge. He was distinctly looking impatient, and checking his cell phone every minute. The way he was looking around with his sharp green eyes, rubbing his stubble, he had an appearance of a restless person. Few minutes later, another guy, of his age, joined him on the table.
“My work is finished.” The green-eyed guy told his companion. “I am going to submit it now.”
“Really? You will send it to the Brits?” The companion made a face in disgust.
“We have no other option, John. All researches must be sent to the Archiver, and the only Archiver, we get, is in Britain.”
“Have you showed it to … any of the brothers?”
“No, John. I just wanted to finish it.” The green-eyed guy looked impatiently around. He was getting bored by the direction of their conversation.
“This is what you think. The work is never finished, Garret.” The guy named John told his green-eyed friend.
“Who is this Archiver guy? Have you met him?” Garret asked thoughtfully.
“No, but Filip said he is some weirdo. He submitted his research last year.”
“I have heard Brits are not very active these days.” Garret sipped his coffee. “Most of them have gone into hiding—except for archiving.”
John said, “Everybody is sending them research work for archiving; it must be time-consuming as well. They hit the block when Max double-crossed them.”
“Max was from British Division?”
“No idea, but he got his hands on some of the researches and he sold it during the cold war. We were lucky to come to know it instantly, or he would have sold more. It brought a bad name to the whole Archiving Department.”
“But what pushed him to double-cross the Legacy?”
“Money, what else it could be. He must have reaped millions selling the research material.”
“There are also some rumors doing the rounds about …” Garret stopped in the mid-sentence. He felt someone standing in the doorway of the coffee shop was looking at them, but there was no one when he turned his head. “About the scripture.”
“What type of rumors?”
“That Max is coming for it.”
“He is after it since I have born. Tell me something new.” John jerked his shoulders.
Garret kept sipping his espresso, immersed in his thoughts. Many people took him for a carefree guy, all thanks to his innocuous appearance, but he had a keen eye for his environment. His green eyes were still patrolling the door and the windows of the café.
“Is it true Max is here?” Garret asked.
“Some people say he is in Vienna. Some people say he is in London. He is like a ghost.” John said with indifference.
“How can one person be at so many places?”
“Basically nobody knows where he is, but he operates in all the countries with the help of locales. Sometimes he brainwashed our brothers and turned them against us.”
“Which makes you think whom to trust and whom to not.” Garret smiled in an admiring manner.
John looked at him with suspicion.
“Sometimes the way you talk about Max as if you like him.”
“No wonder.” Garret said. “I found him fascinating. One man has totally shaken up the whole brotherhood from its roots. You should give the credit where it is due.”
“Be careful, brother. Express these feelings in front of anyone and you might get more than your due.”
Garret laughed without paying attention to John’s advice.
“You are going back to Vienna?” he asked John.
“Yes, I am very close to the result. If I manage to succeed, I will be Richie Rich.” John had always been a money man. His research work was very far from completion and he had already started calculating the market value of the patent.
“Yeah, rich and dead, most likely.”
“Why dead? I have already taken permission for selling it.” John grinned.
“You would be dead before getting a coin. So back to the Archiver, did he ask too many questions about the research?”
“Filip said he can be challenging. Sometimes he even rejects entire work from archiving because the researcher was unable to provide sufficient explanations about conducting that particular experiment.”
“Who is this guy? I didn’t know that archivers have got that much authority over scientists.” Garret felt a bitter taste in his mouth listening to his friend.
“Well, they run things differently across the channel.”
“I better talk to Filip before planning the trip.”
Garret said running fingers through his hairs. A hot ginger had just given him a look.
“Did you ever get out of ‘job’?” John winked at him.
“Not in the past ten years. Let’s go now.”
“Really, man. We have just met after so many months.” John protested.
“Look, I was stuck in the lab for a long time, now I want to change the venue. See you later.” He patted his old pal, and moved to the corner where the red-headed girl was smiling at him.
————
He woke up by the loud sound of ringtone shaking his whole apartment. He checked the alarm clock, it was four in early morning. Who was calling at this ungodly hour?
It was Filip.
“What’s up?”
“Garret! Where are you?” Filip’s voice was shaking with panic and fear.
“At home. Why?”
“You need to get out of there. Immediately! We are exposed, all of us. He is coming.”
Garret could tell by the hyperventilating voice that Filip was running. It had been only a week when he met Filip before going to the Archives. He turned to the brunette laying on his bed snoring contentedly. His mind was surprisingly clear. Garret was not a guy who got panicked easily. He always kept a composure and—a backup plan.
“Where are you going?” he asked.
“To the hideout. You also come fast.”
Garret cut the call on his phone, and drank water from the bottle on his bedside table. He took few minutes for thinking before finally springing out of his bed. He took out his emergency bag which could help him living off the grid. He checked it once before leaving the apartment. It had burner phones, sufficient amount of Euros, and a small medicine kit. He also put some canned food and water bottles in it.
None of his other brothers ever thought about having a backup plan in case of an emergency. They relied on the brotherhood, but Garret knew that the only real threat to them was Max, or Maximón, as he was officially called, and if he came after them, he would attack the database first, and then he would know everything, their addresses, their phone numbers, their bank accounts, and also the hideout. In this situation staying away from the brothers was his best chance of survival.
He lingered at his doorstep for few seconds, looking at his apartment. He knew he was not coming back. Max was like a boogeyman to the brotherhood. Whenever he attacked a division, he exterminated every living person associated with it. Most of the time, there were no survivors. He had eliminated three divisions so far: Berlin, Rome and London. Luckily, the Archives survived in the London attack and they moved it to another location.
He lingered in the apartment with an uneasy feeling. His sixth sense was telling him that he would not be coming back here again. He kissed the sleeping girl and stepped out of the building into the dark night of Warsaw.
CHAPTER ONE
On the Fence
August 19th, 2016 – Georgestown, England
Alicia was enraged, and half of her rage was over the fact that she was enraged on her birthday. She kicked her writing table and then chair, and then she felt a whim to kick herself.
It had always been the worst day of the year—ever. She didn’t know what other people do on their birthday, but other people also indulged in things on the remaining three hundred and sixty-four days. The more she didn’t want to celebrate her birthday, the more her parents insisted. In her long twenty-six years’ life, which seemed really long to her, she didn’t remember a single birthday which was not miserable.
Somebody tapped on the attic door, which was also served as her bedroom, and she tried again, helplessly, to get ready to attend her birthday party. Including her, there were total four permanent residents of Stone Manor. Usually people find it difficult to live with two parents while they grew up, but she had to answer to three parents. The third parent, beside her biological ones, was her mother’s sister, Flora.
Many years ago, Aunt Flora had left the home to go on an adventure with her friends, and nobody heard about her for the next five years. Lucy, Alicia’s mother, was too busy in taking care of her permanently enraged and permanently unemployed husband at that time to bother about anyone else.
Five years later, she appeared on their doorstep and claimed to be a ‘clairvoyant’. She adjusted with the nasty temper of Steve as comfortably as an old shoe. It was no easy job to live with her father. When Alicia was young, she had seen her mother crying silently in the kitchen too many times to count. The worst thing about the situation was that she never welcomed Alicia in sharing anything with her. Every time she tried getting close to her, she scolded her away, until the time she stopped trying at all. As an only child, Alicia wanted to have a comfortable relation with her parents, but she guesses, after reaching a certain age, that her parents were not even comfortable with each other so what were the chances for her.
The reason why Stone Manor opened its door for Flora was because Steve was jobless and Lucy was trying to have another stream of income in the household. Alicia was in school, when Flora moved in. Alicia had to move to the attic, because Stone Manor had only two bedrooms in it. She didn’t mind living in attic because the windows were larger and lots of sunshine come in. It had a small bathroom as well. The best part was that she didn’t have to hear any loud noises or fights anymore which happened all the time in the house.
Flora and Lucy were as different from each other as night and day. Where Flora was heavy, warm and kind, Lucy was lean and had a mean outlook on life. Living under the constant fear of her husband had taken away every ounce of affection and warmth from her personality. Lucy’s nagging skill was limitless, once she set her mind that Alicia has to do it, nothing could stop her; however, things were changed since Flora came to live with them.
Flora never criticized anyone openly, but she had a unique way of solving problems and convincing people with a smile. These days, she was the main bread winner of the family. She had opened her divination shop just after few weeks of moving in. Whether it was recession or inflation, or probably both, she was making more money than Lucy who taught at a school. It seemed to Alicia that people wanted to know their future, literally, at any cost.
Thinking about Flora, Alicia tied her hair mercilessly in a knot, and took a deep breath. She prayed on every birthday to not be in the same house next year, but the situation was not changed. She knew what happened on every birthday and she knew that it would keep happening until she buckles up and moves out.
————
She braced herself and stepped down from the attic. She found them all gathered in the living room as usual with a cake placed on the center table. Steve was watching news with a grimace which was a permanent part of his face. Lucy was knitting a scarf, sitting beside Steve, darting cautious glances at him occasionally. Flora had spread a planetary chart on the table in front of her, which was a ritual she did on her birthday, and she looked worried, but she always looked that way whenever she started to read Alicia’s future.
She set in front of them with hands in her pockets and looked at them with dead eyes.
“We were calling you since hours.” Lucy said in a disapproved manner.
“If you don’t want to celebrate your birthday, just tell us. At least we will not waste our time for you.” Steve said in a busy tone, as if he was responsible for running an entire company.
Flora picked the chart and folded it neatly. For some reason, she was not looking happy.
“Now bring a knife, how would you cut the cake without it?” Lucy taunted again.
“She has some mental problem ... doesn’t have common sense.” Steve muttered behind her back when she was going to the kitchen. When she came back, she didn’t wait for her parents to leave their activities. She made the pieces, filled the plates and put a plate in front of everybody. Lucy quickly picked the plate and took a mouth full of cake. Steve looked at her furiously.
“Why are you eating this? Can’t you see it is a chocolate cake?” he yelled at her.
Lucy put the plate back on the table and said in a guilty voice, “it is tasty.”
“Will you eat poison if it is tasty enough?” he was annoyed; his face was turning red.
Alicia took her plate and started eating. Flora was also chewing her piece without saying a word. She was deep in thoughts today. Usually she stepped in if Lucy and Steve crossed a line with Alicia, but today she was silent.
Only Alicia understood the real reason behind the anger of Steve. It was a long time ago, when she was still in school, when she had first tasted a chocolate cupcake. She liked it so much that she asked for a chocolate cake on her next birthday. From that day on, Steve made it his job to hate chocolate from the deepest part of his heart. Whether it was a cake, ice cream, meringue or any other dessert, if there was chocolate in it, he hated it.
Unfortunately, Steve’s idea of hate was different from other people as it was both visible and audible. Put something in front of him that he hated, and his face turned red. He would curse the people who did it, and would also try to bully them to not do it.
Flora tried her best to keep both sides happy most of the time, but Steve was a perpetually unhappy person. The only thing which made him happy was the misery of his family. When Alicia was in school, long before Flora came to live with them, Lucy slipped on the sidewalk one day and ended up getting a fracture. Later Alicia heard her father ta
lking to the neighbor that it was a good thing because now she would understand the importance of obeying her husband. Apparently that day Lucy went to her friend’s house and Steve was not in favor of it.
Steve was not only anti-social himself, but he wanted every person in his household to be anti-social as well. When Alicia made her first friend in school, she was excited and told everybody in the house. Steve yelled at her and cursed her in every word he had in his limited and profane vocabulary, most of them were not appropriate for a child. He told Lucy to watch her or she would become a slut following her friends, to which Lucy did not pay much attention. Lucy liked to socialize and tried to make as many friends as possible behind her husband’s back.
Alicia tried to finish her serving as soon as possible. The Chocolate Fudge cake was really tasty as Flora had made it herself. She collected the plates and turned to the kitchen feeling relieved as it was better than her last birthday where there was a fight went on for four-to-five hours, when Lucy said from behind:
“Come back. We need to talk.”
She knew very well what they need to talk about. When she came back, Flora was saying something in slow voice to both of them, and Steve’s face was getting darker with every second. The only reason Steve tolerated Flora was because she was the hen who laid the golden eggs.
“What do you plan to do next?” Lucy asked as if she was asking something after a while.
“Looking for a job which I am already doing.”
“You are doing it since last four years.” Steve tried to keep the poison in his tone to the minimum, but it still stung.
“What have you thought about marriage?” Lucy asked.
“I don’t want to get married.” She said in a matter-of-fact tone. She might be indecisive about many things in her life, but she knew that she was not ready for marriage yet.
“Do you have a boyfriend?” Lucy asked. “If you have one, you can tell us.”
The Killing Scripture (Alicia Stone Series Book 1) Page 1
