With my previous excerpt posting from Noon: The Rise to Power being received so well, I decided to post another, also staring Solace and Ignatius.
“Did you miss me last night?” Solace asked as she stopped in the doorway of Ignatius Kennedy Toole’s office. She removed her coat and folded it across her arm as the morning sun peeked through the windows. Although their affair had been going on for several months, she still beamed every time she saw him.
Ignatius eyed her svelte figure packed perfectly in a lime green mini dress complete with white calf high platform boots. “You know, I can survive a single night without you,” he replied, looking up from his desk. “I’m a grown-up. And I understand you have other obligations and responsibilities. Besides, I do have a life of my own, friends, family, you know.”
“Oh, yeah! Like I believe that!” she said playfully as she walked in, came around to the back of his chair and scrambled his dark hair. “Seriously, if we broke up you would just pine away. Dissolve into jiggly protoplasm. That’s the way I see it.”
“Clearly no ego problem here,” Ignatius said with a grin as he leaned back and looked up. “I suppose you would expect me to climb to the roof and hurl myself off.”
She threw up her hands. “At the very least!”
“Yeah, I can see the headlines,” he said, sitting up and holding out his arms as if reading an old time newspaper. “Handsome, brilliant and popular Lord Mountbatten—not his real name—for reasons we cannot possibly fathom, threw himself from the top of the Hudson Towers building this morning after being dumped by co-worker Tish Something-or-other— not her real name either.
“When asked, Ms. Something-or-other, a blond, statuesque, self-centered, incredible piece of ass, replied, “’Well it is all about me, isn’t it? Me, me, me, me, me!’”
She pressed her hand dramatically to her chest. “Finally… A man who truly understands women!” she said as she bent down and kissed him
Over the next ten minutes, the campaign offices of Noon for Governor filled with its regular employees and volunteers. Their numbers had dwindled somewhat following the recent assaults against campaign personnel, the three bombing attempts and that scare with the building’s fuel cells. But the majority stayed, finding the job challenging, exciting and dangerous. It was a situation twenty-somethings had a hard time refusing.
“Well,” Solace said as she stood. “Might as well head to my office.” As she passed the window she stopped and gazed outside. “Such a beautiful day!”
“Want to get a cup of coffee?” he asked.
Solace grinned. “Forgotten what happened the last time?”
He reached into his desk and pulled out a bag of gourmet dark roast. “God helps those who help themselves,” he replied. As he was about to lock his computer he felt a buzz from his wristscreen. When he casually glanced down at it, his heart nearly fell out of his chest. Instead of the time, the LCD screen featured a flaming skull. And on the skull’s forehead appeared the number 180. As the jaw of the flaming skull began to move, a text message formed at the bottom of the screen.
Greetings, Black Knight! My name is Horrorscope. Remember it. It is the name of the man who is going to kill you.
A moment later it began counting down.
179…178…177…
Ignatius paled. “Someone cracked my code!” He frantically unbuckled and removed the wristscreen. “I don’t know how but…He flipped open the tab and connected it to his computer. The screen immediately filled. “It’s a blocking code! All our communication devices are corrupted.”
He turned the screen to Solace. Her face took on a cold, calculating, seriousness he had never seen before. She ran to the nearest window. “They wouldn’t take out our communication network unless they were planning an attack,” she said. She pulled up the blind. A metallic glint from the roof of the building across the street caught her eye.
As she looked closer, she noticed a man in black opening a large suitcase. The steel hinge had caught the sun’s reflection.
She began waving frantically. “C’mere quick!” she shouted.
Ignatius raced over and saw the man quickly and with great precision, assemble what appeared to be a rocket launcher.
“Holy shit!” Ignatius shouted, now realizing what the descending numbers and Horrorscope’s text meant.
He took off for the other side of the office. “Maybe if we get the people to the east end staircase we could…” Ignatius stopped when he saw another assassin on top of the building across the street.
“Damn it!” Ignatius yelled, pressing his fingers to his head. “Probably got guys coming at us from every angle.”
Solace pulled the lever on the fire alarm. The red emergency lights and exit arrows began to flash.
As her fellow co-workers raced to the exits and rushed down the stairs, Solace and Ignatius found themselves at the end of a long line with little chance of getting out before the men in black blew away half the building.
She grabbed Ignatius’s hand and checked his wristscreen. “Shit!” she said, then pulled until they were both running toward the southern portion of the building.
As they turned the corner they saw the two freight elevators. Fortunately one was already at their floor. Solace ran over, pressed the button and dove in.
“C’mon, hurry!” she shouted pressing the lobby button.
Ignatius stopped at door’s edge. “Wait. You’re never supposed to get in an elevator during an emergency. Everybody knows that. We have to get to a staircase.” He reached for her hand.
“We’ll never get down the stairs in time!” She grabbed his arm and yanked him in.
The door quickly closed and the elevator raced down the shaft.
She looked up at the floor indicator. “Just another few seconds or so and we’ll…”
Ignatius wasn’t paying attention. He was looking at his wristscreen.
3…2…1
Oooooooooo, scary, huh? What will happen to our buddies, Ignatius and Solace? Well, I won’t give it away but, you can download the entire 355 page novel for only $2.99 and it comes with a money back guarantee! DRM free so it can be downloaded to any electronic reading device. See more here:
