One of Ari Publishing's most popular novels, The Dead Machine, features seven people thrown together after a scientific invention, created with the best of intentions, opens a portal whose inhabitants are blood-thirsty predators known only as daemons. In the Dean Koontz genre, it is a fast paced thrill-ride that starts on the very first page and continues unabated until it's breath-taking climax.
Here is just one of it's five star reviews:
Keeps you on the edge of your seat with all the twists, challenges, and obstacles the group of seven face in order to keep this world safe from daemonic possession. Virgil, a self-proclaimed 'freakin' genius' has opened up a can of worms (or daemons, in this case) and it becomes necessary for mere mortals to put them back. I highly recommend this read, but wear gloves so you don't bite your fingernails off. Carol McKee
Want a taste? Here are the first three pages.
Chapter
One
“Virgil? Good
heavens, Virgil, is that you? Is that really you!?”
Virgil’s eyes
immediately widened and his heart leaped at the sound of her voice. His hand
trembled on the dials as he fine-tuned the transmission.
When the hissing
lessened he replied with unrestrained excitement, “Yes, yes it is me!
It’s Virgil!”
There was a
moment’s hesitation, then she asked, “How… how is this possible?”
He stared at the
speaker, imagining her face, longing to see it again. He paid no attention to
the cold or to the steamy vapor escaping his mouth as he breathed. Nor the
drafts that bit into his fingers and snaked up his pant leg. He even ignored
the acrid smell permeating every inch of the barn.
Nothing
mattered, nothing but this moment, this incredibly special moment.
Shaking with excitement, Virgil leaned into
the microphone. “Do you remember, just before you were taken away, me telling
you that no matter what, I would find you, and that we’d be together again?”
Through the
crackling static came a reply. “Yes, but that… many years ago. And in th… situations
people say things, knowing that… comforting things… lessen the hardship, to
lessen… pain. I never thought that …”
“That I’d
actually find you?”
The static grew
louder and panic gripped Virgil. He jumped out of his seat and scanned the
computer screens, recalibrating and synchronizing the feed.
“…have found me.
Oh, Virgil, somehow you‘ve done the impossible!”
“Nothing is
impossible!” Virgil shot back. “They all scoffed. They ridiculed and dismissed
my work as a delusion, as fantasy. My grants dried up, my investors backed out;
even the military gave up. But I never gave up! I made you a solemn promise and
today, that promise has been kept.”
“Virgil, I don’t
know what to say, I…”
Virgil
interrupted as he scanned the computer screens. “What are your surroundings?
Describe them for me. Can you see the stars?”
The static
increased. The reply broke up. All four computer screens flashed Recalibrating…
“…The horizon in
the morning… when I look out… the lights are always on… when we gather as a
group…”
The hissing
overwhelmed the rest of the sentence.
Virgil’s hands
flew over the controls.
Recalibrating…
“Mostly, we have
a…”
Recalibrating…
Some background
noise seeped into the transmission, then a stranger’s voice. “Virgil…? Lillian,
did I just hear Virgil? Where…it coming from?”
“Bert, this
is…private conversation and…”
The man ignored
her. “Virgil? Is that you? Where are you? It’s me, Bert Langley. Remember me?
I… science teacher… down… block? You used… newspaper to my… when you… kid. And
I… tip you a whole…”
“Get out… here,
you bastard,” Lillian bellowed. “Virgil doesn’t… about you! He wants… talk to
me!”
Virgil heard a
grunt, a huff and a shuffling of feet.
“Okay, he’s
gone, and yes, we... several times a week… socialize and talk about…. back
home.”
Virgil felt a
lump in his throat. “You still miss us? Even after all this time?”
“Of course, Virgie!
It’s knowing that our… care for us is…keeps us together. You are… thoughts each
and every day.”
Tears spilled
down Virgil’s cheek. “You are in mine each and every day too and…”
Virgil stopped
when he heard Bert Langley’s voice again. It grew louder as he moved back into
the transmission field. “Over there, see? I told you! Lillian is… with the
outside. What? No! She’s not sending signals, she’s receiving them! See for…
apparently… is possible…”
Lillian’s voice
broke through in sharp hushed tones. “They’re coming Virgil! Disconnect! I
don’t want them to know what you’ve accomplished. Get… to me in… few days!”
“Who’s coming?
What are you talk…?”
“Disconnect!
Disconnect!” she shouted.
Virgil did.
He bowed his
head and his hands fell into his lap as the level indicators on the array of
computer screens slowly dropped, then flat lined.
A few moments later, when the shock started
wearing off, he said in a shaky voice, “I did it! After eleven years of
ridicule from those jealous miscreants, I did it! We actually spoke.”
He wrapped his
arms around himself, breathed deeply, then shot his fist into the air. “And
this,” he said, bursting with confidence, “is just the beginning!”
Virgil rose from
his chair at the control panel, walked over to his desk, reached down and
picked up the framed photo that had accompanied him everywhere he went. He gazed
at the picture, smiled, kissed it and placed it back on his desk.
The photo was of
his mother, Lillian.
A woman dead for
the past eleven years.
