The Dead Chronicles: Dead Man Walking

Excerpt From The Preface: Explanation

Dear reader, understand something. As a reporter I was not an author! Also, as a scout, I am not an author! I do not possess author skills! The story you reading is going to look like it was not written by an author!

Excerpt From Chapter Eight: The Unsung Hero

Jason: "Yo, Breach." Breach: "Enter my man." Jason went around a corner and put a stack of cash on the table. Breach: "You speak my language, friend but no build up means something big, I can't wait." Jason: "Came from the hospital." Breach: "Hope you're okay, you're one of my best paying employers." Jason: "The lung machines haven't been used in nearly a month." Breach: "Okay, people can breath, that's a good thing." It took a second, and Jason happily waited a moment. Breach: "Wait, it hasn't been a month since the prince died." Jason: "Correct." Breach: "That biotoxin was a lung thing." Jason: "Correct." Breach: "So they let the prince die?" Jason: "Or..." Breach thought a moment again. Breach: "He didn't have a lung problem?" Jason: "Correct" Jason let it all soak in. Breach: "What is the cash for?" Jason: "Crack the cloud, get the lung machine logs." Breach: "Simple enough." She began to go to work. Breach: "And if he didn't die from lung stuff?" Jason: "I guess we could start with the easy stuff, head imaging and heart monitoring." Breach: "Gotcha." After a couple of minutes of drinking cheap beer Jason had a question. Jason: "If I paid you more would you buy better beer?" Breach: "Nope, just more of that stuff." After another moment, she was stunned and pointed to her large computer screen. Breach: "Here, Light Mercy Hospital cloud entries, these logs, here, are identified as lung machine entries, they have not been used in nearly a month. You may want to take some screenshots of this in your device. You still don't connect to the cloud, right?" Jason: "Right. Did you just prove that Light Mercy Hospital did not use their lung machines in the two days the prince was there?" Breach: "Yep. Was it worth the cash?" Jason: "And so much more. How about the CT and MRI logs." Breach: "Just a sec." Another minute of cheap beer. Then she pointed again. Breach: "By the hand of oblivion. Here and here, the log entries from time the prince was there have been wiped. He died of a head problem. More screenshots while you can." Jason: "Definitely. This is why I love you Breach." Breach: "If you loved me you'd call me in the morning. You love what I do for you." Jason: "So true, did I bring enough to cover what you did?" Breach: "Yeah, yeah. Now get out of here before you get attached to me." Jason left with a very heavy mind. This wasn't big, it was monumental.

Excerpt From Chapter Eighteen: The Way He Rolls

When the prince walked up the stairs from Robert's office his secretary asked if he was ready for his appointment. He nodded yes. He sat down and waited a moment. A forty-eight year old, five feet eleven inch well dressed man walked in. When the door shut behind him he became nervous and he clearly did not know how to handle the moment. One is not normally alone with the man who rules the world. The prince motioned for him to sit down, which the man did while removing his sunshades, placing them in his jacket pocket. He tried to sit comfortably but the comfortable part did not happen and the prince paused to let the man figure out he was uncomfortable.

Prince: "Thomas Allen Roberts. Your father, mother and sister died when you were eight months old."

The man's curiosity was piqued.

Thomas: "I had a sister?" Prince: "Yes, apparently the orphanage never told you. Cynthia, she was two. You were kicked out of the orphanage when you were fifteen only to be discovered by Vincent Saldazaar, syndicate head and a man feared for many reasons. For some unknown reason he chose to treat you as a son and you became a stereo-type. On your sixteenth birthday you performed your first hit, quite successfully. Three weeks later you got a job to take out two targets and send a message to their families. You cut their big toes off and mailed it to their wives. You have been Tommy-Two-Toes ever since. Now the old man has died and the board is expressing its true hatred that it has held onto all these years, you are all but kicked to the curb now." Tommy: "With all due respect, emperor of the world, it's awful nice of you to care but if you rule the world I'm thinking you're a little busy." Prince: "Respect? Hardly from a murderer. That makes you a liar and I can make you Tommy-No-Toes."

It was only here that the assassin felt the truth he had ignored. He was in charge of nothing.

Tommy: "Apparently so, majesty, but surely that isn't why your people came to syndicate territory and 'invited' me here."

The prince knows how to read a situation. The assassin would keep his toes, for now anyway.

Prince: "I have a job opening I would like for you to consider." Tommy: "Respectfully sir, I have a nice retirement laid out." Prince: "How about if I can put you in charge of the syndicates?" Tommy: "I am fully aware that you are a capable man, but I do wonder about that ability." Prince: "If I make you the head of the coa you will be running every syndicate on the planet all the while bolstering your retirement." Tommy: "I am very interested in bolstering one's retirement." Prince: "You will make sure the coa does what I want it to do, gathering intelligence and capturing criminals, while keeping it's public image spotless. The syndicates will do as I instruct them through you while they pay you for the privilege of you convincing me not to erase them with the new and improved hole-makers." Tommy: "Better versions? Insane. And I can run the syndicates any ole way I want as long as they do the occasional job for you?" Prince: "Yes. Usually it will be occasional, sometimes it might get busy. As long as they mind I don't care what they do or what you do with them. You ever get tired of one of them just tell me where you want the hole maker delivered to. Just keep the image of the coa clean." Tommy: "Anything in particular you want done with the current head?" Prince: "Sounds like a syndicate problem to me."

Just like that, Tommy was a man with a new job and a smile.

Chapter Twenty: Power At It's Worst

Robert and Terrance knew the truth about the emperor. They had some minimal evidence but he is the emperor. There is no court you can take him before. They had discussed it with Eli and Jason and the only thing they knew to do at the moment was to pretend everything was okay. The plan was to chill for a couple of months to see if the COA was on their trail. It had been two months and two days since the meeting in the basement and nothing in their lives had changed. It was ten in the morning and Terrance was in front of Robert's desk but neither of the two were worried about their customary sports break.

Robert: "How about a casing?" Terrance: "For a missile?" Robert: "Every simulation has all of our missiles at least partially burned by the time re-entry is done. Our missiles have been about warhead delivery, not survivability." Terrance: "So you're thinking of stuffing it in a tube to survive re-entry?"

The emperor had been approaching and heard the "stuffing it in a tube". He sat down beside Terrance just as Robert's phone rang. Terrance picked it up so Robert wouldn't have to be rude to the emperor, listened to the two words that were spoke and then hung up.

Terrance: "That was no one and they said 'pepperoni pizza'."

The two very curious men looked at Robert who set up straight and leaned back in his chair.

Robert: "Majesty I can't be planning and at the worksite at the same time. I'm willing to bet you understand that. That pizza means it is confirmed. We now have one sealed shell of a space station. Also there is a temporary launch mechanism that, according to the confirmation code, is fully functional. Congratulations, majesty, step one is complete." Prince: "I don't know what to say. Wow. What's next?" Robert: "We need to get communications working. I've got to be able to talk to it to tell it to launch. To do that I need something I can blow up, assuming I can get the weapon inside the atmosphere." Prince: "How big?" Robert: "Person sized." Prince: "Where at?" Robert: "As far away as you are willing to travel, at least a mile from everything else just to be safe."

Two weeks later Robert found himself on the deck of an aircraft carrier. A small life raft had been set in the water with a life sized dummy standing up in it. Robert gave the prince an electronic tablet and instructed him to point the camera toward the target. The prince chose the dummy. About fifteen seconds later a light flashed way up in the sky. It hit the dummy which immediately shattered into non-existence. The prince, emperor of the whole world, was silenced.

Prince: "Wow. Wow. Wow. I mean, wow. This is crazy good wow. I didn't know we had a small missile like that." Robert: "I must confess. I've been conspiring to keep a secret from the emperor." Robert: "Wanted to surprise you. I call it 'Angel Of Light'. If an individual is a threat, don't have to take out a city block. Hole Makers are awesome but you don't always need a hole." Prince: "Literally anything you need. Do not hesitate to call me or come upstairs. Anything you need."