NEW RELEASE
Lights Out
by D.
T. Peterson
Description
An elite squad. An
unknown weapon. An unthinkable attack.
The year is 2058. An
unknown weapon from an unknown enemy is being shipped toward the United States.
An elite squad of marines, led by Marco Valdez, are sent to stop it and to find
who is behind it. Answers lead to more questions and the squad's mission takes
them to ships, underwater hotels, and highly-secured complexes, always one step
behind their elusive enemy.
Excerpt
Ambal Mannav wiped the sweat from
her forehead. It was 37 degrees Celsius in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh
and Mannav was forced to wait outside for the arrival of her associate. The
heat was nothing new. Her hometown in India often experienced similar
temperatures. She glanced at her pocket computer, colloquially called a
mini-comp. The local time was 12:17 AM. Her associate was late.
Mannav paced along the side of the
street and kicked aside a few stray stones. Had it not been for her associate’s
paranoia, she could have waited inside her air-conditioned hotel room. He had
refused to be told the exact location of their meeting over anything digital.
She would have to wait for him to arrive and take him to the room herself. She
understood that the illegal nature of their meeting required caution, but
certainly the Americans would have no reason to suspect their presence in Phnom
Penh.
She looked at her mini-comp again.
12:19. Her frustration was turning into anxiety. Why isn’t he here? she
wondered.
Mannav jumped back as a tan sedan
pulled up in front of her. The driver’s side window rolled down.
“Get in.”
Mannav did not recognize the voice
of the driver, but she saw her associate, Darshan, sitting in the passenger seat.
He nodded to her. Without another moment of hesitation, she got into the back
of the car.
The wheels spun for a second until
they caught traction on the asphalt. Mannav was forced back in her seat as the
car sped down the street.
“Dar…” Mannav began to say.
“No names,” Darshan interrupted.
“What’s going on?”
“Somebody talked. The Americans know
we are here.”
“Who?”
“Doesn’t matter.”
“Then, where are we going?”
“Outside the city. We’ll talk then.”
Mannav sighed. She wasn’t convinced
there was any real threat. Darshan always took the worst case scenario as a
certainty. She turned to the window and saw a large dragonfly sitting outside.
She tapped on the glass to make it move, but it didn’t react. Probably
hanging on for dear life. Mannav turned back and watched the city fly past.
Thirty minutes later, the car came
to a sudden halt. Mannav braced herself against the seat in front of her.
“Let’s go,” Darshan ordered. He
exited the sedan and Mannav followed. As soon as she closed her door, the car
pulled away, spitting back dust from the dirt road. Mannav turned to face the
small shack that was in front of them.
“Who’s here?” she asked.
“Don’t know. That’s the point,”
Darshan replied. He pulled out a pistol and stepped through the shack’s
doorway.
The sole inhabitant inside was an
elderly woman. She was repairing a set of torn clothes. She looked up.
“Get out,” Darshan demanded
in Cambodian. He displayed his weapon to make his order thoroughly understood.
The woman screamed and ran outside.
“She’ll bring back others,” Mannav
warned.
“We’ll only be here a minute.”
Darshan looked up at the metal roof that covered them and nodded.
“What are we doing here?”
“They won’t have surveillance here.”
Darshan pointed up. “Or a view from a satellite.”
“Fine. Can you update me now?”
“Give me your mini-comp.” Mannav
obeyed. Darshan interacted with the computer’s holographic screen for several
seconds. “Okay, you now have access to the tracking software. The shipment will
be leaving tomorrow. Make sure the team in New York is ready for pickup.
They’ll need verifiable identities in case American customs…”
“Don’t tell me know to do my job. As
long as everything is good on your end…”
“It is.”
“Then there should be no problems.
Do you have…”
Darshan handed her a small data card
held in a plastic container. “Everything’s there. The machine schematics,
instructions, potential targets…”
“The target has already been
picked.”
“Where?”
“You don’t need to know.”
Darshan scowled. “I deserve
to know. After all I’ve done…”
“You know how this works. Besides,
you’re the one who can never trust anybody.”
“Fine.”
“Do you have anything else, or can
we get out of this dump?”
“No. I’ll call the driver.” Darshan
pulled out his mini-comp.
Mannav noticed movement on one of
the shack walls. It was the dragonfly. She chuckled. Somehow, it had survived
the trip and followed them inside. She walked over to smash the bug, but it
took off. It flew around the room for a moment, then landed on the back of
Darshan’s neck.
“Hey, there’s a bug on you.”
Darshan looked over at her. “What?”
He never got an answer. The
dragonfly emitted an electric shock to the back of his neck and he collapsed to
the floor, unconscious. Mannav’s eyes widened. She turned to the doorway to
run, but felt small legs land on her neck. One shock later, she was face down
on the dirt floor.
Halfway across the world, an
American engineer said, “Both targets down.” He pressed a command on the
computer in front of him and watched through the dragonfly’s synthetic eyes as
it flew up into the air and left the Cambodian shack.
Review
By Lynda Dickson
Set in the year
2058, Lights Out is a futuristic story
about Marco Valdez, a Special Operative working for Marine Special Operations
Team (MSOT), a covert US military group. We follow Marco and his team as they
battle evil and try to save their country and, perhaps, the world. Who is the
evil genius behind all their troubles?
This novelette (43
pages) gives us an insight into the author's vision of a future world. I
especially enjoyed the auto-drying shower (no more damp towels) and the glass
underwater hotel (which sounded like a good idea but turned out not to be so
great - you'll see why).
Lights Out contains some minor typographical and spelling errors but is otherwise
engagingly written. The story does end rather abruptly. Hopefully we will get
to find out what happens next in one of the author's other works.
Lights
Out is one of three
short prequels for the novel Darkness on a Pale Blue
Stone, set 14 years later.
About the Author
Derek Peterson is a 21-year-old storyteller and for most of those years
he has been living that out through writing. He loves grappling with complex
issues, uncovering exotic mysteries, and attempting to understand the darker
parts of human psyches, all of which come through in his writing. If something
is simple and straightforward, it's probably not something he's all that
interested in. He loves challenging, complex stories with equally complex
characters and settings. His writing journey has a long way to go and, for him,
that's what makes it so enjoyable.
Derek currently lives in Chambersburg, PA. His future plans involve
thoroughly earning the title of "Author", learning to cook something
more than eggs, and living long enough to own a self-driving car.
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