Page 1 of Gluttony
Prologue
In the dank undergroundcorridors of the Syndicate Black Site, a bone-numbing alarm sounded. It echoed through the empty ex-military base.
A solitary life form slithered and crawled across the sticky red-stained corridor leading toward the elevator. Its barbed vine-like tentacles tumbled and twisted, belying its physical form. The plant moved with purpose, leaving carnage in the shape of its last meal. Bones and blood littered the path behind it. Each meal gave it something different, something beyond leaves and roots. It took four legs from the rat, thought from the humans, and soon it evolved beyond the confines of its original form. But it needed more. It was hungry—thirsty—and it had not been sated.
It needed more.
More.
More.
It snaked its morphing mass into the cracks surrounding the elevator until it found the cable. Reaching toward the light, it slithered up.
One
In a darkened alley,Clyde McGee faced off with a rabid gorilla, a psycho and his female hostage. Rain pelted him, stinging his skin. Hair stuck to his face and his torn shirt clung to his muscled torso. Blood from wounds blended on the white fabric creating an abstract masterpiece. Clyde aimed his gun at the psycho’s head, then his gaze darted to the roaring gorilla as it thumped its chest in warning.
The psycho pressed his knife to a redhead’s pale throat. Her torn lab coat fluttered with the breeze. Each man narrowed his gaze at the other, watching for telltale body language signaling action.
A twitch of Clyde’s trigger finger.
A whitening of scarred knuckles as the psycho tightened his grip.
The redhead’s frightened whimper.
The gorilla’s snarl.
The woman implored Clyde with her wide, mascara stained eyes.Please. Help.
The psycho, a man with a goatee and a Mohawk, sneered at Clyde.
“Give it up, Magnus,” Clyde shouted, his voice booming like thunder through the rain. “You’ve nowhere to go. You’re done. Tell your monkey to stand down.”
Magnus looked behind him. The alley was a dead end. With the whites of his eyes showing, he backed up until he hit the wall and pulled the woman in front of him, using her body as a shield.
But Clyde had trained all his life for this moment. He was the best bounty hunter the city had seen. He ate perps like this for breakfast.
“He’s not a monkey, he’s an ape, and we’re connected.” Magnus tapped his head. “He does whatever I do, and if I go down fighting, he does too.”
Magnus roared, and the ape mimicked him, but Clyde wasn’t afraid. He knew something they didn’t. Magnus and the gorilla were only connected as long as Magnus lived.
The woman caught Clyde’s eyes, her mouth hardened, and she gave an almost imperceptible nod. She was more than the love of his life. She was his partner, and she trusted him. He fired the gun. Red spray burst from her shoulder and she slumped forward, clutching her wound. The man behind her dropped to the ground. The bullet had gone straight through her to pierce the psycho’s heart.
The gorilla let out a deep huff. It slumped. The rage left its eyes, and it backed up, confused.
Clyde ran to his love. He gathered her in his arms and held his palm to her sticky shoulder. “I’m sorry, Trix. There was no other way.”
She blinked through the rain. Her trembling hand lifted to touch his jaw and curve around his neck. She pulled his lips to hers and kissed him softly, with intent, and then with passion. When they broke, she gave him a weak smile. “You did good, baby. You did good.”
He frowned. “Not good enough.”
“We’re alive. And the gorilla is saved. That’s all that matters.”
They paused, staring into each other’s eyes, waiting.
One. Two. Three.
“CUT!” shouted the director behind Tony Lazarus. “Perfect. And, that’s a wrap.”
