In
the wasteland of commercial culture that is future America, police are operated
not by government but by private companies.
In
Seattle, that role is filled by Civil Protection, and Daniel Gray is a
detective in Homicide Solutions. What used to be considered an important - even
glamorous - department for public police is very different for the corporate
species, and Gray finds himself stuck in a dead end job. That is, until the
Spine Thief arrives.
When
a serial killer begins harvesting the spinal tissue of corporate employees all
over the city, Detective Gray finds himself plunged into the first truly major
case of his career. Caught in a dangerous mix of murder, betrayal and
conflicting corporate interest, Gray will find himself not only matching wits
with a diabolical murderer but grapple with his growing doubt toward his
employers in the dawning months of the American tricentennial.
A
thrilling mystery set in the same world as the Wonderland Cycle, Bone Wires is
a grim trip into the streets of the empty future.
Excerpt
The scene
of the crime was an alleyway behind an abandoned Roziara Deli. Crowding the
street outside the deli were a pair of patrol cars, white wedges of steel with
ribbon lights that stained the nearby buildings red and blue. Street officers
clustered around the mouth, black body armor over blue uniform fatigues; unlike
the sidearms that Gray and Carter carried, the streeties carried the blunt,
brutal shapes of submachine guns close to their plated chests. A cordon had
been set up; the narrow yellow band of holographic tape that stretched across the
alley mouth glowed as it cycled through baleful warning messages.
“They
used to have good subs here,” said Carter as they pulled up in front of the
moldering delicatessen. “Slabs of capicola as thick as Annie Cruz’s ass. Just
incredible.”
“Don’t
know that name,” said Gray.
“Porn
star,” said Carter, who produced his badge and flashed it at a streeter who was
approaching them. “Way before your time. Put on your war face, here comes the
Pacifier.”
Carter’s
Amber Shield glowed like the very words of God Almighty in the low light.
“Carter and Gray,” said Carter, keeping his identification held up so that the
streeter could see it. “Homicide Solutions.”
“Lem
Martin,” replied the streeter. “Pacification Officer, patrol region 927.”
“This is
your beat then,” said Gray, who produced from the inside pocket of his suit
coat a slim Sony microcomp and engaged its holographic display. Data from the
Nexus sprang to life above the palm-sized slab. “What do you have for us,
Martin?”
Martin
winced a bit at the lack of ‘Officer’ before his surname – you got a lot of
that with Pacification Services, of which street patrol was the biggest group.
They didn’t like being talked down to. Gray outranked him, however, and didn’t
give a shit besides. “Nasty stuff,” Martin said, jerking his head toward the
alley mouth. “Victim’s name is Anderson, Ronald P.. Administration. His panic
implant was set off about an hour ago and flatlined soon after; me and my
partner were in the area, and when we found him…well. Real horror show back there,
is all I can say. I called for backup. Dunno what they used, but…well. You’ll
see.”
Carter
and Gray looked at each other – streeters saw all sorts of things. If they said
it was a nasty scene, they’d probably do well to get smocks and rain boots.
“All right, Officer,” Carter said, at which Martin seemed to relax a bit. “Were
there any witnesses, security footage, anything like that?”
“Nothing
we could find,” said Martin. “This area’s been abandoned for years. Anyone who
lives here cleared out as soon as they heard us coming. You know how it is.”
“Yeah,”
said Gray. Don’t want to get arrested for just being around. “All right,
thanks, Officer. If you and…”
“Conklin
and Peavey,” Martin replied. “In the other car. Patel’s with me.”
“…Right,”
Carter replied with a nod. “If you fellas can keep up the cordon on either side
of the alley, we’ll have a look. Call the coroner while you’re at it.”
“On it,”
barked Martin, who stepped away from the alley mouth while touching the side of
his throat where a subvocal mic, standard issue for street patrol, had been
implanted. Carter waited until Martin had backed up a few steps and was well
into conversation before he gestured for Gray to follow him. The two men passed
through the holographic cordon, the barrier no more solid than the air around
it, and took a few steps into the feebly-lit alleyway. The space behind the
deli was dark and thick with shadows, lit only by the dying bulb of a lamp set
over the shop’s sealed back door. A figure slumped or lay in the cone of dim light
that spilled across the building’s crumbling facade. The air was faintly tinged
with the smell of ozone and cooked meat. The two men approached; Gray held his
computer in one hand while Carter fished the flat, card-sized shape of a palm
lamp from a coat pocket. Cupping the lamp in his hand, Carter threw a beam of
bright blue- white light across the alleyway and clearly illuminated the
corpse.
Lean and
muscular in life, that which had been Ronald Anderson half-crouched,
half-sprawled across the alleyway, his handsome face pointing down toward the
filthy concrete. The corpse’s posture reminded Gray of an old girlfriend; she
was a yoga fanatic and used to do something similar called the Child’s Pose.
Anderson’s formerly clean white dress shirt had been cut open, straight down
the back from collar to waist, and his belted slacks had also been cut down to
the base of the pelvis. His back had been tattooed with a medieval Japanese
wave scene.
Anderson’s
flesh had been laid open. Arching upward and away in a v-shaped furrow, a deep
channel now butterflied the man’s back half from the base of his skull to the
top of his pelvis. Where his spine should have been there was only a bloodless,
grayish-red channel. The red and ivory of cleanly clipped bone and cooked organs
were clearly visible in its absence, his heart a gray and veined lump. It was
as if the tattooed sea had somehow come alive, restless and roaring, and
attempted to rise away from its host who could never have survived its
rebellion.
Without
the slightest drop of blood, Ronald Anderson had been boned like a fish.
“Damn,”
muttered Carter, stepping forward so he could track with his light the awful
wound. “Never seen that before. What do you make of it, Dan?” For Gray, who had
only experienced the more pedestrian horrors of stranglings, stabbings and
gunshot wounds in his brief career, there was no clean reply. “That’s the
strangest thing I’ve ever seen,” he breathed instead, staring down at the
carved gutter. Gray had said ‘strangest’ – however, what he had truly wanted to
say was ‘most horrible’. Looking down at the murdered man, Gray knew that his
‘sexy’ case had arrived, just as he had wished for it, but the only thing he
could wish for now was to be anywhere else.
As
if sensing the truth behind Gray’s words, Carter snorted softly. “Lucky you,
kid,” he replied in a wry and vaguely weary tone. “Lucky you.”
About The Author
Michael Shean was born amongst the sleepy
hills and coal mines of southern West Virginia in 1978. Taught to read by his
parents at a very early age, he has had a great love of the written word since
the very beginning of his life. Growing up, he was often plagued with feelings
of isolation and loneliness; he began writing off and on to help deflect this,
though these themes are often explored in his work as a consequence. At the age
of 16, Michael began to experience a chain of vivid nightmares that has
continued to this day; it is from these aberrant dreams that he draws
inspiration.
In
2001 Michael left West Virginia to pursue a career in the tech industry, and he
settled in the Washington, DC area as a web designer and graphic artist. As a
result his writing was put aside and not revisited until five years later. In
2006 he met his current fiancee, who urged him to pick up his writing once
more. Several years of work and experimentation yielded the core of what would
become his first novel, Shadow of a Dead Star (2011). Michael is currently
signed with Curiosity Quills Press, who has overtaken publication of Shadow of
a Dead Star and the other books of his Wonderland Cycle.
Find The Author
