By now you’ve met both Lydia and Daniel (if not, follow the links to see those excerpts), so this week I’m giving you a taste of what brings them together as protagonists. I wasn’t kidding when I said I did a lot of research and that this book has a lot of science in it. It’s not all smutty prose, folks! I mean, it’s there, yeah, but there’s also PLOT. And the smut has a purpose. No, really. It does! Stop laughing!
Anyway, this is not smut (you gotta pay to see that, LOL). THIS is science. Well, fictionalized science, at any rate. I took great pains to not overdo it with the fancy terminology and tried to keep everything at a layman’s level. In cases where I didn’t, I hope it sparks some curiosity and encourages others to explore beyond the book. Science is sexy and knowledge is power!
I’ll have an announcement very very very very soon about what’s happening with Maven and the rest of the Endure series, so keep your eyes out for that. I’m pretty excited about the direction it’s going and I hope you all are too!
Until then, here’s your sneak peek.
Teaser Tuesday Excerpt
Lydia stared at the open document. What she was reading was beyond incriminating. The report before her, while somewhat obtusely worded, was not only confirmation of what she feared, but much worse than that.
It was a communication from someone identifying as “Stonefish” to another party known as “Barrier Reef”. As much as she could infer, Stonefish was Dr. Isaiah Lowenstein, the man who had run 3-SSR before her. The other codename was not as easy a leap to make. The report described test results from infecting a generic type of phytoplankton with five different strains of water-borne bacteria. The specified bacteria were known to be extremely hazardous to humans, and commonly found in fish harvested in areas around volcanic vents. That this bacteria was being experimented with for anything besides curative purposes was highly irregular at best, but if they were coupled with the phytoplankton… The conclusion she drew from that chilled her.
Subaquatic colonies used two specific filtration processes to eliminate impurities from ocean water, one to make it potable and one to make it usable in hydroponic farming. In farming, quite often phytoplankton and other organic materials were left in the water to provide nourishment for growing plants. If the infected phytoplankton from the experimental data Daniel had found were to be introduced to such a system, anyone who consumed food exposed to the bacteria-carrying organisms would become very, very ill, resulting in death ninety-nine percent of the time.
Lydia was horrified at the implications of owning such a weapon. She couldn’t imagine what good could come of such a thing. If this was unleashed without a control mechanism it would poison every ocean, every sea, and every body of water. It would wipe out marine life everywhere, and anything that needed water to survive. She tried to reason out the motivations for such unconscionable actions. Money was clearly a factor. With all the references to SeaCorp, they must be directly involved. With this research they could hold the entire planet hostage under threat of infection, extorting them for “protection fees” like the old Italian mafias and urban gangs. If they developed a cure, they would set the price, effectively putting everyone at their mercy, or rather, their lack of it.
This was big. Bigger than big. What Daniel had uncovered in these documents was a plan that could potentially destroy the entire planet. The weight of the knowledge was crushing. Her chest tightened and she had trouble breathing. Never before had she been confronted with such pure, unabashed evil.
End of excerpt
And there’s your conflict. Interested? Hang tight for news on Maven and the rest of this exciting series!
Thoughts. We needs them, Precious.