Apex Apocalypse by John Lee Schneider

Author:John Lee Schneider [Schneider, John Lee]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Severed Press
Published: 2024-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 20

Daniel looked down at Abigail, lying there on her back, hair spread across the floor – she'd managed to lose the top few buttons on her shirt – not quite exposing her breasts. He still had her hands pinned to the floor.

His wife, standing at the door, clearly was not pleased by the optics.

Abigail shrugged.

“Sorry,” she said.

Daniel pushed back quickly, clambering to his feet. He turned to Jen, whose expression said it all.

“Nothing happened.” Daniel turned a dire eye back at Abigail. “Not for lack of her trying.”

Abigail sighed, sitting up.

Daniel glared.

“Tell her, Abigail.”

“Fine,” Abigail conceded, giving him an OK-Dad roll of the eyes. “Nothing happened. But not 'cause I didn't try.”

She hopped to her feet.

“For what it's worth,” she said, turning her eye to Jen, “that doesn't happen very often.” She smiled. “It's worth knowing about your man.”

Jen was staring darts. She already looked like she'd rolled down a mud-bank – maybe through some branches.

Daniel was about to ask when his phone charging at the desk started to ring.

The three of them exchanged arch-glares as Daniel picked up the phone. His brows raised as he saw the number.

“It's the FBI again.”

Abigail smiled.

“I'm not here,” she said.

Daniel tapped the number, putting the call on speaker.

“Agent Johnson? This is Ranger Reid.”

“Who's there?” Johnson asked.

Daniel glanced at Abigail.

“Me and my wife,” he said. Jen frowned.

“Good. This concerns her too,” he said, “I just landed in Florida. We've had incidents on both coasts, but we're pretty sure this is all culminating out here.”

“I would say that's a good bet,” Daniel replied. “I was just attacked. Two of my rangers, and a county deputy are dead.”

Johnson was silent a moment. When he spoke, he was succinct and to the point.

“Two things,” he said. “First, check your email. It looks like Apex Apocalypse is going live.”

Daniel glanced at Jen and Abigail. Both their phones beeped, with incoming alerts. A moment later, his own beeped as well.

They all checked their messages – the addresses coming in were all from Apex Apocalypse.

Daniel glanced at Abigail, scrolling her phone.

“I thought you said your battery was dead.”

“Oh,” she replied innocently, “I just had it turned off.”

“Near as we can tell,” Agent Johnson said over Daniel's speaker, “it's going through several legitimate cable, pay-per-view, online and live-stream services. We think it's even being broadcast.

“On the surface,” he said, “it's through the producers of Monster Hunter – right through the studio-office, in fact. But we traced a lot of its funding to a group called Natural Wonders. I assume you're familiar?”

They were. In point of fact, one of Natural Wonders' last acquisitions was the Gator Glades reptile park, right before it flooded.

“They hid the money trail,” Johnson continued. “But they only hid it a couple front-companies deep. If I were a suspicious man, working for the FBI, I might think they set it up to be caught once it was all already in motion. They're using this. The Natural Wonders funding only started coming in a few months ago, but I think they've been setting this up for some time.

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