Black Heart : Origin (Black Heart Series, Book 3) by Jay Allan Storey

Author:Jay Allan Storey [Storey, Jay Allan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Non Sequitur Publishing
Published: 2020-02-19T18:30:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Four

Saying Goodbye

Back at home, Carmine worked off his parka and examined his stitched-up bullet wound. A few beads of blood had pushed through the stitches, and the skin was red where they’d been stressed, but they hadn’t pulled out. He winced as he dabbed the area with alcohol, and wrapped his arm with a makeshift bandage.

Exhausted and drained, he flopped into his chair and passed out. He woke an hour later, feeling somewhat refreshed. He switched on the TV with the sound muted. The advisories for leaving LA were becoming more frequent. Beyond that, nothing much had changed, except that everyone on the planet was one more day closer to death.

Carmine thought about the implications of all that he’d seen. Blackstone was building an army. To attack what? And what exactly was Blackstone’s relationship with Arcana and Ark Two? Amid all the chaos, Carmine hadn’t had a chance to examine Raymond Lansing’s phone in detail. Now he sifted through the apps, looking for more information on Ark Two. There was nothing. Maybe the project was too sensitive to risk putting it on a device that could be lost or stolen.

He still wasn’t completely clear on what Lansing, or even Arcana itself, actually did. He re-opened the contact list he’d accessed earlier, labeled Arcana, the one with the encrypted entries. He selected a sub-menu item labeled Security, and a further sub-menu titled Decrypt, and smiled as a rectangular panel popped up with a fingerprint icon. The text beside it said Security ID. He pressed his index finger on the panel and confirmed the change.

The panel disappeared and the list was redrawn, with the names and pictures decrypted. He scanned through the names, but didn’t see any he recognized. A new sub-menu had also appeared. One of the selections had the ominous title of Targets, and was represented by a circle containing a cross-hair. He opened it and another list popped into view.

There were more than a hundred entries, with headings for name, address, email, phone number, and, in most cases, a picture. Apparently Lansing, among his other duties, was a hitman for Arcana. Each entry also contained a chilling set of criteria. There was Priority, which he guessed was the level of threat the person represented. Another was titled Collateral. The choices were None, Narrow, and Wide. It looked like a measure of the pattern of death to be inflicted around the person in that entry.

Carmine scanned through the names, and at first didn’t recognize anyone, but several pages in, his throat tightened. About halfway down was his own picture, taken from the Arctic Blast website. He opened the entry. The information was all there.

His Priority was Moderate, implying that they hadn’t completely worked out how much he knew, but still wanted him dead, just to be on the safe side. The address was his old one, but the Collateral entry made goosebumps rise on his skin. His rating was Wide. Beside his address was a comment: Alternate - Arctic Blast, with the address of his employer.

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