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Holiday Gifts for Every Reader

Happy New Release Day! Here’s what went on sale today.

opens in a new windowBy His Own Hand by Neal Griffin

opens in a new windowPlace holder  of - 3 The body of a young man has been found in the woods outside Newberg, dead from a close-range shotgun blast. The gun—his own—lies beside the body.

Certain things don’t add up for Detective Tia Suarez. Where did the fat envelope of cash in his pocket come from? Who called the police to report the body, then disappeared before the cops arrived?

opens in a new windowHead On by John Scalzi

opens in a new windowImage Place holder  of - 35 Hilketa is a frenetic and violent pastime where players attack each other with swords and hammers. The main goal of the game: obtain your opponent’s head and carry it through the goalposts. With flesh and bone bodies, a sport like this would be impossible. But all the players are “threeps,” robot-like bodies controlled by people with Haden’s Syndrome, so anything goes. No one gets hurt, but the brutality is real and the crowds love it.

Until a star athlete drops dead on the playing field.

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opens in a new windowAvengers of the Moon by Allen Steele

opens in a new windowImage Placeholder of - 91 Curt Newton has spent most of his life hidden from the rest of humankind, being raised by a robot, an android, and the disembodied brain of a renowned scientist. Curt’s innate curiosity and nose for trouble inadvertently lead him into a plot to destabilize the Solar Coalition and assassinate the president. There’s only one way to uncover the evil mastermind—Curt must become Captain Future.

opens in a new windowThe Guns Above by Robyn Bennis

opens in a new windowPlaceholder of  -95 They say it’s not the fall that kills you.

For Josette Dupre, the Corps’ first female airship captain, it might just be a bullet in the back.

On top of patrolling the front lines, she must also contend with a crew who doubts her expertise, a new airship that is an untested deathtrap, and the foppish aristocrat Lord Bernat, a gambler and shameless flirt with the military know-how of a thimble.

opens in a new windowNight Magic by Jenna Black

opens in a new windowPoster Placeholder of - 49 Philadelphia is locked in the grip of an evil magic that transforms its streets into a nightmare landscape the minute the sun sets each night. While most of the city hunkers down and hopes to survive the long winter nights, Becket Walker is roaming the darkened streets having the time of her life.

Once, the guilt of having inadvertently let the night magic into the city—and of having killed her onetime best friend—had threatened to destroy her. But now she’s been Nightstruck, and all her grief and guilt and terror have been swept away—along with her conscience. So what if she’s lost her friends, her family, and her home? And so what if her hot new boyfriend is super-controlling and downright malevolent?

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opens in a new windowThe Atrocities by Jeremy C. Shipp

opens in a new window When Isabella died, her parents were determined to ensure her education wouldn’t suffer.

But Isabella’s parents had not informed her new governess of Isabella’s… condition, and when Ms Valdez arrives at the estate, having forced herself through a surreal nightmare maze of twisted human-like statues, she discovers that there is no girl to tutor.

Or is there…?

NEW IN MANGA

opens in a new windowMonster Girl Doctor Vol. 2 Story by Yoshino Origuchi; Art by z-ton

opens in a new windowSpirit Circle Vol. 3 Story and art by Satoshi Mizukami

Holiday Gifts for Every Reader

By Jennifer McClelland-Smith

When you were a kid, the holidays were simple. You got a gift for you family members, and maybe a gift for you bestie. Now you’ve got to get gifts for you family, bestie(s), close friends, and do those acquaintances deserve a gift, too? Probably. If there’s a significant other in the picture, well, they definitely need a gift, plus their family and friends, and don’t even get me started on coworkers…Figuring out who you need to get gifts for is a headache. But add in the pressure of figuring out what to get for everyone? Ugh, forget about it.

Fear not! Forge is here to help. Not with figuring out who in your life you need to give a gift to, you’re still on your own there. But when it comes to deciding what to buy for everyone, we’ve got your back. Our handy list of holiday gifts for every reader will definitely save you some shopping time!

Midnight at the Blackbird Café by Heather Webber

For that friend who owns the comfiest robes, softest cookies and heartiest teas, invite them into this cozy read. Anna Kate returns to small-town Alabama to settle her grandma’s estate and finds herself drawn to quirky townspeople and the magic that abounds. Have snacks close by as you read… the descriptions of the scrumptious offerings of the Blackbird Cafe will be enough to keep every reader’s mouth watering.

48 Hours by William Forstchen

Got a survivalist on your list? Look no further than 48 Hours, the latest from William R. Forstchen, the master of apocalyptic potboilers. A huge solar storm shuts down the electrical grid and threatens humanity itself. A group of ordinary Americans band together to save humanity. It’s an unputdownable page-turner that will set your mind reeling.

 

Darkness at Chancellorsville by Ralph Peters

For your resident Civil War enthusiast…Take a front-row seat for one of the war’s most surprising battles. Ralph Peters is one of the top historical fiction writers out there, and this extensively researched and enthralling epic shows why. Get a fresh perspective on the battle that almost ended the Civil War and trace the steps that led Confederate general Robert E. Lee to embark on the Gettsyburg Campaign.

 

Stay Sexy & Don’t Get Murdered by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark

Sure, this is the obvious choice for your Murderino friend, but Stay Sexy & Don’t Get Murdered is a great read for anyone looking for a fun, funny read full of advice only your older sister could give you. It’s a memoir disguised as a life manual. It’ll have you laughing until you cry. And crying while you laugh. And every combination of laughing and crying you can imagine.

 

Nottingham by Nathan Makaryk

Fill that Game of Thrones-sized hole in your favorite reader’s life with this fresh spin on the myth of Robin Hood. You’ll get to know his merry men and all of the characters that haunt Nottingham Castle in a whole new light. You think you know what to expect, but the twists and thrills in this study of power will keep those pages turning all the way through the thrilling conclusion.

 

A Dog’s Promise by W. Bruce Cameron

If you’ve got a dog-lover on your list, you’re no doubt familiar with the heartwarming works of W. Bruce Cameron. A Dog’s Promise is the follow-up to the wildly popular A Dog’s Purpose and A Dog’s Journey, both major motion pictures! It’s a new tale of Bailey, a very good dog who is joined by Lacey, another very special dog. Together, they show the love and loyalty only our canine friends can offer.

 

Empire of Lies by Raymond Khoury

It’s a time travel book. It’s an alternate history. It’s a sweeping thriller like you’ve never read before. If you’ve got a reader on your list who loves a book that will keep them thinking, this is the one. Set in a world where the Ottoman Empire conquered Europe in 1683, it’s a race through time for a member of the Sultan’s secret police force and the mysterious tattooed stranger he encounters. It’s a race through time to save the world, or destroy it.

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5 Novels to Prepare for the Apocalypse

By Jennifer McClelland-Smith

Natural disasters. Civil unrest. Nuclear proliferation. As we enter the long, cold winter, it’s hard not to feel like we’re waiting on the end of the world. It’s a perfect time to dive into some blood-pumping reads as we wait for the apocalypse to come!

 

opens in a new window48 Hours by William R. Forstchen
opens in a new windowPoster Placeholder of - 15William R. Forstchen cements his place as a master of apocalyptic fiction in 48 Hours. In this prescient thriller, a group of everyday Americans, as well as the president himself, plan for a Coronal Mass Ejection, a solar storm with the potential to wipe out the world’s electrical infrastructure. This nail-biter will have you asking could this happen to us?

 

opens in a new windowImage Place holder  of - 57Forstchen struck a chord with this New York Times bestseller. One Second After is so terrifyingly real, it was cited on the floor of Congress as a book all Americans should read. How does one man in small-town North Carolina survive and keep his family safe after America is sent back to the dark ages by an Electro Magnetic Pulse?

 

Without Mercy by Col. David Hunt & R.J. Piniero
Place holder  of - 16ISIS has detonated two nuclear weapons at the start of this absolutely chilling read. The hunt is on when it becomes clear a third one is on the way from the rogue terrorist group. Col. David Hunt & R.J. Piniero bring this all-too-real scenario to life in this read that is both meticulously researched and chock full of action.

 

The Burning Light by Bradley P. Beaulieu and Rob Ziegler
Image Placeholder of - 39New York City is a flooded relic. The streets run rampant with zombie-like users of a mysterious force called The Light. It’s up to one disgraced former government operative to save humanity from a horrible fate. This action-packed novella zips at lightning speed with a sci-fi edge that makes it impossible to put down.

 

opens in a new windowPlaceholder of  -38Laurence is a brilliant engineer leading a group saving the world with technology. Patricia and her coterie of fellow witches are healing the world with secret magic. When circumstances beyond their control bring them together, sparks fly in more ways than one. An apocalyptic novel to be sure, but also funny and literary with a tinge of magical realism.

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New Releases: 1/8

Happy New Release Day! Here’s what went on sale today.

opens in a new window48 Hours by William R. Forstchen

opens in a new windowImage Place holder  of - 8In 48 hours, the Earth will be hit by a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) from the Sun, a “Carrington Event” that has the power to shut down and possibly destroy the world’s electrical infrastructure. To try and prevent permanent damage, everything goes dark prior to the hit: global communications are shut down; hospital emergency generators are disconnected; the entire internet, media broadcasting, and cell phone systems are turned off.

Will the world’s population successfully defend itself in the wake of the CME, or will mass panic lead to the breakdown of society as we know it?

opens in a new windowThrough Fiery Trials by David Weber

opens in a new windowImage Placeholder of - 81Those on the side of progressing humanity through advanced technology have finally triumphed over their oppressors. The unholy war between the small but mighty island realm of Charis and the radical, luddite Church of God’s Awaiting has come to an end.

However, even though a provisional veil of peace has fallen over human colonies, the quiet will not last. For Safefold is a broken world, and as international alliances shift and Charis charges on with its precarious mission of global industrialization, the shifting plates of the new world order are bound to clash.

Yet, an uncertain future isn’t the only danger Safehold faces. Long-thought buried secrets and prophetic promises come to light, proving time is a merciless warden who never forgets.

opens in a new windowThe Void Protocol by F. Paul Wilson

opens in a new windowPlaceholder of  -28Something sits in a bunker lab buried fifty feet below the grounds of Lakehurst Naval Air Station.

The product of the Lange-Tür technology confiscated from the Germans after World War II occupies a chamber of steel-reinforced ballistic glass. Despite experimentation for nearly three-quarters of a century, no one knows what it is, but illegal human research reveals what it can do. Humans with special abilities have been secretly collected—abilities that can only have come from whatever occupies the underground bunker in Lakehurst.

And so it sits, sequestered on the edge of the New Jersey Pine Barrens, slowly changing the world.

NEW IN TOR.COM

opens in a new windowIn an Absent Dream by Seanan McGuire

opens in a new windowPlace holder  of - 40This fourth entry and prequel tells the story of Lundy, a very serious young girl who would rather study and dream than become a respectable housewife and live up to the expectations of the world around her. As well she should.

When she finds a doorway to a world founded on logic and reason, riddles and lies, she thinks she’s found her paradise. Alas, everything costs at the goblin market, and when her time there is drawing to a close, she makes the kind of bargain that never plays out well.

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Countdown to Blackout: On EMPs, Solar Flares, and 48 Hours by William R. Forstchen

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By Jennifer McClelland-Smith

opens in a new windowImage Place holder  of - 30In  opens in a new window48 Hours, New York Times bestselling author William R. Forstchen writes of a “Carrington Event”, a powerful solar storm able to wipe out the Earth’s electrical grid, threatening humanity itself. So how exactly does the American population prepare to defend itself in this prescient thriller?

Mr. Science Explains It All
In anticipation of this potentially catastrophic event, the federal government calls in Mr. Science, a popular television host to explain it all. His simple, if slightly bizarre, explanation of what to expect in the next 48 hours runs continuously on all networks and internet sources, garnering hundreds of millions of views, at least as long as the grid is up and running.

All Citizens Will Disconnect

The next step in preparing for the solar storm is for all Americans to shut down the electricity in their homes, going as far as pulling the plug on every last electronic device and disconnecting every gadget connected to the internet. Staying unplugged and offline protects the grid until the storm passes.

Transportation Will Be Severely Limited

At midnight, before the anticipated storm hits, all airline and railway traffic will stop and all Americans will be advised to stay off the roads, as those with electric cars, hybrids, and other late-model automobiles may be impacted by the storm as well, due to their electrical components.

World Leaders Unite

Finally, the United States government reaches agreements with leaders around the world to use their military forces for defensive purposes only. The US, Russia, China, and NATO agree to keep watch, ensuring this solar storm does not devolve into a world war.

It all sounds simple enough, right? Told from the alternating perspectives of a no-nonsense security expert in the Missouri Ozarks and a leading scientific expert on the subject, staring down the catastrophe with the president, 48 Hours is both a nail-biting thriller and a powerful tribute to the resilience of the American spirit.

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Where to Start With William R. Forstchen

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By Jennifer McClelland-Smith

New York Times bestselling author William R. Forstchen’s next thriller,  opens in a new window48 Hours, comes out on January 8—but if you’re looking for more of his engrossing, pulse-raising work to tide you over until then, here are some ideas on where to start:

opens in a new windowOne Second After

opens in a new windowPlace holder  of - 26The US is hit by an Electro Magnetic Pulse (EMP) attack, wiping out all electrical systems. The first book in a New York Times bestselling series, One Second After has been cited on the floor of Congress as a book all Americans should read. This book and its two follow-ups,  opens in a new windowOne Year opens in a new window After, and  opens in a new windowThe Final Day, create an unforgettable portrait of ordinary citizens surviving an unprecedented catastrophe.

opens in a new windowPillar to the Sky

opens in a new windowImage Place holder  of - 80Pandemic drought. Escalating oil prices. Natural resources growing scarcer and scarcer. The world is at war in this NASA-inspired standalone novel, and society teeters on the edge of chaos. It’s going to take an unconventional solution to avoid total annihilation. Enter four brilliant and unexpected thinkers who work together to do the impossible: build an elevator to the heavens.

opens in a new windowThe Gettysburg Trilogy 

opens in a new windowPlaceholder of  -32Co-written with Rep. Newt Gingrich, this alternate history of the Civil War imagines what would have happened if Robert E. Lee and the Confederate army had been victorious at Gettysburg. Beginning with  opens in a new windowGettysburg, these action-packed, painstakingly researched, and utterly riveting books will keep Civil War buffs entranced.

 

opens in a new windowThe Pacific War

opens in a new windowPoster Placeholder of - 29Another alternate history co-written with Newt Gingrich, this series kicks off with Pearl Harbor: A Novel of December 8th, which provocatively reimagines the events leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor. With a rich cast of characters ranging from national leaders to ordinary citizens, both American and Japanese, this haunting and fascinating series presents a chilling “what if?” reconsideration of one of the most important moments in world history.

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Excerpt: 48 Hours by William R. Forstchen

opens in a new windowamazons opens in a new windowbns opens in a new windowbooksamillions opens in a new windowibooks2 27 opens in a new windowindiebounds

Poster Placeholder of - 11In 48 hours, the Earth will be hit by a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) from the Sun, a “Carrington Event” that has the power to shut down and possibly destroy the world’s electrical infrastructure. To try and prevent permanent damage, everything goes dark prior to the hit: global communications are shut down; hospital emergency generators are disconnected; the entire internet, media broadcasting, and cell phone systems are turned off.

Will the world’s population successfully defend itself in the wake of the CME, or will mass panic lead to the breakdown of society as we know it?

New York Times bestselling author William R. Forstchen’s new novel, opens in a new window48 Hours, will be available on January 8th. Please enjoy this excerpt.

1

Day One

Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri

DARREN Brooks fumbled as he tried to slap the alarm clock into silence, knocking it off the nightstand. The two little bells on top of the clock, with a tiny clapper between them, slamming back and forth, continued to ring, its tinny sound nerve-jarring.

“Oh, for God’s sake, Darren, turn that damn thing off,” Darla moaned from the other side of the bed.

He leaned over, groped around. It must have slid under the bed. “Darren!”

“Okay, okay, I got it,” he mumbled, pulling back the heavy wool blankets and cursing softly as his feet hit the cold floor.

Getting down on his hands and knees, he reached under the bed and grabbed the annoying antique, jamming a finger between the clapper and bells to silence the little annoying monstrosity at last.
The switch—where was the damn switch? He poked around the back, feeling for the lever, then his finger slipped off the clapper and, though muffled, the damn thing rang again. “Darren!”

A memory hit of all those old cartoons where Elmer, Daffy, whomever, tormented by an alarm clock, just threw it out the window. He found the switch and flicked it down, and the devilish machine fell silent.

He was still tempted to throw it against the wall, but wisely decided to just put it back on the nightstand. Now half-awake, he stumbled to the bathroom and out of force of habit flicked the switch.

And of course, no lights came on.

“Damn. Power is still off.” He sighed.

“It’s freezing in here,” Darla said. “I kind of figured it’s down again.”

There was no need for lights to just relieve himself. At least the water supply was gravity fed from the town’s storage tank—that was, as long as they pumped it full while they had power, which had been on for several hours the previous evening. He scurried across the freezing-cold floor and scrambled back under the covers, Darla muttering an affectionate curse as he pressed his cold feet up against the backs of her legs, but then she sighed as he snuggled in closer. She stood not much more than five foot two at a 110 pounds or so, and he was more than double her weight, six foot four, and bearlike. He wrapped his arms around her, the two nuzzling closer for a moment.

“Don’t fall back to sleep,” she whispered.

“Yeah, I know.”

Absolutely content with life at that moment, he held her tight, kissing her on the back of the neck.

“You need a shave.” She laughed softly as he rubbed his chin stubble against her upper back, a hint of a seductive note in her laughter.

“No, stop it,” she finally said. “You’ve got to go to work.”

“Later, then,” he whispered into her ear.

“Promises, promises,” was her sleepy reply as she pulled the heavy blankets back over her shoulder as he drew away, turned, and put his feet on the still-icy floor. He fumbled in the dark for his slippers, put them on, picked up his heavy bathrobe from the corner of the bed, and trekked out to the living room. The fire was still going. He opened the glass doors, fed in several more logs, closed the doors after opening the flue wider, then went into the kitchen, turning on the battery-powered lamp he had rigged up to the kitchen chandelier.

For southern Missouri in December, it was damn cold, well below freezing outside, frost glistening on the deck railings and on the cover of the hot tub, which they had shut down and drained three weeks earlier when the problems had started.

Always efficient and thinking ahead, Darla had set out the night before, a two-pound can of coffee and an old-fashioned percolator that had been stored in what they called their “prepper stash,” down in the basement. Filling up the pot with water, Darren now spooned coffee into the basket to be placed at the top of the percolator, put the lid on, and turned on the kitchen stove. At least that still worked because it was propane. They used to have a tank topped off with five hundred gallons of the stuff, but in the weeks after power had gone on the blink, they had been far too profligate in burning it up with their home generator to power and heat their four thousand–square-foot house, figuring the grid would be back up soon enough. Once things got back to normal, they’d just order up a propane truck to come out and fill them back up again. But things had not come back to normal, and they realized they might be in for a long haul with a cold winter, and the fifty gallons left should be hoarded only for cooking. The woodstove could provide sufficient heat for the living room and kitchen area, and at least they could cook indoors, unlike more than a few neighbors who on cold evenings stood shivering outside, cooking on their barbecues.

In the last few days, Darla had even passed out nine buckets of freeze- dried food from their emergency supply to neighbors who were coming up short, each bucket with enough food to keep a family of four going for a month. They had always factored in a thought regarding their neighbors and friends in a time of crisis—that was just part of their nature—but they could only give out a few more one-month buckets of food before having to think about their own long-term needs. Surely, though, they both hoped the damage to the power grid and overall infrastructure of the region from the solar storm of three weeks past would be repaired and life would soon return to some semblance of normalcy.

Neither of them wanted to think about the grim mathematics of what might happen to their emergency food supply if things still were not repaired a couple of months from now, especially given the reports, starting yesterday, that another solar event might be brewing.

The water in the coffeepot heated up, and there was the first hissing pop as it began percolating. Darren loved the sound of it. It reminded him of his grandmother’s home, a small farmstead, as if from another age, up in the back hills of the Ozarks. The soothing nostalgia-inducing sound from the coffeepot grew louder, the dark brew splashing up against the small clear glass globe atop the pot. When he spent weekends at his grandparents’ house, Darren always got the job of watching the pot until the coffee was jet-black, and they would then let him have a few warming sips, heavily laced with fresh cream from their cow tethered in the barn. The advent of the Mr. Coffee machines and then the little K-Cups had, in nearly all homes, resulted in relegating a percolator coffeepot to the basement or the trash pile. Buying one for use in an emergency had been one of many smart moves that were now paying off. And besides, he loved the sound of it, and somehow—maybe it was just psychosomatic—the coffee did seem to taste better.

He went back into the living room, taking in the vista offered by the two-story-high glass windows of their home. Their house, a log cabin of contemporary design, was situated atop a high ridge rising nearly two hundred feet above the Lake of the Ozarks. It faced southeast and at this time of year provided a perfect viewing point for the sunrise, which was beginning to unfold, the deeper indigos giving way to scarlet and brilliant shades of pink.

Darla shuffled out, bundled up in her oversized, rather funny-looking camouflage-pattern bathrobe with matching slippers—a Christmas present from him last year—went into the kitchen, pulled down two cups from the cabinet, and poured out their hot coffee, plain black, fresh cream no longer available.

She then shuffled into the living room, handed him one of the cups, and put her arm around his waist.

“Love you, Bear.”

Bear, her affectionate nickname for him, pronounced on their first date when at her door he asked permission to kiss her good night, and she of course agreed. He effortlessly lifted her a foot off the ground, wrapped in his massive embrace, and gave her a good-night kiss that convinced her on the spot that though still gun-shy from her divorce, she would not let this one get away.

“Wish you’d quit that damn job,” she announced. “We don’t need the money anymore now that we’ve sold our business, and you know it. Perfect morning to watch the sunrise, throw some more wood on the fire, and then back to bed.”

The way she said “back to bed” had a suggestive tone in it that made him hug her in closer.

She had been saying it nearly every morning of late, especially when what everyone was now calling “the Big Storm” had hit several weeks earlier. It had become a demarcation point, a dividing line between “before” and “after.” The before time was one of ease and luxury. After had been a wake-up call as to just how dependent all were upon limitless electricity, always available at the flick of a switch, a world with a global connection to friends, family, entertainment carried in the palm of a hand. All of that now limited at best in the southern tier of states, and according to the occasional news reports they could monitor, still entirely off-line farther north, where the impact of the solar storm had been more intense. The refrain punctuating most conversations now: “Once things are back to normal, we’ll . . .” But after three weeks that increasingly seemed like a fabled promised land that surely must return soon. Surely the ever-mentioned “they” had to get things back in order by the end of the year.

He sipped his coffee and looked down at her snuggled in by his side.

“Oh, come on. I was getting bored not doing anything. And, sweetheart, I’d drive you crazy within a month just hanging around here, and you know it. Besides, the benefits package is good—free medical insurance; you can’t sniff at that—and it keeps me out of your hair.”

“Still, given how things are now, especially over the next few days if that next storm hits, at least think about it. Okay? If things get worse, I want you here.”

He didn’t reply. It was ironic in a way to hear her concern. There was a touch of role reversal in their marriage. The military, police work, or security had been part of his life since high school. But Darla? Beyond her very feminine, petite exterior was someone with indeed a unique background. Definitely a tomboy raised by a single father who owned a gun-customizing business, she had taken it over in her early twenties after his passing and turned it into a thriving enterprise of providing customized weapons for the nation’s elite military units. So her appeal was not one of a nervous at-home wife feeling a need for her bear of a husband to be a protector. If anything, she was the one providing protection around this house and was deadly efficient with a multitude of weapons that her family business had manufactured until the sale of that firm a year ago. He found it amusing to say that if ever there were a situation that hit the fan, he’d be the backup for Darla.

Quitting his job, especially now, struck him as an act of cowardice, which was never part of his playbook. He had a job that he could not just walk away from now.

The sun was just breaking the horizon, usually a favorite moment for him of watching the long shadows interspersed with red and golden streaks of light spread across the lake.

At times, though, this moment still made him think of how different it was from sunrise out on the ugly flatland deserts of Iraq. That glaring orb rising and within minutes the temperature soaring from a comfortable chill to another day of hundred-degree heat.

He squinted, staring straight at the sun as it climbed above the pine trees rimming the ridge on the far side of the lake.

It didn’t look any different. Some people claimed that right at sunrise you could stare at it for a moment and see the spots, the building eruptions. He couldn’t, and he finally turned away, blinking, spots dancing in his vision from having stared at the sun too long.

“Drink your coffee and get out of here,” Darla chided him. “Bad example the head of security being late.”

He drained his cup, handed it back to her, and leaned over to kiss her on the forehead.

He glanced at the sun again, squinting, but it still didn’t look any different. But it was different. Just before going to bed shortly after midnight, they had listened to a BBC broadcast on a battery-powered shortwave radio and heard that another CME had exploded from the sun’s surface, perhaps more powerful than the December 1 incident, and would strike Earth in less than three days.

Something was indeed going wrong, and holding Darla close, he felt a vague fear of what was to come.

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