Chapter One
Four floors below Manhattan in a bunkerlike room, a vast wall of monitors pulses
with fragments of a city's picture; images flicker to life then disappear like
bits of dream.
On one of the screens Mrs. Franklin Holt does not move, not one muscle. She has
not moved in six hours. Crowds pour in and out of subway trains on the platform
where she is standing but she stares ahead like a statue. She does not flinch
when a teenager waiting for an overdue train dances around her to get laughs
from his friends. She does not respond when a young couple asks her if she is
okay. She is transfixed by something in front of her no one else can see.
Something that will happen soon.
Two blocks away from the subway station where Mrs. Franklin Holt is
waiting, Mac Wells leans against the wall of a Korean grocery and watches the
flow of traffic. He checks his watch. Sam Mullane is late. They are due on
station in six minutes. Mac lets his eyes lose their focus and the taxis
speeding by form an undulating river of yellow, the blood of the city.
Mac senses someone lean against the wall next to him.
"You counting cars again?" Sam asks tiredly.
"You're a hundred and thirteen cabs late. ... read full excerpt from P.E.A.C.E. ebook
