Quake: Final Threat

Book 6: Quake

by Jack Douglas

Genres: Thrillers

Synopsis

Terror Hits Home In the sixth and final installment of Jack Douglas's Quake, one American hero emerges from the ruins of a devastated New York to fight one ruthless terrorist—to the death. . . It's all come down to this. After surviving the the most devastating earthquake ever to hit the U.S. . ..after leading a band of survivors from one end of Manhattan to the other. . .after saving his daughter from nature's wrath and humanity's worst. . .U.S. Attorney Nick Dykstra must go head to head with the 9/11 terrorist who escaped his grasp in the chaos of the quake. As his sworn enemy, Feroz Saeed Alivi, will not stop until Nick and his family are dead and buried—or worse. Even in this moment of crisis, when the shockwaves have triggered a leak at the the Indian Point Nuclear Plant, Alivi will not give up until his unholy game is over. For Nick, it's kill or be killed. . . This is the final showdown that will shake the world to the very core. This is the only way to conquer the ultimate challenge of the QUAKE. 14,400 Words

Release date: July 1, 2014

Publisher: Pinnacle Books

Print pages: 51

Sample

Assistant U.S. Attorney Nick Dykstra was certain he was in the right place, and yet he couldn’t see Columbia University anywhere around him. Could the subway signs have been deliberately tampered with? He supposed it wouldn’t be impossible. He wouldn’t put it past somebody like that psycho down there, Charles Leighton. The guy I had to shoot. But unbelievably, there was a street sign still standing. He directed the beam of his flashlight onto it: 116TH STREET.

This was it!

And then it hit him, like a sucker punch to the gut.

This was it!

Columbia University.

No . . . no . . . no !

All the way around him for 360 degrees the land was absolutely flattened. He couldn’t make out a single building still standing. It was some of the worst damage he’d seen so far. He thought about the aftershock that had hit with sudden, uncompromising ferocity not long ago. Whatever buildings may have withstood the day’s seismic events up to that point, they’d have been demolished for certain. Nick was only too glad to have barely emerged from the subway when it hit.

Lauren!

And then suddenly thinking her name was not enough. He tipped his head back and roared her name into the night.

“Lauren!”

But his voice merely rolled unanswered across the wasteland of destruction.

He sat on the ground, exhausted physically from his long journey across the ruined metropolis, and mentally from worrying about his daughter. Seeing the general place where she had been so thoroughly devastated . . . It was almost more than he could bear, but he knew that sitting around wasn’t going to help anyone so he forced himself to his blistered feet. His pricy loafers may be perfect for the courtroom, but they sure as hell weren’t made for the serious hiking he’d had to do today. Damned things were already falling apart, he noted, feeling how the sole of the right shoe had begun to separate.

Nick told himself that maybe the actual damage to the university wasn’t as bad as it looked from this distance, once he actually got onto the campus. Surely there’d be some buildings still standing? Taking some care to orient himself amidst the sameness of the flattened area, he set off toward what he thought was the main campus.

The surroundings were dismal. Not only were all of the buildings he passed by leveled, but even the quaint little paved walkways that wound their way throughout the once parklike setting had been buckled and torn apart. This was the school where he’d wanted his daughter to study, so that she’d be close to him. And now look at it. He didn’t see how it would be operational for a long, long time. Lauren, assuming she was okay (How the hell could anyone have survived the likes of this?) would have an easy out now for wanting to attend some faraway, out-of-state school.

But he’d already made his peace with that. No more dictating, cajoling, influencing, hinting, pushing, or demanding. She was going wherever the hell she wanted to go and he would learn to deal with it.

As long as she had made it through this, he reminded himself. Just let her be alive. Please, just let her be alive. . . .

He continued on, twisting his way through snarls of uprooted trees intermingled with raw building materials. After a while he came to a large sign reading CAMPUS DIRECTORY which had been knocked to the ground. He walked over to it and turned his head at an awkward angle to match the random orientation of the sign on the ground. Found the YOU ARE HERE marker.

He raised his head to try to reconcile the chaos of what he saw with the stylized perfection of the map. He put his flashlight to good use, probing the inky blackness as far as it would penetrate. It took him a while, but based on the relative locations of the destroyed paths and the sign’s former position, he was confident he’d properly oriented himself.

But now a new question pervaded his mind: where to look? He considered this. So far Nick had seen absolutely no signs of people, which terrified him. Unless . .. . .