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The Rift: A Science-Fiction Thriller
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Synopsis
Multimillion-copy bestselling authors Douglas E. Richards and Joshua T. Calvert team up for the first time to deliver an explosive, high-stakes science-fiction thriller, one that will leave you breathless.
Deep in Antarctica, two researchers find an enigmatic black sphere suspended in the heart of a huge crater. Neither man is ever seen again.
Decades later, reality fractures. A Manhattan skyscraper vanishes into thin air. An airplane crashes in the Sahara Desert—its existence defying logic. Across the globe, breathtaking technology and mysterious artifacts appear, all leading to one chilling truth: a parallel Earth is breaching the boundary between realities. And with every artifact that crosses over, the fabric of existence tears further apart.
Enter Dr. James Barron, a man haunted by his past who is thrust into a fight he didn’t choose. As secret organizations and shadowy forces battle to control the growing breach, Barron becomes humanity’s reluctant champion. Can he stop an invasion from a world bent on conquest? Or will the widening rift doom both Earths to annihilation?
The Rift is the electrifying first entry in a trilogy of epic science-fiction thrillers.
“Richards is an extraordinary writer,” (Dean Koontz) who can “keep you turning the pages all night long,” (Douglas Preston)
“Joshua T. Calvert has a gift for making nail-biting science fiction that you can’t put down. Get ready for some sleepless nights!” (M.A. Rothman, USA Today bestselling author)
Release date: February 1, 2025
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The Rift: A Science-Fiction Thriller
Douglas E. Richards
Prologue
Gustav Henrikson worked his way farther south with long strokes of his skis. Gunnar Perry followed him at some distance through the thick snow flurries. It was already getting dark, and the flakes of frozen water formed a pale veil in front of them, causing the landscape of the Antarctic Peninsula to look like the depressing painting by an artist who only used shades of gray.
The piercing wind howled in the peaks of the black mountains on their left, which rose almost ten thousand feet into the sky and were shrouded in pitch-black clouds. Gustav turned his back to the wind and pulled the snow goggles off his face, also pulling his mittens off to take the map and compass from his belt pouch.
The icy cold immediately pricked his uncovered skin like a thousand needles.
“Are we still on course?” shouted Gunnar over the squalls as he caught up with his colleague. The scarf covering his mouth almost swallowed his words.
“I think so, yes,” replied Gustav, pointing south. “If I’m not mistaken, it’s only a few more miles.”
“What?”
“We’re almost there!” shouted Gustav.
Gunnar nodded, looked ahead, and shrugged his shoulders. With his snow goggles and fur hood, he looked like an insect that had learned to walk on two legs. Not even his nose was visible under his cold-weather gear.
Gustav put his own goggles back on and faced south, along the endless expanse of snow and ice that had reduced visibility to less than seventy feet. The storm was fierce, and Gustav regretted that they hadn’t turned back hours ago.
But they had been traveling for days and the whole time he had been wondering what the seismographs at the McMurdo Antarctic research station had discovered here. Antarctica was tectonically and volcanically active, so it wasn’t uncommon for tremors to be registered.
But not directly on the surface and not here on the plain. Gunnar thought it must be a meteorite impact, but Gustav didn’t believe that was possible. If true, the meteorite would have had to be huge, and they would have seen that from McMurdo Station, and probably even felt the shock wave.
As soon as he had adjusted his glasses, he set off again, groaning against the strong wind that was blowing thick snowflakes toward them, as if Nature, herself, was conspiring to prevent them from getting any farther and solving the latest mystery it had presented them with.
Gustav’s legs ached from the exertion and his fingers and toes were getting uncomfortably cold, which was more than reason enough to turn back immediately. But there was still East Base, thirty miles away, should they get into trouble.
After a while, he almost collided with Gunnar, who had halted in front of him. Visibility had diminished to less than ten feet.
“What’s going on?” he shouted, having to put his mouth near Gunnar’s ear to be heard over the roar of the elements.
Gunnar waved his huge radio and shouted in his partner’s ear. “No more signal. Just static on all frequencies!”
Gustav looked around. There were only snowflakes and gathering darkness. Soon they would have to set up camp for the night. But according to his map, they had long since reached the epicenter of the registered tremor.
He frowned deeply. Maybe they should have listened to the warnings of their colleagues after all.
“We should keep going,” he shouted. “A little further!”
“No, it’s too dangerous!”
Gustav pretended not to have heard him and continued to slide onward when he suddenly slumped forward. Before he had registered what had happened he found himself hurtling down a slope.
It was only thanks to his reflexes as an experienced skier that he didn’t immediately lose his footing and fall. Crouching down, he held out his arms in front of him to protect his face from whipping snowflakes.
When he moved his arms away, his slide had slowed and he realized that, strangely enough, there was no more snow. The storm had ceased to exist. Completely baffled, he lost his balance and crashed hard onto the ground, losing his skis and sliding quite a distance before coming to a stop.
He moved his limbs with a groan. His left arm was numb, and his right knee felt as if it had been hit with a sledgehammer. Nevertheless, he pulled himself to his feet and removed the completely frozen snow goggles from his face.
What Gustav saw then suddenly made his mouth go dry. He was near the center of a huge crater several hundred meters in diameter.
The ground looked charred, as if it had just burned, even though there was no vegetation under the eternal ice.
There seemed to be an invisible dome above him, as the storm was still raging but didn’t seem to be penetrating downwards. The snow simply dissolved up above.
He soon saw what had to be responsible for this bizarre effect. A sphere of perfect blackness hovered a few yards above the center of the crater, which made his blood run cold. The sphere had no contours and seemed to be held in the air by invisible forces, completely motionless. A deep humming emanated from it, and he could feel heat on his heavily covered face like invisible sunlight. He squinted, trying to make out details, and stumbled back.
Threads of shimmering air reached out from the sphere into the area around the crater, leaking in every direction and leaving a terrible hiss where they met the ice.
Gustav felt like he was in a dream—a nightmare from which he had to wake up as quickly as possible. He managed to tear himself away from the otherworldly sight and was about to call out to Gunnar when he saw his friend lying a few meters away, face down, with his limbs twisted.
Motionless.
“We have to go!” he shouted to his colleague, stomping over to him. “Now!”
He didn’t even notice when one of the transparent threads hit him in the chest. ...
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