Lottery (Paperback) | Released: 12 Jul 2012

Lottery News Central Interview with an Assassin (in progress)... There were thirteen ways to die. Allowable methods of termination were being streamed to the massive screen up and behind them. They were appearing from left to right: the black, hand-held, over-and-under barrel Tazart, with electrocution by wire from its top barrel or lethal dart from the bottom; a three-strike Atemi; the curved, silver-handled DammerInge, presenting a short but scalpel-like blue luminous blade that pricks or cuts the skin sufficient to impart a lethal dose of the deadly Cyadoxitin; a sonic Cadamine Rod; the Triurite noose; and an emulated hand-to-hand competitor-Assassin combat animation. These seven were followed by other methods used -just not by Assassins: an actual visual of the drifting, bluish Hydroline gas; implanting; Bantoxiphrine-R, a synthetic poison shown as a golden "Skull & Crossbones" vial; quarterings; wall and floor traps; and lastly, self-implanting at allowable on-site locations. Looking comfortable in the maroon sweater that almost matched his hair, Les waved towards the screen with a smile. "Impressive, aren't they! But of course, depending upon what weapon the Selection Computer randomly comes up with, a Termination Specialist is..." He noted the well-muscled Specialist's instant 'eye contact.' "That is...rather an... 'Assassin'...is allowed to kill a weaponless competitor from a near-distance and often enough one-on-one!" He turned his head slightly more towards the camera to avoid his guest's commanding green-eyed gaze before stating, "And just how fair is that? And that's NOT taking into consideration the competitor's chances of being eliminated on the 'chase' by a 'floor' or even a 'wall' trap!" "Harbinger" leaned back into his chair a bit, looking confident and powerful in his Assassin's uniform; a light-purple, long-sleeved jump suit that offered a pajama-like comfort. It was actually a good-looking combination, likening somewhat to the old Star Trek non-dress attire. "In the first place, that's if the Assassin can catch 'em, right? Besides, that's the idea, ain't it! That's also why some competitors become very rich and quit the comps before it's 'lights out'! And certainly if the competitor feels he can't keep ahead of the Assassin or get lucky enough to find a 'safe room'- maybe even a stealth door - for whatever's left of the five-minute 'chase'...Well, he - or she - can always fight it out!...And they do win sometimes... Often enough to risk it anyway!" Post World War III premise: To insure that the peace will last, mankind has been given the Lottery competitions as an outlet for violence. Designed to attract the risk-takers, dissenters and criminals, the "lost," and the weak of mind; the Lottery has become a conspiracy of global proportions beyond what had been legally sanctioned by public will and vote. LOTTERY is a "cat and mouser," a high tech, science fiction, action thriller, filled with plots and counterplots, twists and surprises, and an illusive, undetectable chemical used on a massive scale to shorten lives. Painted on a world canvas, the opposition between the overt Lottery Corporation juggernaut and the covert but knowledgeable few of Vortex takes you from Rio to San Francisco, Piraeus to Shanghai, Antwerp to Nag Hammadi, Sydney to Bo, Toronto to Prague, and London to Saint Petersburg. LOTTERY combines the grittiness of BLADE RUNNER, the mayhem and death-dealing of TERMINATOR, while weaving a mystery throughout as compelling as 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, ANDROMEDA STRAIN, and MOON combined.
About the Author: Perhaps being born into a world war, the grandson of a spy and the son of a mother who flew for the RAF would have spawned an unusual imagination; but it was an eternally brief but terrifying captivity in a cellar as an English-speaking child that turned my imagination escapist. With my father dying on the landing above and my grandfather beginning that slow fall with his now empty revolver, this became my infant introduction into a violent anti-life of intimate death - my indoctrination as an English-speaking child into the language I must now learn of my enemy. "Sensing back" in disjointed fragments to that specific time of panic, screaming, and gunfire, unremembered as reality until told to me as an adult by my grandmother; I can see how these beginnings fueled my insatiable craving for escapist adventure that accented other real-life events and sculpted my imagination into the writing of LOTTERY.