Disaster strikes within the very first chapter, and readers are instantly launched on a rollercoaster experience match for adrenaline junkies. The story begins innocently sufficient with two younger {couples} disembarking the world’s largest cruise ship, the Cosmos Megaliner. Inside a handful of pages, the world is turned the other way up by a swath of ruthless characters led by a tantalizingly evil villain with the intent – and the means – to convey complete nations to their knees.
Grasp storyteller, Eric Knight, has woven an instantaneous traditional. Intriguing personalities. Distinctive story traces. Surprises round each flip. This contemporary thriller is a must-read for followers of fast-paced motion and suspense. Buckle up!
Excerpt from Terror at 12.5 Levels © Copyright 2024 Eric Knight
Chapter 1
August 23, 2025 8 a.m.
“Woohoo! Aruba!” Amy Penn exclaimed as she and her three companions walked down the gangway of the Cosmos Megaliner, the world’s largest cruise ship.
Rebecca DeGrass turned and gave Amy a giant hug together with “We did it!” – referencing the promise they made to one another years in the past in school.
“Okay, girls. You’re holding up site visitors,” a sarcastic nudge from Amy’s husband, Pete.
“Yeah, we’re solely on the island for 2 days,” Jack, Rebecca’s husband, chimed in. “And there’s beer and seashore awaitin’.”
The {couples} zigzagged their means down the gangway, approaching a throng of taxis jostling for place – all desirous to take the lots of of shore-goers to numerous locations on the island.
Xavier Malbo, driving a well-traveled minivan with the letters “Sunshine Aruba Taxi” on the facet and a “One Completely happy Island” bumper sticker barely protecting a hefty scratch on the sliding door, eyed the shifting queue. Recognizing an applicable fare, with skilled deft he squeezed the minivan between two different taxis, intersecting the trail of Amy and her associates.
“Bon Bini!” Malbo greeted the 4 via the open passenger window. “Might I be of service?”
Rebecca replied, “Bon Bini!” – as she recalled from her Fodor’s information the phrase meant “welcome” in Papiamento, the native language.
“We wish to go to ‘Child Seaside’ for some solar and snorkeling. Might you are taking us there?”
“Certain can!”
Malbo bounded out of the motive force’s seat and met the group of 4 on the sliding door. He opened it and helped them into their seats. Every passenger clutched a small day bag that they positioned on their laps.
Malbo slid the minivan door closed and hopped again into the motive force’s seat. “Child Seaside it’s,” he reaffirmed whereas darting his automobile into the stream of site visitors.
The 4 have been virtually giddy on the journey they knew awaited them. Amy and Rebecca hatched the Aruba plan as a joke whereas they have been each finding out for finals of their senior yr of faculty. “If we are able to ever get via these bitchin’ exams,” Rebecca mentioned, “let’s blow off steam and go to…Aruba.” They each chuckled on the notion, however it caught.
Amy and Rebecca aced the exams and so they graduated. They each obtained a B.S. in Microbiology from the College of Minnesota. However life interceded of their fledgling Aruba plans.
Rebecca met Jack at her first job. They dated. And a year-and-a-half later acquired married.
Amy was already seeing Pete on the college. That they had been collectively since sophomore yr. Lower than a yr after commencement, they acquired married.
The 4 frequently went on long-weekend journeys collectively. The years glided by. Now over eight for the reason that preliminary island spark. Enterprise for these younger professionals was demanding on their time, and so they might by no means appear to wangle a ten-day trip stretch that will synchronize with their careers. Till now. And the primary cease on their multiple-island trek: Aruba.
“How far to Child Seaside?” Pete requested the cabbie.
“Solely about fifteen kilometers,” Malbo responded. “We’ll be there in about twenty minutes.” He continued, “Luckily, I do know a shortcut that may get round among the site visitors. It is likely to be just a little bumpy. Not all of Aruba’s roads are paved.” With a large grin, he concluded, “You’ll be within the water very quickly.”
Rebecca unconsciously crinkled her forehead, as she thought she learn in Fodor’s that Child Seaside was a bit farther from the cruise-ship dock than that. One thing like twenty-five kilometers. However then she smiled to herself because the native was shaving off distance and time together with his shortcut.
The 4 regarded out the home windows, their environment. Automobiles, retailers, palm timber. They have been taking all of it in with glee.
As promised, Malbo turned onto a dust street, which certainly acquired a bit jarring.
“Sorry for the bumps!” Malbo apologetically mentioned. “Nearly there. Simply one other eight or 9 minutes.”
The panorama grew to become scruffy, with quick vegetation and a few cacti. The passengers might sense, although, they have been nonetheless usually following the shoreline someplace off to the precise. Instinctively, they craned their necks in that route.
“Child Seaside is simply up forward. Nevertheless, that final pothole is making the entrance finish of my buggy a bit swervy. Nothing to be involved about. Nonetheless, I wish to examine it for one second.”
Malbo slowed down and pulled to the facet. He shut off the engine.
The cabbie popped out of the minivan, acquired on his knees, and regarded beneath the entrance finish. A second later, Jack slid the minivan door open, stepped out of the automobile, and mentioned, “Glad to have a look with you. I like engaged on vehicles with my father. He’s a mechanic.”
Malbo didn’t reply, seemingly engrossed together with his evaluation.
The opposite three checked out one another, a bit puzzled. This isn’t how they anticipated their seashore tour to start.
With the blazing Aruba solar beating down, it solely took a couple of minutes earlier than the minivan began to get uncomfortably sizzling.
“Let’s see what Jack’s as much as,” Rebecca mentioned. “He’s a wiz with vehicles.”
“He may need to make use of a coconut for a wheel to get us going,” Amy mentioned with a little bit of enjoyable because the three put their day luggage on the seats and acquired out of the automobile. They made their strategy to the entrance, subsequent to Jack.
Nonetheless together with his head beneath the entrance finish of the automobile, Malbo mentioned to himself, “I find it irresistible when a plan comes collectively.” Counting 4 pairs of ft, he got here out from beneath the minivan and stood in entrance of the 2 {couples}.
“What do you assume, sir?” Pete politely requested. “Do you assume we are able to nonetheless make it to the water?”
“Oh, most undoubtedly, my associates.”
At that second, Malbo reached his proper hand into the deep decrease pocket of his cargo pants. With lightning blur he pulled out a silencer-equipped SIG SAUER P229, and – earlier than the 4 had a millisecond to react – positioned a bullet…pifft…pifft…pifft…pifft…into the brow of every of the vacationers.
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