Icon's Request

Gareth Wiles

Description

Icon'sRequest is the gripping follow up to IAmDead by thriller sci-fi novelist Gareth Wiles, in which Peter Smith created a world ravaged by madness. The mysterious Reaping Icon is collecting psychopaths for his games and requests the pleasure of Peter. In his life since IAmDead, Peter is a murderer, driven insane by the book he wrote. However, when Reaping Icon casts him into another reality, it ironically gives Peter a fresh chance to start anew. But how many people must suffer around him as the world rejects this path, and how many times can he dodge death as everyone is out for blood? In part one, Reaping Icon collects his psychopaths and we get a snapshot of their disturbed lives just prior to his arrival. In part two, Peter Smith's memory is wiped and he finds himself embroiled in a murder investigation, hunted by both the police and the psychopaths who are following Reaping Icon's request. In part three, we learn more about what happened just after the events of IAmDead and the devastating effect it has had on the universe. In part four, Peter is once again hunted by psychopaths and involved in yet more bizarre, seemingly random murders. Will he regain his memory in time, or will remembering who he really is be his ultimate downfall? Icon'sRequest, which has been inspired by Joseph Conrad, FranzKafka and Albert Kamus, will appeal to fans of sci-fi/fantasy fiction who question the madness and randomness of modern society. It delivers real people struggling with real problems, mixing fantasy and crime to demonstrate how close all our lives are to the fantastical, and how the lines between reality and fiction can be easily blurred.

Sujets

• Thriller

Informations

• Publié par: Troubador Publishing Ltd
• Date de parution: 01 juin 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781780888286
• Langue: English

Extrait

ICON S REQUEST
BY THE SAME AUTHOR
I Am Dead
ICON S REQUEST
GARETH WILES
Copyright 2012 Gareth Wiles
The moral right of the author has been asserted.
Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publishers.
Matador 9 Priory Business Park Kibworth Beauchamp Leicestershire LE8 0RX, UK Tel: ( 44) 116 279 2299 Fax: ( 44) 116 279 2277 Email: [e-mail] Web: www.troubador.co.uk/matador
ISBN 978 1780881 799
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Typeset in 11pt Book Antiqua by Troubador Publishing Ltd, Leicester, UK

Matador is an imprint of Troubador Publishing Ltd
Printed and bound in the UK by TJ International, Padstow, Cornwall
Contents
PROLOGUE

PART ONE
TONY IS MY BEST MATE
FIXING JIM
INTENT TO MURDER - PART ONE
NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH
I LL BE THE JUDGE OF THAT
THE REASON

PART TWO
ONE
TWO
THREE
FOUR
FIVE

PART THREE
INTENT TO MURDER - PART TWO THE FOLLOWERS
COURSE OF ACTION
UNDOING JIM
MEMORIES

PART FOUR
ONE
TWO
THREE
FOUR
FIVE

EPILOGUE
For Victoria
PROLOGUE
War? Strange, meaningless. Alien to us. It no longer applies to us Wars raged on. When It came. But then. Oh then, my children
No longer do wars rage on.
Societies were built on the teachings passed down from generation to generation. Love. Friendship. Respect. On these three was such importance placed. Just like the others our own society valued, above all else, what we were taught. Generation after generation endlessly self-replenishing, trundling, trundling along, repeating what had gone before. But remember, though we were part of the Great Collective, we were still apart. No boundaries. No battles.
All was well. We all had space, and we all had The Space. There was the anchor, the purpose we clung to. The purpose of life itself. But then. Then It came. From not so far, but close to home. From within our own selves. The Space ebbed away. The societies grew together. Physically. Mentally, they grew further apart. Love. Friendship. Respect. All lost. Then, we had to protect our teachings. We must protect War came. Societies crumbled.
Wars raged on. Internal wars. The mind became the battleground of every living being. Every living thing torn apart. Torn, broken, divided between oppositions, slipping into mental vagary. We were desperate to cling to one set, to escape the torment. But, colliding, colliding, there was too much to cope with. And then
Peter Smith. Our last chance. The final link between the Great Collective and The Space. But he too was in torment. Ravaged by madness.
Elder Icon
PART ONE
ICON S COLLECTION
Bow down before the tight space between us
TONY IS MY BEST MATE
Tony is great because every time I see Tony he looks at me with that funny face of his and doesn t grin. That s what s great. We don t need to smile and shake hands and all that crap. We just nod and then sit down. What s great about Tony is he knows what I m thinking and what I m about to say next so I know I don t have to say anything. But he s got this other mate which makes me feel left out a lot. Sometimes I see this other mate, but mostly I don t. I don t want to see this other mate. He s not my mate. He s Tony s mate. Not mine. When I saw Tony, his other mate was there and didn t make me feel welcome at all.
I live with my mum. Dad s dead, but Mum is still alive and she lets me know it. There was this time Tony came round and she calls him Nobhead, that s her nickname for him. This time he came round and asked if I was in and Mum said I wasn t, but I was sitting at the top of the stairs. I didn t want to go out with Tony, but Mum didn t want me to go out either. I do want to go out with Tony sometimes, just not today. Today, something else was happening. Today, something really bad was going to happen.
I put my coat on even though it was really hot outside. Mum told me I d get a chill. Your father caught a chill. Next thing he was dead, she went on at me as I struggled to do the zip up. But Dad blew his brains out. If you want to kill an animal, stick it in a draft.
I like drafts. Did that mean I wasn t an animal? What was I, then? I felt like an animal. I had fears. I feared Tony. Tony is great but he can be scary. He likes to get angry and if he does get angry and I m the only one there, he ll take it out on me. Mum says he s a bit simple, but he couldn t be a bit simple. He was either a lot simple or not simple at all. Being a bit simple made me think he was more of something else, but not actually pointing out what that lot of something else was was confusing. Why not say he s a lot clever instead of he s a bit simple ? What was the rest of him, if he was only made up of a bit of simple?
As Mum opens the door, Kelly steps in. She looks at me just as Mum tells me to go upstairs. Somehow I can t go upstairs. Something strange comes over me, stopping me from moving. Next thing I m upstairs.
Tony? Kelly calls from downstairs.
Yes? I reply.
You must come down quickly, Tony, you must come down and see this
I run down the stairs just as Kelly stands up off the floor. On the floor lies Mum and she doesn t look at all well. Tony must have come round. Tony has been really bad this time. Yet, I am Tony and I wouldn t do this to Mum. Or would I? Sometimes I get very confused about who I am and I am not my friend any more. Kelly is holding a knife and passes it to me. I take hold of it tightly, just like she asks.
SOME TIME LATER
Kelly was driving. I didn t feel at all well. We had just left The Dealer and my bum was really aching for some reason and things felt very wet down there. She placed her hand on my leg and squeezed it a bit, smiling as I looked over at her legs. Suddenly she slammed the brakes on. Somebody was stood in the middle of the road. It was dark. What were they doing stood in the middle of the road? I know not to stand in the middle of the road because you can get knocked over. Kelly honked the horn but still he stood there. He looked through the window right at me. Not at Kelly. I don t think he saw Kelly at all. She wasn t going to have this and she jumped out of the van and marched over to him, but something awful happened and she flopped onto the ground right in front of him, just straight down onto her knees. She seemed to be begging or praying. All the time he kept looking at me, starting to move slowly towards me. I felt drawn to him, like I was being called by him. He wasn t Tony. I was Tony. And I am Tony. He called out in silence, telling me who he was and that he had come to collect me for his plan. Kelly wasn t part of the plan. She was to be left on the ground. She could stay there. I knew what she had done to Mum.
FIXING JIM
(JIM)
I walked past the shops as I do every morning. I bin what milk and bread I don t use in one day. I get fresh every day. There s probably a number of reasons I do this. Not that you need to know. I came to the last shop, the convenience store on the corner where I always went every morning. That girl worked there. She was probably a bit young for me, but that wasn t really too much of a concern. Nothing would ever come of it. I wasn t really old, but I had a bald patch and a bit of a hunch and I didn t really wash all that much. I never made enough of an effort to get her attention. I d rather just look at her from afar really, which is what I do.
I went straight to the milk, picking up a pint. Next I went to the small loaves. I had to survey them, make sure I got a well-dated one, even though I d chuck most of it away tomorrow morning. There was one with no crusts. This was pretty convenient because I didn t like crusts at all. I didn t want curly hair. Now my eye and cheek spasmed. This was a bit awkward. I looked up. Chloe was watching me. That was her name, behind the till. She had it printed on her little badge on her left breast. It wasn t much of a breast, though her top was always quite baggy, so underneath it may have been more ample. At least her trousers were tight. I rubbed my eye, looking down again.
I took my milk and crustless loaf to the counter. Chloe wasn t really very nice to me. She would only look at me when I was far away. When I got up close, she d keep herself turned sideways and look outside as though she didn t want to serve me.
You want your whisky today? she asked me. I nodded, having to rub hard at my eye to stop it jerking about. She turned and bent down, those tight nylon trousers pulling hard at her crack as it waved about, mere feet from my face. She picked up a bottle of whisky and slammed it in front of me, calculating the amount on the till.
I placed the milk and loaf next to the whisky on the counter, taking my money bag from my pocket. I handed it to Chloe, passing her a further coin from another pocket.
This loaf is a bit more. I ll have to recalculate my order for next time.
Chloe frowned, looking down at my loaf. No crusts. Don t want curly hair, huh?
I picked my goods up and promptly left. I looked back as I hurried away, Chloe watching through the shop window as I left.
I m home, I called out, opening my flat door as the sound of laughter hit my ears. It must be a show I didn t like. I dropped my shopping on the table and reached for the remote control, silencing the TV. I liked my flat. I could see everything no matter where I stood in it. It was all confined to one space and I could keep a watch on things unless they were