SPOTLIGHT & EXCERPT: Lex De Mortuis
Thanks to the publisher, we are pleased to present an excerpt from the new Matthew Cox sci-fi novel, Division Zero: Lex De Mortuis. Keep reading to check out more about the book!
By Matthew S. Cox
Published on September 8th 2014
Published by Curiosity Quills Press
Find Online: Amazon US | Amazon UK | B&N
Published by Curiosity Quills Press
Find Online: Amazon US | Amazon UK | B&N
Some soldiers don’t let anything sway them from their mission, not even death from high explosives.
Free from her troubled past, Agent Kirsten Wren finds happiness mentoring Evan, a boy with similar talents with whom she soon forms a strong bond. Her efforts to help Dorian settle his past become complicated when a team of corporate “issue resolution consultants” continue their mission to kill a man in the afterlife.
Kirsten gets involved when their post-mortem grudge match spills into the realm of the living. At the scene of a surgical explosion that gutted only one floor of a residential tower, she discovers a strange arcane circle drawn in silver. There, she senses energy darker than any wraith she has yet encountered; a force that questions everything she believes about the world.
Vikram Medhi, the hacker targeted by Lyris Corporation for elimination, begs her to protect him from undead out to destroy him. With no way to track these spirits, she seeks help from an enigmatic billionaire who offers her more than a simple translation of ancient Sumerian pictographs.
Chasing down a dangerous psionic criminal in the oldest lawless zone in the city, trying to protect a man on a corporate death list, and trying to keep both of them from hurting the one person in the world she loves, Kirsten must reach deep within herself to accept her destiny.
Excerpt from Chapter 2
Kirsten’s run loped to a stagger, and then to a
halt. She leaned on the side of a building, gasping for breath. The composite
plastic helmet enclosed her head in a claustrophobic cage. A dozen-block run
left the visor barely transparent, and trickles of perspiration stung at her
eyes, ran down her cheek, and tickled the back of her neck. Tactical armor was
a new feeling, a new, heavy feeling; the extra weight on her back and lack of
ventilation brought her to a standstill.
Deserted, the street held a few abandoned cars
as well as fragments of the crumbling buildings on either side. Up ahead,
gunfire popped at random from alleys through distant sounds of rioting,
sometimes followed by the shriek of a near miss or the howl of a hit. Paper
trash skittered by in a faint breeze laced with the fragrance of chemicals and
urban rot. Somewhere in the distance, a scream for help echoed; she could not
tell if it was a man or woman.
“Civil unrest in Sector 77. All Divisions be
prepared to encounter armed aggressors.” The digital voice split through her
ears; her entire helmet vibrated with it.
Gathering a couple more breaths, she jogged
ahead, E-90 in hand. The sound of fighting grew louder as she neared the alley
from which the plea came. Tight against the wall, she paused to prepare herself
before whirling around the corner. Four men, jackets emblazoned with gang
markings―The Disowned―surrounded another man half a block down. Cowering in a
ball, the object of the gangers’ amusement begged for his life, oblivious to
Kirsten’s arrival.
“Police, against the wall, now!” she yelled.
The Disowned turned at the diminutive shout;
outright laughter stalled at the sight of her laser pistol. Whimpering, the
victim crawled away from the stilled onslaught. The four thugs raised their
hands, but continued to grin as if they were up to something. Kirsten wagged
her weapon to the left.
“Over there, against the wall. Do it.” A flick
of her eyes at the helmet visor opened a comm channel. “Dispatch, need a suspect
transport. Sector 77, track my signal.”
“Copy that, en route.” A brief static crunch
preceded and followed the voice in her helmet.
She eased closer, eyes shifting among the men.
“Move, now.”
Kirsten almost shrieked as a boarded up window
to her right burst open, covering her with splinters and boards as hands
grabbed her by the arm. The E-90 vanished as she went headfirst through the
ply-board, landing on her helmet in a cheek slide along the floor of a derelict
building. The disorientation of the maneuver left her motionless for an
instant, mystified by the echoing clatter of wood in the cavernous empty space.
She snapped out of it in time to notice a man
about to drive a heavy armored boot into her side. A quick roll got her out of
the way and she scrambled to her feet. He kicked hard enough to lose his
footing when he missed. Another Disowned, and huge, he recovered his balance
and turned to face her, snarling. Faux-denim vest, white shirt, dark skin,
muscular, long black hair. She stared at his green eyes. A punch to the helmet
snapped her out of it.
This
isn’t fair.
She ducked a telegraphed kick, avoiding it in
just the way he expected her to―right into his waiting hands. He hauled her
into the air, throwing her chest-first into drywall. She bounced away, and he
grabbed her from behind.
Without thinking, she smashed the top of her
helmet into his face. His grip weakened; she dropped back to her feet and
elbowed him in the gut before spinning into a kick. Her boot caught him across
the face. He tottered back, but the hit made him smile.
“Nice form, but you kick like a ten-year-old
girl.”
Kirsten growled, pulling the stunrod off her
belt and lunging into a wild overhead swing. He caught her wrist and flipped
her over. Pain, sharp and brief, foiled her grip on the weapon before she even
felt it shooting up her arm as her back hit the ground.
Windless, she fogged the visor of her helmet.
“Dead once,” he taunted.
She rolled upright and backed off, favoring the
arm. The urge to knock a few of his teeth out grew strong, but they were so
perfect. His face entranced her again.
The
cute ones are always so shallow. Plus, he is trying to kill me.
Adrenaline welled up as he came in with a
series of rapid jabs. She blocked each in turn, backpedaling to make him advance.
The gleam of a knife at his belt took her eyes off his perfect teeth.
The kick caught her blind, in the ribs. She
staggered, spraying spittle onto her visor.
“You get angry too easy. Don’t fixate on the
weapon; watch my entire body. Watch my eyes. You can’t read where your opponent
goes if you fixate. If you give in to rage, you lose your edge.”
I am…
He faked another stab; this time, she blocked
the kick. The knife came around the other way, but she got a forearm across his
wrist. Her body jerked from the impact of the block, but she kept her grip and
torqued him around by it. Stumbling after his trapped limb, he lost the knife
and fell to one knee.
“Not bad, but a little more twist on the hand
would have incapacitated me.”
Letting his weight take him down, he pulled her
into a stumble and kicked her legs out. They rolled away from each other and
both stood at the same time. He shook his almost-sprained wrist out as she
tried to cradle her left breast through the armor; remembering the wraith
claws. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted the stunrod a few feet away
and went for it.
He leapt at her, distracting her from the
weapon. No longer enamored by his looks, she ducked and spun under his arm,
wrapping herself around it and flipping him over with a hip thrust. When he hit
the ground on his back, she curled her legs around the limb, heel over his
throat. If she did it right, she could break his neck.
She chickened out.
The man howled through her attempt at a pain
submission hold. She twisted a little harder and he stopped fighting.
Stalemate.
“You’re getting better,” he croaked. “About
time to call it for today, I think.”
Tingles spread through her body, riding the
forefront of a wave of numbness. Paralysis settled in and she went limp on the
concrete. Brightness intensified, washing out the details of the ceiling until
all that remained of it was flat white light and grey blobs.
“Simulation: End,” chimed a pleasant,
omnidirectional female voice.
About the author...

Find Matthew Cox Online: Website | Facebook | Twitter | GoodreadsBorn in a little town known as South Amboy NJ in 1973, Matthew has been creating science fiction and fantasy worlds for most of his reasoning life. Somewhere between fifteen to eighteen of them spent developing the world in which Division Zero, Virtual Immortality, and The Awakened Series take place. He has several other projects in the works as well as a collaborative science fiction endeavor with author Tony Healey. Hobbies and Interests: Matthew is an avid gamer, a recovered WoW addict, Gamemaster for two custom systems (Chronicles of Eldrinaath [Fantasy] and Divergent Fates [Sci Fi], and a fan of anime, British humour (<- deliberate), and intellectual science fiction that questions the nature of reality, life, and what happens after it. He is also fond of cats.