Expiration Date
Praise for
Expiration Date
“With bravado and compelling prose, Eric Wilson is set to leave his mark on the world of fiction.”
—T
ED
D
EKKER
, best-selling author of
Thr3e
and
Black
“Eric Wilson is a great addition to the ranks of Christian novelists. His exploration of God’s hidden workings and how they invade human lives is as needed as it is fun to read. Enjoy the adventure in
Expiration Date
, but don’t miss its ultimate question. Well done, Eric!”
—J
EFFERSON
S
COTT
, author of
Operation: Firebrand—Deliverance
“Eric Wilson is creating his own genre: one part factual history, one part present-day fiction, along with a potent dash of spiritual conflict. With plot twists and revelations that will make you hungry for the next chapter,
Expiration Date
is more proof that Eric Wilson and his unique storytelling style are here for the long haul. This book will leave you wondering how he comes up with such great stories—and how long we have to wait for the next!”
—A
LISON
S
TROBEL
, author of
Worlds Collide
“
Expiration Date
was more than a great read. I experienced this powerful story with the characters, my stomach knotting with each riveting plot twist. Eric Wilson is a master at weaving an intricate tale in which the stakes rise at every turn. Just when I thought I knew what to expect, another level of this multi-layered story would reveal even greater spiritual proportions than I first realized. Because of
Expiration Date
, Eric Wilson is now one of my favorite writers. I can’t wait to see what’s next from this talented novelist!”
—T
RICIA
G
OYER
, author of
From Dust and Ashes
and
Night Song
“With
Expiration Date
, Eric Wilson sets the bar even higher than he did with his debut novel,
Dark to Mortal Eyes
. Like a classic Hitchcock hero, Clay Ryker is an ordinary man caught in an extraordinary situation that forces him to risk everything to save his wife and child and even his own life. With a premise that won’t let go of you, Eric Wilson builds a story that twists and turns and keeps you going until the final, explosive climax.”
—S
TEVEN
W
OMACK
, Edgar Award–winning author of
By Blood Written
“
Expiration Date
is a first-rate thriller that provides page after page of skillful plots and subplots that climax in an electrifying conclusion. Eric Wilson is a masterful storyteller who writes top-drawer fiction on the level of Robert Ludlum.”
—H
AMP
M
ORRISON
, publisher,
Nashville Christian Family Magazine
E
XPIRATION
D
ATE
P
UBLISHED BY
W
ATER
B
ROOK
P
RESS
2375 Telstar Drive, Suite 160
Colorado Springs, Colorado 80920
A division of Random House, Inc
.
Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from
The Holy Bible, New Living Translation
, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved. Also quoted: the
Holy Bible, New International Version
®
. NIV
®
. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.
The characters and events in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to actual persons or events is coincidental.
Copyright © 2005 by Eric Wilson
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
W
ATER
B
ROOK
and its deer design logo are registered trademarks of WaterBrook Press, a division of Random House, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Wilson, Eric (Eric P.)
Expiration date : a novel / Eric Wilson. — 1st ed.
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-0-307-55131-3
1. Serial murders—Fiction. 2. Precognition—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3623.I583E98 2005
813’.6—dc22
2005001644
v3.1
In cherished memory of
Alistair MacLean
(The Guns of Navarone)
and Nathaniel Hawthorne
(The House of the Seven Gables)
Dedicated to:
Carolyn Rose,
your soothing voice convinces me to never stop feeling;
Cassie Rose and Jackie Renee,
your fashion and music tips remind your dad to stay in touch.
Author’s Note
Life is a coin toss, flipping us end over end. Some believe we come down on the side of free will, able to choose our own futures. Others think we land on the side of fate, filling our roles in a sovereign scheme. But what if, in a divine twist, we find ourselves balanced on the edge of the coin? In
Expiration Date
, I want to explore earth’s tension between heaven and hell. Fiction is a tool. With it, I hope to climb high, to dig deep. Join me in this adventure. Together let’s uncover hidden things.
I will open my mouth in parables,
I will utter hidden things.
P
SALM
78:2,
NIV
ROLOGUE
The Devil’s Work
Russian-Finnish Border, August 1917
A curse? He rejected the notion.
As the train lurched through the night, the revolutionary scraped his finger along the object in his pocket. Like skin clawed from an enemy’s throat, sooty residue peeled from the oak tube and pushed beneath his thumbnail.
He smiled. By finding it, his agents had defied all superstitions.
This tube and its contents had once belonged to that lecherous priest, Rasputin. After conniving his way into the Russian Tsars’ graces with promises to heal their hemophiliac son, Rasputin had died last December. Poisoned with potassium cyanide, shot by a Browning revolver, he’d risen demon-like from the cellar floor of Moika Palace and chased his attackers outside. They had overpowered him. Shot him again. Then shoved his body through a hole in the frozen Neva River.
Yet his lunacy continues to guide the Tsars! The weak fools
.
The locomotive ascended a steep grade. The bulbous smokestack angled upward, and moonlight slid down the gleaming ironworks.
“Feed the fire,” the engineer yelled at him.
He pushed the tube deeper into his pocket. “Of course.
Da
.”
With stout arms, he lugged wood from the tender car to the boiler. Flames raged and steam howled in stark contrast to the icy air at his back.
More firewood …
Grrunt
.
Sparks …
Pa-hissh!
Trees thickened alongside the railway, and the revolutionary imagined they were fellow conspirators gathering to conceal him. He hated to leave St. Petersburg, but it was a necessary detour. Since 1914, German bullets and bayonets had killed Russians by the thousands, and recent government documents had put his own life in jeopardy by calling him a traitor, an agent of the
kaiser. Wisdom dictated that he cross the frontier into Finland. From hiding, he would rebuild his base of Bolshevik support and reconfirm his allegiance to Mother Russia.
The revolutionary hefted another armload of wood …
Grrunt
.
Soon he would return to this place …
Pa-hissh!
And then he’d hammer the final nail into the coffin of imperialism. For too long, the Romanovs had trusted in icons and artifacts while peasants and paupers starved. The revolutionary’s own brother, Sasha, had resisted such injustice and later swung from a noose at Schlisselburg Fortress for his assassination attempt on a Tsar.
You will not have died in vain, Sasha. This I promise you
.
“
Astergaisya …
Beware!” The engineer’s gestures broke through his thoughts.
“What is it, comrade? We’re at the border already?”
“Da. Please …
pozhaluista
. Keep yourself busy.”
“Of course.” The revolutionary adjusted his stoker cap. “I’m a worker, simply doing my job. We must trust the disguise.” Underneath, he wore a blond wig to hide the thinning red hair of Konstantin Petrovich Ivanov—his name according to his forged factory pass.