The Day After Never - Retribution (Post-Apocalyptic Dystopian Thriller - Book 4)
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Authors: Russell Blake
The Day After Never
Retribution
Russell Blake
Copyright © 2016 by Russell Blake. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used, reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without the written permission of the publisher, except where permitted by law, or in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information, contact:
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Table of Contents
Excerpt from
The Goddess Legacy
Books by Russell Blake
Co-authored with Clive Cussler
THE EYE OF HEAVEN
THE SOLOMON CURSE
Thrillers
FATAL EXCHANGE
FATAL DECEPTION
THE GERONIMO BREACH
ZERO SUM
THE DELPHI CHRONICLE TRILOGY
THE VOYNICH CYPHER
SILVER JUSTICE
UPON A PALE HORSE
DEADLY CALM
RAMSEY’S GOLD
EMERALD BUDDHA
THE GODDESS LEGACY
The Assassin Series
KING OF SWORDS
NIGHT OF THE ASSASSIN
RETURN OF THE ASSASSIN
REVENGE OF THE ASSASSIN
BLOOD OF THE ASSASSIN
REQUIEM FOR THE ASSASSIN
RAGE OF THE ASSASSIN
The Day After Never Series
THE DAY AFTER NEVER – BLOOD HONOR
THE DAY AFTER NEVER – PURGATORY ROAD
THE DAY AFTER NEVER – COVENANT
THE DAY AFTER NEVER – RETRIBUTION
The JET Series
JET
JET II – BETRAYAL
JET III – VENGEANCE
JET IV – RECKONING
JET V – LEGACY
JET VI – JUSTICE
JET VII – SANCTUARY
JET VIII – SURVIVAL
JET IX – ESCAPE
JET X – INCARCERATION
JET – OPS FILES (prequel)
JET – OPS FILES; TERROR ALERT
The BLACK Series
BLACK
BLACK IS BACK
BLACK IS THE NEW BLACK
BLACK TO REALITY
BLACK IN THE BOX
Non Fiction
AN ANGEL WITH FUR
HOW TO SELL A GAZILLION EBOOKS
(while drunk, high or incarcerated)
About the Author
Featured in
The Wall Street Journal
,
The Times
, and
The Chicago Tribune
, Russell Blake is
The NY Times
and
USA Today
bestselling author of over forty novels, including
Fatal Exchange
,
Fatal Deception
,
The Geronimo Breach
,
Zero Sum
,
King of Swords
,
Night of the Assassin
,
Revenge of the Assassin
,
Return of the Assassin
,
Blood of the Assassin
,
Requiem for the Assassin
,
Rage of the Assassin
The Delphi Chronicle
trilogy,
The Voynich Cypher
,
Silver Justice
,
JET
,
JET – Ops Files
,
JET – Ops Files: Terror Alert
,
JET II – Betrayal
,
JET III – Vengeance
,
JET IV – Reckoning
,
JET V – Legacy
,
JET VI – Justice
,
JET VII – Sanctuary
,
JET VIII – Survival
,
JET IX – Escape
,
JET X – Incarceration
,
Upon a Pale Horse
,
BLACK
,
BLACK is Back
,
BLACK is the New Black
,
BLACK to Reality
,
BLACK in the Box
,
Deadly Calm
,
Ramsey’s Gold
,
Emerald Buddha
,
The Day After Never – Blood Honor
,
The Day After Never – Purgatory Road
,
The Day After Never – Covenant
,
The Day After Never – Retribution
,
and
The Goddess Legacy
.
Non-fiction includes the international bestseller
An Angel With Fur
(animal biography) and
How To Sell A Gazillion eBooks In No Time
(even if drunk, high or incarcerated), a parody of all things writing-related.
Blake is co-author of
The Eye of Heaven
and
The Solomon Curse
, with legendary author Clive Cussler. Blake’s novel
King of Swords
has been translated into German,
The Voynich Cypher
into Bulgarian, and his JET novels into Spanish, German, and Czech.
Blake writes under the moniker R.E. Blake in the NA/YA/Contemporary Romance genres. Novels include
Less Than Nothing
,
More Than Anything
, and
Best Of Everything
.
Having resided in Mexico for a dozen years, Blake enjoys his dogs, fishing, boating, tequila and writing, while battling world domination by clowns. His thoughts, such as they are, can be found at his blog:
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Chapter 1
Houston, Texas
A pall of inky smoke obscured the glimmer of stars in the night sky, the air toxic from oil fires that dotted the huge abandoned refinery across the ship channel from Houston. Armed guards manned outposts along a walled section that ringed the plant, a sprawling complex easily as large as a medium-sized town – a collection of buildings and tanks that occupied a two-and-a-half-mile square section of the promontory. Spotlights roved across the area outside the wall, fueled by the output from a crude oil-heated steam turbine.
It had been barely a week since Snake had announced Magnus’s untimely demise to the Crew, as well as the astounding defeat in New Mexico. He’d assured the regional chiefs that the change in leadership would result in no disruption to the Crew’s ongoing operations and domination of the surrounding states, and had vowed to proceed more prudently than Magnus to eradicate the threat posed by Shangri-La.
The loss of almost a thousand men with nothing to show for it had stunned the Crew’s upper echelon, and Snake had been quick to exploit their shock by enacting draconian new rules to crush dissent to his domination of the group: anyone questioning Snake as its head would be summarily executed, which quickly chilled any disgruntled murmurs and cemented his leadership.
The majority had gone along with Snake’s plan, but almost a third of the Houston branch had splintered off and refused to recognize Snake’s authority, believing him too unstable and weak to lead effectively. They’d seized the refinery as their territory, the strait between it and the city a natural barrier, and had recruited a growing membership of Crew fighters who were unhappy about the recent turn of events.
The faction was led by the Salazars, a trio of cousins who’d been incarcerated with Magnus and had despised Snake as he’d risen through the ranks to become one of their leader’s inner circle. The idea of a meth-addled madman running things was unacceptable, and they’d split from the main group on the second day, taken over the refinery, and raided adjacent Baytown to reinforce their stake.
The Salazars had no long-term plan, but as the number of their followers grew, they began formulating a scheme to spread east and claim nearby Louisiana – it wasn’t as though the Crew membership that operated in that area was particularly loyal to Snake, and if the cousins offered them a better deal, it was likely they would jump at it. They’d sent a few riders to feel out the New Orleans leadership and were waiting to hear back. A positive response would spread through the Crew ranks like wildfire, further weakening Snake’s support in Houston and swelling the cousins’ gang with disgruntled fighters. Their hope was that at some point they would become too big to challenge and could work out a cooperative deal where they existed autonomously from the Crew, operating as an ally.
But for now they were Snake’s enemy, on alert against an attack that grew less likely with each day. Their spies had told them morale was at an all-time low as Snake settled old scores with enemies and bolstered his power through cunning and treachery.
The Salazar cousins’ faction now boasted over seven hundred gunmen, a powerful force growing stronger with each hour. The fighters had set up a tent city in the center of the massive refinery, whose main buildings housed the cousins and their lieutenants. A quarter of the force was on guard at any given time, armed and ready for whatever Snake ultimately managed to throw at them – assuming the weasel didn’t leave the Baytown area to them.