Monday, February 16, 2015

Finding Faded Light (New Eden Series: Rexall Cycle, Book 2) by Jarrett Rush

 Release date: January 29, 2015
Subgenre: Cyberpunk, dystopia, thriller


About Finding Faded Light:

The government has collapsed, RomaCorp is rising in its place, and Weber Rexall threw the first punch in a fight with Roma that he and his friends weren't ready to finish. With Roma looking for him, he's fled New Eden for the Outer West, hoping to give his friends time to prepare for an inevitable second round. He just never expected that to take two years.

Scratching out a new life far from home, Rexall thought he had longer to stay out of Roma's reach. But with a hefty reward on his head, desperate thugs are eager to turn him in, and a relentless Roma security agent he knows all too well has come to bring him back.

Rexall could run again, but RomaCorp won't stop unless he can finish the fight he started. Yet to do that, he needs more help and resources than the Outer West can offer--and if he fails a second time, there won't be a third.

This is book 2 of the New Eden Series/Rexall Cycle, following Chasing Filthy Lucre.

Excerpt:

 

I danced on my toes, my arms loose at my sides. I left the rookie an opening, daring him to swing at me. I worked my way in a wide circle, taunting him with everything good I could think of.
I saw the panic in his eyes and swung a quick left. My punch connected. Sweat sprayed the small crowd.
“Challenge me!” I shook sweat from my hands and glared at him. “Make me work for it, kid. Don’t just hand me a victory.”
The rookie shook his head and blinked himself back to seeing straight. His knees wobbled, and he took a couple of shaky steps before getting his feet back under him. I shouted again.
“Come on!”
The kid took a step toward me, both hands near his face. I hit him with a shot to the ribs that bent him crooked and then finished him with a blow to the chin that caught him square. He was out before he hit the floor, and I knew it. Dumb kid. More want to than able to.
I turned after the final blow connected and started making my way through the crowd, pushing myself past guys trying to get to the rookie and pick him up off the floor.
I felt like a bully on the schoolyard. I should have been picking on kids my own size. Instead, I was the kid from the upper grades who beat up younger students just to feel better about himself. At least that’s how it felt most nights.
Berger was watching the action from the corner. He was above the floor, standing on a crate.
“How was he?” Berger asked after I made my way to him.
“Wasn’t it obvious?”
“Not worth inviting back?”
“No.” Two men who worked for me and Berger tried to get the rookie to come back to this side of consciousness.  “Pay him his money for tonight and thank him for his time.”
“Sounds good.” Berger said.
“But we need to find more guys who want to fight.” I pulled tape off my hands and wiggled some circulation back into my fingers. “We can’t keep going like this.”
“I’m aware of our need for talent.” Berger turned to me. “But there’s only so much I can do. I’ve got the word out that we could use a few more men.”
Our little fight club wasn’t anything like what Raul had organized in New Eden. The pool of talent here was a lot shallower. I’d been laying kids like this across the concrete almost weekly since we started our operation. The Outer West – where we’d run to after we had to get out of New Eden – wasn’t near the size of home. It was more of a shiver-and-you’ll-miss-it outpost on the way out of town. Not much seemed to happen here, just a lot of waiting. Waiting for life to catch up with you. Waiting for anything to shake you out of your boredom.
 


About Jarrett Rush:

Jarrett Rush lives outside of Dallas with his wife, Gina, their daughter, Ellie, and an  overly energetic chocolate Labrador, Molly. When not chasing the dog around the back yard, Jarrett likes to write stories about common people put in uncommon situations. He tends toward darker stories, so those uncommon situations usually involve guns and explosions. They may also include a science fiction element.

He started writing as a kid, but didn't pursue his dreams until he met Gina. She gave him the push that he needed to make those dreams a reality.

When he's not writing, Jarrett cheers on the Kansas City Royals and Texas Rangers and lives out his own baseball dreams by playing rec-league softball.

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