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by Lindsay Cummings
Release date: June 10th, 2014
Published by Greenwillow Books (HarperCollins)
Genre: Young Adult Dystopian
Format: Hardcover, eBook
SUMMARY
An action-packed, blood-soaked, futuristic debut thriller set in a world where the murder rate is higher than the birthrate. For fans of Moira Young’s Dust Lands series, La Femme Nikita, and the movie Hanna.
Meadow Woodson, a fifteen-year-old girl who has been trained by her father to fight, to kill, and to survive in any situation, lives with her family on a houseboat in Florida. The state is controlled by The Murder Complex, an organization that tracks the population with precision.
The plot starts to thicken when Meadow meets Zephyr James, who is—although he doesn’t know it—one of the MC’s programmed assassins. Is their meeting a coincidence? Destiny? Or part of a terrifying strategy? And will Zephyr keep Meadow from discovering the haunting truth about her family?
Action-packed, blood-soaked, and chilling, this is a dark and compelling debut novel by Lindsay Cummings.
EXCERPT - Chapter One
MEADOW
It is the key to
survival, the key to life. My father’s old dagger.
“Peri!” I call out
over the waves to my little sister. An old can bobs up and down in the water,
mesmerizing me for a moment. Beyond the Shallows, the sea is packed with boats.
Some of them are still afloat, with their masts stretching like arms to the
sky. Others are half-submerged, shipwrecked and covered with moss.
Among the boats are
other things. Old tires, half of a rusted car, plastic. A body lies
facedown in the waves, her hair spread out like seaweed.
Behind me, in the
city, the Night Siren wails. It starts low, then whoops higher and back down
again. Everyone on the beach hurries into the shadows, knowing all too well
what happens when the sun goes down.
It isn’t safe
anymore. I call out to Peri again. “It’s time to go!”
She holds up a tiny
hand and gives me the signal: two grubby little fingers held high above her
head.
Two minutes. It is
always two more minutes with her.
The sun
is sinking, a massive orange ball melting into the sea. It sets fire to
the sky, and everything is dancing in colors. Reds, oranges, yellows. It
reminds me of blood, it reminds me of my mother.
Peri comes running
up to me, kicking a spray of sand behind her. “I found a periwinkle!” she squeaks,
sounding like a startled seagull. “Like me!”
“Yeah? Let’s see
it.” I cast a glance over my shoulder, at the few people who still litter the
beach, before kneeling down to her level. Peri’s big gray eyes, the color
of sea foam, widen as she places the tiny shell in my outstretched palm.
It’s twisty and fat, with a sharp point at the top. A mollusk sticks out.
Though it has barely enough meat for anyone to eat, I’m still tempted to shove
it into my pocket. But somehow the Initiative would find out. As sure as the
tide comes and goes, the Initiative will always discover our secrets.
“It’s a good one,” I
say, smiling down at her. “But we can’t keep it.”
The thick black
numbers tattooed onto her forehead crease in frustration. 72050. Peri’s
Catalogue Number, just one number different from mine. Our barcodes show the
Initiative where we are, who we are, every moment of our lives. As
Peri grows, it will grow, and it will never fade or wrinkle because of the
healing nanites we all have in our blood.
“Tell you what.” I
point the tip of my dagger toward the shell. “We’ll mark it. That way, next
time you find it, you’ll remember.” I etch a small heart into the side of the
shell. It’s crooked, and hardly legible. I drop the mollusk on the sand, let
the waves take it away. Peri smiles triumphantly. She’s a miniature version of
me. Silver hair that hangs in loose curls to her waist. Like our mother’s.
“Okay, time to go.”
She grabs my hand and tows me along the sand, humming the tune to an old
lullaby under her breath. Soft, so no one but the two of us can hear it. Peri
knows the value of silence in the Shallows.
At the far end of
the beach, a jetty of large rocks juts out into the ocean. Waves
crash on the rocks, and we get soaked, but it doesn’t matter. The heat of
the summer clings to me like fog.
Peri goes first,
clambering on hands and feet up the jetty and over to the other side. I climb
down after her and my breath catches in my throat.
Pirates.
They’ll do anything
for extra Creds. The Initiative pays them to guard the shore and take care of
minor problems, as well as find and report the citizens who break the four
Commandments of the Shallows.
Commandment One:
Honor the Initiative.
Commandment Two:
Thou shalt not attempt to cross the Perimeter.
Commandment Three: Honor
the Silent Hour.
Commandment Four:
Thou shalt not harbor useful items from the days Before.
“Pay up,” one of the
Pirates says. He stands from his spot by a blazing campfire. They are cooking
fish.
We could never
afford an entire fish. Whatever we gather is sent to the Rations Department,
and mixed and pureed with other nutrient-rich foods for distribution.
“We don’t want any
trouble tonight,” I say. I press Peri closer to my side. “We just want to get
to our boat.”
The Pirate laughs,
and the two men with him join in. They are all covered in tattoos. One of them
has an Initiative tattoo—an open, unblinking eye—on his neck, just below his
chin. “You want to go to sea, little girl, you gotta pay.”
My hand finds the
dagger on my thigh. There are only three of them. If I were alone, I could end
this at once. But Peri tugs on my shirt, and I see the fear in her eyes. I
cannot risk her safety. Not now, when the Dark Time is so close. And I have
nothing to give the Pirates, nothing to buy us passage.
But Peri does.
She wears a pair of
too-large tennis shoes, and the laces are still intact. Something like that is
precious, and it kills me that I will be the one to take them from her.
“I’ll give you the
laces,” I tell the Pirates, pointing at Peri’s feet. “Then you’ll let us go.”
The largest man lets
out a whistle. His breath is rotten. “I’m feeling generous tonight, little
girl. Next time, you better come prepared. Understood?”
I nod my head. “Next
time you might not get away with your life.”
He thinks it’s a
joke.
I stoop to untie the
laces. Peri frowns, but does not cry.
She’s strong, my
little sister.
The Pirates snatch
the laces and go back to their fish, laughing. Peri and I pass safely and run
down the beach. We yank the palm fronds and seaweed from our boat. It is a tiny
dinghy, large enough for only two people. I quickly untie the line, push the
boat into the waves, and we leave the shore behind.
“Meadow? Will we eat
tonight?” Peri asks me as I row, weaving through the maze of waste and litter.
The wind blows her hair back from her face, and I notice how her cheekbones
stick out, how her eyes are slightly sunken. She’s losing more weight.
“Yes.” I nod,
looking away. The way she’s studying me, as if I am the only thing in the world
worth loving, makes my heart fill with guilt. If she only knew what I do to
make sure she can eat. To make sure that all of us survive.
Two miles from
shore, I stop and stare out at the black sea, feeling my shoulders burn from
the effort of rowing. The dinghy bumps up against our houseboat. It is quiet
here, a still night, the waves lapping the boat, the same way they always have.
When my mother was murdered, I thought the world would end with her. But it
goes on.
BUY LINKS
THE MURDER COMPLEX (The Murder Complex, #1)
THE FEAR TRIALS (The Murder Complex, #0.5)
THE DEATH CODE (The Murder Complex, #2)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR - Lindsay Cummings
Lindsay Cummings is the 24-year-old author of THE MURDER COMPLEX series from Greenwillow Books/HarperCollins, and the MG trilogy THE BALANCE KEEPERS, from Katherine Tegen Books/HarperCollins.
Lindsay deals with chronic fatigue, can’t get enough of her two pesky German Shepherds, wolf cub, and two horses. She's still waiting on her letter from Hogwarts - it was probably just lost in the mail.
