The Judas Kiss

The Judas Kiss

(now available at Smashwords.com)

by Robin C. Rickards

188 pages – 44,540 words

EXCERPT

Chapter One
Whistler, Canada

Dr. Steven del Prado twisted under the smooth bedsheets. The comfort of hotel luxury was totally unrewarding – cold and sterile, superfluous and so unnatural. He turned onto his side and stared through the night’s shadow at the seeds he had placed on his nightstand – three red-skinned ovals, so small but so perfect.
Del Prado reached over and grasped the darkest of the three stones. It felt good just to hold it, sense its texture in the palm of his hand, feel its smooth surface against his skin. There was a subtle odor to the seed – comforting and warm, musky and full – the fragrance of Mother Earth. He stroked the nut across his forehead, over his cheek then caressed it gently with his lower lip.

The taste, the subtle aroma reminded him of the garden, his garden – high in the mountains where the air was crisp, thin and clean. It had been weeks since he had left, the three seeds his only keepsake of his newfound paradise – the longest he had ever been away. Del Prado wanted to go back…..In his mind, he had to go back.
Steve del Prado had an important meeting at midnight. One or two hours of sleep…He needed to rest.
The doctor fell asleep with the seed next to his skin but his mind continued to plan ahead.

It was cold and still with only the sterile light of the street lamps breaking the night’s blackness. Steve del Prado stood alone in the middle of the road, the asphalt swept clean by the afternoon’s winds. There was nowhere to go except straight ahead. He could not turn back and the gritty pitch of last week’s snowfall that paraded down each side of the street was like a barricade – no one in and no one out.
He began to walk and the words flooded into his head. “The old men…..The greedy old men. One of them wants to steal my prize but…..Which one? I’ll watch my back…..I’ll watch my back!”
Del Prado turned to look behind but he could see nothing. With each step that he took forwards, the lights extinguished one by one. His gaze fell back onto the road ahead. The gray asphalt had disappeared under a blanket of smooth snow. The darkness became lit with the shimmer of snowflakes, sharp crystals floating down from the black sky. The flakes grew larger and began to drift across the roadway – fat clumps of cottony white flickered and glared like a thousand headlights on a busy highway.
His feet began to drag. The layer of powder at his feet thickened and tugged at his thighs, forcing him to lift each leg high to push forwards through the cold gel. Now, he was running but even his new found youth wasn’t enough…..Wasn’t enough against the morass of white cold that wanted to swallow him whole.
Then he felt the surge – running faster, faster on top of the snow. The blizzard had eased and a single bright light shone at the end of the long roadway. Del Prado pushed ahead and the one light became two, growing larger, growing brighter.
A knot grabbed him in the pit of his stomach then del Prado tried again to turn back but the road behind him had disappeared and the lights ahead grew larger. A face! An old man! An old man at the wheel! Del Prado felt the wind of a noiseless scream leave his lips as the twin beams, mounted onto the frame of a wide black truck slammed into his body and pulled him into the ice.

The scientist sat upright in bed and wiped the cold beads of sweat off his forehead…..Sweat?…..Or was it ice? One of the old men! One of those bastards! The old bastards! They wanted to kill him!
Del Prado grasped the three seeds and held them to his breast. He would have to change his plan.