Novels by Matt Gray

Chapter 37Tomb? Adrian grabbed Silas by the collar of his ragged hoodie, lifting the small man onto his toes. "What are you talking about? Speak sense, old man.""The Butcher..." Silas trembled, tears leaking from his good eye. "I helped build him."Adrian felt a chill that had nothing to do with the night air. [ SYSTEM ALERT: HEART RATE SPIKE DETECTED. CONVERSATION FLAGGED AS CRITICAL. ]"Explain," Adrian commanded. "Now.""Ten years ago," Silas whispered. "When your father was framed, Marcus Vane didn't just steal the money. He stole the blueprints. Your father was working on an exoskeleton. A suit designed for deep-sea rescue, heavy plating and life support. It had infinite endurance."Adrian’s mind raced. He'd always heard that his father was an architect, an innovator. He remembered the drawings on the study table which he'd seen years after his death. “Project Lazarus.” "Vane took the designs," Silas continued, sobbing. "But he didn't want a rescue suit. He wanted a weapon

Chapter 36As Adrian stepped out the elevator from the Mayor’s penthouse, he felt almost refreshed. Corruption really did have a stench and he'd breathed it in for minutes standing there in the Mayor's presence. Sterling was a questionable man. Every inch of him proved that. “He's bringing my sister into his schemes? I'll find out what he knows, and then weed him out like the grass he is." Adrian stepped out of City Hall, the heavy iron key to the City Vault felt like it was burning a hole in his pocket. He was an Enforcer now, a double agent of some sorts. The Mayor thought he had bought a dog, what he didn’t realize was that he had let a wolf into the nursery.Adrian adjusted his collar, buttoning the scorched shirt to hide the soot marks he'd gotten from earlier. It was already getting dark in the city and the neon lights of Aethelgard was struggling to illuminate the industrial fog rolling in from the docks.[ SYSTEM STATUS: ACTIVE. ][ CURRENT OBJECTIVE: LOCATE THE BUTCHER

Chapter 35Adrian looked at the man like he'd lost his mind. And maybe he had. “I want to believe it takes more than a glass of premium scotch to get you high, Mayor." But the man didn't take the insult to heart, he laughed it off. “Oh, I assure you. I know when to get drunk. We're on business right now." He tapped on the holographic map and it zoomed in on Adrian’s face."I want to hire you, Adrian."Adrian stared at him. "You want me to be your hitman.""I want you to be my Enforcer," Sterling corrected. "My personal shadow. You answer only to me and you clean up the messes I point at. You take down the Scorpions, the rogue bankers, the rivals who think they can challenge the throne.""And in return?""In return," Sterling smiled, spreading his arms wide, "I give you the city. Not just the buildings you buy, but the law itself. I give you immunity and you can break every speed limit, shatter every bone, and hack every bank, and the police will look the other way. I will make you

Chapter 34Adrian waited for Joe to leave the streets before he took one final look at the mess the Butcher had made. “No one comes into my city and ruins it like this. I'll make that overdressed bull pay!" He hissed into the empty air. The curfew was in place now, having been enforced quickly. All the stalls were closed and everyone locked their front doors and windows. But Adrian wasn't every man. He was meant to see the Mayor instead of adhering to the curfew. Getting into the chopper, he was given a helmet and it took off without much delay. The Iron Guard helicopter didn’t land at the police precinct or any military black site. It ascended high into the sky until the city seemed to disappear from under it. The place where the greasy food truck was actually fell under the cheapest and poorest parts of town. No doubt, the Mayor wouldn't be anywhere close to there. Almost half an hour passed in the helicopter before it felt badly touched down on the private helipad of City H

Chapter 33The Butcher stepped forward, his heavy boots slamming down so hard that it sounded like it was cracking the asphalt. He looked at the taco truck and then turned his eyes to the terrified civilians scattering about. And then, his mechanical eyes scanned the crowd carefully and finally locked onto Adrian."ADRIAN BLACK!" His voice thundered and Adrian almost shook. Almost. The voice was amplified and booming from hidden speakers embedded in his suit. It sounded like grinding gears and a thousand thunder strikes. "You stole our money and jailed our landerer. The scorpions don't let such silly attempts go unpunished. They demand reckoning." Adrian stood there, watching the hulk of a man standing before him. He couldn't deny the shiver that ran down his spine. But it was more like thrill than fear. For the first time, he was going to get an opponent worth his own strength. "I don't know who this big guy is, but I think he's talking to us,” Joe said slowly, his eyes not mov

Chapter 32 Since Joe insisted on cheap tacos, Adrian decided to indulge him. The taco truck was parked on the corner of 4th and Main, a little island of grease and cheap meals in the middle of Sector 4. It was called "El Fuego," and it was painted in peeling red and yellow stripes, and it smelled like heaven, if there was a heaven for grilled onions, spicy chorizo, and cheap corn tortillas. For the first time in forty-eight hours, Adrian Black wasn't a General. He wasn't a Lord. He wasn't even a Vigilante. He was just a guy with salsa on his tie and an appetite that was quickly awakening after the doom of missing his only family. "You have to tilt your head," Joe instructed, demonstrating with a massive, dripping taco. "If you eat it straight on, the structural integrity of the whole thing fails. It’s physics, bro. General or not, gravity comes for the guacamole." The way he said it was if he was speaking of some laboratory experiment instead of taco, it left Adrian very am