Sneak Peek: Seed

Today we have a sneak peek from author Frank Fiore’s new action/adventure novel, Seed.

Jeremy Nash arrives home after a harrowing trip by plane across the Atlantic in terrible weather to find a Hopi Indian maiden waiting for him at his sister¹s house. She tells them she has something for the eldest son of his father that will prove his parents were murdered ­ and lead him to who killed them. She gives him an invoice for a Kachina doll order with strange code words on it that leads to a series of clues to the 2012 End Times Hopi predictions ­and the secret organization that murdered his parents for what they discovered.

Seed is available in free installments on Smashwords.

And now, an excerpt from Seed:

Nash took the folded paper, surprised at how hard his heart was suddenly thumping against his ribcage. It was, after all, a note from his deceased father.

A message from the grave.

He carefully unfolded the aged paper and eagerly looked it over, breathing hard. He missed his adventurous father and such a note–any note–was more valuable to Nash than any earthly treasure.

And then his heart sank.

The ‘note’ was nothing more than a sales invoice. Confused and disappointed, he said, “It’s just an invoice…for something called a Mana Kachina Doll.”

“Let me see that,” said Alyson. She snatched the paper from Nash’s hand so quickly that she might have given him paper cuts. “The doll wasn’t for you,” she exclaimed. “The assignee is for someone named Velvalee Dickinson.”

As she showed him the name, he grabbed the invoice back and gave his sister a look of scorn. She ignored him. Typical. He read the invoice again, saw the name she had mentioned, and looked over at the Hopi girl in front of him. “My Kachinas are a little rusty,” he said. “What, exactly, is a Mana Kachina?”

“She was a warrior woman, or He-he-he,” said Kaya. “Mana represents the warrior spirit.”

Alyson frowned. “A warrior Hopi? But I thought Hopis were a peaceful people.”

“To a large extent,” said Kaya, “but we have a history of violent conflict with the Navajo over disputed land. Today, thankfully, that dispute is fought in the courts.”

“What’s the significance, then, of this Mana Kachina?” asked Nash.

“According to our legends, He-he-he was a young Hopi girl who, while out in the desert, witnessed enemies sneaking up on her village. She snatched up her father’s weapons and raced to the village to warn the people. She then led the defense until the men returned from the fields to rout the enemy. He-he-he is held in high esteem.”

Nash nodded. As he did so, he spotted two strange annotations typed next to the name of the doll. The first read, ‘This is from the Banzai collection and speaks from the small singer.’ And the second, ‘The whale long bee to run away sandy hollow in the deer ice strict.’

He showed them to the others and asked Kaya if she knew what they meant.

The Hopi shook her head and shrugged. “I am sorry, but no.”

Alyson squeezed next to him and read the invoice sheet from over his shoulder, which somehow bugged the hell out of him. She pointed to the bottom corner of the invoice where there were three red ink dots in a circle. “And what are those?”

Nash had no idea. He tried to move over but was firmly wedged between his sister and the arm of the couch. She smiled sweetly at him and pointed to the bottom of the invoice again where a sequence of numbers and letters were printed: 2-7-3 470NM.

“What do you think those mean?” she asked.

Nash shrugged. “Maybe it’s the invoice form number.”

“Or some kind of code!” exclaimed Alyson excitedly. She nearly shivered with delight. His sister, like their grandfather, was a sucker for a good puzzle.