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    Before Death Blossoms
    Before Death Blossoms
    Before Death Blossoms
    Ebook98 pages1 hour

    Before Death Blossoms

    By Rudolph Kohn

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    About this ebook

    Studying plant biology seems like it might be dull and safe. However, when Eddie Sanchez went to a conference expecting a series of dull but informative talks, he got way more than he asked for. As one series of talks began, only the fact that he was sitting next to an oddly-dressed stranger kept him alive when everyone else in the room met a horrible end.

    Eddie's dumb luck pulled him into a desperate chase for another scientist who might be carrying the same parasitic infection. And it turns out that, aside from this oddly-dressed man calling himself Lawrence Samson, there may be others on the scientist's trail, or perhaps their own! Eddie and Lawrence try to track down the possibly infected professor and find evidence to determine whether or not he's a threat. At the same time, they have to avoid some people who don't want the public to find out about the parasites.

    Before Death Blossoms is a sci-fi pulp with a little action, a little mystery, and a little weird science. Lawrence Samson was once a biologist, but now he's been forced into a life on the run from all kinds of strange creatures. His inventiveness and his willingness to look danger in the face are his weapons against all kinds of biological oddities that threaten mankind.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRudolph Kohn
    Release dateMar 22, 2023
    ISBN9798215570807
    Before Death Blossoms
    Author

    Rudolph Kohn

    I'm a physicist trying to get into writing. I read a lot of mystery, sci-fi, and fantasy, and my writings hit the same genres (or I guess, will hit those genres--I still don't have a lot of pieces published). My greatest influence is probably Rex Stout. Check out my blog rnkfiction.blogspot.com for free short fiction and commentary on writing. Thanks for checking out my profile!

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      Book preview

      Before Death Blossoms - Rudolph Kohn

      Before Death Blossoms

      A Lawrence G. Samson Adventure

      by Rudolph Kohn

      Smashwords Edition

      Copyright 2023 Rudolph Kohn

      Smashwords Edition, License Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      Chapter 1: Not much of a talk.

      Eddie Sanchez walked into the room and took a seat in the back. Most of the seats were full, but there were four seats in a row still unoccupied in the back row. The rest of the crowd was chatting and laughing, a few of them still standing in little clusters around the room, but there were still three minutes until the talks were supposed to start. The organizer, a short blond-haired woman, stood near the front of the room with one of the speakers, poking at a computer and glancing at the screen on the front wall occasionally. Apparently they were trying to get the presentation system working properly. A few people near the front, probably other presenters, were buried in their laptops, making last-minute tweaks to their slide decks. Eddie put his notepad down onto the wide, bench-style table and leaned back in the cheap plastic chair, waiting for things to quiet down.

      Then his eye caught a newcomer, and he had to stifle a laugh. A man, tall and thin, probably a little over 180 centimeters, had walked in. He had short, wavy auburn hair and a serious look in his blue eyes. But what was funny about him was the way he was dressed. It was like a bartender or a shopkeeper from an old Western movie. He wore charcoal slacks and a charcoal vest over a long-sleeved white shirt. The only things missing were the little bands to hold the sleeves in place. Considering how casually most of the attendees were dressed, he stood out like a penguin in a flock of geese. Eddie himself was wearing a somewhat wrinkled (from its time inside a suitcase) patterned button-down shirt and khakis. The man glanced at the front of the room and stepped back toward the rear, taking a seat near Eddie. The man had no notebook or anything in his hands at all.

      The organizer finished working with the presenter and walked to the center of the room, in front of all the tables. She raised her hands and her voice. All right everyone, she said, and the murmurs quieted down and the few people still standing around started to find seats. After a few seconds, she continued, We're about to get started. Would all of the presenters please take seats in the front row? It helps to get the next talk moving faster. A few people picked up their laptops and moved to the front, a couple of them grumbling a bit. Our first talk today is from Tuan Madusanka, a graduate student working with Professor Julius Chen's group at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Let's see... she glanced down at the papers in her hand. The title is 'Novel Gene Expression Patterns in Giant Water Lilies of the Amazon Basin.' This is a ten minute talk, with three minutes for questions at the end. Tuan, please go ahead.

      The young man, wiry with close-cropped black hair, who had been fiddling with his computer walked to the center of the room and cleared his throat. The title slide of his presentation appeared on the screen. But rather than beginning his talk, he stood there, stock still, for a few seconds. A few people in the audience started looking at each other, and a few others murmured questioningly. Eddie watched the speaker with a raised eyebrow, but the man in the old-fashioned clothes leaned back slowly and put his hands under the back edge of the table, not ostentatiously.

      Tuan's hands clenched, then spread open, as if he were having a seizure, and he opened his mouth and threw back his head, making a bizarre groaning sound. Then, in rapid succession, three people in the audience slumped back in their chairs as something hit them with a loud sound like a whip cracking. Eddie watched in stunned confusion as a pink cloud of some kind of fine powder erupted from Tuan's mouth and nose, and he saw another person in the front row slip out of her chair as if something had grabbed her leg and pulled.

      The man near Eddie pushed up on the rear of the table and tipped it onto its side, ducking behind it. Eddie glanced over but was too stunned to move. The man reached out and grabbed Eddie's arm and pulled him down onto the ground a split second before two more loud cracks came from the front of the table and the wall behind them.

      Eddie couldn't see the speaker anymore, but that weird groan was getting louder and he heard more thwacks. The man in the vest put a finger to his lips, urging Eddie to be quiet, and then he flicked his head toward the door.

      You want to get out of here? the man asked, barely above a whisper. Eddie nodded. Then follow me, and for God's sake, stay low and quiet.

      The oddly-dressed man crawled slowly toward the door, with Eddie right behind. Another man, heavyset with glasses and a short, dark brown beard, who had been sitting at the same table, between them and the door, must have been too confused to decide what to do, because Eddie watched as a green and pink thing that looked like a big thorn hit him square in the forehead, making that awful noise and snapping his neck back violently. The bearded man didn't move after that, his eyes staring blankly ahead as his head lolled to one side.

      Eddie followed right behind the man in the old-fashioned clothes until they reached the end of the table. There were less than two meters between them and the door. Eddie glanced back and saw what looked like a vine snake under the table and grab the man who had been sitting a little further from the door by the leg and pull him down to the ground.

      The man in the old-fashioned clothes hissed a warning and looked back at Eddie. He put up three fingers. Then he turned back toward the door and put his hand in his pocket. He counted, slowly and quietly. One... He pulled his hand out of his pocket, and there were two little balls, one green and one orange, about the size of golf balls, in his hand. Two... He peeked over the edge of the table, just barely. Eddie was too focused on following the count to do the same. It seemed like much more than a second to Eddie, but maybe it was just fear and adrenaline that made it seem so.

      Three! The man tossed the two little balls toward the front of the room and pushed himself forward and upward, toward the door. Eddie tried his best to do the same, but that man, despite his lanky appearance, must have been pretty strong. Eddie's left leg slipped a little on the cheap carpet as he tried to propel himself forward, but he managed to make one step before the weird groan from the front of the room turned into a shriek. One more step, and suddenly there was a bright yellow flash and a deafening bang from the front of the room. Then there was

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