Earthbound : A gripping crime thriller full of twists and supernatural suspense Fynn Perry (if you liked this book TXT) 📖

“He was lucky and survived, but most didn’t,” Jennifer said. “Here’s another one featuring a rich kid.”

TYCOON’S DAUGHTER, 22, DIES OF DRUG OVERDOSE

The daughter of a property tycoon was diagnosed brain-dead in the hospital two days ago after suffering an adverse reaction to a new type of drug on the market. Hannah Morgan, 22, was believed to have purchased the pill known as Spider’s Bite from a dealer operating outside the popular Mayhem nightclub in New York’s Meatpacking District. Clubgoers at Mayhem, who wish to remain anonymous, saw Morgan acting violently at the club before being removed by security around midnight. She was found unresponsive at around 2 a.m., a few blocks away from Mayhem. EMTs took her to the nearest ER, but on arrival, she was diagnosed as brain-dead. Her parents kept her on life support for two days before finally deciding to take her off it. She was buried a week later.

The management of Mayhem released a statement stating that the safety of their patrons continues to be their highest priority and they deeply regret and vigorously condemn the widespread epidemic of drug-taking in the city.

“Sure, they do!” John muttered sarcastically. “Odds-on they just left her for dead in an alley like they did with the kid I saw.”

Jennifer went through the other names of OD victims who were the sons or daughters of prominent professionals or high-net-worth individuals. In the majority of cases, the violent episodes had occurred at DNA and Mayhem, and the victims’ bodies were found in the streets surrounding the clubs. There was one other case similar to the Rogers’ where the victim had bought the drugs at the club but collapsed in another location, where he got immediate medical treatment and then recovered fully, this time after six days.

“What about people who are still missing after going to the clubs?” John asked.

Jennifer typed in the keywords ‘Missing Person,’ ‘Mayhem,’ and ‘DNA.’ It yielded hundreds of results, most of them irrelevant. She finally found some posts on a few NYC nightlife-related forums and minor news articles describing situations where persons reported missing had visited one of El Gordito’s clubs on the night of their disappearance. In the majority of cases, witnesses reported suspected drug-taking by the victim and violent behavior necessitating removal from the club by security staff.

“They seem to fit the pattern. None of them is mentioned as being wealthy or coming from wealthy families.” Jennifer paused and continued slowly, pointing at the screen. “There were some sightings of the missing persons at places as far away as Harlem and Staten Island after they left the club.”

“I’m guessing these sightings are most probably fake and in reality, those victims were probably already on their way to the harvesting factory,” John suggested. He paused for a moment as the vile reality of what he had seen sunk in. He then he explained to Jennifer that Nikki had told him about Santiago being a leading player in an important narrative. “The drug manufacture must be the narrative, Jen. El Gordito’s new drug will cause massive addiction and create new drug wars––it’s a perfect scenario for The Game, which is all about causing maximum suffering and death. And what better pairing for the storyline than El Gordito possessed by Santiago’s spirit! Two villains in one!”

“What about the organ trafficking—do you think that’s part of the narrative?” Jennifer asked.

“I don’t know, seems like it could be just as lucrative as the drug business. In both cases El Gordito has very low costs, he brews one of his products and steals the other. Plus, with the organ harvesting, he uses the empty bodies to ship the drugs.”

John’s tone then changed as he relayed the bad news that Santiago’s vendetta against Jennifer’s father was of little importance to the Voids and they had no interest in stopping it.

They chewed on that for a minute before Jennifer’s eyes suddenly lit up. “Wait a minute,” she enthused. “You said that Santiago is a key player in a narrative. I think I’ve cracked it. The way to beat Santiago is simple. It’s… The Game! The Game is the answer!”

“How so?” John asked, confused.

“In every game you have winners and losers, right?”

“So?”

“So, what happens if one of these spirit players fails to make their host achieve whatever goal they were supposed to achieve? I mean, what if we, somehow, get El Gordito arrested and his operation goes down? Santiago would fail—he would lose—and a loser would no longer be allowed in The Game, no longer be allowed to play, right?”

“Right!” John recalled the words he had heard during his meeting with Nikki: Failure to realize their roles in a narrative will result in the spirit’s immediate and permanent removal from Earth. “According to what Nikki said, Santiago would get banished from Earth. And when you think about it, it wouldn’t make much sense to reward a spirit who’d failed by letting it stay on Earth to deal with unfinished business. But it would take more than El Gordito merely being arrested for his empire to collapse. He’s been arrested and acquitted countless times.”

“We have to get Vargas arrested with evidence so overwhelming that they’ll put him away and close down all his operations. That would end the drug manufacture, causing a complete failure of the narrative.”

“That’s brilliant, Jen!” John announced, but he could see from her expression that the enormity of the task wasn’t lost on her. “We can’t do it alone. Now’s the time to tell your father everything. His life could depend on it, and he might be able to help us.”

“How the hell am I going to do that? I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t have me committed to a psychiatric facility, but still . . .”

At times of stress, hunger would drive Jennifer to the kitchen. To her, there was nothing more comforting than peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Eager to help and to