Gone In Three Seconds – Jim De La Vega

Oglethorpe continued. “But we are not talking about a single chemical reaction. We’re talking about several. One to make the mark visible, another to make it explode.” The doctor paused, waiting for the secretary to catch the importance of the statement. It took a moment, but eventually Tommy T got there. “Visible? What do you mean, make it visible?” “Haven’t you figured it out yet? Obviously, in the case of the stadium, the boom tattoos were applied sometime prior to the game.

In fact, witnesses confirm that one of the victims, a Mr. David Blythe, had no visible marks on his left arm during the first four innings of the game. That tattoo appeared sometime in the fifth inning.” That witness was Taft’s soon-to-be ex-wife Sandy. And she had been absolutely positive. “A woman notices such things,” she had told Taft.

“So, what does this mean?” the secretary asked, some of the bravado bleeding from his voice. It was Gregory Taft who answered. “It means that someone has created an explosive that is small, lightweight, and completely undetectable. It means that they have the ability to defeat any and all current FBI or Homeland Security defenses. It means we’re in trouble.” * The world shrank, reduced to the size of a cell-phone screen. Pure terror captured in pixels. The reality of the image—what it meant, what it would do —caused Cassidy Chord’s heart to stumble between beats.

It wasn’t until the image melted, vanishing like all the others, that her paralysis broke. She had to call Taft. Brreepp . . . Brreepp . . . Startled by the ringing cell phone, she almost dropped it. The caller ID read, PRIVATE. Cassidy brought the phone to her ear but didn’t speak. An electronically altered voice said, “Hello . . . Dr. Chord.” * Taft’s pronouncement sucked the air from the room. He studied the faces of the men and women who comprised the tattoo task force—the same men and women who had been so gung-ho just twenty-four hours earlier and saw fear, as the immensity of their task and the reality of the stakes, took hold.

“What do we do, sir?” The question came from Nellie Balcombe. Except for procedural and technical issues, the computer tech was generally quiet in a crowd. But Elliot Proctor had been one of her few friends. “How do we stop this monster?” It was Thomas T. Walman III who answered. “By understanding who or what he is.” There was a fresh patina of sweat on the secretary’s now rosy face, and his hands gripped the sides of his personal podium as if it were the last lifeboat on the good ship Titanic.

Despite his surprise at Taft’s assessment, Tommy T was determined to reassert his control of the meeting. He nodded and one of his toadies began distributing a multipage handout. Taft recognized it. He locked his arms across his chest.

First Publication by Tule Publishing 2026 Cover design by Croco Designs No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

AI was not used to create any part of this book and no part of this book may be used for generative training. ISBN: 978-1-970840-21-6 OceanofPDF.com Keep Up with your Favorite Authors and their New Releases For the latest news from Tule Publishing authors, sign up for our newsletter here or check out our website at TulePublishing.com Stay social! For new release updates, behind-the-scenes sneak peeks, and reader giveaways: Like us on Follow us on Follow us on See you online!

OceanofPDF.com Dedication To Kathryn, my inspiration. And to the memory of my brother, Timmy.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

Book Information

• Unique ID: eb631d9d007eb885
• File Extension: .pdf
• File Size: 2,464,566 bytes (2.35 MB)
• Title: –
• Author: Unknown
• ISBN: 9781970840216
• Pages: 462
• Language: English (en)

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• Estimated Reading Time: 474.51 minutes
• Total Words: 94,903
• Total Characters: 535,414
• Average Words per Page: 205.42
• Average Characters per Page: 1158.9

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