The Calm Before The Swarm

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Special Thanks to Paul Goblirsch, Jeff Strand, Gene O'Neill, Leigh Haig, Bill Rasmussen, Brian Keene, my family, and all of my loyal readers, without whom none of this would be possible.

THE CALM BEFORE THE SWARM

Every great advance in science has issued from a new audacity of imagination.

--- John Dewey

Cursed is the man who dies, but the evil done by him survives.

--- Abu Bakr

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

--- Arthur C. Clarke

CHAPTER ONE

I

Lithium Springs, Georgia

Dr. Lauren Allen pulled up to the barricade in a wash of red and blue lights and rolled down the window of her Sahara Silver Audi A5. A uniformed officer accepted her proffered badge jacket without a word and compared her identification against the list on his clipboard. His upper lip glistened with a liberal application of Vick's VapoRub. She could smell it even over the divine scent of the Mongolian beef in the Styrofoam container on the seat beside her. The call had come in during dinner, forcing her box up more than half of her meal. Had she known what the night would bring, she would have gone for the shrimp with lobster sauce. The onions and peppers were murder on her digestive system.

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