Genre: Horror, dark fantasy, psychological thriller, fiction, occult
Date Published:Â 17th July 2023
After losing his job at a genomic research company, Joel worries about his ability to provide for his family, especially during the holiday season. Even more concerning is how his unemployment may affect his perfect image within the extremist community he has lived in since birth. Lured by the idea of a quick fix, he impulsively books a flight for himself and his family to Europe when the offer of a large inheritance arrives in his inbox.
Confident that he knows best, Joel blindly trusts a stranger’s invitation to return to the village of his ancestors to collect his birthright. But rather than wealth, they quickly discover that their lineage only possesses monstrous truths with deadly consequences.
About the Author
Brigitte, “Gitte,” Tamar was born in a small rural Oregon town. Growing up, she was enthralled by scary tales featuring poetic tones and consistently gravitated towards writing darkened narratives. In the different storylines, Brigitte explores the harsh realities of social issues faced by today’s generations. This includes the dark outcomes brought on by peer pressure, addiction, homelessness, mental illness, childhood trauma, and abuse. She feels it is essential to share narratives that refrain from sugarcoating the topics society tends to shy away from.
It’s a release day for my dark, nautical, reality-bending sci-fi/thriller Dive Beyond Eternity. To celebrate it, I want to post here the first chapter. Enjoy!
Chapter One
Zara
Boston, U.K. Present day
The small research vessel rolled pitched wildly on the storm swell of the North Sea, the horizon disappearing beneath the dull waters. An armada of heavily pregnant clouds advanced from the west, readying their attack, giving no ground to the eternal blue sky or permitting the sun to penetrate their thick grey armour.
Zara never felt seasick. In fact, the long drive from Portsmouth to Boston, to reach the wreck, exhausted her more than a few hours in the pre-storm sea. She daydreamed that in a previous life, she could’ve been a mermaid, or a pirate, or maybe a submarine captain.
She squinted, tasting the salty spray on her lips as she observed the mission’s progress. The gusting wind punched the small boat, jerking it to and fro in a maddening waltz.
‘The dive is taking much longer than I expected.’ Anita Patel, the team’s sonar specialist, interrupted Zara’s thoughts. ‘I informed Professor Milne we’ve never worked with such a large object before, but he insisted.’
‘Looks like the storm is approaching much faster than we planned,’ Zara mumbled in reply. ‘The sea is too rough.’
She also wondered about Professor Milne’s strange choice of divers. Instead of summoning the university’s usual contractors, he had employed a random company they knew little about.
Perhaps he wanted to keep the mission low profile. Discovering this dark underwater shape, mysteriously buried in a sandbank, sounded like science fiction. And yet the professor had agreed with North Waters Offshore that it could be of interest to the university and had sent Zara to investigate.
‘What do you want me to do?’ Ms Patel stared at Zara, waiting. ‘Do you want me to call off the operation right now or –?’
‘How much time do we have?’
‘About an hour’s worth of oxygen in the divers’ tanks.’
Zara fixed her eyes on two monitors, watching the remotely operated vehicle – ROV -transmitting underwater video from the darkness.
For the last hour, the two divers had been trying to clean the layers of sand away from the wreck, using a specialised pressurised air hose. The sonar monitored the location of the wreck over a hundred-foot radius, and there was no mistaking in distinguishinging shape of the U-boat. Her three-bladed propeller, small conning tower, periscope, antennae, snorkel, and hydroplanes.
‘There’s one thing we know for sure – this is a U-boat.’ Zara exclaimed, shifting her gaze from the sonar to the camera screens and back. ‘U-4713/A,’ she read the number on the conning tower aloud. ‘This is a rather unusual number. 4713/A? Where did you come from?’
‘She looks like she left port yesterday,’ Anita said. ‘Look. The hull’s rubber coating is undamaged. No signs of sea life’s interference. There’s no debris around her either.’
‘No signs of torpedo impact or a strike by a mine.’ Zara nodded. ‘Nor implosion from within.’
‘Pete, Ivor… can you get closer to the rock?’ the supervisor asked the divers, turning to the screen. ‘We need to see the surface where it meets the hull.’
Ivor gave a thumbs-up signal, dragging the the pressurised air hose to the rock where it met the submarine.
‘Can you see this?’ Ivor’s slightly accented voice sounded from the radio. His camera moved closer to the hull.
Even in the murky water, Zara and Anita could distinguish no damage to the U-boat.
‘It looks like she’s growing straight out of the rock! How on earth?’ Anita shot an anxious look at her colleague.
‘I have no idea, but…’ Zara trailed off in thought. ‘The only way to know is to glimpse inside,’ she said finally. It sounded like a huge favour to ask, far too dangerous, far too risky, and outside of the company’s regulations, but it seemed like the only way to clarify her theory.
‘I’m sorry, Miss Rose, but I can’t put my people at risk,’ Anita said. ‘Professor Milne agreed that only—’
Zara exhaled. ‘I understand. Safety first.’
Anita had made it crystal clear she wasn’t ready to sacrifice her divers and the company’s equipment for the sake of her crude scientific guess.
The wind whipped Zara’s hair over her face, thunder rolled in the distance. ‘The storm’s approaching. We have to leave.’
Anita nodded and commanded the divers, ‘Guys, return to the boat. We’re leaving.’
‘Give us a minute,’ Pete’s low voice crackled from the radio. ‘I just want to film the conning tower’s hatch a bit closer.’
‘Can we have a clear image of the propeller, please?’ Zara asked the second diver, before turning to Anita. ‘Markings on the blades can indicate where the propeller was manufactured and which shipyard assembled the vessel.’
Ivor acknowledged, ‘Copy that.’
The two women watched the diver cleared sand from the hatch’s handle. The screen blinked into complete darkness.
‘Pete?’ Anita bellowed. ‘Pete, what’s going on? Your camera’s offline.’ She squeezed the radio but heard nothing.
The second camera seemed to have frozen as well.
‘A technical issue?’ Zara shifted on her feet.
‘Pete? Ivor? What’s going on? Where’s Pete?’ Anita almost screamed.
Zara grabbed Anita’s shoulder and stared at the screens.
‘Ivor? Pete?’ Anita repeated, turning the radio’s volume to maximum.
‘I’m not sure.’ Even through the radio’s interference, Zara could hear Ivor’s panic. ‘Pete was right here a second ago—’
The second screen blinked into darkness. The radio fell silent. Only. the sound of the approaching storm howled around them.
On launch day of NASA’s long-awaited expedition to explore Jupiter’s moon Europa, neuropsychiatrist Amanda wakes up from a coma after months battling acute meningitis.
Along with two patients, they discover they are part of a growing puzzle involving an underground geopolitical corporation called The Firm, which plans to sabotage the mission, taking advantage of a new technology to hijack the ship and set a course to a habitable planet located seventeen light-years away from Earth.
About the Author
A love for space operas with controversial and adult themes along with a hint of Lovecraftian horror are F. P. Trotta’s specialty – born in Rio de Janeiro in the Early 90s, Intergalactica was originally published in Brazil in 2016. The Intergalactica book series went on to move tens of thousands of physical copies in Portuguese and is currently the only ongoing space opera franchise published in Brazil.
In this historical thriller inspired by true events, a British espionage plot spirals out of control—with devastating consequences.
It’s the aftermath of World War I and imperialist powers jostle for influence in Tehran, capital of Persia and heart of the Middle East. James Malcolm is a ruthless British spy set on undermining his American and Russian rivals, but when an act of sabotage escalates into an international incident, the kingmaker becomes the pawn.
Rose Pearce works in the English Consulate with her friend Ali, a sweet boy of fourteen. Their simple existence is shattered the day Ali shares the details of a troubling conversation he’s overheard. Rose encourages him to stick to what he knows best: serving tea and trimming roses in the consulate gardens, but Ali is filled with a sense of duty and takes matters into his own hands, changing their lives forever.
Caught in the shifting sands of shadowy espionage, international agendas, and a lust for Western dominance at all costs, James, Rose, and Ali must fight for what they believe in—if they manage to survive at all.
In the Shadow of the Kingmakers is a vivid, heart-stopping exploration of a moment in history that shaped the world we know today.
About the Author
Vahid Imani was born in Tehran, Iran, and made the United States his home in 1979. He earned his master’s degree in 1980 from Gonzaga University’s School of Business in Spokane, Washington. At the turn of the century, he transitioned to the world of fine arts after a career in high-tech as a business executive. His opinions and insights about arts, history, and international politics have been shared in articles, public lectures, and mass media.
In 2014, he debuted as an author with his award-winning middle-grade novel “Naji and the Mystery of the Dig”.
In February 2019, he released his historical thriller, “In the Shadow of the Kingmakers”. In May 2020, he released his memoir, “Like the Wind I Go, A memoir of Iran, America, my struggle to freedom”. Imani is the father of three children, grandfather of three, and lives with his wife in California.
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