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Dustin Thomason - 12.21

Here you can read online Dustin Thomason - 12.21 full text of the book (entire story) in english for free. Download pdf and epub, get meaning, cover and reviews about this ebook. City: New York, year: 2012, publisher: The Dial Press, genre: Detective and thriller. Description of the work, (preface) as well as reviews are available. Best literature library LitArk.com created for fans of good reading and offers a wide selection of genres:

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Dustin Thomason 12.21

12.21: summary, description and annotation

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From the co-author of the two-million copy mega-bestseller comes a riveting thriller with a brilliant premise based on the 2012 apocalypse phenomenonperfect for readers of Steve Berry, Preston and Child, and Dan Brown. For decades, December 21, 2012, has been a touchstone for doomsayers worldwide. It is the date, they claim, when the ancient Maya calendar predicts the world will end. In Los Angeles, two weeks before, all is calm. Dr. Gabriel Stanton takes his usual morning bike ride, drops off the dog with his ex-wife, and heads to the lab where he studies incurable prion diseases for the CDC. His first phone call is from a hospital resident who has an urgent case she thinks he needs to see. Meanwhile, Chel Manu, a Guatemalan American researcher at the Getty Museum, is interrupted by a desperate, unwelcome visitor from the black market antiquities trade who thrusts a duffel bag into her hands. By the end of the day, Stanton, the foremost expert on some of the rarest infections in the world, is grappling with a patient whose every symptom confounds and terrifies him. And Chel, the brightest young star in the field of Maya studies, has possession of an illegal artifact that has miraculously survived the centuries intact: a priceless codex from a lost city of her ancestors. This extraordinary record, written in secret by a royal scribe, seems to hold the answer to her lifes work and to one of historys great riddles: why the Maya kingdoms vanished overnight. Suddenly it seems that our own civilization might suffer this same fate. With only days remaining until December 21, 2012, Stanton and Chel must join forces before time runs out.

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Dustin Thomason

12.21

A Novel

To my sister, Heather, who helps me understand

that blood really is thicker,

and to Janet, the best mother in the world,

our very own giving tree.

PROLOGUE HE STANDS SILENTLY IN THE MOONLIGHT AGAINST THE WALL OF the temple - photo 1

PROLOGUE

HE STANDS SILENTLY IN THE MOONLIGHT AGAINST THE WALL OF the temple, the small bundle held tightly under his arm. The sisal wrapping chafes against his skin, but he welcomes the feeling. It reassures him. In this drought-stricken city, he would not trade this package, even for water. The ground beneath his sandals is cracked and dry. The green world of his childhood is gone, and he is beginning to wonder if soon he will be too.

Satisfied that the temple guards havent detected his presence, he hurries toward the central square, where artisans and tattoo-painters once thrived. Now it is populated only by beggars, and beggars, when hungry, can be dangerous. But tonight he is lucky. There are only two men standing by the east temple. They have seen him before, and they know he gives to them what he can. Still, he holds the bundle close as he goes.

At the boundary between the central square and the maize silos, there is a guard posted. No more than a boy. For a moment, he considers burying the bundle and returning for it later, but the earth is dust, and the winds drive through fields where trees once stood. Nothing in this parched city remains buried for long.

He takes a breath and continues walking forward.

Royal and Holy One, calls the boy. Where are you going? The boys eyes are tired, hungry, but spark when they take in the bundle under the mans arm.

To my fasting cave.

What are you carrying?

Incense for my dedications.

The man tightens his arm around the parcel and prays silently to Itzamnaaj.

But there has been no incense at the market for days, Royal and Holy One. The guards voice is jaded. As if all men lie now to survive. As if all innocence has fled with the rains. Give it to me.

Warrior, you are right. It is not incense but a gift for the king. He has no choice but to invoke the kings name, though the king would have his heart ripped out if he knew what he was carrying.

Give it to me, the boy says again.

The man reluctantly obeys.

The boys fingers unwrap the bundle roughly, but when the sisal falls away, he sees disappointment in the young guards eyes. What had he been hoping for? Maize? Cacao? He does not understand what he has seen. Like most boys in these times, he understands only hunger.

Rewrapping it quickly, the man hurries away from the guard, offering thanks to the gods for his good fortune. His small cave lies at the eastern edge of the city, and he slips through the opening undetected.

There are cloths spread across the floor, placed here in preparation for this moment. He lights his candle, sets the bundle at a careful distance from the wax, then carefully wipes his hands. He drops to his knees and reaches for the sisal. Inside is a folded stack of pages made from the bark of a fig tree, hardened with a glaze of limestone paste.

With the great but seemingly effortless care of a man who has trained for this act his entire life, he unfolds the paper. Twenty-five times it has been doubled back on itself, and when it is completely unfurled, the blank pages stretch across the width of the cave.

From behind his hearth, he gathers three small bowls of paint. He has scraped cooking pots to make black ink, shaved rust from the rocks to make red, and searched fields and riverbeds for anil and clay to make indigo. Finally, he makes a puncture in the skin of his arm. He watches the crimson rivulets run over his wrist and into the bowls of paint before him, sanctifying the ink with his blood.

Then he begins to write.

12.19.19.17.10

DECEMBER 11, 2012

ONE

DR. GABRIEL STANTONS CONDO SAT AT THE END OF THE BOARD-WALK, before the Venice Beach footpath morphed into lush lawns where the tai chi lovers gathered. The modest duplex wasnt entirely to Stantons taste. He would have preferred something with more history. But on this odd stretch of the California coastline, the only options to choose between were run-down shacks and contemporary stone and glass. Stanton left his home just after seven a.m. on his old Gary Fisher bike and headed south with Dogma, his yellow Labrador, running beside him. Groundwork, the best coffee in L.A., was only six blocks away, and there Jillian would have a triple shot of Black Gold ready for him the minute he walked in.

Dogma loved the mornings as much as his owner did. But the dog wasnt allowed into Groundwork, so after Stanton tied him up, he made his way inside alone, waved at Jillian, collected his cup, and checked out the scene. A lot of the early clientele were surfers, their wetsuits still dripping. Stanton was usually up by six, but these guys had been up for hours.

Sitting at his usual table was one of the boardwalks best-known and strangest-looking residents. His entire face and shaved head were covered with intricate designs, as well as rings, studs, and small chains protruding from his earlobes, nose, and lips. Stanton often wondered where a man like Monster came from. What had happened to him in early life that led to the decision to cover his body entirely with art? For some reason, whenever Stanton imagined Monsters origins, he saw a split-level home near a military baseexactly the type of houses in which he himself had spent his childhood.

Hows the world out there doing? Stanton asked.

Monster looked up from his computer. He was an obsessive news junkie, and when he wasnt working at his tattoo shop or entertaining tourists as part of the Venice Beach Freak Show, he was here posting comments on political blogs.

Other than there being only two weeks before the galactic alignment makes the magnetic poles reverse and we all die? he asked.

Other than that.

Hell of a nice day out there.

Hows your lady?

Electrifying, thanks.

Stanton headed for the door. If were still here, Ill see you tomorrow, Monster.

After Stanton downed his Black Gold outside, he and Dogma continued south. A century ago, miles of canals snaked through the streets of Venice, tobacco magnate Abbot Kinneys re-creation of the famed Italian city. Now virtually all of the waterways where gondoliers once ferried residents were paved over and covered with steroid-fueled gyms, greasy-food stands, and novelty T-shirt shops.

Stanton had ruefully watched a rash of Mayan apocalypse graffiti and trinkets pop up all over Venice in recent weeks, vendors taking advantage of all the hype. Hed been raised Catholic but hadnt been in a church in years. If people wanted to seek their destiny or believe in some ancient clock, they could go right ahead; hed stick to testable hypotheses and the scientific method.

Fortunately, it seemed not everyone in Venice believed December 21 would bring the end of the world; red and green lights also decorated the boardwalk too, just in case the crackpots had it wrong. Yuletide was a strange time in L.A. Few transplants understood how to celebrate the holidays at seventy degrees, but Stanton loved the contrastSanta hats on rollerbladers, suntan lotion in stockings, surfboards festooned with antlers. A ride along the beach on Christmas was as spiritual as he got these days.

Ten minutes later, he and the dog reached the northern tip of Marina del Rey. They made their way past the old lighthouse and the sailboats and souped-up fishing vessels bobbing quietly in the harbor. Stanton let Dogma off his leash, and the dog bounded ahead while Stanton trotted behind, listening for music. The woman they were here to see surrounded herself with jazz at all times, and when you heard Bill Evanss piano or Miless trumpet over the other noises of the waterfront, she wasnt far. For most of the last decade, Nina Countner had been the woman in Stantons life. While there had been a few others in the three years since theyd split, none had been more than a substitute for her.

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