John T. Cullen has authored over 20 books, including The Generals of October (Simon & Schuster, 2004)—pulse-pounding political-military suspense fiction set in a near-future U.S. Constitutional crisis.
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John T. Cullen also writes screenplays, including one for Nebula Express (adapted from his SF novel) and the violent, darkly glistening, utterly strange tale of a serial killer in Scorpion.
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If you like what you read here, please send at least two other avid readers here so a growing readership can enjoy these books. That would be a great, painless, easy way to provide a huge assist. If you'd like to do more...click.
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Monopol City
a novel
by John T. Cullen
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10.
Tedda lay in some sort of mummy wrapping on a gurney under a pinkish light. It was like the light in a dentist's office, round and pink with concentric plastic rings in its cover.
Sedated—that much she could feel. The turgid metal of some opiate swirled in her blood stream like mercury, making her feel dull and amputated but free from pain. Amputated from pain, she lay in her cocoon feeling numb and warm and safe. This was better than being dead, even though this hurt dimly, but it was not as painful as the cold.
Tedda felt her fingertips pressing against her thighs, so her manacles and chains must be gone. That much was good. Why am I here? she wondered. She was wrapped in blankets and around those, tied with straps, to a hospital bed. Two I.V. poles stood nearby. Bags of saline hung suspended, clear and wrinkled, and stabbed into those were various piggy-back I.V. medicines, and it all went drip, drip, drip down clear plastic tubules toward the parts of her body invisible to her beyond the horizon of sheets and straps.
This was a place or a condition of endless monotony. It was a large room with peeling white walls and dull floors. Under the dull ceilings, a double row of long fluorescent tubes mostly were not working, and the few that worked were all different shades of pink or yellow or gray. One kept winking on and off. Their chargers hummed.
She felt a twinge of that awful need to run somewhere, do something, save someone, help someone, a warm someone—but the feeling eluded her. She could make no sense of it.
Tedda looked toward the only motion visible. To her left was a row of long, low windows that could be leaned open, but they were all closed. Above those were big square panes of glass that could not be opened. Outside were huge green tree crowns full of leaves and rain. Wind pressed leaves against the windows. Tedda could hear a faint howling and realized the wind outside must be very strong. Not a good night to be outside. She looked with glazed eyes at the endless runneling of rainwater down the window glass. It was good to be inside here, warm and dry.
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If you like what you're reading, please send at least two other avid readers to this website.
—Thank you! …Your grateful author, John T. Cullen.
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Other gripping books by the author:
Copyright © 2005 by John T. Cullen. All Rights Reserved.
John T. Cullen has been a pioneer in digital publishing since 1996. He is listed by digital publishing historian Karen Wiesner as the sixth digital publisher in history, and the second person to publish serialized chapters on line (starting 1996). His web magazine Deep Outside SFFH was the first to be listed along with the professional pulps in Writer's Market (1999) and was at one time the oldest professional SFFH magazine in the world. John T. Cullen continues to explore new ways to adapt the primordial power of storytelling to emerging new digital opportunities as the Third Millennium springs to light.
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A Walk in Ancient Rome John T. Cullen (Simon&Schuster May 2005) innovative, acclaimed walking & teaching tour—explore every corner of the Imperial capital at its zenith almost 2000 years ago; learn its history—smell and taste the very air of Classical Rome.
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= Summer 2008 =
A Walk in Ancient Rome, Second Edition John T. Cullen (Clocktower Books 2008)—New! Many new maps; images from the unique scale model of AndréCaron of Quebec. Read this innovative book, with its acclaimed walking & teaching tour. Explore every corner of the Imperial capital at its zenith almost 2000 years ago; learn its history. Smell and taste the very air of Classical Rome. The new edition is bigger, like an atlas. Some people have carried the 1st edition with them to Rome, and found it greatly enhanced their experience.
Dead Move: Kate Morgan and the Haunting Mystery of Coronado, 2nd Ed. John T. Cullen (Clocktower Books, San Diego, Summer 2008). John T. Cullen has tackled the mystery of the ghost at the Hotel del Coronado. He has assembled a dramatic new theory about how and why she violently died on the back steps of the hotel in 1892. A first-class ghost story and whodunit wrapped in one.
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