Four hours after crawling from a fern-covered hide on Dartmoor, and driving along the M4 through one of the heaviest March downpours since records began, Hendrix Harrison stood at his desk sorting through a collection of prints featuring the so-called Ashburton Wolf. He took each in turn, held it to the light, then placed them in order of preference, working silently and quickly. He liked to spread them out on a table rather than peer at a screen, which limited his ability to compare subtle differences. Others called him a Luddite.
The editorial offices of Strange Phenomena included a large open-plan floor space and half a dozen rooms in a red brick office block conspicuously dumped between gleaming façades on Broadwick Street in Soho. An expensive location afforded through the magazine’s publishing group, RET, and the fact that the space was shared with three other publications, all owned by the group. Strange Phenomena’s set of desks occupied a four by seven metre island in the centre of the main room and seated a staff of five dedicated to the monthly issue and the website.
Joan O’Connell was the latest addition to the team, taken on as editor for online content. She coordinated work for Kirsty and William who, as junior reporters, bashed out much of the routine copy which she and Hendrix later rendered readable.
Sometimes he wondered if he should just write it all himself, but with so few staff, a regularly updated website and a monthly issue, roles were somewhat fluid. The magazine relied on half a dozen key freelancers to write features for the print copy.
At one end of the island-of-desks Tom Giles, the managing editor, had arranged a two-seater leather sofa which had followed him around since university. These days it was rarely visited except during crises when he and Hendrix shared a shot of Tequila and resolved the world’s problems over a lick of salt and a slice of lemon. Hendrix had to admit crises were getting more common as readers abandoned print subscriptions for the internet, and retailers concentrated on more commercial lifestyle titles.
A man emerges from the sodden undergrowth, lost, lonely and starving he is mown down by a speeding car on the edge of a remote forest.
Rumours of ghostly apparitions haunt a rural Northumberland community.
A renowned forensic research establishment is troubled by impossible results and unprecedented interference from an influential drug company.
A renowned forensic research establishment is troubled by impossible results and unprecedented interference from an influential drug company.
Hendrix ‘Aitch’ Harrison is a tech-phobic journalist who must link these events together.
Normally side-lined to investigate UFOs and big-beast myths, but thrust into world of cynical corporate motivations, Hendrix is aided by a determined and ambitious entomologist. Together they delve into a grisly world of clinical trials and a viral treatment beyond imagining.
In a chase of escalating dangers, Aitch must battle more than his fear of technology to expose the macabre fate of the drugged victims donated to scientific research.
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Genre – Crime, Thriller, Horror
Rating – R-16
More details about the author
Website http://www.williamknight.info
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