Chapter Two: Arrival This wasn’t a purchase. It was an inheritance of problems. jkr 2.1 No transition. Auction Room. New York Her husband wasn’t known for having a sense of humor. The thought landed heavily on Katrina Kane as she stood staring at the archway, from which moments before Victor Kane and his assistant Harris had vanished right in front of her eyes. She stepped back; her eyes fixed on it at the end of the corr...

Chapter 1: Victor Kane’s WorldKane Tower – 60th Floor Victor Kane did not read newspapers. This was not so much a principle, but a condition of his life. Anything of consequence was brought to him and reduced and rearranged into a condition that required no effort on his part. To him, reading meant uncertainty, and he had long ago removed uncertainty from his affairs. For this reason, when his assistant, Harris, laid a ne...

Chapter 1: The First Stroke “We should garrison Mars in order to protect ourselves.” Lord Salisbury, 58 Anno Reginae (1895 in the old style.) Her majesty’s martian colony: New Victoria in the crown colony of Hellas. 81 Anno Reginae. (1917) I, Gordon Arthur, have set these words to paper, as much as memory will let, years of twisting memories have made these events more like dreams. I cannot be certain what befell us on th...