For the next week or so, at the request of the publisher, I'll be posting short excerpts from my new supernatural thriller, The Newton Cipher. Enjoy! And if they whet your appetite an you want to read the entire book, you can find it here: The Newton Cipher
---------
Excerpt #7

REPLACED
British Library, London
Sunday Morning

Trina was at the entrance of the British Library promptly at nine the next morning, passing again beneath the statue of Newton. The sculpture seemed less welcoming today, distracted and focused on his measurements.
She greeted him anyway. “Morning, Mister Newton.”
The doors were locked, but through the glass she saw the guard who had checked her in the day before.
He looked half asleep.
She rapped the glass with her knuckles. At first he ignored her, and then, when she was persistent, he held his two forefingers up next to each other and mouthed “open at eleven.”
“Alfie Gill!” she shouted. Then, with exaggerated lip movements, mouthed “ALFIE GILL!”
That seemed to jog a memory in the guard, and he stood slowly, consulted a clipboard, then came to the door.
“Hi,” she said. “I’m Trina Piper. Mr. Gill said I could come after nine.”
“Right,” the guard said, ushering her into the foyer and locking the door behind them. “Mr. Gill has other visitors this morning, and I forgot you were on the list.”
She signed in and followed him through the silent library. Lights were off in many of the offices. It was Sunday, after all. The guard’s keys jangled in his fingers with each door they passed through, until finally she recognized the small hallway with the room she’d occupied the day before.
The guard’s keys jangled one final time as he unlocked the door. “Mr. Gill requests you wait in here, please.”
At the far end of the hall, in what must have been someone’s office, she heard raised voices. One was Gill’s voice, and he sounded frustrated.
“... being entirely unreasonable!”
Trina only heard part of the response, as there seemed to be a few other voices as well, some in another language.
“... decision was over my head, Alfie.” The guard cleared his throat.
“In here, Miss Piper.”
“Sorry.”
The guard closed the door. The room was as she’d left it yesterday— the manuscripts were still out on the table, the still chairs angled slightly out from under the table.
She had just powered up the computer when the door opened and Gill came in, looking flustered.
“Alfie,” Trina said, turning. “I’ve got exciting news! The symbols of Manuscript B are Enochian, and I’ve—”
She stopped short as two more men, and then a woman, appeared in the doorway as well. One of the men had wire-rimmed glasses that pinched his nose, giving him the appearance of a weasel. That man, and the woman, were both of average height, and both had cropped hair and wore dark clothes.
But they were mostly hidden—dwarfed would be the more appropriate term—by the third man, who looked to be well over six- and-a-half feet tall. His dark hair was parted over his high, pronounced brow, and a well-manicured mustache and beard framed the bemused expression on his face. He was staring at Trina with contempt.
Gill shot her a warning glance—shhh!—and positioned himself between her and the three strangers.
“A few moments, please,” he said to them, “while I explain the situation to Miss Piper here. You can wait in my office.”
Gill practically had to push the tall man back out the door, who moved back into the hallway reluctantly. When the door was finally closed, Gill leaned his back against it and closed his eyes, as if he’d just eluded a pursuer.
“Is everything okay?” Trina said.
“Miss Piper—ah, I, um ...” Gill began. “I’m afraid there’s been an unfortunate change of plans.”