A Spectrum of Heroes by Annie Percik [Tour w/ Excerpt]

Biochemist Anushka Mahto flees the lab where she works, stealing the mysterious substance she has been experimenting on. She accidentally contaminates herself while disposing of it, in an attempt to protect the world at large from its potentially harmful effects.

Welcome to one of the September 27th stops on the blog tour for A Spectrum of Heroes by Annie Percik with RABT Book Tours. Be sure to follow the rest of the tour for spotlights, reviews, author guest posts & interviews, and a giveaway! More on that at the end of this post.

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About the Book

A Spectrum of Heroes
by Annie Percik

Published 6 September 2021
Markosia

Genre: Science Fiction
Page Count: 304
Add it to your Goodreads TBR!

Biochemist Anushka Mahto flees the lab where she works, stealing the mysterious substance she has been experimenting on. She accidentally contaminates herself while disposing of it, in an attempt to protect the world at large from its potentially harmful effects.

On the run from her unethical boss, Anushka must learn to control her multiple new powers while being hunted by lab security chief and former lover, Charlotte. She calls on her sister for help, but Jhanvi is reluctant to open old wounds by allowing Anushka back into her life.

When an alien named Ergo comes onto the scene, Anushka suddenly finds the fate of humanity resting in her hands. Can she navigate the complex problems in her personal relationships and also prevent an interstellar war?

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Excerpt

P1 – May 2019 – North London

Slick mud oozed between Anushka’s fingers as she dug. Why hadn’t she thought to bring a spade? She’d rushed to escape the lab, without considering practicalities. Damn Yardley and his ultimatum! If only she’d had more time, she could have planned her departure properly. Now she was winging it, and that had never been one of her strong points. Her back ached from stooping and the darkness made it difficult to see what she was doing. She leaned further forwards and nearly toppled into the hole. She sat back on her haunches, her breaths coming short and fast. Injuring herself and ending up stuck here until daylight would be all she needed. She shivered in the night air. Even after years living in London, she still missed the heat of Kolkata. A flood of sense memories threatened to overwhelm her and she felt tears pricking her eyes. But now was not the time to indulge in nostalgia. Taking a deep breath, Anushka pushed back her feelings and her long dark hair, and turned her attention back to the task at hand.

The hole was probably deep enough now. Anushka reached for the thick plastic sack at her side and slid it into the depression. It was heavy and unwieldy, its liquid contents shifting as she moved it. It snagged on something part way down. Reaching in, she felt around and discovered a sharp root protruding from the earth. She managed to free the sack and it settled at the bottom of the hole with a squelch and a waft of pungent chemicals. Anushka swept her hair over her shoulder again. Tying it back was another thing she should have done before starting. She really hadn’t thought this through. Everything had happened so quickly and panic had overtaken reason in her flight. What was Charlotte going to think when she arrived at work to find Anushka gone? She couldn’t think about that now, or she might just give up this reckless plan and run back to the lab, regardless of the consequences. Her scalp tingled, most likely with apprehension at the possibility of being discovered.

Anushka shovelled dirt on top of the sack, making sure it was well covered. She did her best to make the ground look as undisturbed as possible, but it was hard to tell how well she succeeded. Bringing a torch would have made her too visible to any security personnel, and the lights along the fence were too far away to be much use out here in the field. She wasn’t worried about her footprints in the dirt. Plenty of people traipsed back and forth along here on a daily basis and nobody would be looking for her prints in particular, as long as it wasn’t obvious someone had been digging.

Deciding her efforts were good enough, Anushka stood up, wincing as her back twinged again. She felt ridiculous, crawling around a field in the middle of the night, but it was the only way she could think of to dispose of the XR-20. How long would it take for someone to notice it was missing from the lab? Much as she might want to, she couldn’t go back to work the next day and pretend no knowledge of the theft. Even though she hadn’t been caught leaving the building, she was the only one who had access to the XR-20, and security was tight enough that there was no way anyone else could have broken in to take it.

She made her way back to the fence and the gap she had made. She slid through it and back out onto the road. Jogging across and into the trees, she found where she had parked her car and got in. She sat in the driver’s seat for a moment, trying to calm her breathing and slow her heartbeat. What she had just done was hasty and ill-advised but it was too late now. There was no turning back; she had burned all her bridges. Minutes later, she was speeding away from the scene of the crime and everything she had built in the last few years of her life.

About the Author

Annie Percik lives in London, where she writes novels and short stories, whilst working as a freelance editor and proofreader. She writes a blog about writing on her website, which is where all her current publications are listed, including her debut fantasy novel, The Defiant Spark and her sci-fi second novel, A Spectrum of Heroes. She also makes a media review podcast with her husband, Dave, and publishes a photo-story blog, recording the adventures of her teddy bear. He is much more popular online than she is.

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