Richard Ashland

Terretsville I Richard Ashland

April 1983Charles Rikker, a US Army intelligence officer, is notified that he is the beneficiary to a multimillion-dollar estate, including a ten-thousand square-foot mansion in Stamford, Connecticut. After legal investigation and making certain the will is in fact legitimate, there is a mystery behind the inheritance. Charles Rikker's benefactors, Hershel and Margaret Benson, vanished eighteen years before he was born. Twenty-one years later, Charles still has no idea of how or why he was the beneficiary to the grand estate and more mysteries come to light. September 2004In the Clock Shop, Charles Rikker is informed that the world is in trouble: seven nuclear warheads are in route, the first one will exterminate Jerusalem, including the Gaza strip, and as far north as Lebanon and Syria wiping our millions of lives in a matter of minutes. The second and remaining warheads would cover the globe, targeting Moscow, Washington DC, Brazil, Mexico City, Central China, and Central Africa. Within nine months, three quarters of the earth's population would cease to exist as a result of either a direct attack or of radiation poisoning that covers the face of the earth, within two years, all life on earth will be extinguished. Just as Pearl Harbor was a murderous attack that happened so unexpectedly it was too late to react or prevent, so is the global annihilation that is already in action. Charles's journey to Terretsville and the visit the Emit Levart Clock Shop was simply a shopping expedition, to find an antique grandfather clock to grace the grand foyer of his inherited mansion. Rikker didn't suspect that his journey from Connecticut to the ghost towns of Michigan's Upper Peninsula would change his life forever. He should have been suspicious of his sudden obsession to make the cross-country trek to Terretsville, and he even knew something wasn't right, but he was unable to fight it. And it was in the Clock Shop that he learned of his real reason for being there: Colonel Charles Rikker's life is about to change in ways he was not prepared for, and he was always prepared. Thirty years as an intelligence officer have honed Rikker's senses to a fine edge. He's risked his life for countless covert operations, and he's always known the risks involved, but nothing could prepare him for the Clock Shop, a place so far from reality. His mission, one that he can't refuse: Rikker has only hours to stop global destruction, but he can't go to his resources, he can't call the Pentagon, he will act alone, he can't tell anyone what he is about to do. How can he possibly accomplish this impossible mission, how can one man stop global nuclear annihilation? Was his windfall less than a good fortune?