The Liberty Box Trilogy by C.A. Gray - Book Tour + Giveaway
The Liberty Box
The Liberty Box Trilogy Book 1
by C.A. Gray
Genre:
New Adult Dystopian
New Adult Dystopian
**Dystopian mind control with metaphysics**
Kate Brandeis has it all: a famous reporter at the age of twenty-four,
she’s the face of the Republic of the Americas. She has a loving
fiancé and all the success she could wish for. But when she learns
of the death of a long-forgotten friend, her investigations unravel
her perfect memories, forcing her to face the fact that she’s been living a lie.
she’s the face of the Republic of the Americas. She has a loving
fiancé and all the success she could wish for. But when she learns
of the death of a long-forgotten friend, her investigations unravel
her perfect memories, forcing her to face the fact that she’s been living a lie.
Jackson MacNamera, trained from a young age in the art of mind control,
returns to the Republic for his mother’s funeral. Within a few
hours of his arrival, authorities collect Jackson and take him by
force to a room ironically called The Liberty Box, where he must
choose between surrendering his thoughts to the new Republic, or fleeing for his freedom.
returns to the Republic for his mother’s funeral. Within a few
hours of his arrival, authorities collect Jackson and take him by
force to a room ironically called The Liberty Box, where he must
choose between surrendering his thoughts to the new Republic, or fleeing for his freedom.
Kate, bereaved and confused, finds her way to a cave community of refugees,
where Jackson seems to offer her an escape from her grief. The two
forge an uneasy bond, and in the process Jackson learns that Kate has
some insight which may help the hunters in their attempt to free
other citizens from the tyranny of the Potentate. Against the
expressed wishes of the Council, the hunters plot a series of daring
raids, attempting to prove that not only is freedom possible, but
that the citizens are not too far gone to desire it. But with the
odds so stacked against them, can the refugees succeed in their
rescue missions right under the Potentate’s nose?
where Jackson seems to offer her an escape from her grief. The two
forge an uneasy bond, and in the process Jackson learns that Kate has
some insight which may help the hunters in their attempt to free
other citizens from the tyranny of the Potentate. Against the
expressed wishes of the Council, the hunters plot a series of daring
raids, attempting to prove that not only is freedom possible, but
that the citizens are not too far gone to desire it. But with the
odds so stacked against them, can the refugees succeed in their
rescue missions right under the Potentate’s nose?
***Get it FREE!!!***
Prologue: Twenty
Four Years Ago
Smoke
billowed up into the sky as far as the eye could see. Benjamin Voltolini took a
step back as a looter dashed in front of him with a torch, lobbing it at the
vacant bank not ten feet away. Within minutes, it went up in flames. The other
looters cheered, throwing rocks to shatter the windows, or lobbing more torches
for good measure.
The banks
had gotten the worst of it from the start.
Calmly, Ben
weaved his way through the crowd, head up, his expression vacant, but with a
hint of amusement that he could not quite erase. He’d
intentionally ripped his clothes and caked them in mud to blend in, so that he
could steal a large container of gasoline from one of the few remaining gas
stations. He paused every so often to change his grip or wipe the sweat from
his brow with the back of his hand, keeping as far away from the flames as he
could.
He’d
left his Mazerati well outside the city limits. He had a long way to go.
By the time
Ben drove up to the fortress built into the side of the mountain, the sun
dipped low behind it. Two armed guards stood by a high chain link gate, and
they leveled their machine guns at him as he slowed to approach.
“Whatever
happened to a simple greeting?” Ben
muttered to himself, but raised his hands in the air behind the windshield.
One of the
guards pulled some sort of device to his mouth and spoke rapidly as he jogged
to Ben’s
window.
“Identify
yourself and state your business!”
“Benjamin
Voltolini, Venture Capitalist.” Ben’s
teeth gleamed in perfect rows. “Here to present to
the former Congress of the United States of America the answer to all of their
problems.”
“Do
you know any members of the Tribunal personally? Have they summoned you?”
“I
guarantee they all know me by reputation.”
“Get
lost,”
the
guard ordered.
“Oh,
I don’t
think you want to do that, Sergeant—”
Ben
read the young man’s lapel, “—Branson,
and I’ll
tell you why. Pretty soon I will be the dictator of this country. And I never
forget a favor. Nor a slight.”
“I
tell you what, you arrogant bastard,”
Sergeant
Branson snarled, moving the safety off of his weapon. “I’ll
give you to the count of ten, and by the end of it if your tires aren’t
screaming on this pavement,” he
pointed out into the wasteland, raising his gun, “I’ll
give you exactly what you deserve.”
Ben looked
Sergeant Branson up and down, as if committing him to memory. “Go
on, then.”
The
sergeant’s
mouth fell open for a moment, unsure how to respond to this. “One!”
he
shouted, “Two!”
Ben watched
him as the sergeant’s face turned various shades of red
and finally puce by the time he reached number nine. Then, just as he leveled
the weapon with Ben’s face and was about to pronounce the
number ten, Ben punched the accelerator as hard as he could—not
in reverse, toward of the wasteland behind him, but toward the locked gate up
ahead. The other armed guard scarcely had time to leap out of the way before
Ben plowed through. The gate itself snapped open and huge sections of the fence
clattered to the ground in its wake.
He saw the
commotion behind him from the rearview mirror, but didn’t
slow down until he reached the courtyard, skidding to a stop just before he
crushed a fountain in the shape of an eagle. The burnt rubber smell assaulted
him even before he opened his car door.
He stepped
out, opened his arms wide, and held up his hands in a gesture of both surrender
and welcome as most of what remained of the Congress filed out of the meeting
hall in disbelief.
“So
this is the secret lair of the last vestiges of Congress!”
he
declared.
“Who
the hell do you think you are?” snapped
an old man with a shiny pate.
Ben gave a
little bow. “Forgive my rather dramatic entrance,
gentlemen. It was the only way I could get past your guards. Excellent young
men. You should give them both a raise.”
He
chuckled at his own joke.
“Nobody
gets paid anymore,” snapped one of them
unnecessarily.
“Oh?”
Ben
raised his eyebrows in mock surprise. “Well,
that’s
a shame. I can help you fix that.”
“You
can help us pay our guards?” cried
one, incredulous.
“I
can help you get paid again yourselves,”
Ben
clarified, “you and everyone else in this country.
Well…”
he
chuckled again, “more or less.”
“That’s
Ben Voltolini,” he heard one of
them whisper to another, and then the whispers swept throughout the crowd. “The
billionaire?” and “Where
did he get gas for that car from, anyway?”
Ben
gestured inside the fortress, adding, “May
I?”
Now the
hoary members of the Tribunal stepped aside one by one, exchanging glances with
one another that suggested they knew this was against their better judgment—but
really, what harm could there be in hearing him out?
The
entrance led to a long hall lit by torches, the light from the sky growing
dimmer and dimmer as they walked.
Torches,
everywhere torches, Ben thought with disgust. It was like
the Dark Ages all over again. But not for long. Everything is about to
change.
At last the
hall opened up to a wide, irregularly shaped room looking like it had been hewn
out of the side of a mountain—which, in fact, it
had. The men filed in behind him to their seats, and Ben walked to the white
boards at the front and grabbed a marker. He wouldn’t
need to draw much, but this established to all that he had the floor, which was
his intention.
“Gentlemen,”
he
grinned. “Indulge me just for a few moments
whilst I remind you all where we are.
“The
United States is no more. For one hundred and twelve days now, there has been
rioting in the streets. You, the remnant of the Congress who were not killed in
those first few days after the collapse, now fashioning yourselves the
Tribunal, emerged, and have attempted—badly,
I might add—to maintain order as a police state.
You haven’t the manpower to arrest all the
rioters, of course, so instead you have resorted to gunning down citizens at
will. I am not judging you.” He
held up his hands as the protests began, the mocking smirk never leaving his
face. “I
understand that there is a greater good at stake. You are doing all you can to
maintain order. But you and I both know that it is not enough. Creating order,
and maintaining it, requires money.”
“As
if we don’t already know that,”
someone
grumbled from the front row.
“Ah,
yes,”
Ben
said calmly. “But where does the government get its
money from?”
The
question was patronizing, and the Tribunal glowered at him collectively,
refusing to play along.
Undaunted,
Ben answered his own question. “Taxes,”
he
said.
“There’s
nothing for us to tax, idiot!” shouted
one. “There’s
nothing left!”
“Of
course there is not. The people have to get back to work first so that you can
garnish their wages. But I understand your conundrum—how
can you create jobs for them when there is no industry left, when the few
functional businesses left are being razed to the ground as we speak by angry
citizens needing to feed their starving families?
“This
is where I come in.” One hand fluttered
to his chest, an affected gesture he’d
perfected. “In the last ten years, I’ve
funded two projects in particular that have the potential to turn this nation
around, from absolute destitution and anarchy to a thriving Republic.”
He
paused. “Yes,
that’s
right, I said Republic, not Democracy.”
He
waited to be asked. When nobody did, he continued, unfazed, “The
first of these projects is a genetically engineered version of the Epstein Barr
Virus, distributed by an airborne vaccinia vector.
“Epstein
Barr has been around for many generations now. This particular strain is highly
virulent—much
more so than the original strain, primarily causing anemia and severe fatigue.”
He
uncapped his marker and drew a squiggly line on the white board, and an
incomplete squiggly circle next to it. Then he drew an arrow, where the first
squiggly line fit inside the circle. “This,”
he
pointed to the circle, “represents the vaccinia vector. It is
a version of smallpox, minus the portion that makes it smallpox. Now it’s
just a shell, a perfect delivery system for other genetic information. It has
been engineered to cover hundreds of miles at a time once it is released. In
this case, it is a delivery system for the Epstein Barr virus.”
Ben read
confusion and disgust on their faces. One said, “So
you want to make us all sick?”
“Not
sick,”
Ben
held up one finger, “exhausted.
You see, anemia slows people down. Takes the fire out of them. Takes the fight
out of them. But it will not last forever—eventually
people’s
immune systems will be strong enough to fight it off. This baby will buy you—oh,
about six months. Oh, and not us, mind you. I have vaccines against the
virus for a—ehem—select
few.”
He
cleared his throat with a contrived little cough.
“Six
months to do what?” someone shouted.
“I’m
so glad you asked.” Ben said
graciously. “This brings me to the second brilliant
invention I’ve funded in the last decade or so:
the common carrier brainwave.”
Blank
stares met him. Ben turned to the white board again, erased the vaccinia vector
and its contents, and instead drew something he only just remembered from
gradeschool: a sine wave.
“Pretend
for a moment, gentlemen, that this is a brainwave. Everyone, every human being,
has a brainwave that corresponds to this carrier wave. Now, yours, or yours, or
yours,”
he
pointed to a few in the front row, “all
have slight variations unique to you, but they all have a form more or less
like this one. Just like we all have an idea what fingerprints look like, but
each person’s fingerprint is slightly different,
variations on a theme. Yes?”
“Get
to the point,” someone shouted in
the back.
“This
is the point,” he said. “In
broadcasting, all information gets transmitted via a common carrier wave,
right? Brainwaves work the same way. The variations upon the carrier are what
transmit information. Your thoughts are like that. Variations on your specific
carrier wave get interpreted by your brain as information.
“Now.
What if we, the government, the Tribunal, could create a broadcasting center
that would broadcast a version of the common human carrier brainwave that was
slightly altered, to suit our purposes? Once the citizens of this new Republic
are fatigued and a bit addled, they’ll
be highly suggestible.”
“You
want to brainwash the public?” cried
one.
The Eden Conspiracy
The Liberty Box Trilogy Book 2
The refugee caves have been destroyed, and most of the refugees are dead.
The Potentate now knows of their existence and will stop at nothing
to wipe them out completely. He suspects that terrorist Jackson
MacNamera is among them, as well as reporter Kate Brandeis’s
fiancé, hacker Will Anderson—and probably therefore Kate herself.
Now that the Potentate is aware of security threats, most of the
strategies the rebels used to get back onto the grid before now no
longer work. The Potentate knows the rebels are on foot, and he knows
they were at the caves not long ago—they can’t get far.
The Potentate now knows of their existence and will stop at nothing
to wipe them out completely. He suspects that terrorist Jackson
MacNamera is among them, as well as reporter Kate Brandeis’s
fiancé, hacker Will Anderson—and probably therefore Kate herself.
Now that the Potentate is aware of security threats, most of the
strategies the rebels used to get back onto the grid before now no
longer work. The Potentate knows the rebels are on foot, and he knows
they were at the caves not long ago—they can’t get far.
The remaining rebels, among them Jackson and Kate, have Kate’s fiancé
Will to thank for their survival: he arrived back from the dead and
in the nick of time, bearing classified information about the
Potentate’s plans to expand his influence internationally. But the
remaining rebels and the Council cannot agree on whether their top
priority should be spreading truth far and wide and freeing as many
citizens from government control as possible, knowing that they will
likely die in the process—or escaping to New Estonia, in hopes that
they might live out the rest of their days in peace.
Will to thank for their survival: he arrived back from the dead and
in the nick of time, bearing classified information about the
Potentate’s plans to expand his influence internationally. But the
remaining rebels and the Council cannot agree on whether their top
priority should be spreading truth far and wide and freeing as many
citizens from government control as possible, knowing that they will
likely die in the process—or escaping to New Estonia, in hopes that
they might live out the rest of their days in peace.
Kate, meanwhile, finds herself torn: between Jackson and the fiancé she
thought she lost, and between the damsel-in-distress she once was,
and the rebel she believes she has always been underneath. Whether
the other hunters will support her or no, she knows she must use her
influence over the people of the Republic to tell them the truth, no
matter the cost. But is she strong enough to withstand the
government’s lies?
thought she lost, and between the damsel-in-distress she once was,
and the rebel she believes she has always been underneath. Whether
the other hunters will support her or no, she knows she must use her
influence over the people of the Republic to tell them the truth, no
matter the cost. But is she strong enough to withstand the
government’s lies?
The Phoenix Project
The Liberty Box Trilogy Book 3
The haven city of Beckenshire has been demolished, and most of the rebels
lie beneath the rubble. The few that remain scramble to communicate
with the the outside world, knowing that if they are to stand a
chance in the coming war, they can’t do it alone. In a last ditch
effort to grow their ranks, the remaining rebels systematically
destroy the repeaters which help to propagate the control center
signals. And it’s working: citizens in targeted cities are waking
up in droves. But Ben Voltolini will stop at nothing to quell the
uprising before it has a chance to get off the ground. And he has one
major ace up his sleeve: Kate Brandeis.
lie beneath the rubble. The few that remain scramble to communicate
with the the outside world, knowing that if they are to stand a
chance in the coming war, they can’t do it alone. In a last ditch
effort to grow their ranks, the remaining rebels systematically
destroy the repeaters which help to propagate the control center
signals. And it’s working: citizens in targeted cities are waking
up in droves. But Ben Voltolini will stop at nothing to quell the
uprising before it has a chance to get off the ground. And he has one
major ace up his sleeve: Kate Brandeis.
During Kate’s broadcast to the nation, Voltolini unleashed targeted
brainwave signals against her, causing her to allow both Jackson
MacNamera’s capture, and her own. Now, despite Voltolini’s
exquisite wining and dining, she can’t seem to stop the panic
attacks. Whom can she trust? What is truth? Is there even such a thing?
brainwave signals against her, causing her to allow both Jackson
MacNamera’s capture, and her own. Now, despite Voltolini’s
exquisite wining and dining, she can’t seem to stop the panic
attacks. Whom can she trust? What is truth? Is there even such a thing?
Meanwhile, imprisoned and hopeless, Jackson realizes the depths of his feelings
for Kate only after he has already lost her. The incredible
self-control upon which he prides himself gets put to the ultimate
test when he meets an unlikely ally who just may turn the tide in the
rebels’ favor—but only if Jackson can put aside his own
bitterness. In this gripping conclusion to The Liberty Box Trilogy,
new and surprising alliances are formed, passions run high, and our
heroes learn what they are really made of. Do they have what it takes
to fight for freedom—even if it means paying the ultimate price?
for Kate only after he has already lost her. The incredible
self-control upon which he prides himself gets put to the ultimate
test when he meets an unlikely ally who just may turn the tide in the
rebels’ favor—but only if Jackson can put aside his own
bitterness. In this gripping conclusion to The Liberty Box Trilogy,
new and surprising alliances are formed, passions run high, and our
heroes learn what they are really made of. Do they have what it takes
to fight for freedom—even if it means paying the ultimate price?
C.A. Gray is the author of three YA Amazon bestselling trilogies:
PIERCING THE VEIL (magic and quantum physics meet Arthurian legends),
THE LIBERTY BOX (dystopian metaphysics and mind control technology),
and UNCANNY VALLEY (dystopian coming-of-age with neuroscience and
super intelligent A.I). She starts with some scientific concept that
she’s interested in learning more about herself, and then creates
lots of epic chaos and high-stakes action to go along with it. Her
stories are free of gratuitous violence, language, and sexual
content, and she abhors depressing endings… but they’re not all
kittens and rainbows either! She also listens to and reviews
audiobooks on her website, here on Goodreads, on Instagram, and on
her podcast, Clean Audiobook Reviews, where she also
occasionally interviews other authors.
PIERCING THE VEIL (magic and quantum physics meet Arthurian legends),
THE LIBERTY BOX (dystopian metaphysics and mind control technology),
and UNCANNY VALLEY (dystopian coming-of-age with neuroscience and
super intelligent A.I). She starts with some scientific concept that
she’s interested in learning more about herself, and then creates
lots of epic chaos and high-stakes action to go along with it. Her
stories are free of gratuitous violence, language, and sexual
content, and she abhors depressing endings… but they’re not all
kittens and rainbows either! She also listens to and reviews
audiobooks on her website, here on Goodreads, on Instagram, and on
her podcast, Clean Audiobook Reviews, where she also
occasionally interviews other authors.
By day, C.A. Gray practices naturopathic medicine, podcasts, and writes
medical non-fiction under her maiden name (Dr. Lauren Deville). She
lives in Tucson, AZ with her husband Frank, and together they
maintain an occasionally contentious film review blog (under her real
name: Lauren Baden. Three names. Yes.) She’s kind of the queen of
multitasking—so in her spare time, she creates whatever meals or
crafts she found most recently on Pinterest, drinks lots of coffee
(Aeropress btw) and occasional wine (reds—and she saves the corks
for craft projects), works out (while listening to audiobooks), and
studies the Bible—about half of the podcasts on Christian Natural
Health are scripture meditations.
medical non-fiction under her maiden name (Dr. Lauren Deville). She
lives in Tucson, AZ with her husband Frank, and together they
maintain an occasionally contentious film review blog (under her real
name: Lauren Baden. Three names. Yes.) She’s kind of the queen of
multitasking—so in her spare time, she creates whatever meals or
crafts she found most recently on Pinterest, drinks lots of coffee
(Aeropress btw) and occasional wine (reds—and she saves the corks
for craft projects), works out (while listening to audiobooks), and
studies the Bible—about half of the podcasts on Christian Natural
Health are scripture meditations.
She does sleep, too. Promise.
Follow the tour HERE for exclusive excerpts, guest posts and a giveaway!
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