In River Cardinal

A Traipse Through the Hidden Mind

Dewey Becker was contracted by Cardinal Medicine to invent things. He called his first creations Dewboxes, and Cardinal brought him on full time as a technician to maintain them. After a troubled past as a Sergeant Major in Vietnam, he thought the job would carry him softly into retirement…

Synopsis

R-Aspecticyn, an experimental drug, unlocks a dormant part of the human brain suppressed by evolution. It allows one to see what the world actually looks like. Cardinal Medicine started pumping it into their special Operators to send them on exploratory missions in the fourth dimensional Red Runnel. One of these Operators wouldn't report back. Now Cardinal wants him dead, and there's one man perfect for the job–whether he knows it, or not...

Progress

Progress
Time Until Completion 42%
In River Cardinal is currently in the First Draft stage.

Explore the World

A Cluttered Workshop

This is the office of Dewey Becker–The Technician. In it, he maintains Dewboxes that encounter more grievous breakdowns. 

It’s a dim room with minimal space–only enough to allow his tinkering. Otis Lang gave Dewey the shop after he proved his usefulness by inventing the Dewboxes. Resources are only provided for the maintenance of them; anything that might be used to invent further things is bought out of Dewey’s pocket. 

It’s a place Dewey spends the majority of his day–when he’s not traveling the halls of the building on his weekly maintenance checks. Various tools and bits of half-constructed machinery lay around the floor and on the tables–something odd to see in the domain of a military man.

Cardinal Medicine was founded by two highschool friends turned academics: Otis Lang, and Doctor Osian Molina, M.D., D.V.M., Psy.D.

They sought to change the landscape of the pharmaceutical industry, and experiment with new drugs and medicines never before conceived. Otis Lang became staunchly invested in the study of human evolution relating to psychology, and the growth and burgeoning of the human brain. He began investing his time entirely in this pursuit, leaving the greater weight of the company on the shoulders of Doctor Molina. 

Before long, a rift opened between the two, and they appeared to drift apart. Soon enough, Otis Lang’s studies bore fruit when he stumbled across a microscopically thin cranial nerve too small to detect with conventional technology. After revealing his findings to his colleague, the two seemingly forgot their differences and allocated company resources to the research of this new piece of anatomy. 

It could be stimulated, they found. Somewhere along the line of human evolution, it had gone dormant; for what reason, the two academics could only hazard guesses. When prodded medicinally, the strand would activate, and the human brain would perform a function previous thought impossible: peer into another place. A fourth-dimensional space of a sort. They needed to see what waited there, hidden from common knowledge since a time of antiquity… 

Notes and Evidence

ID Card : Osian Molina

This ID card provided the doctor access to restricted rooms in the Cardinal Medicine Building. Stained with blood. Confiscated as evidence.

Note From Osian Molina

This note was discovered by the FBI in the garbage bin of Otis Lang's office--something that clearly hadn't been changed out for months. It was confiscated as evidence.

Polaroid

A polaroid of a Cardinal box truck. Found in the office of Osian Molina. Confiscated as possible evidence.

Polaroid 2

Polaroid photo found in the office of Otis Lang, framed on his desk. Writing on the back face indicates the image was taken by an Operator while inside the Red Runnel. Image development halted halfway by some force unknown. Confiscated as evidence.

Dewbox File

Used by Cardinal staff for internal communications best kept under wraps. Composed with coded writing. Confiscated as evidence.

Shock Poster

One of many posters likely intended for use in a shock marketing campaign of some type. Confiscated as possible evidence.

Operators

Roxanne Robbins (pictured left) is one of many operators sent into the Red Runnel. These special combat-scientists receive voluntary injections of experimental R-Aspecticyn and carry out certain missions given by Cardinal Medicine.

It was discovered not long after the first of these tests that the operators would undergo a sudden loss of skin and hair pigmentation, as well as a change in the color of the iris–a kind of unnatural albinism.

Sonny Warren (pictured right), another of these operators, reacted more efficiently to the R-Aspecticyn, and managed to sever the connection between his physical body and his presence in the fourth-dimensional Red Runnel.

Follow The progress

Keep up to date with the progress of the novel by subscribing to the Tony Del Degan newsletter and following my social media. 

Subscribe

* indicates required
Get a newsletter and blog update once a month. No spam.

Bringing Words into the World – In River Cardinal

I've reached the halfway point on the first draft

Read More

Face First

If you pay for nothing else, pay for a cover.

Read More

Straining my Cranium – In River Cardinal

The new year is starting off with a bit of bang. I

Read More