And then it struck me–the voice sounded familiar. I couldn’t figure out why at first, but his next line brought it back.
“And dammit,” he continued, “please tell me that Alex isn’t on your ship.”
I clicked the comm on speak. “Sorry, no. He’s not.” Continue reading Space Date: Part 4
Deciding not to think about the Xiniti’s stranglehold on space, I concentrated on getting us to the gate. And anyway, according to Grandpa, it wasn’t their fault.
Arguably, we owed them.
The blackness of space stretched out ahead of us. Amid the stars, one of the spots of light had to be the gate and the Xiniti warship guarding it. Even at the speeds the League jet could reach outside the atmosphere, L4 wasn’t close. It was the same distance as the distance from the Earth to the sun. Continue reading Space Date: Part 3
Half an hour later I’d gone through the League jet’s flight checklist, moved through the passageway into Grand Lake, floated to the surface, and took flight.
I flew it over Lake Michigan, and then started to ascend. After we hit 30,000 feet, I started pouring on the speed, knowing that we’d have to be moving extremely quickly to get into space.
I learned later that the ship could be seen on both sides of the lake (Wisconsin and Michigan) because of the trail of flame behind it. Continue reading Space Date: Part 2
When immortal soldiers, and sociopathic assassins are out to kill you, your friends, and your family, you lose track of the important things in life.
For example, I’d lost track of the fact that I had a spaceship in my basement. Continue reading Space Date: Part 1
Mom’s arms were on the other side of the chair from where Rachel and I stood, but if she were hoping to get away, those ropes had to go next.
Glancing near the legs of her chair told me no more ropes lay on the far side.
I thought she might be waiting for a better chance, but then I realized that this was it. For the first time since I’d arrived, no one held a gun to her head. Continue reading The Executioner: Part 7
Haley parked the car by the side of the road. As we got out, I couldn’t help but notice who wasn’t there–Jaclyn, Cassie and Julie. And that sucked because Cassie could have chopped them to pieces, Julie could have told them to stop, and had a pretty good chance that they’d listen, and Jaclyn…
Jaclyn could have done something. Physically, she was the only one of us who was in Prime’s army’s league. Plus she was a whole lot faster than any of them.
I couldn’t say that we were doomed, but part of me would have felt better knowing they were with us.
Continue reading Targets: Part 22
Off to our left, bright red beams lanced the ground, and then raked across the building I’d been in. It didn’t look like much–a concrete block with brown, wooden siding on the edge of farmland.
When the beams hit the back of the building, it exploded. I wondered if Travis had hit a gas line or if they had had an armory back there.
Continue reading Targets: Part 21
He lay on the road. Then he pulled himself up, and limped to the side.
He sat down in the front lawn of an old white house that hadn’t been painted in at least twenty years. Most of its paint had flaked off the wood.
With luck, no one lived there. Continue reading Targets: Part 20
I did something stupid. I looked back.
The big, bald guy handled the door differently than I had. He leaned in and hit the metal edge of the door with his shoulder, smashing it out of the frame, and the frame partly out of the building.
Turning my head forward, I ran across the lawn toward the car. Continue reading Targets: Part 19
Minutes later, Haley drove Night Wolf’s car to the far end of the hangar and into the tunnel. Rachel rode in the front with her, and I sat in the back.
We came out in the forest. The “rock” closed behind us, and we followed the access trail out of Veterans Memorial Park.
Once we got to the road, Haley accelerated, moving ten to fifteen miles per hour faster than the speed limit at every opportunity.
Continue reading Targets: Part 14