BooksBarbecue
Back Roadkill Save as PDF
Chapters (48)
  1. Title Page
  2. Copyright Page
  3. Table of Contents
  4. Chapter One: Fender Bender
  5. Chapter Two: Bigfoot Burrito
  6. Chapter Three: Treasure Hunt
  7. Chapter Four: Open Sesame
  8. Chapter Five: Central Intelligence
  9. Chapter Six: First Flight
  10. Chapter Seven: Park It
  11. Chapter Eight: Next Steps
  12. Chapter Nine: Search Strategies
  13. Chapter Ten: Overflight
  14. Chapter Eleven: Barn Doors
  15. Chapter Twelve: Saturn Fly-By
  16. Chapter Thirteen: Getting a Clue
  17. Chapter Fourteen: Hacked
  18. Chapter Fifteen: The Spy Game
  19. Chapter Sixteen: Investigations
  20. Chapter Seventeen: Break-In
  21. Chapter Eighteen: Battening Down
  22. Chapter Nineteen: Shoring Up Defenses
  23. Chapter Twenty: Third Time’s the Charm
  24. Chapter Twenty-One: Proxy
  25. Chapter Twenty-Two: Rescue
  26. Chapter Twenty-Three: Chase
  27. Chapter Twenty-Four: Spies R Us
  28. Chapter Twenty-Five: Surveillance
  29. Chapter Twenty-Six: Making Plans
  30. Chapter Twenty-Seven: Going In
  31. Chapter Twenty-Eight: Infiltration
  32. Chapter Twenty-Nine: Accidental Captive
  33. Chapter Thirty: Interrogation
  34. Chapter Thirty-One: Reaction
  35. Chapter Thirty-Two: Kidnappings
  36. Chapter Thirty-Three: Reviewing Options
  37. Chapter Thirty-Four: Public Debut
  38. Chapter Thirty-Five: Distractions
  39. Chapter Thirty-Six: The Big Reveal
  40. Chapter Thirty-Seven: Regrouping
  41. Chapter Thirty-Eight: Waiting for Results
  42. Chapter Thirty-Nine: It Hits the Fan
  43. Chapter Forty: Disassembly
  44. Chapter Forty-One: Wrapping It Up
  45. Chapter Forty-Two: Negotiations
  46. Chapter Forty-Three: Coda
  47. About the Author
  48. About the Publisher

I handed the letter to Nat, then explained to San-Joh about our hacking job, leaving nothing out. At this point, I wasn’t sure how much they already knew anyway. Meanwhile, Nat read the letter with Patrick looking over her shoulder. They began to laugh simultaneously.

When I was done with my explanation, San-Joh shook his head in disbelief. “Apparently it played havoc with the Loranna’s operations sufficiently that you were able to stay ahead of them. I doubt they’d have had any trouble capturing you otherwise.” San-Joh examined the ceiling in silence for several seconds. “My Library Intelligence has supplied a human term. Clusterfuck. It seems appropriate.” He turned to us. “Commander Nond will wish to interview you as soon as we’re done here. Please make yourselves available. You aren’t officially space pirates yet.”

Chapter Forty-One: Wrapping It Up

Chapter Forty-One: Wrapping It Up

Day 31. Sunday

Twenty-four hours had gone by without a call from the Covenant task force. It would have been too much to hope for that they’d forgotten about us, but they were no doubt very busy. We still had Karen and Arley on ice in the Halo, but we couldn’t think of a way to hand them over without either releasing them or exposing Sheldon to capture. So that was on hold, too.

Nat was back at home, taking care of her father. Because of her current employment status, she would be able to spend all her time with him, at least until she found a new job. Her aunt, however, had offered to pay part of the cost for a full-time nurse, commenting that she hadn’t realized how much of a burden it really was. My parents stepped in as well to cover the rest of the bill. As ashamed as I was of the thought, I admitted to myself that it probably wouldn’t be for long. Mr. Neilson was not in good shape.

Patrick had gone home to see his family. No doubt Tim would already be driving him crazy with questions.

Sheldon was finally safely hidden in the barn, and I was dreading the inevitable callback from the Gennan task force commander. As was Sheldon, for that matter.

I leaned back in my chair, aimed the remote, and turned the TV sound back on:

“Astronomers continue to be puzzled by what they are describing as a sudden proliferation of gravity-wave detections in the last two days from the new LIGO systems. LIGO stands for Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory—systems designed specifically to search for these types of disturbances in the heavens.

“Even more perplexing to the scientists, measurements seem to imply that the sources of these events are inside the solar system. One physicist has suggested spontaneous wormhole formations, but no one can give an explanation for why this would be happening now.