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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

And as exciting as the pursuit was, it was still very theoretical, and might come up dry. There were other things we could do, such as an aerial survey of Taft County, looking for anything unexplained or out of place. Not everything necessarily got added to the official records. Come to think of it, the barn didn’t officially exist as far as the city was concerned. No permits, no inspections. It would likely never be a problem, but I wondered how many other off-the-books construction projects had been completed over the years.

I closed my eyes and felt myself finally starting to drift off, visions of underground bunkers and disguised lairs forming ever-more-lurid images in my imagination.

Chapter Ten: Overflight

Chapter Ten: Overflight

Day 6. Wednesday

We met in the barn again after dinner. None of us wanted any parents noticing an undue level of enthusiasm for our secret project in the form of too many missed meals, and anyway Natalie objected to fast food every day.

“We need a team name or something,” Patrick said.

I thought for a moment. “Space Force?”

Nat shook her head. “Taken.”

“Space Farce?”

“I don’t think that’s taken, but no.”

“X-Force?” Patrick suggested.

“Deadpool will sue.”

I held up a finger in an aha gesture. “Superior Defender Gundam Force?”

“UNCLE?” Nat said.

“CONTROL?” Patrick added.

“The Three Stooges?” Sheldon chipped in.

Patrick glared at the communicator. “Should have turned it off when we had the chance.”

I smiled back at him, then picked up the ray gun. “Oh, hey Sheldon, I’ve been meaning to ask—what does this do, exactly? Other than clearing weeds, I mean.”

“Depending on power level, it can kill, stun, or cause the world’s worst full-body charley horse. Hah. Charley horse. Some English phrases make no sense at all. Yet that makes them all the more droll.”

I looked at the controls on the device. “I guess red is kill, which is why the interlock?”

“Yes. And purple for stun, blue for charley horse. The Gen word for the weapon translates broadly as disruptor. I thought your Trek-addled minds would appreciate that.”

Nat laughed, then turned her attention to Patrick and me. “I did some filtering of the data on my own. There’s still way too much stuff. Societies and clubs in particular seem to spawn like rabbits.”

“We should take the Halo up and do a flyover of the whole county, centered on Dunnville,” I said. “It might give us some extra clues, or trigger something.”

“Great idea,” Patrick replied, springing to his feet. “This other stuff feels too much like homework. And half the fun of graduating was never having to worry about homework again.”