by Tracy Lawson
“No chance. He’s still alive. He knew about the bomb.”
“But what if he didn’t get away in time? You said he fainted right in the middle of the lobby!”
“He was faking. I mean fake-fainting…or whatever.” They laughed, but then he sobered. “I think, in the end, he wanted to see if we could outsmart him.”
“Good thing we did.” She looked around the safe house kitchen. “It’s weird living here in his place. I wonder if he’ll come back someday.”
They heard the elevator door slide open, and Tommy leaned on his stool, craning his neck so he could see into the lobby. He smiled as he called out, “You’re just in time for dinner. We were starting to wonder what had happened to you.”
Careen strode into the kitchen and dropped her messenger bag and car keys on the counter. “Great. I’m starving.” She fixed a plate and took a seat next to Tommy. “I thought that informational meeting was never going to end.”
“I know Mom asked you to, but you don’t have to apply for a seat on the Council.”
“If I’m chosen, I’ll serve, and I’m honored that Lara asked me. I keep thinking of all the children who’ll have to wear a Link their whole lives. If we don’t establish rules to protect them now, they could be exploited. The Council needs to exist until the last Linked child dies of old age.”
“That could be a hundred years from now.”
“I know.” She took a bite of her burger. “And the danger isn’t just from people like Atari. There are people who still want the Link to be used for its intended purpose.”
“You used to be one of them.”
“That’s why I have to be on the Council. I understand both sides of the issue, and I’m one of those directly affected. The adults who wanted Links for themselves are talking about creating a registry of the Linked. They want to make us eligible for special privileges and in exchange, be allowed to use us for some kind of testing. That sounds ominous, and I don’t like it. The generation of kids who were forcibly Linked deserve a normal life.”
Jaycee glanced down at her wrist. “I don’t like the thought of being on anybody’s list.”
Tommy mopped up the last of his ketchup with some fries. “Mom, Kevin, Renald, and Garrick will make sure nothing bad happens. I thought you wanted to go back to college in the fall, Careen. With me. You know we’ll ace the undergraduate seminar Dad’s teaching, since we’ve basically lived it already.”
“I do! I can do both. The Council isn’t a full-time job. All our problems aren’t solved just because the OCSD is gone, even though it’s so much better already. Everyone’s getting used to the Restrictions being lifted. I like driving. I like being able to come and go whenever I choose. People like Jaycee and me shouldn’t feel like victims or some kind of marginalized group.”
“Linked people aren’t marginalized. If anything, they’ve got special powers. Come on over here,” he said, and pulled her onto his lap. “My Internet reception has been weak ever since you and your Hercules signal left for the Council meeting.”
She giggled. “See? You’re part of the problem, exploiting me for your own gain.” He kissed her before she could get back on her soapbox.
Jaycee rolled her eyes. “My signal and I have been here the whole time.” She slapped Tommy on the back of the head playfully as she carried her plate to the dishwasher. “But I can take a hint.”
THANKS FOR READING
Thanks for reading Revolt!
If you enjoyed the Resistance Series books, please take a moment to post a review.
You can also find out more about me, check out my other books, and even send me a message at TracyLawsonBooks.com.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Susan Hughes of myindependenteditor.com, my editor and friend, who has been part of this project from the beginning. I appreciate her input on the storyline and how she tracks down wayward commas and patiently puts them in the right places.
My sister, Kim Stone, who took it in stride when I texted to ask, “What do you have in your medical bag that would incapacitate someone?”
Sadie, Sam, Sarah, and Bruce, personal trainers at Fit 180 in Dallas who guided me through reps and sets while letting me hash out the storyline for Revolt during my gym time.
My niece, Alex Pearson, gave invaluable assistance as a beta reader before the book went to formatting.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Once upon a time, Tracy Lawson was a little girl with a big imagination who wanted to write books when she grew up. Her interests in dance, theater, and other forms of make-believe led to a career in the performing arts, where “work” means she gets to do things like tap dance, choreograph musicals, and weave stories.
Her greatest adventures in musical theatre included creating disco choreography for forty middle schoolers on roller skates in Xanadu, building cast members’ endurance during an extremely aerobic jump rope number in Legally Blonde, and wrangling a cast of amazingly enthusiastic teenaged tap dancers in Crazy For You. This past season, she had the pleasure of adding productions of Footloose and Lion King, Jr. to her resume. She can also spin plates on sticks while she tap dances. Just ask her. She’ll be happy to demonstrate!
Though teaching dance and choreographing shows was a great outlet for her creativity and boundless energy, Tracy never lost her desire to write. Faced with her only child leaving for college and her husband’s simultaneous cross-country job relocation, it seemed she’d found the perfect time to switch her focus. But fear not— she has maintained her ties to educational theatre by returning to choreograph shows each year at Bexley City Schools in Columbus, Ohio, so she can continue to nurture students and share her passion for putting on a great show.
Tracy, who is married with one grown daughter and two spoiled cats, splits her time between Dallas, Texas and Columbus, Ohio.
To learn more about Tracy and all her books, visit
http://tracylawsonbooks.com
For the inside scoop on Tommy, Careen, and the Resistance Series, visit
http://counteractbook.com
OTHER BOOKS BY THE AUTHOR
Counteract: Book One of the Resistance Series (2014) is the story of a guy, a girl, the terrorist attack that brings them together, and their race to expose a conspiracy that could destroy their country from within. What Tommy Bailey and Careen Catecher learn about the true nature of the terrorist threat spurs them to take action, and their decisions lead them to run afoul of local law enforcement, team up with an underground resistance group, and ultimately take their quest for the truth to the highest reaches of the United States government.
Finalist in the 2015 International Wishing Shelf Book Awards
Resist: Book Two of the Resistance Series (2015). Tommy and Careen are no longer naïve teenagers who believe the Office of Civilian Safety and Defense’s antidote can protect them from a terrorist’s chemical weapons. After accidentally discovering the antidote’s real purpose, they join the fight to undermine the OCSD’s bid for total control of the population.
Being part of the Resistance brings with it a whole new set of challenges. Not everyone working for change proves trustworthy, and plans to spark a revolution go awry with consequences far beyond anything they bargained for. Tommy and Careen’s differing view- points threaten to drive a wedge between them, and their budding relationship is tested as their destinies move toward an inevitable confrontation with the forces that terrorize the nation.
Silver Award in the 2016 International Wishing Shelf Book Award
Best YA Fiction for 2016 in the Texas Association of Authors Book Awards
Ignite: Book Three of the Resistance Series (2016). Nationwide food shortages have sparked civil unrest, and the Office of Civilian Safety and Defense’s hold on the people is slipping. The Resistance’s efforts to hasten the OCSD’s demise have resulted in disaster, with Tommy Bailey and Careen Catecher taking the blame for the ill-fated mission in Tommy’s home quadrant, OP-439.
Both teens struggle to survive the c
ircumstances that force them into the national spotlight—and this time, they’re on opposite sides. On the run and exiled from his fellow Resistance members in BG-098, Tommy makes his way to a Resistance safe house in the capital.
The OCSD is preparing to monitor all under-eighteens with the Cerberean Link, a device that protects them against hunger and sickness and can even locate them if they’re lost. Tommy’s now living in close quarters with Atari, an operative who has been assigned to sabotage the Link. But does Atari plan to use it for his own purposes?
Through it all, Tommy refuses to believe Careen’s loyalties have shifted away form the Resistance, and he’s willing to assume any risk to reconnect with her. Will they be able to trust each other when it matters most?
Fips, Bots, Doggeries, and More: Explorations of Henry Rogers’ 1838 Journal of Travel from Southwestern Ohio to New York City (2012) is based on a journal written by Lawson’s great-great-great grandfather, who kept a daily account of his family’s fifty-five- day journey by horse and wagon. He notes in the journal that he endeavors to record everything he finds interesting, and the journal is a treasure trove of information about the social and political environment of the times, emerging technology, agriculture and topography, sites of interest, and his family’s health and comfort.
After receiving the journal as a Christmas gift, Lawson conducted research to lend context to the journal, and ultimately made most of the same trip herself by automobile, with her young daughter in tow. They kept their own journal, and the book compares and shares information about both trips, taken over a century and a half apart.
Winner Best Nonfiction History for 2012 in the Ohio Professional Writers Association Book Awards
Pride of the Valley: Sifting through the History of the Mount Healthy Mill (2017). After she finished writing Fips, Bots, Doggeries, and More, Lawson was curious about what happened after her ancestors returned home from their 1838 journey to New York. Their working vacation was partly to visit relatives, and partly to observe mills and determine how best to add grist milling to their sawmill business.
She happily dug into the research, and even picked up a coauthor along the way, in historic millwright Steve Hagaman. Though their efforts to locate business ledgers or miller’s journals came to naught, they found clues in land and census records, a poem, and a stereoscope image from the 1860s. It might not sound like much, but it was enough to go on, and those clues directed them to other long-forgotten information both enhances and challenges accepted accounts of the mill’s history.
Pride of the Valley tells the story of the beginning, life, and eventual demise of the Mount Healthy Mill, which operated on the banks of the West Fork of Mill Creek in Springfield Township, Ohio for over one hundred and thirty years. But the story is only half-told without also getting to know the families who owned the mill and discovering how their lives were interwoven with pivotal events in our country’s history.