The doctor cleared his throat. “Certainly. I’ll get started immediately.”
Breckenridge turned to Dr. Petri. “As for you, I want a full biological workup. What are their strengths? What are their weaknesses? Most important, what kills them?”
“I’ll dissect as many specimens as you like, General, but it’s going to take time.”
“Time is the one thing I can’t supply you with. I was told you specialize in the theoretical, so theorize.” Breckenridge paused, reconsidering. “Just be sure your theories are correct.”
Dr. Petri swallowed uneasily. “I’ll do my best. Any particular specimen you’d like me to dissect first?”
“You misunderstand me, Doctor. I’m no longer interested in these . . . things.” Breckenridge made a subtle hand gesture, indicating that the entire hangar and all its contents were beneath him. “I want to know about the other ones.”
“General?” Dr. Petri scanned the hangar, as though she were wondering if a second species of alien was hidden in a footlocker somewhere.
Breckenridge pivoted on the toes of his impeccably polished shoes and leaned closer to Dr. Petri. “In case you haven’t noticed, these aliens are dead. As such, they’ve ceased being my biggest concern. I want to know about the ones who defeated them. There were only a few dozen of them, if that, yet they crushed an entire invading force without suffering a single casualty. An invading force, I might add, that far exceeds the capability of our entire arsenal—army, navy, air force, and marine. Times ten.”
Breckenridge paused to let his statement sink in. He could tell by the way Dr. Petri had stopped blinking that she was scared. Good. She needed to be scared.
“Doctor, the carcasses and equipment we’ve gathered here have been in close proximity to the adversary. There’ll be DNA. Tissue cells. Maybe a hair, if they have such a thing. Don’t you concur?”
“It won’t be easy, General. You’re talking about finding a needle in a field of hay.”
“That’s precisely what I’m asking you to do. I’ve been saying it for decades, and as of yesterday, I finally have a president willing to agree with me. The entities with the golden capes represent the clearest and most present danger to the sovereignty of the United States of America.”
Breckenridge glared through hawkish eyes. “Find me that needle, Doctor, and I’ll stab it through their hearts. Starting with the one closest to home.”
Robert Venditti is a New York Times bestselling author of numerous comics and graphic novels. He has written the monthly adventures of such classic characters as Green Lantern, the Flash, and X-O Manowar as well as the graphic noveli zations for the popular Percy Jackson and the Olympians and Heroes of Olympus series. He was born and raised in South Florida, where he barely survived the seventh grade. He now lives in Atlanta, Georgia, with his wife and two children. Visit his website at robertvenditti.com.
Dusty Higgins is an award-winning magazine and newspaper cartoonist and illustrator. He broke into comics in 2009 with Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer, chosen as one of the year’s top ten graphic novels for teens by the Young Adult Library Services Association. He has also worked on Knights of the Living Dead and Turok: Son of Stone. When Dusty isn’t stuck in his offce hunched over his desk, he plays the violin and the erhu. He lives in central Arkansas. Visit him online at dustyhiggins.com.
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SIMON & SCHUSTER BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Text copyright © 2015 by Robert Venditti
Illustrations copyright © 2015 by Dusty Higgins
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Interior design by Tom Daly
Jacket design by Laurent Linn
The text of this book is set in Guardi.
The illustrations for this book are rendered digitally.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Venditti, Robert.
Attack of the alien horde / Robert Venditti ; illustrated by Dusty Higgins.
pages cm — (Miles Taylor and the golden cape)
Summary: After starting at a new school, a nerdy seventh-grader becomes a reluctant superhero.
ISBN 978-1-4814-0542-3 (hardcover : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-4814-0556-0 (e-book)
[1. Superheroes—Fiction. 2. Moving, Household—Fiction. 3. Middle schools—Fiction. 4. Schools—Fiction.] I. Higgins, Dusty, illustrator. II. Title.
III. Title: Attack of the alien horde.
PZ7.V5565At 2015
[Fic]—dc23
2014011354
Attack of the Alien Horde Page 16