by Todd Wynn
DEDICATION
For Linda Wynn,
Our Mother
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We would like to thank Tiffany Austin, who is always the first to read our work, because she wouldn’t have it any other way. We thank her for her positive impact on the book, through her helpful comments, be they brusque or otherwise.
We would like to thank our Early Readers for their valuable input, which helped to shape the final version of the book:
James Austin
Betti Cogswell
David Foulkes
Martine Keating
Jackie Markham
Stacey Nyland
Sue Schrieber
We owe many thanks to Karl and Tiffany King for their generous guidance through the publishing process. Learn more about them at authorTiffanyJKing.blogspot.com
Thank you to Terra Yates for her photographic expertise in making us look presentable.
Thank you to Sherwin Soy for his outstanding work on the cover.
Thank you to Donna Marton for her extraordinary skill as a proofreader. Any mistakes in this novel are merely instances where we failed to heed her advice.
Thank you to Rick Flores, for his assistance in every detail of life.
Most of all, thank you to Linda Wynn, our mother and biggest fan . . . to whom this book is dedicated.
CHARACTER LIST
LIMESTONE DEPOSIT SURVEY GROUP
Stewart Faulkner: Lead Agent for the Limestone Deposit Survey Group Gregory “Web” Webster: Technical specialist for the Limestone Deposit Survey Group Mindy Craddock: New recruit for the Limestone Deposit Survey Group, hoping to survive her first day and pass her in-the-field job interview Lambert: Military specialist for the Limestone Deposit Survey Group; initially referred to simply as New Guy George Roman: Command Agent for the Limestone Deposit Survey Group; Stewart Faulkner’s boss
REA-UNIT 4
Dexim (DEX-um): Leader of the Royal Expeditionary Armada, Unit 4
Lyntic (LEN-tik): Member of the Royal Expeditionary Armada, Unit 4; sister of Dexim Tobi (TOW-bee): Technical specialist for the Royal Expeditionary Armada, Unit 4
Jin (Jen): Junior member of the Royal Expeditionary Armada, Unit 4
HIRED HELP
Denokin (DEN-uh-kin): Transport pilot who speaks only a few phrases of English Grizzly: A bounty hunter who is occasionally hired by Stewart Faulkner to perform odd jobs for the Limestone Deposit Survey Group, mostly off the record Michael-James: A bounty hunter recruited by Grizzly to be on a four-man team commissioned by Stewart Faulkner; owner of a primer-gray Camaro; wearer of cheap suits and fingerless gloves
ALIEN RESEARCH AGENCY
Karl Bruner: Special Agent for the Alien Research Agency
OTHER NOTABLE PLAYERS
Sarazha (suh-RA-zhuh) Bant: going simply by “Sara,” a young girl with severe memory loss and no recollection of her past Jeremy Borden: a local teenager with a crush on Sara
See the GLOSSARY in the back of the book for more
Table of Contents
DEDICATION
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
CHARACTER LIST
1
A Good Day
for a Bad Abduction
2
Mindy Craddock
3
A Large
Lingering Problem
4
Karl Bruner & the Alien Research Agency
5
The Ones Who Got Away
6
Jin and the Supply Bag
7
Pioneer Post
8
Tracking the
Weather Balloon
9
Lunch and Speculation
10
Water
11
Stone Ridge Cabin
12
The Device
13
Sara
14
The New Plan
15
All is Quiet in Juniper
16
Take Two
17
The Comforts of Home
18
The Quorets
19
Spend the Night
20
Bedtime
21
Sunrise
22
The Police Chief
23
Jeremy and Sara’s First Morning
24
Juniper Hotel:
a Bed-and-Breakfast
25
The Search
for the Heartbeat
26
The Waiting Game
27
The Ambush
28
Bruner Kills Some Time
29
Home Again
30
Camp Whatever
31
The Meeting
32
Joining Forces
33
Visiting Camp Whatever
34
Waking Sara
35
Old Memories
36
Sara Awakes
37
All’s Well
GLOSSARY
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Photo by Terra Yates
Todd and Tim Wynn are brothers who write screenplays and novels. They have written several award-winning screenplays and are at work on their next book.
WynnBrothers.com