by Katrina Cope
Avando turned to them and said, “I would imagine that I’ll be back in a few hours, depending on how long it’s going to take to file the paperwork with the authorities.”
“Are you sure you don’t want me to drive you?” Charlie asked.
Avando gave him a stern but reassuring look. “Don’t worry. I’ll be fine, Charlie,” he said as he got into the driver’s seat.
“Okay. See you soon,” Charlie said, looking uncertain.
They watched the car drive away and then returned to take the Professor Anna and Aaron to the doctor.
Later that day, Professor Anna and Aaron had returned to the main part of the Sanctum, their heads now covered in bandages. They had cleaned themselves with a shower and a change of clothes. An announcement had been made over the loudspeakers for everyone to assemble in the common room, and they had all gone there.
“I wonder what this is about?” Eva queried.
“Hey, look,” Robert said, pointing. “Avando’s back.”
When everyone appeared to be in the room, Avando stood on one of the staircases with a microphone in one hand and his cane in the other. “Hello, everyone.”
“Hello, Avando!” the students said in unison.
“I don’t know if you’re all aware of the unfortunate events that occurred today in our beloved Sanctum.”
The students, most of whom were not aware, started looking around at each other to see if anyone had heard of the day’s events. Puzzled faces stared back at Avando.
He told them, “Today, one of our treasured professors committed an act of terrorism.”
A shocked murmur sent a wave through the room.
“Yes,” he continued after a short pause. “It deeply saddens me that today Professor Eric Showden was caught using one of our surrogates to place a remote-controlled bomb in an area filled with men, women, and children.”
More shocked murmurs sounded in the room.
“Fortunately, some people caught him in the act and stopped him before he was able to set off the bomb.” He paused again and then said, “I would like to ask those people to come up here. Aaron, Eva, Robert, Jayden, and our lovely Professor Anna.”
The five made their way silently through the whispering crowd to stand alongside Avando.
“Now as you can see, a couple of these lovely people are wounded. It’s because today they fought against Professor Showden. Especially Aaron and Professor Anna, who had to stand against her once much-loved husband. However,” he held up his index finger, “the other three did wonders in repairing, controlling, and maneuvering the surrogate away from the crowd and disposing of the dangerous bomb in a safe place. Through the combined effort of these five people, the lives of many innocent people were saved.”
He turned to face them. “I wholeheartedly commend your efforts and I will remember your unequalled heroism for many years to come,” he said with pride, while smiling at the small group.
The five looked embarrassed as the whole room burst into a roar of cheering and loud clapping, in jubilant appreciation of these unlikely heroes.
THE END
Book 2, Scarlet’s Escape
Acknowledgments
I am touched by the enormous amount of support I have received from my immediate family. My husband has been a helpful first reader and at times been a wonderful motivator, with hints of ideas to help me through the blanks. The support from my three sons has also been overwhelming. My older two have devoured the book and asked for more, with my middle son helping with those errors missed by spellcheck before editing. Thank you also to my youngest son, though too young to read the book by himself at the time of publishing, has been full of enthusiasm and support.
I would also like to thank my good friend and book enthusiast, Julie Hickson for becoming a beta reader and part editor. With her enthusiasm to continue being a beta reader for the next book in the series, and watching her excitedly trying to work out the future plot, was inspiring for a first time author.
A huge thank you to my dear Auntie Ronelle, who kindly offered to help with the editing process.
A huge thank you to my editors Dr P. J. George, for his editing and writing tips, to Emily Childs at Emmy Edits, and Elsa.from Kirkus Editorial.
Thank you to all of my readers who have loved my work, and continue to read my stories. I would love for you to share your thoughts in a review on one or all of the following:
Amazon.com:
http://www.amazon.com/Jayden-Mysterious-Mountain-Sanctum-Katrina-ebook/dp/B00EYSKMF2
Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20595260-jayden-and-the-mysterious-mountain
Barnes & Noble:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/jayden-the-mysterious-mountain-katrina-cope/1116958249?ean=2940045278218
You can follow Katrina Cope at:
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https://twitter.com/K_CopeFunRead
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7265107.Katrina_Cope
https://www.katrinacopebooks.com
http://http://www.amazon.com/Katrina-Cope/e/B00F00JF9M/
Book 2 of The Sanctum Series ‘Scarlet’s Escape’ Released June 2014. :hyperurl.co/f9wj94
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Katrina is an author of several Young Adult and Preteen/Middle Grade novels. Each of her released books reaching the top 100 in certain categories on the Amazon’s Best Sellers Rank – a few even as high as number one.
She resides in Queensland, Australia. Her three teen/preteen boys and husband for over seventeen years treat her like a princess. Unfortunately though, this princess still has to do domestic chores.
She holds a 2nd Dan in Taekwondo, which she likes to incorporate the experience into her stories. When she has enough time away from her writing to commit to training, she will be going for her 3rd Dan.
From birth, she has been a very creative person and has spent many years travelling the world and observing many different personalities and cultures. Her favourite personalities have been the strange ones, yet the ones under the radar also hold a place in her heart.
During her last extensive travels, she spent 16 nights in a bomb shelter on a Kibbutz 8 kilometers off the Lebanese border. It was to avoid Katyusha bombs that the resident volunteers decided to name her after (she is still trying to work out why).
PS. Do NOT try to scare her in a dark alleyway even as a joke. Just saying!
Katrina’s online home is at www.katrinacopebooks.com
You can connect with Katrina on:
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