Chapter 1
The blazing desert sun offended Sasha with its efforts to raise her mood above abject misery. The voices in her head had been ge ...

Chapter 2
Tess had known enough teenagers to realize Sasha would probably remain in her room until either hunger or morning forced her out ...

Chapter 3
A sunbeam teased Sasha’s eyes open. Her face felt crusty from the tears which had dried while she slept and a tender spot ...

Chapter 4
In a diner not far from Adamsville High School, four friends sat at their usual table, strategically positioned to see and be se ...

Chapter 5
“Just another day in paradise!” Sasha grumbled, trudging home after another disaster-filled day at school. Just once ...

Chapter 6
Tess returned to Sasha’s front porch, every hair on her tail standing at attention. Something or someone had been nos ...

Chapter 7
“Did you see the look she gave me?” Amy shivered, remembering Sasha’s glare when she picked herself up after J ...

Chapter 8
Sebastian gazed around the map-covered table at the people he had worked closely with, some for mere decades, others, centuries. ...

Chapter 9
Paul and Mary sat in Mary’s kitchen, books and laptops lying forgotten on the table between them, wearing identical vacant ...

Chapter 10
Sasha and Mariel spent the rest of the afternoon checking out all the cabins. A fair number of rabbits, squirrels, and other fou ...

Chapter 11
Deep inside an abandoned gold mine, Phil forced his mind away from the pain in his body caused by long hours spent chained to th ...

Chapter 12
Deep conversations over an untouched pile of books were a common occurrence for Mary and Paul, even before they’d begun qu ...

Chapter 13
The sun shining in her eyes woke Sasha from the best night’s sleep she’d had in what seemed like years. Looking arou ...

Chapter 14
Mary was sitting on her front porch beside an ice chest filled with sandwiches, fruit, cookies, and cans of soda when Paul arriv ...

Chapter 15
“That’s weird,” Josh said looking in the rear view mirror at the car they’d just passed. “Hmm?&rdq ...

Chapter 16
Life at the Bass Lake compound was beginning to settle into a loose kind of routine. Despite the majority of the residents ...

Chapter 17
Josh slammed into the house, anger and frustration radiating from every pore. How dare they? I’ve always been in charge, a ...

Chapter 18
“Would you stop that?” Mariel snapped as Sasha once again disappeared, only to reappear barely a foot in front of he ...

Chapter 19
Tess stood in Sebastian’s office surrounded by a hand-picked group of Council members and allowed her thoughts to wander w ...

Chapter 20
The subvocal conversation Phil was having with the other captives in the mine carried a sense of urgency today. “Something ...

Chapter 21
Paul and Mary sat at a table in the town’s library, poring over copies of old newspapers, searching for a tangible conne ...

Chapter 22
For the last couple of days, Phil had been probing the weakening communication blocks in an effort to trace them to the source. ...

Chapter 23
After Tess left, Sasha and Mariel sat on the bed like two shipwreck victims clinging to the only other survivor. “Doe ...

Chapter 24
Mary and Amy sat on Mary’s bed, painting their toenails a vivid fluorescent orange and exchanging confidences. Giggling ov ...

Chapter 25
Sasha sat cross-legged on her bed, her gaze fixed on a photograph of her parents and scrunched up her face in an effort to follo ...

Chapter 26
Mary was waiting on the front porch when Paul arrived. She ran down the walkway with her backpack dangling from her left hand wh ...

Chapter 27
Tess sat statue-like on Sasha’s bed facing the two girls with her tail curled around her feet. Her ears laid back against ...

Chapter 28
Sebastian gazed sightlessly through the plate glass behind his desk into the darkness. Lights from the city far below the 30th s ...

Chapter 29
Paul and Mary sat in the yellow Adirondack chairs on her front porch, a plate of peanut butter cookies and two glasses of lemona ...

Chapter 30
“Damn it, Karl, we have nothing.” Phil snapped. “The best we can do is give them guesses based on what we&rsqu ...

Chapter 31
Sasha and Mariel faced each other, sitting cross legged on Mariel’s bed gripping each other’s hands tightly. The tol ...

Chapter 32
Stifling a curse when Mary leaped from his lap, Paul rose, ready to blast the idiot who had screeched to a halt in front of the ...

Chapter 33
Tess’s whiskers drooped and her eyes grew dark, the lids hanging low to hide the dismal thoughts whirling behind them. In ...

Chapter 34
“It’s time for us to leave.” Phil announced abruptly. Nobody questioned him. They had all suspected that ...

Chapter 35
Tess had alerted all the instructors as soon as the traitorous Council member revealed himself, but knew she was in the best po ...

Chapter 36
Amy, Mary and Paul sat in their usual spot in the center of the quad, eating lunch, and discussing Josh’s strange behavior ...

Chapter 37
The mid-afternoon sunlight filtered through the make-shift tent casting stripes of color across Sasha’s and Mariel’s ...

Chapter 38
Kyra and her team were poring over genealogical records and creating programs to sort through them more quickly, hoping to catch ...

Chapter 39
Kyra’s day was one interruption after another. After seeing Hightower’s name show up with such frequency when Ty&rsq ...

Chapter 40
“What do you mean, they escaped?” the man behind the desk gripped the desk to prevent himself from choking the messe ...

Chapter 41
“Phil?” Barbara’s voice startled him from a deep reverie. She could almost see the gears turning in his h ...

Chapter 42
Over the last few months, the town of Adamsville had experienced more than its share of changes, an influx of strangers and eros ...

Chapter 43
The wind howled through the trees, high above the cabins, and the temperature had the residents of the Bass Lake compound shiver ...

Chapter 44
By unspoken agreement, the four headed towards Sasha and Mariel’s cabin. Its proximity to the mess hall and the illusion o ...

Chapter 45
The cacophony of voices in the mess hall rose to window rattling proportions as more Star Guides teleported in, drawn by news of ...

Chapter 46
“The bastards know we’re on to them now!” Hightower rubbed his hands together, a huge grin splitting his ...

Chapter 47
Back in the mess hall, Barbara found things were still more chaotic than productive.  Standing quietly by the door, sh ...

Chapter 48
Prime Minister Watson’s secretary entered his office to find him uncharacteristically distraught. Known for his unfla ...

Chapter 49
James Fitzhugh sat motionless before the black screen in the teleconferencing center of his underground headquarters, his though ...

Chapter 50
After dinner, Phil, Barbara, Karl and Anita made their way to Sasha and Mariel’s cabin. The evening’s briefing was w ...

Chapter 51
As it turned out, Phil needed to give Hawkins little more than the location and the energy signatures of the men they were looki ...

Chapter 52
Darkness shrouded the car, the only sign of civilization, the patch of asphalt framed by the headlights. Paul and Mary spoke sof ...

Chapter 53
Hawkins returned to the living room, knowing Fitzhugh was in good hands, and that they’d soon have some answers. He put hi ...

Chapter 54
Working quickly to pack up Sasha’s room, Mariel stopped suddenly when she spotted the silver box she’d knocked over ...

Chapter 55
Four men sat rigidly around a rough-hewn, table staring blankly at the man who was speaking. A fifth man who stood staring out t ...