Monday, November 11, 2013

A short excerpt from the final book in The Orphan Ship trilogy: The Last Orphan

            “Zuri!
            Even from this distance, Blaze recognized the scream as Shima’s. The response was instantaneous -- the night was shattered with the crack crack crack of gunfire.
            York cursed and leapt to his feet. “Stay down, Smith!”
            Blaze heard a metallic click, followed by the deafening blast of a military-grade pistol. York added his deadly contribution to the raging firefight on and around the factory grounds. Blaze hoped the ISPP captain’s split-second pauses between each trigger pull were evidence that he was aiming, and not just blasting anything that moved.           
            Empty bullet casings rained down on Blaze from York’s hand-held cannon. The engineer didn’t like feeling helpless and scared. Random screams from the factory grounds made his skin crawl. Blaze prayed that none of those screams were Shima’s. He extended an arm and picked up the binoculars, quickly wiping dirt from the lenses.
            Blaze heard York move off a few steps, pausing only two seconds to reload his pistol with a fresh magazine. “Begin sweep now!” The Captain shouted orders to his teams on his earcom. “We’re moving up the raids! Repeat -- begin sweep now!”  
            I have to see! Blaze’s heart was pounding against his ribs. I just have to see if Shima . . . he felt cold, despite the warm night air . . . if she’s been . . . he couldn’t finish the thought. He rose to his elbows and lifted the binoculars to his eyes. 

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