Ascendant Saga Collection: Sci-Fi Fantasy Techno Thriller by Brandon Ellis (easy to read books for adults list txt) 📕

of the network. He would make money and lots of it, plus he’d be the most powerful Being in the galaxy—if he played his cards right. Fox needed to play his own cards right, as well. “I know about you and Slade, Okbak. So, I’ll make you a deal.”

Okbak rose, standing straight and stiff. “Oojkana.”

“You agree?” Fox snickered. “Excellent.” He cleared his throat. “You get me into a room with Slade and I’ll get you into a room with Jaxx. Deal?”

“Oojkana.”

Fox’s grin widened. “Excellent.”

29

Somewhere in Tennessee, United States - Earth

Mya had cooled from raging hot to pleasantly warm. Drew picked her up, laying her limp body against his chest, resting her head on his shoulder, one arm under her thighs, the other against her back, stabilizing her head.

A Range Rover pulled up. Gravel splashed across Drew’s legs.

T-hacker opened the passenger door. He jumped out and opened the back door for Drew. Drew got in, sliding across the leather bucket seat in the back. He held Mya tightly.

She was out like a light, her breathing slow, though steady.

“We ride,” said Anderle. He pressed the pedal to the floor and spun out, barely avoiding the flaming Range Rover in front of them.

Drew glanced at Mya’s head, then eyed Anderle in the rear-view mirror. “Did you see what she did?” A VHF—very high frequency—radio was screwed into the dashboard. It was a handheld gadget he’d seen in boats, similar to CB—citizen band—radio in semi-trucks. It was a good for long distances and emergencies.

Anderle nodded his head frantically. “Sure as shit I did. She has powers, man. I’m telling you, we get her father here, her powers go up ten-fold. I was going to use her on my team, but now we have other shit to figure out and that shit is to survive those ET’s flying through the portals. Mya is our secret weapon.”

“What?”

“Yeah,” said T-hacker. “Ships that came through the portal above the Pyramids of Giza are heading our way. They’re heading toward the United States. You should see the mess they created in Egypt and North Africa. And these ships aren’t just appearing over Egypt. They’re all over the map.”

Anderle skidded around a curve, pinning Drew against the door. He straightened the car out and gave T-hacker a light punch in the shoulder. “You got the remote ready?”

T-hacker held it up. “Yep.”

“Are you going to tell me where we’re going?” Drew said.

Thrump Thrump Thrump Thrump!

Drew glanced through the sunroof. In the gaps in the forest canopy, he could see a helicopter coming in low.

“We’re heading to the helicopter,” said T-hacker.

“Can you be a little more specific? Why are you heading for a helicopter?”

Anderle glanced in his rear-view mirror. “You’ll see soon enough, Drew.”

They drove in silence for several hours on a gravel back road. Sometimes the helicopter came in view and other times it was nowhere to be seen.

Finally, Anderle slowed, turning off on a beaten roadway that quickly turned into an area that hadn’t been driven on in years. The car bounced up and down, driving over small saplings, brush, and over grassy embankments.

A minute later, they stopped.

Anderle turned off the car and swung his door wide. “We’ve got a surprise in that helicopter. Get out and watch this,” said Anderle.

The helicopter sounded closer.

Drew pushed his door open and held Mya as they ascended a small hill, T-hacker and Anderle leading the way. “What do you have in your hand?”

“What? This?” T-hacker held a device with two joysticks. “You’ll see.”

They crested the hill and got low in a crouch. Down below was a man in handcuffs, blindfolded, with two Chinese soldiers next to him, their hands around his arms. A black car nearby.

The trees bent back and forth as the chopper came in for a landing.

Drew covered Mya with his arms and hands, doing his best to keep her warm from the helicopter’s rushing wind.

The chopper touched down. Drew moved up the hill more to catch a better glimpse of the proceedings below.

T-hacker pushed the remote controller in front of him, laying it on the ground, and put both hands on the joysticks. “We’re hooked in. Ready to go whenever they are.”

“What are you doing?” asked Drew.

Anderle lay in watch. “That guy down there in handcuffs? Well, that’s Mya’s dad. Me and General Yu had him kidnapped just before Yu went all psycho on us. The Chinese down there obviously don’t know that Yu is dead, so their mission is still moving ahead as planned and on schedule. Better yet, what they don’t know is that we’ve got the helicopter hooked to our remote controller. Yu’s peeps down there think they’ll be taking Master Sergeant Angel Segarra to Lookout Mountain to meet up with Yu. We think not.”

“Where you going to take him?”

Anderle put his finger up. “Hold on.”

The Chinese soldiers ushered the man inside the helicopter’s cabin. They shut the door and rushed back to the black car, turned it on, and drove away. The helicopter lifted off. The grass whipped against Drew’s face. The copter flew over the trees and toward Lookout Mountain.

T-hacker sat up, adjusting his controller. “Turning off radio communication. Checking speed.” He moved the joystick. “And turning them around.”

Anderle stood. “Let’s get back to the car.”

They ran down the hill and piled into the Range Rover, T-hacker controlling the helicopter overhead, moving it northwest.

“How can you tell where you’re flying?” said Drew.

“Two ways,” said T-hacker. “I have contacts in my eyes which are connected to a camera I installed underneath the helicopter’s nose. And, I can see from here.” He held up the remote controller. A small screen was atop it, displaying a map of where the helicopter was at all times.

Anderle reversed, running over a small, spindly maple tree, then spun the Rover around. A young family, a skinny man and a woman with two small children, held out dirty plates and cups.

Were they begging for food?

Anderle drove past them.

“Stop and let them in. They need help,” Drew said.

Anderle grimaced. “You’ll see