In the control room, Rahil studied the scope where the blip of Hunter’s ship moved closer toward the center of the screen. She keyed the microphone. “Smitty, you’re on glide path. Six minutes to landing.”
Smitty’s steady voice squawked into her earpiece, “Roger that.”
***
Over Duck Valley Indian Reservation, the night sky draped a mound in the valley floor. Perceptible only to the discerning eye, a door cut into the surface. Sixteen-year-old Drew stood gazing at the star-filled sky, as if contemplating the universe. He drew in a deep breath of the clean air and then turned and stepped over the threshold, closing the outside door behind him.
He walked down a long corridor with closed and open doors every few feet. The entire school was built like a honeycomb system through rock.
Near the end of the corridor, Drew ducked into a room slated as his private quarters. He slid into a desk chair. Grabbed a portable CD player from the desktop. He slipped the headphones onto his ears and press a button on the player that sent Rock and Roll blasting through the headphones. Rocking to the music, he made his way back down the cavernous corridor.
The same doors flashed by him as he made his way back down. As moment’s before, there was no one about, but himself. Not unusual since it was the dead of night.
Drew stopped when he came to a door labeled: COMPUTER LAB. He keyed the door with his personal identification card and then slipped inside the room.
In the semi-circular-shaped area, he quietly closed the door shut behind him. He turned to sign a digital journal-log that lay on a small table near the door. The date on the log read: DECEMBER 12, 2000, TIME 2:00 A.M.
Beyond where he stood several computer terminals, with printer stands beside them lined the back wall like sentries on duty. He strolled toward a terminal, larger than the others, that stood at attention in the direct center of the room.
Standing beside the terminal of his choice, Drew unhooked his headphones and then plugged the CD player into the computer speakers. Rock and roll music flooded the room.
Drew slid comfortably into the chair that belonged to the center terminal. He gave the door he just come through a watchful glance, noting that no one followed him in. A corner of his lip turned up in pure satisfaction, knowing he was all alone to create whatever mischief his high IQ would allow. He cocked his head to one side, poised his fingers above the computer keyboard and began to type.
Continued…
Copyright Ledia Runnels 2012
Enjoy!
Links:
Image above taken from “Shoshone Paiute Tribes” http://shopaitribes.org/spt-15/ manipulated with Photoshop filters.
Image at top taken from “Creation of the Cascade Mountains” http://highonadventure.com/Hoa08apr/Vicki/creation%20of%20the%20cascade%20mountains.htm manipulated withPhotoshop filters.
Second Image taken from “Hydroponics Systems General” http://general-hydroponics-systems.com/ manipulated with Photoshop filters.
Synopsis:
Fantasy Action Adventure set in feudal Japan.
During a time of civil war, Karasu Hinata is born the son of a powerful warlord. When he is still a child, his family castle is taken by a rival clan. His father and mother are murdered right before his eyes.
Barely escaping with his life, he is spirited away by the king of the tengu. The shape-shifting raven leads him to the hidden mountain retreat of a sect of mystic warriors. Mountain priests who practice the magic of Shugendo.
Ten years have passed. The time has come for Karasu to leave the mystic’s protective lair and face his demons in the world beyond. But the fiend that haunts his nightmares is also the one that shattered his life. More than a bad dream, it wants him dead.
In Legend of the Tengu Prince, nothing is as it seems. Shape-shifting creatures, both good and evil, populate the magical world of feudal Japan. And a young man will pay the ultimate price for a deadly rival spawned in the mists time. This riveting first volume of a epic fantasy adventure will leave you stunned and begging for more.