Ixeos: Book One of the Ixeos Trilogy (38 page)

“It didn’t take this long with me,” Riley said. “I think something’s wrong.”

“I guess everybody’s different,” Hannah said. “Maybe he’s sleeping. It’s been a long few days.”

Riley dropped his spoon into his bowl and gave up the pretense of eating. “Yeah. Maybe.”

“He’s going to be fine,” a voice said from the doorway. They all looked up to see Landon standing there, looking tired. “He’s fine. He’s sleeping now. He won’t be leading any more raids in the near future, but he’s recovering nicely.” He took a seat.

“Really?” Neahle said, unable to believe it. “He’s really okay?”

“Really,” Landon said, pulling over a mug and the carafe of tea. “He’s going to have some impressive scars, though.”

Tension relieved, they all laughed. Riley picked up his spoon again and started eating.

“Did Monkey talk to Marty last night?” Landon asked the group in general.

“I did,” Clay said. “Monkey went to sleep. Marty was as high as a kite. He said the comm center blew up perfectly on cue. Thankfully he’d switched our phones to a La Defense tower. Then the vault team grabbed control of the satellite and threw most of the rest of the La Defense communications offline. They have reams of paper from monitoring communications coming in from all over the world. It was chaos up there!”

“And the slaves?” Landon asked. “Did they get the slaves away?”

Clay shrugged. “He didn’t know. In the vault they only know what we tell them or what they get from monitoring the Firsts. The rebels everywhere in Europe were supposed to try to gather as many slaves as would go and take them somewhere underground where the GPS won’t work. We’ll just have to wait and see how it went.”

Landon nodded. “It’s important that the slaves are freed, that they join the resistance. We’ll need them.”

“Wait, Landon is Darian’s
dad?
” Neahle said.

“That’s what they tell me,” Clay said.

“But… But…” Neahle sputtered. “I don’t understand. Is Landon from Ixeos then?”

“I don’t know. I don’t think so. It’s a mystery.” Clay drank from his water bottle.

“A mystery. Great. Because we don’t have enough mystery just being here,” Neahle said.

“How about the great tattoo mystery?”

Neahle shook her head. Clay had asked Landon how the tattoo of his twin brother’s fingerprint had been able to open the doors, but Landon had just smiled, laid a reassuring hand on Clay’s shoulder, and congratulated him for figuring it out. Clay got a headache when he tried to figure it all out, so he’d stopped thinking about it.

“Have you talked to him?” Neahle asked.

“Him who? Landon?” Clay said.

“No, Darian.” For the past week, the tunnel dwellers had stayed underground, feeling overcrowded with so many all in one place. They were unwilling to use the portals to find out what had happened elsewhere until Marty gave the all-clear.

“Yeah, he’s cool. He was locked in that prison all those years, but you’d never know it. They gave him books, but that was it. Nothing else. For fifteen years.”

“Holy cow,” Neahle said. “So… What’s he going to do.”

Clay shrugged. “Save the world, I guess.”

Two weeks after the raid, Abacus was as good as new. Marty gave the word that the frantic communication between La Defense and the rest of the planet had gone back to normal levels. From what he could tell, about two hundred rebels had been captured or killed worldwide on the day of the raid. On the plus side, it looked like almost thirty thousand slaves had disappeared from the GPS tracking program in Europe.

Vasco gathered everyone together in the living room. “Okay, we’re doing this slowly. Teams of two, just to gather intel. Low and slow. We find out casualties, where the slaves are being kept, how many have been released from their tracking unit, and most important, we let everyone know Darian’s free. Tell them that three months from today we’re going to get back to work, but until then, everyone lays low and stays out of trouble. Got it?” Vasco looked around at the assembly in the living room. Heads were nodding.

Darian stood. “Tell them that I’m going to start visiting them. Each city, every rebel and freed slave I can. If they know of people living off the grid, they need to find them and bring them in. We’re going to need everybody.” He squared his shoulders, looking even taller than his height. His green eyes were bright. “Tell them that we’re bringing the war to the Firsts, starting now.”

Also by Jennings Wright

After a daring robbery, Rei and Gideon Quinn are recruited by their boss to recover a lost family heirloom: a letter written by St. Paul that could rewrite the history of the Church. What they discover is that an old journal, also stolen but little thought of, was the real object of the theft. An art preservationist, Rei begins to decipher clues in the journal, and finds that they lead to a treasure: the long lost throne of King Solomon. As they embark on a treasure hunt, following the Portuguese Spice Route through east Africa, the Middle East and into India, they must rely on letters from a long dead Jesuit priest. They must also keep one step ahead of the secret militant order that carried out the robbery and is after the same goal: the prize of a lifetime.

Filled with fast paced action and having broad appeal, Solomon’s Throne is an ingenious adventure that sweeps the reader around the globe in a race against time.

When her boss finds an Old Master painting buried under centuries of junk in a Venetian cellar, restoration specialist Rei Quinn is over the moon. When she gets kidnapped and the ransom demand is the painting, her enthusiasm understandably wanes. Along with her husband, security specialist Gideon, and their pilot friend Mac, the Quinns discover and decipher a map encoded in the painting. Taking off for Venice and her bygone territories, they begin the search for a treasure hidden since the Crusades. Hot on the trail are members of an ancient crime family, determined to finally claim the Venetian wealth. Who will be the first to find the hoard of the Doges?

The Hoard of the Doges is a fast paced adventure, whisking the reader back to Venice in the Middle Ages and forward to the Greek Isles and beyond.

Hugh Byrd, the cold, ambitious patriarch of Byrd’s Creek, is used to getting what he wants. And what he wants is the Colton’s prime land, and the destruction of the Colton family. What he doesn’t count on is his own daughter falling in love with Rafe Colton.

Ripped apart by the Civil War, the young couple must find a way to keep their secret love alive. The end of the War should mean a joyous reconciliation, but when Rafe is accused of a terrible crime, he runs away, leaving Livvie behind once again. Will this finally break their bond, or will their love survive?

A sweeping romance set in the South, Undaunted Love is a tale of faith, hope, patience and the redemption of God’s love.

About the Author

Born and raised in Rockledge, Florida, Jennings spent her early years reading anything she could get her hands on, when she wasn’t spending time in and on the water. She won a prize in the 6th grade for her writing.

Jennings attended the University of Tampa, graduating with a B.A. in Political Science, and almost enough credits for B.A.s in both English and History. She spent time over the years doing various kinds of script doctoring, business writing, editing, and teaching writing, but mostly having and raising her family, homeschooling her children, owning and running a business with her husband, and starting a non-profit to Uganda.

Thanks to a crazy idea called NaNoWriMo, Jennings got back into creative writing in 2011 and hasn’t stopped since. She’s written three novels and a screenplay, with more ideas on the drawing board. She currently lives in North Carolina with her husband, a political writer, and two children, and travels extensively.

Web:
www.jenningswright.com

Email:
[email protected]

Facebook:
www.Facebook.com/JSWwrites

Twitter:
www.Twitter.com/JenningsWright

Sneak Preview of IXEOS: Rebellion

Book 2 of the IXEOS Trilogy

“W
hat do you think he’s
going to do first?” Monkey asked. In his late thirties and of Mayan descent, Monkey was unused to so much inactivity. Since he’d been brought to Paris through a mining tunnel in New Mexico, he had been the point man for missions all over Europe. He rarely sat still. He had gotten his nickname because he was an expert climber, and had evaded capture on several occasions by this skill. Now, confined to the tunnels for weeks at a time, he was antsy and ready to get started on the next thing.

Neahle shrugged and continued eating her apple. It was the biggest question on everyone’s mind, and no one had an answer. That didn’t keep them from asking.

“Maybe he’s waiting for Landon to come back,” she said. “He’s gone out and met with people, but the Firsts are on high alert now. Maybe his dad has the strategy.”