* * *
“Well, that was a waste of a day,” Manny said, stifling a yawn.
He and the rest of his friends were sitting on the narrow walkway that encircled the town water tower. After school they had all gone to Matt’s house because they heard that he was home. Because he had been brought in by the FBI, the hospital had assigned a doctor to examine him right away and he had been cleared within an hour. His parents had been overjoyed when they received the phone call from Special Agent Peron telling them that Matt was alive and well. After picking him up from the hospital Matt’s parents had brought him home where his mother cooked him a huge breakfast with of all his favorite foods. As he ate they plied him with question after question about what had happened to him before finally letting him go to his room to sleep for the next several hours. He had woken up just before school let out and had texted the group that he was home. By that time his parents were willing to let him spend some time with his friends.
The first thing the group did was show him the clubhouse. There they spent quite a bit of time catching each other up with what had happened to each of them during the past week. Eventually, as the sun started to get low in the sky, they decided on one final activity before going home to get ready for the prom. Matt had missed their adventure climbing the water tower and they decided to show him the view before they split up.
“It’s really nice up here,” Matt said. “I can even see my house.”
After a while he looked down at the base of the tower. He could see the tiny, dark shape of Apollo as he patrolled around the tower’s legs. Amanda had offered to lift him up to the walkway with them but Shay told her that Apollo asked to stay behind and guard them in case any bad people came. Protecting his pack was what he had been trained to do his whole life.
For the next several minutes everyone was quiet as they enjoyed the view and mulled over their own, private thoughts.
After they had been like that for a while, Magda said aloud, “Do you think he’s really dead?” No one needed to ask who she was talking about.
“I hope so,” Manny said.
“He has to be,” James said. “I saw him near the front of the warehouse just before the explosion. He was right there where the barrels were.”
“I hope it hurt,” Danny said. “A lot.”
Amanda looked at him. “Really? You’d really wish that on someone?”
“I have to go with Danny on this one,” Paige said. “The man experimented on us as babies, kidnapped us, murdered innocent kids to cover his tracks, put us through those horrible trials in that sadistic training room, and then tried to have us killed. Oh yeah, I hope it hurt like hell.”
“And if by some miracle he wasn’t killed,” Tom said, “I don’t think he’ll be coming after us again, not after the way we pounded the crap out of his security forces.”
James grinned. “We were something, weren’t we? See, I told you guys we were superheroes. We each have pretty cool powers, but when the group of us gets together look out! We’re like a swarm of hornets. Hey, how about that for a name: the Swarm.”
“Actually,” Shay said, “insect colonies are composed of more or less identical workers. We’re not like that. Each of us is unique. We’re more like…a tribe.”
“The Tribe,” James said, testing how it sounded. “I like it.”
“I’m just glad it’s over,” Dimitri said, giving Shay a sidelong glance. “Now we can enjoy our vacation.”
Reed had been sitting slightly apart from the others staring out across the expanse of Mayfair Park Lake lost in thought when Dimitri’s words brought him back to the present and he glanced over at his friends. He was still surprised by how close he had gotten to the rest of the group in such a short time. For most of his life he had been pretty much a loner, with Paige, Shay, and a few others he considered his only real friends. Now he found it difficult to imagine his life without the others in their group.
“Whatever happens,” Reed said, “it’s going to be an interesting summer.”
About the authors
Jon Gerrard is the author of several previous books including: Tae Kwon Do and Blackbelt Tae Kwon Do, written with his friends the Park brothers who were involved with the selection and training of the U.S. Tae Kwon Do Olympic team. Jon’s previous fiction works include: Shadowplay and Scourge, the first two books in the Starcrown series. Mr. Gerrard holds an undergraduate degree in psychology from Princeton University and a master’s degree in Education from Lehman College. He is currently working as a teacher in New York where he lives with his wife and two daughters. When he isn’t writing or conducting martial arts classes from his home on Long Island, Jon enjoys skiing, scuba diving, and riding his motorcycle.
This is Dawn Mitchell’s first novel. In 2014 she retired after twenty-seven years as a Federal Agent. Shortly thereafter, in the living room of her Long Island home, the concept for the novel The Tribe was born. She holds an undergraduate degree in Psychology from the University of New Haven and a master’s degree in Forensic Psychology from John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Dawn lives on Long Island with her husband and coauthor, Jon Gerrard, the couple’s two daughters, and the several adopted rescue pets who have found their way into their home. The nine “nieces and nephews” whom she affectionately refers to collectively as ‘The Tribe’ are never far away.
The Tribe
by Jon Gerrard
and
Dawn Mitchell
Copyright © 2016 Jon Gerrard & Dawn Mitchell
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