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A Shadow Passed Over the Son

  Book One of The Go-Kids

  by

  Ryan Schneider

  SUMMARY:

  A Shadow Passed Over the Son is the first installment of the adult-friendly (PG-13) epic adventure serial series The Go-Kids, quality science fiction from award-winning writer Ryan Schneider.

  Parker Perkins lives in Manhattan with his mom and dad. Today is Parker's 10th birthday. But Parker's birthday takes a sudden turn and his life will never be the same.

  A Shadow Passed Over the Son is far more than a kids' story. It is a story about growing up, friendship, and the challenge of moral choices. Ride along during the ongoing adventures of Parker, Sunny, Bubba, Igby, and Colby, characters readers will come to know and love.

  Books 1-5 now available.

  Book 6 coming June 2013!

  Copyright © 2009, 2013 Ryan Schneider

  All Rights Reserved

  All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  License Notes

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment. This ebook may not be re-sold but it may be given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please share it with as many people as possible. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, hey great – free book! Thank you for enjoying the hard work of this author.

  First Edition

  For my wife Taliya.

  You believe in me

  and in my purpose

  each and every day.

  Ani ohev otach.

  I Love You.

  Prologue

  Blue sky.

  High desert below. Dark green scrub, giant boulders, spiny cactus. Craggy, ancient mountains in the distance. Like pictures of New Mexico and Arizona.

  Powerful robotic hands were attached to his muscular robotic arms. Black-booted feet emitted cones of blue plasma, holding him aloft. An impressive red safety harness held him securely inside a Go-Boy Battle-Suit. A real Go-Boy Battle-Suit. Better than the simulator at the arcade. Better even than the expensive Hollywood version piloted by Colby Max, and he was the most beloved thirteen-year-old in the country, perhaps the world.

  There were others nearby, kids Parker’s age, somewhere in the sky with him.

  One of them was in trouble.

  Parker spun around, scanned the sky.

  There she was, inside her Battle-Suit, on her back and falling headfirst, trapped in a flat spin. She spun like a leaf. A leaf made of lead.

  Who was she? How did he know her?

  It didn’t matter now. Questions later. If he could get to her before she impacted the hard ground, flattened in an unceremonious crunch of expensive metals and metallurgical polymers and whatever else Colby’s sidekick Igby used to build the fancy flying suits.

  Parker rolled onto his back, accelerated hard. He dove from the sky in a tight loop, until he flew parallel to the earth. He accelerated harder, pushing his Battle-Suit faster and faster. Scrub and boulders and cactus rushed by in a blur.

  Voices on the radio, shouting, arguing, far away, as if he were under water. He ignored them, focused on her. He could save her. He had to.

  A giant cactus appeared in his flight path. Green spines and black spikes rushed toward him. He made a fist with his big robotic hand and punched the cactus as he flew into it. The cactus exploded. Shards of cactus meat and beads of cactus juice hung in the air as if in a photograph. The explosive impact rang his ears inside his helmet.

  He flew on, faster and faster.

  She neared the ground. Mountains loomed behind her. A few seconds more and it would be too late.

  He would make it. He would catch her.

  She wasn’t going to die.

  Not today.

  Parker stretched out his long robotic arms. Drops of cactus juice sparkled on the black palms of his robotic hands, blue sky and brown desert reflected a hundred times in miniature.

  He focused on her. Twirling as she fell. Around and around she spun. His timing had to be perfect.

  He reached out . . .

  . . . waited, waited . . . .

  A shrill scream blared over the radio.

  The Battle-Suit and the girl screaming inside it disappeared behind a massive boulder.

  The screaming abruptly stopped.

  From behind the boulder rose a cloud of brown dust.

  Chapter 1

  Bye, Mom