Read Online A Long Road Back: Final Dawn: Book 8 by Darrell Maloney - Free Book Online Page A

doubt he’d sense the tension in her own. For although she didn’t know any of the details, and he was unlikely to share any, she had her suspicions about what the men had just done.
         “Tony, open the gate.”
         Bryan drove through the gate and parked it next to the big house, adjacent to a water faucet Hannah and Sami used to water the flower beds.
         “You guys go ahead. I’ll be along in a minute.”
         The truth was, he still wasn’t ready to face anyone. Not quite yet.
         So he killed a few more minutes by unrolling a water hose, turning on the faucet, and washing Martel’s urine from the bed of the truck.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    -13-
     
         In the dining room, Mark was more than a little bit confused.
        If his worry wasn’t Joel, what was it?
         He took Hannah’s hands in his own and asked her, “Honey, what’s the matter, then? I can see the pain in your eyes. If you haven’t fallen in love with Joel, then what could be causing you so much stress?”
         She chose her words carefully.
         “Baby, I don’t want to alarm you. I might be jumping to conclusions. I might be paranoid, and stressing over something that’s never gonna happen. But I want to get your opinion on whether you think it prudent to start preparing for another disaster.”
         Mark skewed his face to the side and furrowed his eyebrows. He looked almost exactly as Archie Bunker once looked when Meathead started talking nonsensically.
         “Disaster? What are you talking about?”
         She took a deep breath and began.
         “Years ago, when we discovered Saris 7, we backtracked its path to try to determine its origin. Or more specifically, what happened to it to make it divert its original course and begin its new course toward earth.
         “What we discovered was that when it impacted with the larger meteorite, it struck a glancing blow that modified its course and sent it flying our way.”
         He was puzzled, and couldn’t help but interrupt.
         “Well pardon me for stating the obvious, honey. But so what? I mean, Saris 7 has already been here. The damage is done. There’s no going back now to do things differently.”
         She sighed. This was turning out to be harder than she thought.
         “Mark, please don’t interrupt. There’s more. So much more. And you’re wrong. There may well be things we can do differently this time.”
         Her words finally sunk in.
         This time .
         He adopted a slightly panicked look on his face. And she now had his complete attention.
         “What do you mean, ‘this time?’ Honey, what are you saying?”
         She took another deep breath.
         “When Saris 7 hit the other meteorite, a big chunk of it broke off. It wasn’t as big as Saris 7, and was a Class C tumbler, so it didn’t draw the attention or the concern that Saris 7 did. But it was designated a name anyway for tracking purposes. We called it Cupid 23.”
         “A tumbler? Class C? What are you talking about?”
         She placed her forefinger across his lips to shush him. But she didn’t do it to be mean. She meant it to tell him she’d do a better job of explaining if he didn’t interrupt her constantly.
         “Class C refers to the size. It’s considerably smaller than Saris 7 was. About a quarter kilometer or so. And a tumbler is a meteorite of irregular shape that tumbles through the atmosphere, instead of following a smoother path.”
         She could tell from his face that he still didn’t get it.
         “The day before the helicopter crash you were throwing a football back and forth with Markie, remember? You laughed at him because your passes to him were perfect spirals. And his tumbled all over the place. You said they flew like wounded ducks. Remember?”
         “Yes,