Strike 3: The Returning Sunrise (37 page)

Scatterbolt tiptoed into the dark living quarters on the top floor of the Museum of the Heroes, being careful to not make a sound. Peeking into Orion’s room, the little robot saw that the old man was fast asleep. After slowly walking to the next room, the robot cautiously opened the door, cringing as it creaked, knowing that any sound at any moment could blow his whole plan. But, luckily, the robot saw that Keplar was there in his bed, snoring away.

Perfect
, Scatterbolt thought.
Finally, everyone’s asleep
.

After walking across the silent main gallery of the museum, Scatterbolt traveled down the elevator and into the museum’s computer lab. Pulling up a chair at the lab’s most powerful computer, Scatterbolt turned the machine on, causing the giant screen in front of him to illuminate the dark room in a faint glow. After typing a few buttons on the computer’s keyboard, Scatterbolt brought up the file he was looking for, and looked at the screen.

On the monitor, the robot could now see the map of Capricious that Tobin and Orion had stolen from the Trident skyscraper the night of the party in Harrison, many months ago. All over the map, there were thousands of small dots.

Scatterbolt looked back to the keyboard and cracked his knuckles. “All right,” he said, “let’s see what we can do about these satellites…”

I started writing the first STRIKE book in February of 2001, when I was a senior in high school. A lot has changed since then: Vincent was originally called “the Caregiver,” Tobin had a brother named Steve, and Keplar and Scatterbolt weren’t supposed to show up until book two. Oh, and Keplar was a horse.

A lot of other things have changed since then. I graduated high school. I graduated college. I got my first real job. I got laid off from my first real job. I got engaged. I got married. The Red Sox won the World Series. THREE TIMES.

Through it all, these characters have been with me, and I’ve enjoyed every moment I’ve spent with them. Whether I was bored in class in college, or stuck in traffic, or daydreaming at my part-time job, they were always there to entertain me, and always there to surprise me. If you’ve made it this far, I truly cannot thank you enough, and I hope you’ve enjoyed your time with them, too. It’s readers like you who gave me the energy and motivation to finish the trilogy, and your support means more to me than you can possibly imagine.

If you have enjoyed your time reading the Strike Trilogy, don’t worry. There are plenty more stories left to tell about Tobin and his friends. If only Scatterbolt can do something about those darn satellites…

Sincerely,

Charlie Wood

email:
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twitter: www.twitter.com/charliewood24

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blog: www.charliewood24.blogspot.com

The Journals of Kara and Jason

Peter and Emily, The Girl From New York (coming in 2014)

Strike: The Hero From The Sky

Strike: Dawn of the Daybreaker