Max Baker: Guardian of the Ninth Sector Read Online Free PDF

roaring down the street toward him.  He threw the skateboard over the fence and jumped up as high as he could.  His fingertips grabbed the top of the fence, but quickly slipped off. He abruptly fell back down to earth.  It was then that he realized that should he not end up on the serving platter of some demented cannibal, working on his vertical jump would definitely be a priority.
    As the car raced closer, Max felt his heart thundering in his chest.  He could feel his fears transforming into pure adrenaline.  For one brief moment, he felt something stir inside of him – something electric.  The world seemed to slow, and he became completely aware of himself and his surroundings.  He could hear the Norman’s dog barking down the street.  He could hear the crickets humming away from the bushes beside him.  He could hear the rubber tires squealing on the blacktop behind him.  He squatted and took another leap toward the top of the fence, barely grabbing onto the edge.  He pulled himself over the top, taking caution as he swung his legs over, and then quietly dropped down to the ground below.  He gracefully landed on the balls of his feet.  For a moment, he felt like extending his arms high in the air to celebrate sticking the landing, but thought better of it.
    On the opposite side of the fence, he heard tires screech to a stop and a car door open.  Yellow beams of light washed over the backyard through the fence.  Rather than run for it, Max hunched up closer to the fence.  He dropped his posterior to the ground and made himself as small as he could; he quickly brought his knees to his chest and locked his arms around them. 
    Looking above him, he could see the outline of whoever was chasing him peering through the slats of the fence.  Narrow beams from the headlights were shining through the small spaces between the boards, covering the ground in front of him in light and shadows.
    Sitting in the dark, Max’s heart raced. He wondered how his pursuer could not hear the echo of it beating inside of his chest.  Max tried to focus on slowing his breath while he listened to the footsteps pacing back and forth on the other side of the fence.  Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that his fingertips were pulsating with a faint blue light.  They looked similar to how they had in the bathroom earlier that day, only they were more pronounced – brighter.  He shook his hands quietly, thinking that it was due to a lack of blood circulation.  Or maybe it was due to an excess of blood circulation.  Whatever it was, he knew that it was unhealthy, but he didn’t have time right now to deal with a strange medical condition.
    Breathe easy, Max thought.  Breathe easy and do not panic.
    On the other side of the fence, Max heard faint beeping noises and then ringing.  This seemed like a really inappropriate time to be taking a phone call in Max’s opinion. Then again, he had never chased anyone before, so what did he know.
    “I lost him,” a man’s voice said.  He had a thick accent, but not one that Max recognized.  It sounded a bit like Eastern European, thick but not gruff.  It was smooth like a British accent, but not as formal and proper.  There was a subtle hint of music in it like an Irish or Scottish accent.  Max couldn’t quite place his finger on it.
    “Yes…I am sure that he is the one,” the voice said angrily into the phone. 
    The one what? Max thought.  He quickly searched his mental database for anyone and everyone he might have wronged over the past several months or years but came up blank.  He knew that the list of elderly neighbors that he and Noah had stolen candy from was quite long, but he didn’t think that any of them would have been angry enough to chase him down through the suburbs.  Being past 8 o’clock, he imagined that most of them were tucked securely into bed or having a midnight snack of liver and prunes.  Max didn’t know a lot of old people, but he imagined