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

that they ate things like liver and prunes.
    Max could hear the voice getting fainter and fainter on the opposite side of the fence. Through the space between the slats, he could see the silhouette of the man as he walked back toward his car.  He rested his head against the wooden fence behind him and sighed deeply.  Whatever this was all about, he had avoided it.  Whatever it was, Max had come out of it victoriously.  He had emerged unscathed.
    And then he felt it…
    The buzzing caused his heart to jump into his throat.  In his pocket he felt his cellphone spring to life as it began to vibrate angrily.  He knew that he only had a couple of seconds before the ringer would erupt and reveal his position.  Panicking, he covered it with his hands through his jeans.  His fingers furiously felt through the thick denim for the volume button.  If he could just press it, he knew that he would be safe...
    But he was too late.
    The guitar intro to Guns ‘n’ Roses ‘Sweet Child of Mine’ ripped through the frigid night air, shattering all of Max’s hopes that this chase was over.  He grabbed his board and took off toward the opposite end of the yard before he could discover the stranger's reaction. 
    As he ran toward the back of the lot, he tripped the home’s motion sensor that was mounted above the swimming pool on the rear of the house.  It had been installed last year when a couple of the football players had been busted skinny dipping with a few of the cheerleaders; to Max’s knowledge, Kennedy had not been involved in the incident and he was thankful for that.  The bright fluorescent lights poured over the entirety of the backyard, erasing any shadows or hiding spots.
    “Give me a break,” Max said aloud as he ran. He tossed his board over the backside of the fence.  In one single jump Max was able to grab hold of the top of the tall fence and swing himself over.  He had jumped much higher this go around, and he could feel the adrenaline pumping through his veins.
    As Max hit the ground on the other side of the fence, he thought he saw his entire hands pulsate with a bright blue light.  He stared dumbstruck at the blue palms of his hands as they quickly faded back to his normal skin tone of pale white.  Max again shook off thoughts of some freak medical abnormality and chalked it up to the adrenaline.  It must have been pumping so hard that it was causing hallucinations.  That seemed logical.  It seemed like something he might have heard about in his anatomy class once. Max forced those ideas out of his head as he sped toward the adjacent street.
    The car spun around the corner, wheels screeching along the blacktop.  The car had a beat on him.  Max continued to run perpendicular to it, determined that he could run fast enough to beat it.  In his mind, he would dart in front of it and cross the street into the yard ahead of him.  From there, he would be on his own turf – just a few blocks from home.  If he couldn’t lose him at that point, he knew enough hiding spots in the area that he could wait it out.
    He felt like someone playing chicken with a train as he made his move and raced out onto the asphalt.  The moment his feet touched the blacktop he knew he had made a mistake…he had mistimed his route.  He found himself directly in the path of the speeding bullet.
    Max had always heard that right before you die your whole life flashes before your eyes.  As that moment slowed to a stop, it wasn’t his life that he saw.  An image of two red moons hanging over the heart of an abandoned city flashed before his eyes.  He blinked once.  The city disappeared.  He was now looking at a large, stone castle.  It was far ahead in the distance, at the end of long, winding dirt path. A solitary light illuminated from it like a lighthouse beacon calling him home. Max blinked again and saw the headlights filling his vision.  As the car came within inches from striking him, Max thought he heard it