Spotlight: The Dark at the End by Susan Adrian
/
Genre: YA Thriller
Release Date: September 27th 2016
Continuing the critically acclaimed story of TUNNEL VISION:
Jake thinks he has only one more step and he’ll be free: he has to get the serum to stop his ability to tunnel—to find and control people through objects. But Jake’s contact has been killed, and there's no sign of the serum. Then Jake’s mom and little sister Myka are kidnapped, right under his nose. With the government, his power-mad father, and the terrifying Mr. Smith all after him while he still has his power, he doesn’t have anywhere to turn.
What will Jake do to get his mom and little sister back?
Anything.
Excerpt
Dedushka stares at the door, frowning. He knocks again. Rachel slips her hand into mine. It’s damp—everything’s damp. I can feel the sweat dripping down my back. But I squeeze.
We wait, listening for the sound of footsteps coming towards us. It suddenly reminds me of Halloween, standing on a porch with Myka holding my hand, both of us in ridiculously complex costumes courtesy of Mom. Waiting for footsteps to bring us candy.
This is a different kind of candy, but I still want it.
I step forward and try the door. Locked. I glance at Dedushka.
“Perhaps he waits for us inside.” He scratches at his beard. “We try the back.”
He strides down the steps, around the carport side. We follow, slower. Looking everywhere.
“Yakob.” Dedushka’s voice is spiked with urgency. When we get to the back, Dedushka stands there holding the door open, looking in. “It is wrong,” he says. “Be careful.” He goes in, stepping lightly. I go up, see what he means, and let go of Rachel’s hand.
It’s trashed. Unless Vladimir is a really messy housekeeper, someone’s been here before us. The door opens into a kitchen, and every surface, almost every inch of the floor, is covered with silverware, shards of glass, scraps of paper. The drawers and cupboards are open. Even the refrigerator is open, pumping cold air uselessly into the room. I close it, then follow Dedushka. Rachel follows me.
They were looking for the serum. They had to be, with everything searched through like this. Jesus, how did they know about the old man and the serum?
Dedushka keeps moving forward, slowly. I move too, even though every cell in my body wants to stop and run away like my legs are on fire. They might still be here. They might take me again, shove me underground again. End everything.
Rachel is silent behind me.
I keep walking. Dedushka looks in a front bedroom, left off a short hall. He moves on, to the last room. I poke my head in the front one too. It’s a trophy room, or it was before it all got turned over. Baseball stuff, bats and balls and gloves and tickets, hundreds of tickets. I can see spaces on the wall where frames must’ve hung, but now they’re on the floor with everything else, shattered.
Dedushka makes a strangled noise from the back bedroom, and I jump for the door. I stop short when I see, Rachel at my shoulder. She screams, small, before she cuts it off.
Vladimir is sprawled on his back across the bed, a gunshot hole in the middle of his forehead.
About the Author
Susan Adrian is a 4th-generation Californian who somehow stumbled into living in Montana. In the past she danced in a ballet company and worked in the fields of exotic pet-sitting, clothes-schlepping, and bookstore management. She’s settled in, mostly, as a scientific editor. When she’s not with her family, she keeps busy researching spy stuff, learning Russian, traveling, and writing more books.
