From acclaimed thriller-suspense novelists Heather Graham and Jon Land comes a story of action, mystery, and the endurance of young love in The Rising. Twenty-four hours. That's all it takes for the lives of two young people to be changed forever. Alex Chin has the world on a plate. A football hero and homecoming king with plenty of scholarship offers, his future looks bright. His tutor, Samantha Dixon, is preparing to graduate high school at the top of her class. She plans to turn her NASA internship into a career. When a football accident lands Alex in the hospital, his world is turned upside down. His doctor is murdered. Then, his parents. Death seems to follow him wherever he goes, and now it's after him. Alex flees. He tells Samantha not to follow, but she became involved the moment she walked through his door and found Mr. and Mrs. Chin as they lay dying in their home. She cannot abandon the young man she loves. The two race desperately to stay ahead of Alex's attackers long enough to figure out why they are hunting him in the first place. The answer lies with a secret buried deep in his past, a secret his parents died to protect. Alex always knew he was adopted, but he never knew the real reason his birth parents abandoned him. He never knew where he truly came from. Until now. Alex Chin, the star quarterback, and his science-loving tutor, Samantha Dixon, are thrust together in a 24-hour science fiction adventure. Family members die, government officials lie, and the two teenagers discover that Alex's adoption was the beginning of a global crisis. Sam, who's interning at NASA, has connections, while quick-thinking Alex possesses sharp reflexes, and the two must collaborate to escape from the government special ops team and superhumans trying to capture or kill them. With adolescent main characters and nonstop action, this sci-fi page-turner could have easily been published as YA and will have plenty of teen crossover appeal. California's Alcatraz and San Francisco provide the perfect setting for this roller coaster of a novel. The budding romance between Alex and Sam barely has time to bloom among the cloak-and-dagger activities, but hopefully a sequel will continue the relationship and offer a resolution to Alex's problems. VERDICT Buy where fast-paced action thrillers and science fiction such as Rick Yancey's The 5th Wave are popular.—Sarah Hill, Lake Land College, Mattoon, IL “A twist on every page. Hair-raising surprises galore.” ―Sandra Brown “ The Rising will blow your mind. A great read.” ―Douglas Preston “A classic in the making.” ―James Rollins “A slambang, can’t-put-it-down thriller!” ―Lisa Scottoline “A mind-blowing, thrill-a-minute ride.” ―Tess Gerritsen “Completely unique. Completely engrossing.” ―Brenda Novak “Nail biting tension, high-voltage action, heartbreak, and hope.” ―Meg Gardiner HEATHER GRAHAM is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of more than one hundred novels and novellas, including American Drifter and Heart of Evil . Her many award include RWA's Lifetime Achievement Award and the Thriller Writers' Silver Bullet. JON LAND is the USA Today bestselling author of more than forty novels. His Caitlin Strong series includes two International Book Award winners, Strong Rain Falling and Strong Darkness , which both won International Book Awards and USA Best Book Awards. The Rising By Heather Graham, Jon Land Tom Doherty Associates Copyright © 2016 Heather Graham and Jon Land All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-0-7653-3791-7 Contents Title Page, Copyright Notice, Dedication, Acknowledgments, Epigraph, From an Anonymous Journal, Prologue: Patterns, One: Alex, Two: Visitors, Three: Ames, Four: Ashes to Ashes, Five: Trackers, Six: MONTER_Y MO_T_R INN, Seven: Meng Po, Eight: Battleground, Nine: End of the Road, Ten: Laboratory Z, Eleven: Rebels, Twelve: Alcatraz, Epilogue: The Road Ahead, From an Anonymous Journal, By Heather Graham and Jon Land, About the Authors, Copyright, CHAPTER 1 COIN FLIP "ALL RIGHT, VISITING CAPTAIN, the call is yours." Alex Chin watched the referee toss the ceremonial coin into the air, watched it spiral downward upon the St. Ignatius College Prep turf field set on a hill overlooking the Pacific Ocean in the Sunset section of San Francisco. "Heads," he heard the captain of the Granite Bay Grizzlies say. "It's tails," the referee said, stooping to retrieve the coin. "Home captain?" "We want the ball," Alex said, long hair matted down inside his helmet. His gaze drifted again to the man in the wheelchair situated just off the sideline. He was clapping up a storm with the rest of the jam-packed crowd on the home side, gathered to watch the Central Coast sectional championship game between Alex's St. Ignatius Wildcats and the Grizzlies of Granite Bay, a public high school near Sacramento. Tom Banks was as close to a legend in these parts as there was, quarterback of the last Wildca