Swimsuit Page 23

  WHIT

  SOMETIMES YOU WAKE up and the world is just plain different.

  The noise of a circling helicopter is what made me open my eyes. A cold, blue-white light forced its way through the blinds and flooded the living room. Almost like it was day.

  But it wasn’t.

  I peered at the clock on the DVD player through blurry eyes: 2:10 a.m.

  I became aware of a steady drub, drub, drub — like the sound of a heavy heartbeat. Throbbing. Pressing in. Getting closer.

  What’s going on?

  I staggered to the window, forcing my body back to life after two hours passed out on the sofa, and peeked through the slats.

  And then I stepped back and rubbed my eyes. Hard.

  Because there’s no way I had seen what I’d seen. And there was no way I had heard what I’d heard.

  Was it really the steady, relentless footfall of hundreds of soldiers? Marching on my street in perfect unison?

  My street wasn’t close enough to the center of town to be on any holiday parade routes, much less to have armed men in combat fatigues coursing down it in the dead of night.

  I shook my head and bounced up and down a few times kind of like I do in my warm-ups. Wake up, Whit. I slapped myself a couple of times for good measure. And then I looked again.

  There they were. Soldiers marching down our street. Hundreds of them as clear as day, made visible by a half-dozen truck-mounted spotlights.

  Just one thought was running laps inside my head: This can’t be happening. This can’t be happening. This can’t be happening.

  Then I remembered the elections, the new government, the ravings of my parents about the trouble the country was in, the special broadcasts on TV, the political petitions my classmates were circulating online, the heated debates between teachers at school. None of it meant anything to me until that second.

  And before I could piece it all together, the vanguard of the formation stopped in front of my house.

  Almost faster than I could comprehend, two armed squads detached themselves from the phalanx and sprinted across the lawn like commandos, one running around the back of the house, the other taking position in front.

  I jumped back from the window. I could tell they weren’t here to protect me and my family. I had to warn Mom, Dad, Wisty —

  But just as I started to yell, the front door was knocked off its hinges.

  Two

  WISTY

  IT’S QUITE HIDEOUS to get kidnapped in the dead of night, right inside your own home. It went something like this.

  I awoke to the chaotic crashing of overturning furniture, quickly followed by the sounds of shattering glass, possibly some of Mom’s china.

  Oh God, Whit, I thought, shaking my head sleepily. My older brother had grown four inches and gained thirty pounds of muscle in the past year. Which made him the biggest and fastest quarterback around, and, I must say, the most intimidating player on our regional high school’s undefeated football team.

  Off the playing field, though, Whit could be about as clumsy as your average bear — if your average bear were hopped-up on a case of Red Bull and full of himself because he could bench-press 275 and every girl in school thought he was the hunk of all hunks.

  I rolled over and pulled my pillow around my head. Even before the drinking started, Whit couldn’t walk through our house without knocking something over. Total bull-in-the-china-shop syndrome.

  But that wasn’t the real problem tonight, I knew.

  Because three months ago, his girlfriend, Celia, had literally vanished without a trace. And by now everyone was thinking she probably would never come back. Her parents were totally messed up about it, and so was Whit. To be honest, so was I. Celia was — is — very pretty, smart, not conceited at all. She’s this totally cool girl, even though she has money. Celia’s father owns the luxury car dealership in town, and her mom is a former beauty queen. I couldn’t believe something like that would happen to someone like Celia.

  I heard my parents’ bedroom door open and snuggled back down into my cozy, flannel-sheeted bed.

  Next came Dad’s booming voice, and he was as angry as I’ve ever heard him.

  “This can’t be happening! You have no right to be here. Leave our house now!”

  I bolted upright, wide awake. Next came more crashing sounds, and I thought I heard someone moan in pain. Had Whit fallen and cracked his head? Had my dad been hurt?

  Jeez, Louise, I thought, scrambling out of bed. “I’m coming, Dad! Are you all right? Dad?”

  And then the nightmare to start a lifetime of nightmares truly began.

  I gasped as my bedroom door crashed open. Two hulking men in dark gray uniforms burst into my room, glaring at me as if I were a fugitive terrorist cell operative.

  “It’s her! Wisteria Allgood!” one said, and a light bright enough to illuminate an airplane hangar obliterated the darkness.

  I tried to shield my eyes as my heart kicked into over-drive. “Who are you?!” I asked. “What are you doing in my freaking bedroom?”

  Witch & Wizard.

  In stores December 2009.

  About the Authors

  JAMES PATTERSON is one of the bestselling writers of all time, with more than 170 million books sold worldwide. He is the author of the top-selling detective series of the past twenty years — the Alex Cross novels, including Kiss the Girls and Along Came a Spider, both of which were made into hit movies. Mr. Patterson also writes the bestselling Women’s Murder Club novels, set in San Francisco, and the new series of #1 New York Times bestsellers featuring Detective Michael Bennett of the NYPD. He won an Edgar Award, the mystery world’s highest honor, for his first novel. He lives in Florida.

  James Patterson’s lifelong passion for books and reading led him to launch a new Web site, ReadKiddoRead.com, which helps parents, grandparents, teachers, and librarians find the very best children’s books for their kids.

  MAXINE PAETRO is a novelist and journalist. She lives with her husband in New York.

  Books by James Patterson

  FEATURING ALEX CROSS

  Cross Country

  Double Cross

  Cross

  Mary, Mary

  London Bridges

  The Big Bad Wolf

  Four Blind Mice

  Violets Are Blue

  Roses Are Red

  Pop Goes the Weasel

  Cat & Mouse

  Jack & Jill

  Kiss the Girls

  Along Came a Spider

  THE WOMEN’S MURDER CLUB

  The 8th Confession (with Maxine Paetro) 7th Heaven (with Maxine Paetro)

  The 6th Target (with Maxine Paetro)

  The 5th Horseman (with Maxine Paetro) 4th of July (with Maxine Paetro)

  3rd Degree (with Andrew Gross)

  2nd Chance (with Andrew Gross)

  1st to Die

  FEATURING MICHAEL BENNETT

  Run for Your Life (with Michael Ledwidge)

  Step on a Crack (with Michael Ledwidge)

  THE JAMES PATTERSON PAGETURNERS

  Daniel X: Watch the Skies

  MAX: A Maximum Ride Novel

  The Dangerous Days of Daniel X

  The Final Warning: A Maximum Ride Novel

  Maximum Ride: Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports

  Maximum Ride: School’s Out — Forever

  Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment

  OTHER BOOKS

  Swimsuit (with Maxine Paetro)

  Against Medical Advice: One Family’s Struggle with an Agonizing Medical Mystery (with Hal Friedman)

  Sail (with Howard Roughan)

  Sundays at Tiffany’s (with Gabrielle Charbonnet)

  You’ve Been Warned (with Howard Roughan)

  The Quickie (with Michael Ledwidge)

  Judge & Jury (with Andrew Gross)

  Beach Road (with Peter de Jonge)

  Lifeguard (with Andrew Gross)

  Honeymoon (with Howard Roughan)

&
nbsp; SantaKid

  Sam’s Letters to Jennifer

  The Lake House

  The Jester (with Andrew Gross)

  The Beach House (with Peter de Jonge)

  Suzanne’s Diary for Nicholas

  Cradle and All

  When the Wind Blows

  Miracle on the 17th Green (with Peter de Jonge)

  Hide & Seek

  The Midnight Club

  Black Friday (originally published as Black Market)

  See How They Run (originally published as The Jericho Commandment)

  Season of the Machete

  The Thomas Berryman Number

  For previews of upcoming books by James Patterson

  and more information about the author, visit

  www.JamesPatterson.com.